10/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your chance to win a thousand dollars. Enter this nation
wide keyword on our website. Money, that's money.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Enter it now.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh, here we go. What's up. It's five minutes after
three o'clock.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
All is right in the world. Gorgeous outside. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty and we're at Oakley Greens.

Speaker 5 (00:21):
Paul Danner Junior is.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Here with me at Oakley Greens.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
We I have a deep appreciation now for one o'clock
Sunday games, the Mondays and Thursdays.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
They just they.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Throw off the equilibrium, They throw off my schedule, they
throw off my timing. And even if you get like
an iconic Thursday night game, which I'm calling Thursday Night's
game iconic, there's still the rhythm and routine of being
here on Tuesday and Paul being here on Tuesday. You
know how much we love Oakley Greens. We are pseudo outdoors.

(00:54):
It is gorgeous out You can be outdoors if you'd like.
We've got the outdoor Bar, the indoor bar, an unbelievable
place for watching the Bengals play for your college football
watch parties for Bengo on Mondays and Thursdays for nationally
televised games. Great place to bring your dog, fun plays
to bring your kids. They've got some Halloween theme stuff

(01:17):
coming up. We have two gigantic skeletons just outside. One
of them looks like he's in the tackling position that
Logan Wilson tries to make. Or maybe Barrett Carter, I'm
not sure, but anyway, we're here at Oakley Greens having fun.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Paul Danner Junior's here.

Speaker 6 (01:31):
How is it going. It's going great, Mo, It's good
to be here. My kids are coming up here a
little bit, are they.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:36):
I think they're gonna come up here after the show
and hang out. They were a famous opportunity to run around,
get some player on time in awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
They love it up here. I feel like I haven't
seen you like a month. I know, it's been such
a mess.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
I don't feel right, I said to you, you know,
I just I was so knocked out the green Bay
late window and we of course did the like drive.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Everybody's attempt to get back from.

Speaker 6 (02:01):
Green Bay was either late or weird flights, or we
just drove through the night. And then you get that
right into this like Thursday game and we're there. I
mean we left the stadium, Jay and I left it
like three fifteen or something really Friday morning, and then
there was a morning availability. The locker room was open
at eleven thirty, which fun.

Speaker 7 (02:23):
I was there.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, but you h, I don't know how much I
was doing, but like I was there.

Speaker 6 (02:29):
It's just you just you just appreciate what we have
now in front of us, which is back to back
home games at one o'clock and a bye week after that,
and hopefully we can get a little bit recalibrated. It's
just been all over And then you throw that in
with like everything's been a mess.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
The flag situation, yes, been weird.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
You just everything has spelt dude's getting benched, dude's getting
benched all over the place.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
And so yeah, I mean we were sort of talking with.

Speaker 6 (02:56):
Dan Pitcher yesterday and and I was asking questions about
taking a and now recognizing what you now can do
with Joe Flacco that maybe you hadn't thought of because
it's just been chaos. Yeah, before you have time to
have like a critical thought, you had to how do
I get through this day thoughts for that long? And
I feel like that wasn't just for him, that was

(03:16):
kind of for all of us. Everyone take a breath
now and let's recalibrate this season.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
But to me, that's the beauty of Joe Flacco because
watching him, you didn't get chaos.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Right.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
No, I was talking about this last week here that
in the green Bay game, which I think they won
that game against Pittsburgh in green Bay because they got
some stuff done in the second half, and you know,
you get accused of, oh, it's a moral victory hunt. No, like,
these guys got to get on the same page. They
use that game to get on the same page. And
the payoff was against Pittsburgh. But there was there was

(03:49):
so much going on in that first game. You know,
they weren't getting to play in late. The whole operation
was clean. There wasn't that clunkiness that we have, unfortunately
so often come to identify the Bengals offense with, and
that continued against Pittsburgh. And so to me, like during
the middle of what has been a very chaotic stretch
for this organization, Joe Flacco didn't look like he was

(04:11):
suffering from chaos.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
No.

Speaker 6 (04:13):
They brought in the King of Calm, you know, I mean,
it's his ability to just come in and be like, Okay,
this is I'm over two hundred professional games, guys, I
know what I know what we do next. And even
when maybe he didn't always know what they supposed to
do next, I thought it was you know. One of
the more interesting things that kind of got blown by
was him talking about, look, I yeah, getting the getting

(04:36):
in and out of the huddle he was worried about
and trying to make that happen. And he's like, but really,
the calm for me is when I stepped to the
line and just play football. Yeah, Like, that's not That's
the easy part, right to me that He's like, the
things that I worry about are the plays and the
language and making sure we get the right thing in
and I'm hearing everything right and know what it means.

(04:58):
He's like, but once I get up to the to
do the play, like then it's all comfortable. He's like,
I wasn't worried about that, And that was before Green Bay.
And I think there's a calm and confidence in that
that you feel from the rest of the teammates that
are like, and it's backed up when it looks like
it has the last six quarters that that Yeah, he would,
no matter what, no matter what's going on in this game,

(05:20):
He's gonna go out there and when he steps in
the ball snapped, he knows exactly what he's trying to
do and he's gonna do it efficiently. And that gives
everybody a belief that everything's gonna be fine for a while.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
It's remarkable that this is where we are. This team's
defense has stunk all season. They just had a four
game losing streak. The quarterback is Joe Flacco on like
his six team in five years. And yet and yet
I spent some time today sort of drawing out the
roadmap to the postseason, which I think is very real.

Speaker 6 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean if you look at who they play,
I mean, their schedule has I mean that was I
think that was part of the impetus behind trade for
Joe Flacco. Now like there is an opportunity here. The
AFC is not strong, our schedule is not strong. We
can get this thing to a certain level.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
AFC North isn't strong.

Speaker 6 (06:14):
The AFC North now is wide open, which goes back
to what we talked about last week in the with
the two pronged plan of Joe Flacco immediately the starter,
do not hesitate essentially turned Green Bay into a glorified
preseason game that that gets you prepared for Thursday, and
hope that that combination gets you that win, because that

(06:34):
is the one that has opened up everything. It has
brought Pittsburgh back to life. It has put I mean,
I think doubt that you thought maybe existed in Pittsburgh
as a team out there. Yeah, and you're just sitting
right here and you look at where they're at, and
there's a good chance, maybe you'd say fifty sixty seventy

(06:55):
percent chance that the next time you go to Pittsburgh
you're playing for first place in some capacity. The Steelers
have three really tough games in front of them. The
Bengals should be able to beat the Jets on and
what's gonna happen against Chicago. But either way, you're sitting
there with a chance to get the tiebreaker for good
and be right there either on their heels or tied

(07:16):
with them at that point. And that's just you know,
five weeks from trading for Joe Flacco and it looking like,
let's be honest, this season was over.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yes, they were dead in the water.

Speaker 6 (07:28):
They had a terrible defense, a terrible offense. It was
a new level of futility every single week of how
bad could it possibly get? And now you have a
little bit of hope. I mean, there's still the funny
thing that, you know, Jay and I.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Were talking about this from the pod today, is like.

Speaker 6 (07:47):
With everything that has happened, you sit here today exactly
where you thought we'd be.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
We think the offense is pretty good, and I don't
know if the defense is gonna be good enough to
get you there.

Speaker 6 (07:58):
It's like, this is exactly It's in no way imaginable
how you thought you'd get there, But we have arrived
at this point in the season where you kind of
thought you might.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Is the question is still the same. Can this defense
get to average?

Speaker 6 (08:14):
Can it be enough to get you a stop when
you need one in the end of the game, you know,
and not let up a sixty eight yard touchdown pass
where a guy is just running wide open down the
middle of the field. We don't, you know right now? No,
right now, no, But it has to get better. That's
gonna end up deciding the fate of this team, more
so than everything that's been going on and obviously rightfully

(08:38):
publicized at the quarterback position.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
I think unfortunately, though, the answer is no about the
defense because the sample size is large now. And you
know I said this on the Growler with You and
Jay today. My concern all off season was can you
get stops when you need it? Okay, statistically they're not
going to be great, you can't be awful. But when
the game is hanging in the balance, or what it's

(09:02):
on the verge of slipping away, or when you have
a chance.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
To ice it, can you get a stop?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
And against Pittsburgh the answer was no, And against Detroit
the answer was no, And against green Bay in the
second half, the answer was no. And the answer hasn't
really been yes all season long, And so I hate
to do it because everybody's excited, and the story of
Joe Flacco coming to Cincinnati and being a quick enough

(09:30):
study to play competently against green Bay and then play
very well against Pittsburgh is a really fun story. But
then there's the cold water of watching my friend Gino
Stone try to chase down Pat fryermanth And there's the
story of a defense where we're benching Cam Taylor britt
he's an active he's not even active for the game,

(09:50):
and we're plugging in Barrett Carter instead of Logan Wilson,
and we're just we're watching Schamar Stewart not do anything,
and we're watching Miles Murphy not do anything, and we're
seeing Al Golden just try to throw stuff against the
wall that sticks. Like, in many respects, this is worst
case and this is the story if they lose that
game on Thursday without a doubt on top of maybe

(10:12):
you know, who are they gonna unload it?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
The deadline and all of that. And so the answer
is no.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
And as as much as nobody wants to hear that,
how do you conclude otherwise when you watch seven games
worth of this defense.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
So much of what's happening is grasping.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
It just desperation, grasps at straws. Yeah, it's it's just
I don't know. Everybody literally the answer has been, well,
I don't know. Maybe it'll look different. I mean there's
not even like with the with the Bear Carter Logan
Wilson thing.

Speaker 7 (10:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Maybe maybe he'll give us a spark. Yeah, maybe it'll
look different, like just try.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
But the point is, I think there's a recognition that
whoever else comes in, and so these young guys is
their only legit hope that maybe these draft picks that
they picked can, by the time you reach whatever November
or December, be able to start having enough experience that

(11:14):
they come into their own and give some life to
the defense, because it's apparent that the same problems exist
that have for the last two years. New coordinators, same problems,
and that is your older players are getting worse and
your younger players are not filling in and getting in
and taking the over those roles. Like it's fine for

(11:35):
older players to not play at the same level. That's
part of the bets you have with all these young players.
And you know you brought back bj Hill and you're
holding on the logan Wilson and and.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
All that stuff.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
Okay, fine, as long as you are young players that
you put to bubble up underneath them to push them
and eventually, yes, push them out the door, force them
out the door. By the way that they're playing and
it's desperation and the doors open.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Can you walk through it?

Speaker 6 (12:03):
There's no like real sense that this is any of
this is really working. And I went through and it
was gonna be rough. Early in the season. The hope
was that by the time you got to this point,
you would start to see it trending the right direction
a little bit. It's getting worse the last two weeks.
It has gotten worse. The competition level. You know, when

(12:27):
you went from golf to love to now you know,
what Pittsburgh's doing with Rogers was certainly more challenging than
what they had before this. But it has gotten worse.
And that's the concern, is that that's happening. And I
went through and looked and just one I was just curious.
I filtered out sort of the first seven games of
a season for Bengals teams going back to two thousand,

(12:48):
I was blown away. They were the worst this defense
has ever been since two thousand through seven games in
like almost every major category, points per drive, touchdown, per
drive rate, EPA, per play success percentage, all of it
as bad as they've had a start to a season.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
And you know, there, that's just such a steep hilt. Yeah,
at this.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
Point, and you'd feel better if you felt like you saw, okay,
incremental one stop here in this particular moment in a
game or a better quarter. It's just it feels like
you're gonna be fighting these issues for a while with
young players where there's no track record in this league
that like young players immediately just that go from not

(13:36):
picking it up to snap pick it up.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah. Now, the exception to all of this is DJ
Turner obviously, and we're gonna have to talk about him
when we come back. Let's do it.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
It is nineteen minutes after three o'clock. He's Paul Danner
Junior Theathletic dot Com. The Growler Podcast latest episode is
out and on Twitter at Paul Danner Junior. He's with
us till four o'clock here at Oakley Greens. Chris Albright,
the GMFFC Cincinnati is going to join us in the
four o'clock hour as we look ahead to the hell
Is Reel for a best of three first round playoff

(14:09):
series which starts in six days. That coming up at
four oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (14:20):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center, Mammo Graham, Save
Lives Call five one three five eight four pink two.
Schedule your annual mammogram with UC Health's expert team. That's
five one three five eight four pink still no accidents
out on the roadways right now, but some slow traffic
gathering on southbound seventy five. The first slowdown between Galbrett

(14:42):
and Town, the other one between Ezard Charles Drive and
Fort Washington Way, both spots showing a minute or two
worth of delays on that Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
This three part is twenty five minutes halfter three o'clock.
We're at Tokley Greens. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Hochley.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Greens, all the sport, all the time, all at Oakley Dreams.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
We're hanging out of the outdoor bar.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Which they've they've closed up a little bit because it
has gotten cooler since we first started posting up here
in August. But you can rent a cabana. It is
still on my to do list before the weather turns cold,
to rent a cabana for myself to just basically spend
a night, let's say, from like six o'clock until close,

(15:27):
or I just sit in that cabana by myself and
drink beer.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
I might do it today, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
But you can rent a cabana for happy hours, for parties,
adult parties, children's parties too.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
You and your buddies to watch football.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Whatever it is. Rent a cabana by yourself, by myself.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Is anybody else welcome just to come hang out or
join you? Or is there like do you put like
some tape around the outside.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Stand there and cross stand there and watch me sit
in that cabana by myself?

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, like like an animal and a zoo. Yeah, it's great,
watch mod Can we come in? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (16:04):
I rented it, not you, Drew. I invite you know
some people. So yeah, I don't know if I want
to come hang out and be looked at like I
have an animate Okay, fine, then I'll rent the command
in and invite my closest friends there.

Speaker 9 (16:19):
You go, very good.

Speaker 5 (16:21):
DJ Turner is good.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, really good. Like we can put him on the
list of guys I want to be on the team
next year. There's one okay.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
On the defense, I uh, I mean I get it
to you know, if you're starting a defense, you want
to start with a number one corner, the real shutdown corner,
and a top edge dresher. At least they have those
two things. They don't have the other nine right where
they want him to be right, they got those two.

(16:49):
That's a good place to start with the current team.
But I feel like DJ Turner's ascension has happened pretty quickly,
incredibly quickly. Who's been You're not not exactly a rookie. Yeah,
So I wanted to do the story on DJ Turner
after his big interception, but not just the interception. That
really the way he's played all year. A big game

(17:12):
against DK metcalf the other day. You know, a guy
that he's not built to necessarily travel with and be
able to shut down that. The knock on DJ coming
out is that he's he's more slight, He's just a
speed guy. You were thought that maybe bigger guys could
bully him. So here he was traveling with mister physical
in terms of physical receiver and bullying him to one

(17:34):
of DJ's best plays and one of the game changing
plays of the game with that interception. But he's been
playing great all season.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
And you know it's.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
Funny because he got Zach Taylor told us the story
about how he got called it. DJ got called into
his office before the opener against the Browns and he said,
I had to tell him that he's not going to
start the opener. You know that he had been in
this battle in camp, and it was like, Okay, who's
gonna play. There's a bunch of different options, and you
never know how those are gonna go. Like a lot

(18:04):
of times they go real poorly and you end up
like you're you know, you're everybody has this person in
their office who's like always they're they're at the they're
at the in the break room telling everybody about the
business and how they're getting screwed and and sort of
sowing that negativity that's actually me. Oh yeah, well so
you know what I'm talking about. That DJ said, bet,

(18:25):
I'm getting the job back. I'm getting the job back.
And there was this It lit some sort of spark
in DJ Turner that already kind of existed.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
But next thing, you know, he was doing.

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Everything right, every every detail, understanding that this is his opportunity.
And whether it's that conversation, whether it's it's you know
the fact that he wasn't the starter, whether it was
just the whole way that camp went, whatever it was,
it set something off that they're like, he is, he's

(19:00):
engaged at an elite level. He is doing every three
he has become this now example that they're holding up
here to everybody in the building, specifically on defense, to
be like, no matter what kind of news you get,
you know, it's almost like they were speaking directly to
Cam Taylor brit at the same time. Whether you are
told you're getting benched, whether we're scaling back, you're playing time,

(19:20):
whatever it is, look at this.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
You can hear that news.

Speaker 6 (19:25):
And seven weeks later, you're not just the best cornerback
on this team. You might be playing like the best
one in the league right now. Yeah, Like he's playing
at such a high level because he has decided this
level of prep and focus is going to be a
huge part of himself and his routine. And then the
confidence shows up. You know, the Jacksonville game was a
big turning point for him where he has a big play,

(19:47):
he's just right there every time he's starting to see it.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
You see the confidence build.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
Next thing, you know, he's flexing in Jordan Love's face
after helping create that pick in Green Bay. So you
you have all of that building up, and now you've
got this guy who's who's playing like the guy they
hoped that they drafted.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Charlie Goldsmith just walked in. That's right, Charlie Goldsmith's here. Wow,
Charlie not gonna hang out right, We'll get done talking
to you. It's unbelievable, is it.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Well, I think the listeners would be well served if
I just gave my headset to Charlie for the next
thirty minutes.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
But it's true, you know, I think he wants to work.
He could definitely offer thoughts on DJ. Here's the thing.
You spent forty five minutes breaking down DJ Turner Ta,
you're gonna hang out with him when you're done here
at four. Yeah. Between now and then he will crank
out two newsletters better than anything that I've read.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
Like he's gonna write fourteen paragraphs on the reds catching
problem for next year, and then he's gonna be breaking
down the kicking operation. Why Ryan Rico brings a driver
to a three A par three? You know, I mean,
it's just gonna be that's what he's gonna do.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Who used the term lace integrity? Yes?

Speaker 4 (20:57):
Yeah, all right and away from four o'clock, Oakley Greens.
Paul Danner Junior's here, so is Charlie Goldsmith. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 10 (21:09):
Tune in each weekday from noon to three Verse sin
C three sixty talking Bengals, Reds, Bearcats, Muskies, and so
much more. The fun starts at noon on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 11 (21:24):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 8 (21:29):
UC Health Traffic Center Mammo Graham Save Lives call five
one three five eight four pink two. Schedule your annual
mammogram with UC Health's expert team. That's five one three
five eight four pink. Roadways are still exident free around
town this after noon. Some stop and go traffic, though
southbound on seventy five causing delays between EZRAD Charles Drive

(21:51):
and Fort Washington Way. Also southbound seventy five, the entrance
ramp from Paddock Road shut down for utility work. I'm
at exelic with trap chevro.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
Light, home of lifetime power training, protection and guaranteed credit
approval from their family to yours for life Kelsey chev
dot com.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
There are no headlines. There's nothing really going on right,
not really. It's good. It's good. Could use some some calm, yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:15):
Can the Bengals acquire some help at the trade deadline?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Can they? Yeah? I guess they can? Should they?

Speaker 6 (22:24):
I mean, I think anyone else that could rush the
pastor would probably be welcome at this point.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I don't know, would you what do I acquire help
at the deadline? Yeah? How much?

Speaker 6 (22:36):
What would you be be willing to part I mean
I see the interest.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yes, I understand, would be willing to give up? Yeah?

Speaker 12 (22:43):
What?

Speaker 6 (22:43):
And then to me like I I I appreciate these questions.
I I understand, Like it's like, should they Yeah, there's
a lot of things that the team should do that
they're just not going to do though, like this, they
made their trade. Now I could be wrong in this.
Maybe maybe they're just like man one pass rusher away
or an experienced veteran linebacker that could come in and

(23:08):
help out these young kids. Or maybe there's injuries that happened.
I feel like that's usually where you see another move happen.
But they've already parted ways with some draft capital from
next year, so that's that's gonna make them less likely
to do it. They're not a team that's one trade
deadline piece away.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
I think it would be a matter.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
Of we can't function the rest of the year, which
is similar to how the Khalil Herbert thing happened last
year with the injuries at running back was Zach Moss to.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Me, and I forgot about him. It happens like that,
right immediately forgot about he was here. He was he
was here.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
He fumbled his first rushing attempt, So they played Chase.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Brown one hundred percent of steps. But you you.

Speaker 6 (23:55):
Can do that, so that But I think that's the
way that it happens, like, I don't. I don't think
that you're looking at some they're gonna be like, you
know what, let's let's go for it, right. I know
people want that. I know that a lot of teams
operate that way. And I I'm not like saying a
name it's right or wrong. I'm just saying the likelihood
of them going out and acquiring somebody.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's just I don't necessarily see it at this point.
Don't get my hopes up. Is what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (24:23):
No, in the same way that we hear all about oh,
Trey Hendrickson right, like they're not going to.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Trade him now, name me, no, name me.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
The last time they traded away a player who could
help them win games this year at the deadline, And
I'm not counting Carson Palmer, Carlos Dunloe, who Napalm their
way out of town.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Okay, never Yeah, even in years they were talking about
this on the pod today, Even in years where it's
been extraordinarily dire, like Zach's first season at the deadline
they were zero to eight.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
They just played in London.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
They didn't trade any so didn't trade.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
In years where it has been more they had guys
that agent degree.

Speaker 6 (25:05):
You know, I can sure calling and I'm just saying
like that, And that's one example.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
M h. I mean, they just it's just it's just
very very rare.

Speaker 13 (25:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
I asked you last week about the Logan Wilson situation.
Logan Wilson still played like forty six percent of the snaps.

Speaker 6 (25:23):
Yeah, especially against teams where they're gonna be in base
a lot with three linebackers.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
He was like he was being talked about as if
he was never gonna play football again, but he still
played a fair amount. That said, what they did was significant.
I got to a place last week, and this is
after talking to you. I got to a place last
week where I was kind of okay with it because
you're gonna draft these guys. You acknowledge we need an
instant impact. We need instant impact from our draft picks. Well,

(25:49):
you don't get that if the guy's not playing as
much as possible, and if there is some sort of
later this year benefit to a guy like Barrett Carter
experiencing some growing pains in the middle of it. Defense
the top to bottom just isn't very good. I'm kind
of okay with that.

Speaker 6 (26:04):
Yeah, I'm not okay with all the mistackles, sure, And
I just feel like you have a more shore tackler
in Logan Wilson right now. This is not saying that
you can't eventually end up or figure out, like to
me it was, it's more of like, yeah, he's playing
whatever whatever that percentage and yeah, you know that's fine,

(26:25):
but that's still I want a more shore tackler out
there the majority of the time right now.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Like that's just with what is.

Speaker 6 (26:33):
Happening, with the level of play that you're getting. The
mistackles are just killing them and it can be the
difference between the one stop right that you can have
and I just it just seemed a little that's where
the difference could be between Logan Wilson and Barrett Carter.
But I understand the like anything else, at some point,
if we're ever gonna be good. It's probably gonna have

(26:54):
to be because maybe Barrett Carter becomes a guy. But then,
you know, I think Demetrius Knight has played where when
Barrett Carter has been out there, how much was he
helped by the veteran pass next to him? So is
that a part of what's happening there or is that circumstantial?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
I don't know. Not paid to figure those answers out necessarily,
I don't.

Speaker 6 (27:15):
I can just tell you what I've seen, and I
know the last two weeks, when they've not really had
Logan Wilson, we have seen a substantial drop off in
miss tackles and from the play in general, from both linebackers,
not just one.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
All of that is very valid.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
I guess the way I looked at it is the
Bengals have a bad defense. If they're gonna get better,
you gotta find solutions somewhere. They're not gonna suddenly acquire
a bunch of dudes. There aren't some dbs waiting in
the offing, Like, all right, let's try Barrett Carter. And
if part of the growing pains is he misses some tackles, okay, well,
our defense stinks anyway, and they don't stink because of

(27:52):
Logan Wilson. It's just if you're gonna try something new.
Linebacker to me is just automatically where you look. Because
they did draft Barret Carter. They're clearly in just play
the kids mode.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
Mean, it's just look, every draft picks out here playing
every draft pick except for Shamar Stewart and.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Kind of got pulled back a little bit.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
But but you know, but they're all they're all out
there and they're just saying, look, at some point, we
have to turn this roster over with new life.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
New energy, build a new core, all of that stuff.
And they're doing that. They're doing that everywhere, and so
I get the move.

Speaker 6 (28:27):
I get the feeling that that's part of this broader
thing that they're doing. I'm not again, I just feel
like there's a chance, and hell, it could have been
that game Thursday, that that move could cost you a
game or two right now when you desperately needed it
to hang on to what to where you're currently at,
and you do have a lot of season left to

(28:48):
get those guys in there.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
I see both sides.

Speaker 6 (28:50):
It's it's a terrible thing to have to ask, you know,
when you're in such a dire situation defensively that you're like, well,
let's should we just play a rookie even though this
guy's fine, because we just need anything else to start
to bubble up.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I mean, it's a tough spot to be in. There's
no right answer necessarily.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
I was at Kroger yesterday morning and the kid, probably
the guy in his twenties, but there was a young
man collecting all the shopping carts, and the shopping cart
that's designed for kids that kind of is modeled like
a car got away and he went to go corral it,
and then two other shopping carts got away, and this

(29:30):
guy has these three shopping carts kind of coming at
him as co worker. And it reminded me of Gino
Stone in the secondary because this guy was lost, he
didn't know what shopping cart to go after.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
The one shopping cart kind of fell over. Yeah, and
I'm like, all right, when I got two other decisions
to make, that one's going to go hit a car,
and it did, and instead he just let the one
that was kind of coming right at him kind of
almost knock him over. This was like watching Geno Stone.
I am running out of things to compare Geno Stone too.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
But shopping cart kid at the dent Kroger yesterday was
made me think of Geno.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
I've compared him to my dog. You did compare him
to your dog.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
I was gonna ask you, has your dog's angles improved
more so than we've My dog has.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Gotten better than than Geno Stone. I think I compared
him to I watched a drunk girl chase down a
lift downtown after the lift had gone a block too far.
So I was asked today and I don't have the answer.
How bad of the guys behind him?

Speaker 6 (30:31):
Yeah, I mean apparently apparently very.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
I mean I don't I don't have answers.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
I mean, this is it's it's something that we keep saying, right,
It's like, it's not like we weren't talking about this
in February, Right, It's not like we weren't talking about
this when you guys said we believe in you, but
here's your pay cut?

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Like, yes, this has been the conversation the entire time.
It's just not taking.

Speaker 6 (30:56):
I don't have any explanation for the sixty eight yard
touchdown pass.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
I can Geno Stone is on the field.

Speaker 6 (31:05):
Then I don't understand how that, you know, if if
you're gonna be out here saying I don't know anything
else about Logan Wilson, how are you not saying I
don't know anything else about if you play Logan Wilson
in safety, Maybe that's the answer. Maybe Barrett Carter moves
the safe. Fine, yeah, maybe we I don't know. Maybe
it's PJ Jewles.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
How bad are Tyson Anderson and Dejon Anthony? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (31:28):
I mean, well Dejon is still not on the club,
by the way, so but yeah, I think this would
be about I don't know, can Tyson Anderson play some
defense for you? I think to you at a certain point,
it's it's not like you're like, well, you know, you know,
Gino is such a good tackler that you don't want
to take him off the field. It's not that you're
not seeing these problems in a massive moment like what

(31:50):
happened in the Friarmith play, just not even seeing the
guy running down the middle of the field.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
I don't I don't have an answer.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
For you on that one, other than they're clearly just knowledge.
They think he's either better than we think he is,
or they just have zero belief in anything. Happening behind them,
and in which case it's like, well, then you do
need to be looking around at the trade deadline and
making some calls the same things that we said when
we talked about the starting level and the depth level

(32:18):
all off season.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
They watched the films of the games after they are played, right,
I heard that.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, And they sit in this room and there's Geno
Stone and they're like, yeah, we can just correct the
technique and we'll be okay. Like, I don't want to
pick on the guy, but good god, twenty two.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
What are we doing. It's and this is a second year,
it's second system. He's in the sixth NFL season. Yeah,
I don't I don't know what to do.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
I just think you just watch the grocery carts crash
into the car and you just say, well, that's unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Like I'm gonna want I'm gonna go to the game
on Sunday against the Jets and spend half of it
thinking of other things I've seen in my every day
life that I can compare Geno Stone to. And this
is getting exhausting. It's not that hard.

Speaker 6 (33:07):
It's just whenever you see somebody or something that's lost
it's I mean, it's like they're.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
They're everywhere, They're all around us.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Oh oh yeah, yeah, there's there's there's no there's no
denying that the offensive line they put Jalen Rivers in, right,
is this unit actually progressing? Are they being masked by
how quickly Joe Flacco has got rid of the ball?

Speaker 14 (33:31):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (33:31):
I think it's more of being masked by how quickly
Joe Flacco is getting getting rid of the ball. I mean,
he was two point twenty seven seconds time to throw
against Pittsburgh, which was a top ten for Flacco all times,
and they've been tracking that. So even by Flacco standards,
that was really fast getting the ball out. They're out,
they're executing that plan. Ideally, it doesn't expose your players.

(33:53):
It's sort of like a couple weeks ago when we
talked when when I had the story of talking with Andrew.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Whitworth and we talked about that, that's who saying. See,
it's so hard.

Speaker 6 (34:00):
It's the hardest gig in the NFL in terms of
offensive line to block in Cincinnati because of the way
that things are constructed, the past heavy nature, the true
pass sets they're by just the plays that they're running
quick game on the more under center, a little bit
more play action. Some of that stuff that they're just
doing a little bit more often is lessening the amount

(34:23):
of true pass sets where guys have to block for
a little bit longer.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
And yeah, guys look better when they're in a little
bit better situation in terms of the what they're asked
to do every time. And I do think they have
played better.

Speaker 6 (34:35):
I do think they've they've stabilized a little bit there,
but it's still, you know, you still have a lot
of the same stuff going on, but it's just not
as obvious. And that's just the way they need to be, Like,
that's what they need to be offensively. It helps when
you're not in bad down and distance. Look, getting the
running game going against Pittsburgh was a game changer. Like

(34:58):
if that can continue, it keeps them out of the
you know, earlier this season they run all of the
second and third and long situations and those guys are
just not going to.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Be able to hold up like that.

Speaker 6 (35:09):
Very few linemen kN and you're just asking a lot.
But the fact that they've been able to stay in
front of the sticks really by Flacco getting out quick,
making the profit getting your to second and seven or
six instead of second and ten or second and twelve
or whatever, like, it makes all the difference in the
world that you're making it easier on these guys. So

(35:29):
Flacco's ability to continually find something and get rid of
the ball and get something out of every play, even
if it's not exciting, has allowed life to be a
lot easier on those guys.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
In front of them.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Then they're running the ball.

Speaker 6 (35:43):
And they found it actually well, I made it sound
like they've been doing it for weeks. They ran it
really well, ran really well, and you saw you saw
shades of it against Green Bay.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, you saw climbers. It was starting to happen a
little bit.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
And then when they finally broke it out the other day,
it seemed like, okay, now they might be onto a
little bit of something. And you know, the energy, the
energy picks up. I mean, when you go from the
long of the year being thirteen and then you actually
watch a twenty eight and a thirty seven yarder breakout,
it's like watching a different sport. Yeah, and so yeah,

(36:17):
it'll it'll change things for you. And the cool thing
was they were talking about how much it opened up
a lot of other stuff where they can felt like
they could call more runs with pass tags on them.
So I feel like you're looking like you're about to
make fun of this. It's like a run. I'm about
to tell you. I'm about to tell you. So if
you put if you put a tag onto the end

(36:38):
of the play call, that says, okay, tag this if
you want, if Flacco wants to pull the ball and
throw it, you will put Jamar on a route rather
than have it just be a run play or just
be a pass player. Right, Jamar's touchdown was a tag. Really,
that was a run play called that Flacco decided, I
don't like the run as much Jamar's running in the pylon.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I'm gonna throw the ball out there to them.

Speaker 6 (37:00):
And they can do that more often when they're in
better situations in terms of UH, in terms of down
and distance, or just the run games going good enough
that you can call those and know that you can
have a tag for a pass on the back end
of the play call, which Flacco just hears and just
belts it out and decides to make the play, which
is another kind of kudos to Joe Flacco.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Moment there past tags, pastags.

Speaker 6 (37:23):
I mean that's what I'm calling them. I mean that's
what that's how it was referenced by pitch pasts.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, we're good, all right. I got a problem with that.

Speaker 6 (37:29):
Yeah, okay, good, But I know I didn't want to
turn on a thing or it turns into like three
years of you making fun of run fits.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Oh, that's gonna be more than three years. But we're
going on three years. That's that's that's gonna be.

Speaker 7 (37:44):
On.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
I haven't heard about run fits. You probably will, Oh,
I'm I'm sure. Yeah, as long as the composition of
the defense reins run fits, crack or place, that's a
good one.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
All right, you and Charlie can go talk about that.
Thank you as always. We'll see you next week. Read
Paul Danner Junior at the Athletic dot com. You could
get the podcast The Growler, as we say, where you
get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I'm on it today, Felic. I hadn't been on in
a while. It happen a while. Yeah, no, I haven't
back in the routine. We even talked about aliens. We did,
we did, which we're going to talk about a lot
more from that documentary.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
Airs follow Paul on Twitter at lo no at Paul
Danner Junior.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, that's me God.

Speaker 9 (38:27):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
Seven away from four o'clock.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Chris Albright FC Cincinnati GM is going to join us
at four oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (38:40):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. Mamma Grahams Save
Lives Cam five one three five eighty four pink two.
Schedule your annual mammogram with UC Health's experteam. That's five
one three five eight four pink. On Paddock Road, there
is an accident. This is approaching the Norwood Land Role.
Also some more slow trafic on eastbound two seventy five

(39:02):
between seventy five and Ohio and Reed Hartman Highway. It
is up to a five minutes delay to get you
through there. I'm at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
This report is sponsored by all State.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Sure have what's up? Six after four ESPN fifteen thirty
on ball Leger.

Speaker 4 (39:21):
We are broadcasting today from Oakley Greens because it's Tuesday,
and the main reason why we love Tuesdays. We get
a chance to come.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
To oak Three Greens.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Awesome place to watch football, great place to watch the
World Series, which starts on Friday, and I think it's
gonna be.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
A lot of fun. By the way, that game last
night was terrific.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
I was rooting for Seattle, but I like George Springer
hit the big three run homer last night.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Blue Jays and Dodgers.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Beginning on Friday, the MLS Cup playoffs set to begin.
FC Cincinnati is going to host Columbus in six days
in game one of their best of three series, with
Game two of that series being next weekend in Columbus.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
You want to watch it, you could watch it here.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
College football, Pro football, MLS, the World Series. You know,
I bet you they'll show Nicks Calves tomorrow as well,
game one of a championship season for the New York
next We will see, we will see. Anyway, whatever it is,
you could watch it here at Skipps. They've got Bengo
on Mondays and Thursdays. They've got Cabana rentals, They've got
two awesome bars. They have Lauren the bartender, who's the

(40:26):
absolute best and just a great time here at Oakley Greens.
We're a few minutes away from hearing from Chris Albright,
the FC Cincinnati general manager, is going to join us
in a few to talk about the regular season that was.
I feel like this was the most the most chaos
that they've had in relation to the roster with injuries

(40:47):
and transfer window editions, all the stuff that happened before
the season started, which you know was back in February.
And so we'll chat with Chris here in just a
few minutes. Of f C Cincinnati going into the Eastern
Conference playoffs as the two seed, our guy Sean Sayatt
is going to join us coming up at five twenty
Stats and Scheme newsletter. We'll get to some Bengals, Bengals

(41:08):
and Jets. I heard during the top of hour update
Tyrod Taylor. We're gonna have a game between Joe Flacco
and Tyrod Taylor in twenty twenty five. That was not
on my Bengals Bengo card before.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
The season began.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Former teammates, Former teammate, Sure, exactly right, Thank you, Drew.
By the way, chances are you know this by now,
But yesterday we did the Tony and Mo Football Show,
and Tony is back back hosting since three sixty from
noon to three back with me on Mondays. If you
missed yesterday, you can go find it on the iHeartRadio

(41:43):
app or the podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.
I think that was interesting. One of the things we
talked about yesterday was, you know, the Bengals ran the
ball effectively, which they hadn't done all season long, and
the offensive line looked better, which typically isn't the case,
in large part because Joe Flacco got rid of the

(42:04):
ball quickly. They kind of ran the offense differently with
him under center. And you know, Tony and I were
talking about are there concepts that they can mesh with
how Joe Burrow wants to play, or are there things
that Joe Burrow can kind of borrow from Joe Flacco.
At the end of the day, the Bengals have had
a hard time keeping Joe Burrow healthy and upright. I

(42:28):
think if you're as signing blame, that's really more about
the offensive line than anything else. But he has played
in this league for a long time. One of the
reasons why he has played for as long as he
has is he's good at keeping himself out of harm's way.
I think there is a sharp difference between blaming Joe
Burrow for him getting hurt and at least acknowledging that

(42:49):
maybe there are things he can do better or do
differently to ensure his health. And Tony and I were
talking about that yesterday, Like, what do those conversations sound
like with Joe Burrow. I give Joe Burrow an insane
amount of benefit of the doubt for being smart, for
being open minded, for understanding his value to the team,

(43:15):
for having two working eyes. I don't know how you
watch Joe Flacco and not come away with some appreciation
for what he has been able to do with your
wide receivers, how fluid the offense looked, and the way
that he played that allowed the Bengals to run the

(43:35):
ball more effectively and play in a way that kept
him upright against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that has
a great collection of.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
Pass rushers, Like, I don't worry so much about that.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Now.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
You could say, well, you know, these are things that
Joe Burrow should have gotten all along. Sometimes you have
to see things right in front of you before you
understand how they work. I don't know if that's the
best way to put it, but I do think there's
something to Joe being open minded enough to see how
Joe Flacco has played in what is supposed to be
his offense with guys that are supposed to be his

(44:09):
wide receivers and grasp.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
That maybe he needs to do things a.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
Little bit more in line with the way that Joe
Flacco has been doing them. One of the themes we
touched on last week was the Bengals benched Logan Wilson,
and my very initial take on it was, huh, I'm
not sure I understand that, And then, you know, kind.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Of my.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Thinking evolved to the point that we even talked about
this on this show last Wednesday.

Speaker 5 (44:37):
You know what, why not? Why not try something?

Speaker 4 (44:40):
The Bengals way of doing things has typically been to
let the status quo remain right. The NFL drafts now
like you got to get instant impact from players, talked
about that so much with Shamar Stewart. This is no
longer really a league where you're drafting guys and projecting
them three four years out like you need almost instant dividends.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
And so I was okay with what.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
They did, specifically as it relates to Barrett Carter and
Logan Wilson, number one, not like Logan was making a
ton of plays. Number two, I think there could be
some long term benefit to allowing a guy like Barrett
Carter to make mistakes and gain experience here in October,
and maybe that would have come at the expense of

(45:29):
the Bengals winning that game on Thursday, had Joe Flacco
not done his heroics, had Jamar Chase and t Higgins
not been awesome. But here's what I wonder about that,
is there some sort of year one payoff to Barrett
Carter getting a chance to play that ultimately might prove
to have more upside than with.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Logan Wilson playing.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
And like everybody loves Logan Wilson, and he's handled it
like a pro, and he played forty six percent of
the snaps on Thursday, so it's not like he totally benched.
And you know, there are were way too many mistackles,
but they were so bad, like they were so wretched defensively.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
Number One, you gotta try something.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Number two. If in the course of trying something, somebody
can gain experience, and then your defense can benefit from
the payoff of that experience, sign.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Me up for it.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Thirteen after four, we're gonna step aside a little bit
early because we do want to try to run down
Chris Albright. I don't want to get caught in no
man's land where he calls. But we're about to break
and then it's weird and it's clunky, and Tarren gets
mad and Drew gets mad, and you get mad. I'm
here to make everybody happy, So we'll try to track
down Chris, and if not, you know what, he doesn't

(46:43):
get a chance to come on our show his loss,
but Tree's quite busy.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
We'll see if we can run him down.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Also, later on this hour, you'll hear from Scott Sanderfield
and our guy Sean Saya. The Stats and Scheme podcast
coming up in the five o'clock hour as well. On
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 11 (46:58):
Station, this is Football in the Natti, brought to you
by Modern Office Methods on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
It's eighteen minutes at four o'clock. This is ESDN fifteen.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
Thirty on Moegger.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
We're at Oakley Greens were by the way, They've got
trunk or treat coming up, which trigger treating is one
thing like you're knocking on people's door, that sort of thing.
Trunk or Treat though, is going to happen on October
the twenty ninth, be which is a Wednesday from five
to eight, absolutely free for kids twelve and under. All

(47:39):
of the cabanas are gonna have a Halloween makeover. They've
already got a bunch of Halloween decorations up and you
bring the kids, you get some candy, you can have
an adult beverage, you can get in.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Some mini golf.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
And that is going to be on Wednesday, the twenty ninth,
which is it's a week from tomorrow from five to
eight Oakley Greens.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Trunk or Treat.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
You cannot beat that. You also cannot beat my stupidity,
because you know, it's hard. It's hard to read. You know,
I'm a product of Kentucky Public Schools and the University
of Dayton, and so it's reading is hard for me.
So I you know, I have an email here from
a guy by the name of John horland or at
FC Cincinnati, where we had been going back and forth

(48:21):
on getting Chris Albright on the show.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
The GM of FC Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
Obviously, the playoffs are about to begin, and the agreed
upon date was Thursday, and yet I thought.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
It was Tuesday.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
And it very clearly states in the email Thursday, like
there's no ambiguity there. The Thursday at four h five,
me not knowing really anything specifically how to read. All
day long, I've been walking around thinking, well, today we're
going to talk with Chris Albright.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
No, no, no, no, no, We're.

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Supposed to have him on Thursday.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
Except me, genius, I'm off on Thursday, so that's gonna
be awesome.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
We will try to get Chris on the show.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Perhaps tomorrow we will see again. I'd love to blame
somebody else. I'd love to pin this song. I'd love
to blame Tarran. Tarran is no, Arran doesn't screw up me.
This guy right here, an adult who can't tell the
difference between Tuesday and Thursday. You'll hear Scott Saderfield coming

(49:20):
up in just a few minutes. You see is six
and one getting set to host Taylor on Saturday. The
Bearcats went to Oklahoma State and I think did what
they were supposed to do, which is blow out a
bad team. Now, there were some hairy moments in the
second half of that game, and Cincinnati's defense wasn't top

(49:41):
to bottom grade. It was kind of a quintessential bend
but don't break game. They got a turnover on downs
inside the ten. They got a one hundred yard interception
return by Matthew McDoom. But they checked the box. The
Bearcats are Bowl eligible. They'll play in a bowl game
this year, which is terrific. You're gonna hear Scott Sadafield

(50:02):
talk about this in just a bit. You see is
better off right now than they were one year ago.
Year ago, they were five and two and it kind
of felt like, all right, maybe they're about to take off.
And they lost five straight games.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
I don't know that they're gonna win out.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
I don't know that they're gonna win enough games to
play in the Big Twelve Conference championship game. I do
not think such a collapse is in the offing this year.
And this is something I've hit on. I think when
you see moved to the Big Twelve, there was a
reluctance to acknowledge that they had some work to do
just to improve the physicality.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
And size and speed on the roster.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Now in twenty twenty one, obviously they had a lot
of those things. They had Sauce Gardner, and they had
Desmond Ritter, and they had Trey Tucker, and they had
Brian Cook and Josh Wiley like that NFL dudes. But
I think acknowledging that there was a reluctance to admit

(51:05):
that the level of just physicality and speed it was
going to take him a little while to catch up
with the rest of the Big Twelve. The perfect example
of that, to me was the last time they had
played Oklahoma State two years ago, when Ali Gordon, their
running back, ran for two hundred and seventy seven yards.

(51:26):
And I remember that night thinking, this ain't the American
Athletic Conference anymore. This is Big twelve football. And that
team that year at Oklahoma State wasn't exactly like a
top ten team. And so yeah, you know, fair to
wonder if Scott Sadderfield was the right guy, and fair
this year to wonder if he and his team can

(51:47):
avoid a collapse similar to what we saw last year.
But I feel like they have dramatically improved this year's size, speed, athleticism,
physicality to match what they encounter in the Big Twelve.
Like I, Tony and I talked about this a little

(52:07):
bit yesterday as well. I don't know that there is
a glaring hole on the team. There are weaknesses That
defense does bend a little bit more than I think
you would like. They've got to get Dante Corleone on
the field more when he is absent. There are gonna
be some teams they played that I'm not sure you
can have three down linemen. They've done a really good

(52:28):
job of winning in the margins on special teams, but
you know what happens if that evaporates that sort of thing.
But I look at them offensively, a very good offensive line,
a quarterback who doesn't make mistakes. I mean, Brendan soars
me in. That offense has turned it over one time
over their last five games. Good two headed running attack,
NFL caliber tight end, and guys on the outside who

(52:51):
can run, who can run and make plays with the ball.
I don't know now, They're not hanging fifty five points
on people. But I thought what you saw on Saturday
was just a real good example of an offense that's
well put together. Good play design, and I think sometimes
play calling is confused for play design. There was some

(53:14):
creativity there, especially around the goal line, and just an
offense that I think week to week is becoming increasingly
difficult to prepare for. And so I just I think
top to bottom, they just have a better team. You know,
last year, if you think of the second half of
the season, the offense went in a shell, and I
thought Brendan Sorosby was part of that. It felt to

(53:34):
me like he got a little gun shy. He's admitted
as much on this show. But also they didn't have
a lot of downfield playmakers. They didn't have a lot
of guys who were just beating anybody one on one,
didn't have a lot of guys who were getting open,
didn't have anybody that you thought could give you an
explosive play. On third and sixteen on Saturday, they got
an explosive play, a great catch and throw to Jeff

(53:54):
Caldwell that kind of helped break the game open because
they were down. They were up by eleven at that point.
I just I think that's the sort of play they
can't dial up last year. And you don't want to
make too much of beating Oklahoma State or having offensive
success against Oklahoma State because that team is mostly wretched.

(54:15):
But I don't know that it's it's totally apples to
apples to compare last year's team that totally melted down
to this year's team that stands. You know, it's a
game better than last year. But a year ago we
were wondering can they really be a factor in the
Big twelve race? This year it's kind of the same thing.
And I feel like the answer is yes. I feel

(54:37):
like the answer is yes. And you know, if the
answer ends up being yes, then John Cunningham and Scott
Sanderfield are going to have a chance to do what
a lot of people have not given them much of
a chance of doing, which is talk about how he
was the right guy.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Like it's trending in that direction.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
And this is admittedly not the Big Ten, it's not
the SEC the Big twelve top to bottom is maybe
not nearly as good. Although I think UC's schedule here
in the second half is gonna prove to be difficult.
I don't think this game against Baylor is gonna be
easy by any stretch.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
They still have to go to Utah, which is gonna
be tough. They still have to.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Play BYU, who's really good. They still have to go
on the road and take on TCU. Like there are
some major challenges.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
I think.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
I read today Heather Dannich's Bubblewatch on ESPN dot Com
at Cincinnati with like the twenty sixth most difficult remaining
schedule in college football, which isn't you know there's obviously
twenty five I guess more difficult, but still pretty significant.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
I am.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
I think I think this team has legitimately, though, got
a chance to compete for a Big twelve championship, and man,
if they do, there's gonna be a lot of folks
who oh Scott Saderfield and John Cunningham and apology because
I think he was often talked about this offseason as
almost a lame duck, and I don't know if that's
the case anymore.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Now I know what a lot of folks are gonna do.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
They're gonna go, okay, well, they're not gonna have to,
you know, pay for a Scott Saderfield buy out, so
maybe that got to do that with Wes Miller, and
Wes is gonna be in trouble if the Bearcat basketball
team can't get to the NCAA tournament. And all of
that is fair, but I don't know, man, I just
I look at how the team is constructed, and again
they've got to get Corleone playing more snaps than he is.

(56:17):
I don't know that there is a glaring hole. There
are areas where they could be stronger. I wish they
had bigger corners. I wish they had more corners. I
don't know that there is a glaring hole. If there is,
Baylor might reveal it on Saturday and change the conversation.
But through seven games, I don't think we've seen one,

(56:37):
and I do think we've seen a team with just
more big twelve caliber athletes. We are free until five
twenty when Sean Saya joins us. We haven't had a
chance to take phone calls, you know, last week. I
did the pregame show with Lance and Rocky on Thursday,
didn't have a show on Friday, Tony and Mo Football
show yesterday, So we haven't had much of a chance

(56:57):
to work people in five point three, seven four nine,
fifteen thirty. Not that I've done a very good job
of setting up any topics, because I can't tell the
difference between Tuesday and Thursday and an email. But we
do have room for your phone calls at five one three,
seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight six six seven
oh two three seven seven six. I'm gonna answer a
question about Zach Taylor. I got three weeks ago coming

(57:19):
up in just about fifteen minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 11 (57:25):
You've been listening to Football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (57:41):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center Mammo Graham Save
lives call five one three five eighty four pink two.
Schedule your annual mammogram with UC Help's expert team. That's
five one three five eight four pink. All northbound lanes
of Paddock Road are now closed off due to an accident.
That's a coaching The Norwood lateral also got an accident

(58:03):
on Madison Road at Edwards Road and another crash on
Mitchell at Yne southbound seventy five. Traffic slow from Shepherd
Lane to Ronald Reagan Highway. I met e Zelek with tray.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Deadlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of lifetime
powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family to
yours life Kelsey chev dot.

Speaker 5 (58:27):
Com Uh, let's see.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
By the way I mentioned, I don't know that Aaron
Glenn has officially named Tyrod Taylor as the starting quarterback
on Sunday. I will tell you that the owner there,
Woody Johnson, stands behind his coach, who's ozho and seven.
You know he used to be the defensive coordinator. The
Lions had a very successful playing career Aaron Aaron Glenn
did with the New York Jets. But the owner, Woody Johnson,

(58:53):
decided to come out and give Aaron Glenn a vote
of confidence and then took Justin Fields and totally threw
him unto the bus.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
And by the way, how can you blame him? But
Justin Fields has been to Justin Fields. It didn't work
out in Chicago, didn't really take in Pittsburgh so far,
hasn't taken in New York either. We'll see how many
more opportunities he gets.

Speaker 4 (59:11):
But the game on Sunday anyway, one o'clock live on
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Pre game coverage starts at nine a m.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
The Scott Saderfield radio Show is tonight at eight o'clock.
You can catch that live on seven hundred WLW. And
I believe that is it for the local sports headlines
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
We will do this.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
I was talking about the Bearcats before we play some
exciting Scott saderfield audio for you.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Every single day.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
Dante Corleone didn't play a ton against Oklahoma State, and
there is a marked difference between when he is on
the field and when he is not. Here's Dante's coach
talking about the Godfather's playing.

Speaker 15 (59:54):
Time China working back in and obviously he's not one
hundred percent. I think if you see watch the film
you can see that. And but but obviously having his
presence out there and being around our guys is huge
for us.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:00:07):
So but but yeah, I mean I think if you
even go back, I mean, he's not probably not playing
more than thirty five snaps anyway. So normally we rotate
a lot of guys up front. We're gonna rotate a
lot of linebackers. I mean, you know, anytime there's a
change for offensive personnel, then we're going to rotate. So
so we're always gonna continue to do that. But but
hopefully each and every week as we go through the
remainder of this season, that that hopefully is healing up,

(01:00:29):
you know, better and better.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
There you go, Scott Siderfield. Now, what about this year's
team compared to last year's team. Here's the coach.

Speaker 15 (01:00:41):
If there's one key difference, I think I just think
we're playing really good as a team. I think it's
not it's not one side of the ball. It's not
it's not one. It's not dispecial. I think all three
units have made some great plays for us this year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
I think we're we're we have each other's back.

Speaker 15 (01:00:55):
If one if one side needs to pick me up,
then maybe the other side I'll pick him up. Special
team wise has been very solid this year as well.
So to me, it's just great team play. We talk
about playing clean. We've been a much cleaner team this year,
you know, and I think that's showing up in the
way we're playing on Saturdays.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
Scott Saderfield earlier today meeting with the media. More of
that on the appropriately titled Scott Saderfield Radio show on
seven hundred WLW would start at a PM and is
Drew Wester Heidi's favorite radio program. We're at Oakley Greens
here in Oakley, which is a makes sense why they
would call it Oakley Greens. Great place for happy Hour,

(01:01:38):
great place for Bengo on Mondays or Thursdays, and an
awesome place to bring your family, except if you're coming
late on Friday or Saturday night, then adults only, but
you can still bring your dog.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Oakley Greens. Come check it out.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
I was asked two weeks ago about Zach Taylor and
the question, and I don't remember it was a caller
to this show. Uh asked, give me an example of
where he has given them an advantage, And I'm paraphrasing
the caller here, give me an example of where he
has given the Bengals a tactical advantage, motivational advantage, or

(01:02:15):
where he has just out coached the guy and the
other team. Well, Zach Taylor had a quarterback show up
in Cincinnati two weeks ago. Tonight, he played capably against
the Green Bay Packers and he won a game that
they had to have against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now I

(01:02:36):
have become a huge Joe Flacco fan.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Number One. If you're a quarterback and you beat the
Pittsburgh Steelers, You'll never have to pay for another beer
as long as I'm around. Not that Joe Flacco can't
afford a beer number two.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
The professionalism, the humor, the just sort of outwardly appreciating
the absurdity and silliness of the situation, and he found
himself in like, I think there's something kind of admirable
about that. And yeah, man, you acquired Joe Flacco because
he could be a quick study. You acquired Joe Flacco

(01:03:12):
because there was nothing that any defense is going to
do that he hasn't seen before. You acquired him because
he could execute the basics, which is, hey, Jamar Chase
is open, we should probably throw it to him. His
experience is a great asset. But I also think there's
something about amid all this chaos, right, There's the way

(01:03:36):
those last three games with Jake Browning played out. There's
making a change at quarterback. There's having to basically shorten
the week before a Green Bay because you change quarterbacks.
There's then coming back after a short week and playing
what amounted to a must win game against your most

(01:03:56):
hated rival and a very physical football team, although they
weren't that physical against Cincinnati in a really good and
experienced defense, Like that's decent coaching. I'm not here to
say that Zach Taylor doesn't deserve whatever amount of criticism
that comes his way for any number of things. But
the one thing we've tried to do here, because it's

(01:04:17):
easy to criticize Zach, we've done it. I'm not yet
of the belief that he should continue to call plays,
But one thing we've tried to do here is point
out areas where I think it is the areas that
have been reflective of really good coaching. And if you've
listened to this show, you've heard me do this before.
But like, I think that the run to the Super
Bowl in twenty twenty one was really good coaching because

(01:04:41):
you had to design game plans around an offensive line
that was terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
That couldn't have been easy.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
I think Joe Burrow playing functionally well in his first
ever NFL game, Like, that's Joe's talent and his preparation,
but Zach Taylor had to teach him the offense while
he was still sitting in a Athens, Ohio. Because of
the pandemic, they didn't have preseason games, they didn't have
a normal training camp. Justin Herbert didn't start that first game.

(01:05:08):
In fact, it was Tyrod Taylor for the LA Chargers.
I think getting Jake Browning up to speed in twenty
twenty three amid some very rough circumstances, Jake han never
taken really a meaningful snap in the NFL, and Zach
and the offensive staff designing game plans and just figuring
out a way to make it work to the extent

(01:05:30):
that they did. I think that's good coaching. I think
we've seen some good coaching over the last week and
a half. Again, this isn't like a full and complete
public endorsement saying that you know, Zach should keep his
job for the next twelve years, like we'll see, we'll see,
and it doesn't mean that he is immune to criticisms.
Within the last two games the Bengals have played, I

(01:05:52):
frankly thought the game plan against Green Bay was a
little bit too conservative. But it's it's been something to
watch now, Like there's a lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
There's a lot of working parts.

Speaker 4 (01:06:05):
To get a quarterback on Tuesday night and then within
nine days have to use him twice, start him on
the road, start him in primetime against the Pittsburgh Steelers,
win the football game, have the offense look as well
put together as it was, Like I don't know, man,
the coaching's gonna have some hand in that. Coaching's gonna

(01:06:28):
play some role in that playing out the way it did.
And so, like I was asked that question two weeks ago,
at that point, the Bengals were bottoming out, Zach was
taking some heat. Zach took heat on this show. Whatever
criticism he got, he deserved. But all right, this playing

(01:06:51):
out the way it did, Yes, it's mostly Joe Flacco
being a quick study, being experienced, having a wealth of
knowledge understanding how to play the position, having elite dudes
to throw to. But amid all the different things that
have been swirling, to have the team look as well

(01:07:13):
put together as it has, and to have the offense
function the way it did, and to have the quarterback
look as prepared as he looked in both of those games,
you cannot convince me that coaching doesn't play at least
a little bit of a role. And so, since I
was asked the question, it took me two weeks I
finally have an answer, or at least an updated answer.

(01:07:33):
Seventeen away from five o'clock five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our number eight sixty six seven oh
two three seven seven six. You could also send a
tweet at Moeger as well. We're at Oakley Greens in
Oakley on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 11 (01:07:48):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:07:54):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Mam mcgrahams Save Lives
called five one three four pink to schedule your annual
mammogram with UC Help's expert team. That's five one three
five eighty four pink. All northbound lanes on Paddock Road
are shut down due to an accident. This is approaching
the Norwood Lateral. Another accident on Mitchell. It's over at

(01:08:16):
Vine Street. Got some construction work on southbound seventy five
between Ronald Reagan Highway and Norwood Lateral on that ezelic
with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
This report a sponsory by Am.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
Taylor brit was a healthy scratch and wasn't really cut.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
You know. We're at Oakley Greens in Oakley. Here on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Week broadcasts from here. Every single Thursday.
Football lives at Oakley Greens. Lives at Oakley Greens. You
got Thursday night football. You got Vikings and Chargers who
will hopefully get rid of those Savannah banana uniforms they
were wearing on Sunday. Those are atrocious. Look it's simple.

Speaker 4 (01:08:54):
You've got the powder blues. Wear them every time. We're
a version of that with a powder blue jersey or
a white jersey.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Every single game. You're the Chargers.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
The only good thing you've ever had going for you
are the powder blue uniforms. Don't do color rush, don't
go Savannah bananas. Just make it simple.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
You could watch that game Bengo on Thursdays or the
College Slate on Saturday, like you want to. You want
to come to Oakley Greens and just watch college football
all day. We Virginia versus Bill Belichick. That'll be Maybe
there's a better game. Ole Miss Oklahoma's good. My second
favorite team Indiana Indiana wal Bludgeon U C l A.

(01:09:37):
I love nothing more than when like an outsider crashes
what has always been a very sort of.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Snobby sport.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
You know, college football fans, folks who like traditional college
football powers get really weird when somebody from the outside
comes in. I know this as a UC fan, so
I love the fact and Indiana's kind of done that.
That's a new and kickoff Alabama South Carolina BYU Iowa State,
which I think is a really good game. Missouri Vandy.
Cincinnati is hosting Baylor at four pm. You can watch

(01:10:11):
that game here. Oregon, Wisconsin. Luke Fickle is still the
coach at Wisconsin because they probably don't have enough money
for the buy out. How could you want? And I'm
not the bitter UC guy who roots against Luke Fickle
like I'm the guy who roots for Brian Kelly. I'm
the guy who roots for Luke Fickele. I'm the guy

(01:10:31):
who rooted for Mark D'Antonio. I'm not sure I'm ever
gonna get myself to root for book Jones. And I'll
leave my comments about Tommy Tumberville to what they talked
on fifty five KARC.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
You can watch Wisconsin play and be as non competitive
as they have been, just specifically in the last two
home games where they haven't scored a point, and then
send a letter to your fans going, now, this is
going fine, this is going great. We just need a
little bit more money. Oregon, Wisconsin, A and M and
LSU Kentucky. After the heartbreaking loss to Texas on Saturday,

(01:11:08):
is going to host Tennessee. Any of those games sound good,
you can watch them here at Oakley Greens. You can
watch them all at Oakley Greens on top of obviously
the NFL slate. If you're not going to the Bengals
game against the Jets, you can watch it here at
Oakley Greens.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
And by the way, hang out outside and play mini
golf and you know, do whatever. So do that, do that,
and and you you won't be sorry. We're gonna talk
about Jamar Chase coming up in the five o'clock hour plus.
Our guy Sean Sayat from the Stats and Scheme podcast
is going to be on this show at at five

(01:11:42):
point twenty today, which we're looking forward to. By the way,
I was talking last.

Speaker 4 (01:11:47):
Second about Zach Taylor getting Joe Flacco up to speed,
and there's something to that. So I was here that
day at Oakley Greens. It was two weeks ago today
when the Bengals acquired Joe Flacco. And there are very
few things that happen in life in this day and

(01:12:08):
age that elicit like genuine shock for me, seeing that
the Bengals traded for Joe Flacco, seeing that the Bengals
did a deal with the Cleveland Browns like legitimate shock.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Legitimate shock, and.

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
Initially out came the jokes about his age and about
the fact that he can move, and the poor marriage
with his immobility and the defensive line or the offensive line,
all of which very fair and valid concerns. Duke Tobin
may have gotten it right, like Jameis Winston would have

(01:12:48):
been fun. Do we know that Jameis Winston would have
brought with him the level of professionalism and preparedness required
to play that first game? And again, like I think
they won the game on Thursday in part because of
how Joe Flacco played on Sunday against green Bay. Like
I think the Seeds were planted for success in that

(01:13:11):
first game against green Bay. Maybe Jameis Winston would have
been awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
Russell Wilson, Russell Wilson, I don't know that Russell Wilson's
had a Hall of Fame career. It felt for years
like he was on that trajectory. The second half of
it hasn't been so great. How much of that da
it takes away from what he did over the first
half of his career. Maybe Russell Wilson shows up and

(01:13:39):
it's just as good, if not better. But I think
with Joe Flacca, what you were looking for is exactly
what we've seen play out. A level of experience, professionalism, preparedness,
understanding how to be a quick study that has mattered
more than whatever physical limitations there are, and the physical

(01:14:01):
limitations are obviously don't include his throwing arm.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
His throwing arm is still really really good.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Like, this is no knock on anybody that they either
thought about bringing in or didn't think about bringing in
that other people wrote about.

Speaker 5 (01:14:16):
You were looking for a true pro. You were looking for.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Somebody with maximum football intelligence. That's Joe Flacco like, and that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
To me more than anything else, that first game against
Green Bay, and I hate to keep coming back to that,
but that first game against Green Bay, it was sort
of startling. You didn't have delay game penalties. You didn't
have guys lining up incorrectly, you didn't have been too
many guys on the field, for what that's worth. You
didn't have then taking forever to get the play in
for a dude who was playing on Sunday that they.

Speaker 5 (01:14:48):
Traded for on Tuesday.

Speaker 4 (01:14:50):
Like, you were looking for a level of professionalism and
preparedness and intellect that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Was more important than you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
Know, having a skill set that's you know, closer to
its prime.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
Like there's no knock on anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Like Russell Wilson's had a good career, Jamis Winston's had
an interesting career and you know, kind of an interesting guy.
And I think that that experience would have been a
lot of fun. I don't think Kirk Cousins was ever realistic,
but you were. I think what you were looking for
from Joe Flacco is exactly what you have gotten. Like

(01:15:29):
he's not always going to take a snap and run
for eleven yards like he did in the fourth quarter
on Thursday, probably not always going to have a connection
with Jamar Chase that results in sixteen catches for one
hundred and sixty yards. But what you knew is this
guy can learn this offense quickly. He'll understand what he

(01:15:49):
has to do to be ready to play, and that
will give his team a chance. And frankly, in the
second half against Green Bay it did. Now the defense
coughed it away, and against Pittsburgh the defense nearly called away,
but Duke Tobin identified those straits and again, like man,
I've been as critical of Duke Tobin as anybody, for
the way he's built his team, for the way he
ignored the defensive issues, for the continued inability to have

(01:16:11):
a really good offensive line. But when it came to
solving this problem, number one, they didn't wait. Number two,
they didn't wait to install Joe as the starting quarterback immediately,
and number three they got the right guy. And number four,
what they were looking for is played itself out in
these two games. Four minutes away from five o'clock, he
has had help.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
We'll talk about the help coming up after five o'clock,
and our guy Sean Saya from the Stats and Scheme
podcast will join us as well. On ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
You know what, You're a thousand dollars entered this nationwide
keyward on our website.

Speaker 7 (01:16:44):
Shack.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
That's Shack.

Speaker 11 (01:16:46):
You enter it now ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
It's four minutes after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
to thirty. M. Bowegger.

Speaker 4 (01:16:54):
We are broadcasting today from Oakley Greens. It's a Tuesday,
and this is why we love Tuesdays. Nice little like
fall tinge in the air. This is the kind of
people that like folks. Folks on Instagram love fall, love fall.
I like summer. But you know what, whether it's a
fall day, a summer day, a winter day, spring day,
you're having a great day at Oakley Greens. We're here

(01:17:15):
every single Tuesday, and we love being here. We love
the staff. They've got food, they've got mini golf, they've
got TVs, they've got cabanas, and they will accept you
here no matter if you're the sort of person who
puts their shorts on backwards at the gym, like.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
My guy drew, or if you dress normally.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
You know, Clyde Drexler when he was on the Dream
Team went to a practice and he had two left
shoes on, but he couldn't. He didn't change because he
didn't want the other players to notice make fun of him.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
I have a feeling when.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
My guy here on site drew or backwards shorts in
the gym, same dynamic.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
Was in play.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
Our guy, Sean Saya Stats and Skime podcast is going
to join us coming up in just about fifteen minutes.
Right now, let's chat with a man who I'm sure
is very excited over his LA Dodgers advancing to the
World Series on the heels of the greatest game any
baseball player has ever played.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
Mike, Mike, You're on ESPN.

Speaker 7 (01:18:10):
Fifteen thirty, Groscia and Nego Groscias. Yeah, that was quite
the performance, mister o'tawni turned in. He was on his
ass most of the series up until then, but then
he jumped right out in a big way. And people
compare him to Babe. They try to compare Baby Babe

(01:18:30):
Ruth was a fat, big, but slow. There wasn't nothing
athletics about Babe Booth, was there. I mean, look at
the pictures of him watching Ronnie. He's not not even.

Speaker 4 (01:18:45):
Well, you mean to tell me you mean, wait, hang on,
do you mean to tell me Babe Ruth wasn't impressive.

Speaker 7 (01:18:52):
Yeah, he might have been for that day. I guess sure.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
I know he loved his great.

Speaker 7 (01:18:58):
Athlete I don't that's just all right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
But you know what he was. He was a great
baseball player.

Speaker 4 (01:19:05):
But no, I think in a in a single game setting,
I think it's absurd to compare anybody playing in twenty
twenty five to a guy who was active in nineteen
twenty five. In a single game setting, that is the
greatest performance of all time. I mean, it wasn't a
Game seven, it was a Game four. The Dodgers were
gonna win that series no matter what. But to do

(01:19:27):
what he did on the mound, give up just two hits,
strikeout ten after he walked the leadoff guy in the
first inning, you could just tell he was gonna be
damn near unhittable. And then to hit three bombs like that,
I think he's the greatest show in sports right now.
I used to say about Barry Bonds, like if I'm
flip flipping around the TV and Barry Bonds is hitting,

(01:19:48):
I watch, and the same principle applies to show Heyo Tani.

Speaker 7 (01:19:53):
Yeah, and you said it the other day, like you
said exactly what you're saying now the other day. And
one of those balls I didn't realize, but I must
have turned my head when I knew it was going out.
They said they hit it. He hit it over the roof,
and now the Dodgers stadium, I've never heard of that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
No, I did, Yeah, what actually happened?

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
It looked like it hit the roof. I didn't know
it cleared it, but it looked like it hit the roof.

Speaker 7 (01:20:18):
Yes, And I had to be about four seventy or
something like that. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Yes, and he's.

Speaker 7 (01:20:25):
Got he's got a sweetest swinging as Ar Champsky used
to have. I used to love Art Champsky for my reds.

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
Ar Champski red met and uh, I'm not sure that
I've heard anybody compare Shoodi to Art Champsky, but I'm
sure Art would be pleased to hear that.

Speaker 7 (01:20:42):
Well, you like weird, That's what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
I do.

Speaker 7 (01:20:47):
A one more now. I want to come back to
the dog to real quick. But is there is there
a certainty that is there a certain amount of certainty
that Joe's coming back in December or is that really
up in the year. No.

Speaker 4 (01:21:00):
You know, it's interesting you say that because I saw
Ian Rapaport point out that here are the number of
games that Joe could play if the best case timeline
ends up being what they follow. I think and Paul
and I were talking about this off air earlier today.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
There's been no update.

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
Now, is it a good sign that Joe is on
the sideline during games?

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:21:28):
Right, because when he initially suffered the injury, he wasn't cleared.
I don't think anybody knows Joe isn't talking publicly. I
certainly believe they hope and think there's a chance that
he can come back and play by mid December. But
I don't know that it makes sense for any of
us to be targeting a specific game. I think if

(01:21:51):
we're doing that, we're just making it up or thinking
with our hearts. Like I don't know that they haven't
ruled him out, but I don't think anybody knows with
any amount of certainty.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
When he's going to be able to play again.

Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
It's it's still mid October, it's late ish, it's mid ish,
latesh October again, best case was mid December, and to me,
until Joe addresses the amount of physical activity he is doing,
which I don't think he's doing much right now, I
don't think it makes that much sense to assume anything

(01:22:29):
about when he comes.

Speaker 14 (01:22:30):
Back, because I remember you saying about a month, well
right after it happened, or within a week after it happened.

Speaker 13 (01:22:37):
You.

Speaker 14 (01:22:38):
I know you, I know you said that.

Speaker 7 (01:22:40):
You said, I'm sorry, it's the dryer just went off
in my room. I got a dryer and washer in
my room. Now they're taking care of me, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
Very good.

Speaker 7 (01:22:50):
Yeah, the uh uh. You said you doubted if Joe
at least maybe it was Tony doubted that Jill was
going to come back this year.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
Well, I don't think I ever said that might have
been Tony.

Speaker 4 (01:23:00):
My take was best case is rarely the most likely case,
and when he originally suffered the injury, what every expert
said was, yeah, best case is mid December, and if
that ends up being what happens, and the team can
stay afloat and they have a few games for Joe
to play. And by the way, the last two games

(01:23:23):
in the season are against not great teams in Arizona
and Cleveland, and the AFC itself isn't great. Sure, you know,
then let's go number one. They've got to figure out
a way to continue to stay afloat. This is a
team that, going into the Pittsburgh game, was pretty non
competitive for the previous fourteen quarters. I think that Bears

(01:23:46):
game is different and challenging. I think that the Patriots
game is different and challenging. I think those are two
games that when this schedule came out, you said, you
know what those are wins? I don't know anybody. I
don't know that anybody should feel that way. Anymore, And
so to me, the primary concern is can can you
get to over five hundred? Can you get to the
buy over five hundred? And then maybe by the time

(01:24:07):
he come out of the buy, which will be November thirteenth,
By then, is there some sort of concrete evidence to
suggest that Joe could actually get back on the field
by mid December? But again, like when I heard best
case is mid December, my thought was best case is
usually not the most likely case.

Speaker 7 (01:24:28):
Do you think is there any possibility that if Blacko
keeps spinning it the way he did the other day
and the way he can do it, and he's very
cautious and he's very accurate, is there any way they
just slow down Joe's coming back. Blacker is still getting
a job done in a big way.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
No, I think slow.

Speaker 4 (01:24:50):
I think the only reason the only way they would
slow Joe Burrow down is if he was putting himself
at risk of further injury. I think they should be
very okay with Joe Flacco playing if needed. But no,
I think everybody is hopeful that Joe Burrow can play

(01:25:12):
as quickly as possible. And I don't think that the
Joe Flacco his success again. It's it's a it's a
game and a half, right, I mean, let's yeah, let's
see what happens over the next couple of weeks. I
would find it hard to believe. I'll say this if
if they end up playing really really well and like
so well that Joe's about to come back, but they've

(01:25:35):
effectively got a playoff bought a playoff spot wrapped up
and and maybe you've got a little bit of wible
room in the regular season, and Joe is at a
place where he could benefit from one more week not playing.
Then could I see them going, you know what, Joe's
gonna start just because we've got some leeway here and

(01:25:58):
we're gonna bring Joe back the follow it is there
a scenario where that happens, I guess. But if Joe
Burrow could play, my guess is he's gonna play.

Speaker 7 (01:26:10):
I appreciate that I didn't think about what you just
this scenario he just painted there. That was That's a
good one as usual. Real quick on the Dodgers. You know,
everybody talked about the bats and the big payroll and everything,
but the story has been the pitching staff that's gotten
healthy and the whole team's gotten healthy. But look at
that starting rotation. In the first ten games, they have

(01:26:32):
a one point four to zero era. Now broke a record.
Yalmamoto pitched the first complete game since Berlander in twenty
seventeen and in Glasgow, so one point four ten games,
really good. And then Sasaki, the other fifth starter who
got hurt and they brought ended up bringing him out

(01:26:53):
of the bulk and look at him. His ERA is
one point two to nine.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
Yeah, I mean, you've got a Hall of Fame charting pitches.

Speaker 4 (01:27:02):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you've got Clayton Kershall charting pitches.
Blake Snell in the postseason has been unbelievable. What he
didn't want to me? That was the best pitch game
of the postseason by any team so far. And then
you go from him to Yamamoto, who could throw six pitches,
all six for strikes. Glass now, who's just a physical

(01:27:23):
freak because of his sheer size, looks intimidating as hell,
and that doesn't take into account his stuff. And then
there's show, Hey Otani, it's I don't know, I know
that the Dodgers' bullpen has been problematic throughout the course
of the season. I don't know how the Blue Jays
with a stacked offense. I don't know how they beat
that team with that rotation four times.

Speaker 7 (01:27:45):
Yeah, because their pitchers. It's kind of like this was there.
I don't know where they were ranked, but I want
to say when I was keeping up with it, that
Milwaukee's pitching staff and Toronto's were about the same right
around twentieth something like that. Does that sound right to you?

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
Yeah, that sounds about right.

Speaker 4 (01:28:05):
I think what's what's interesting with Toronto is not so
much the pitching part, but do they get Bob Baschett
back for the series.

Speaker 7 (01:28:13):
I thought he was playing. I thought I heard him
say he was gonna play in the next game. That,
of course, that makes a huge difference because if you'll
remember when the Reds played Toronto, he was the only
guy to get hit the ball against Bondolo or whoever
it was Green or you know, I don't know, but
he was the only guy that could get a hit.

Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
So he was he was.

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
Yeah, Mike, thank you very much. Hope you enjoy your
Dodgers in the World Series much. Be nice, he said,
Bashett did in the midst of the clubhouse celebration.

Speaker 2 (01:28:44):
Quote I'll be ready.

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):
But you know how much is that is the euphoria
of winning Game seven versus reality. We will see the
series doesn't begin until Friday. It's sixteen after five o'clock.
The Bengals are good now because they have Joe Flacco.
Sean Sayat is good every week. He joins us. Next
Word Oakley Greens on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 11 (01:29:05):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 8 (01:29:11):
UC Health Traffic Center, Mamma Graham Save Lives call five
one three five eighty four, Pink two. Schedule your annual
mammogram with UC Health's expert team. That's five one three
five eight four pink. Northbound Paddock Road remains shut down
due to an accident that is approaching the Norwood Lateral
on southbound seventy five. Another accident at Fort Washington Way

(01:29:33):
fifteen minute delay back from the Western Hills Viaduct, and
also southbound seventy five by accident approaching State Route one
twenty two. I'm at ezaic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
This report is sponsored by the Dwight.

Speaker 11 (01:29:45):
This is Football in the NATI, brought to you in
part by Postman Law and Vice Skyline Chile on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:29:57):
We're broadcasting from Oakley Greens because it's Tuesday. That's one
cool thing about Tuesday. One of the others is Tuesday
is when we talk with our guys. Sean Sayath from
Sumer Sports. Sean is one of the authors of the
Stats and Schemes newsletter, which shows up shows shows up
in your inbox multiple times daily. Sean, it's awesome to

(01:30:20):
have you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
How are you.

Speaker 12 (01:30:22):
Oh, I'm doing well.

Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
You know.

Speaker 13 (01:30:24):
I will say that it's been a bunch of weeks
through this season, and by far the best moment of
the entire season was Joe Flacco's run.

Speaker 12 (01:30:32):
I can't stop thinking about it.

Speaker 13 (01:30:33):
I was so excited to get on this call Jess
so I can relive it. I mean, out of my
chair watching it, just love it.

Speaker 4 (01:30:42):
He targets Jamar Chase twenty three times. He throws a
dime to t Higgins to help seal the game. He
makes a great throw to Andre Yoshavas, and You're right.
I went to bed on Thursday night thinking about Joe
Flacco's run more than any other play.

Speaker 13 (01:30:58):
Unbelievable, and I thought he did a really good job
of getting the ball out of his hands really really quick,
and because of that, you end up getting a season
low pressure percentage. So one way to help out your
offensive line.

Speaker 12 (01:31:10):
Is just get rid of that thing.

Speaker 13 (01:31:12):
I think that was really really tonsive and something I
think you can take away because its not that we've
seen it once now, right, you know, I was I
think a little bit harsh on the Steelers offense when
we talked last week. The Steelers defense really I think
showed that it had a lot of shortcomings that I
was glad that Flacko was able to take advantage of.

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
Yeah, I was actually going to start there because I've
watched some analysis just crushed Pittsburgh for the way they
played Higgins and Chase sticking Man, never switching the zone,
or at least rarely switching the zone. Schematically, if you're
a Steelers fan, what should you be fuming about when
it comes to Thursday.

Speaker 13 (01:31:51):
There is just a kind of static nature to a
Steelers defense where you've seen at times over the last
few years, Hey, you're gonna throw in some more rotations
to get to cover two type looks.

Speaker 12 (01:32:05):
But Joe Black clearly still.

Speaker 13 (01:32:07):
Just sit back there and chuck it into kind of
these open zone windows. So for me, it feels like
this defense it's not gonna be a schematically ahead of
the game defense where you don't always have to be
schematically ahead of the game. I don't want to say
that you need to win on a chalkboard every time.
If you're not going to, you have to be better
at a lot of the positions throughout the defense, and

(01:32:28):
certainly at the cornerback position. It did not look like
that last Thursday night offensively.

Speaker 4 (01:32:34):
Did the Bengals offensive line perform well or did Joe
Flacco just mask their deficiencies?

Speaker 13 (01:32:40):
You know, I do think it was a little bit
of Flacco getting rid of the ball so.

Speaker 12 (01:32:45):
Quick like that makes such a big deal.

Speaker 13 (01:32:48):
And Chase Brown, I think he had overall one hundred
yards after contact, so that means that he's still being
contacted kind of early after the line of scrims. I
think he forces at least like six mistap, which is
a really good thing. So I don't want to say,
all right, well, this this rushing performance where you have
like close to the ninetieth percentile in terms of how

(01:33:09):
efficient you were I don't want to take it fully
away from the offensive line. I do think though the
black gay was able to help the offensive line in
the past game, and Chase Brown was I mean, he
had no desire to get tackled in that game.

Speaker 12 (01:33:19):
I think that really helped as well.

Speaker 2 (01:33:21):
Yeah, no doubt about that. What did they do running
the football that we could hope is sustainable.

Speaker 13 (01:33:28):
I think that one thing they were smart about just
running left like he run away from TJ. Watt so
to me, so many teams have done that this year.
I think that is a smart thing. Where Chase Brown,
you know, he also was pretty effective running out of shotgun,
which I think that is something that you know, we
had talked about actually a little bit last year, just
how did the running back kind of deal with playing
in shotgun when you're with Joe Burrow.

Speaker 12 (01:33:49):
All the time.

Speaker 13 (01:33:49):
So I think that that is a really positive thing.
Because you're going to keep throwing the ball to Jamar Chase.
If you're able to, you know, get your offensive line
maybe just a little bit more comfortable in terms of
those short passes, you have something in.

Speaker 12 (01:34:00):
The run game. And I mean that's that's a full offense.

Speaker 13 (01:34:02):
Like that is a full, full offense to be able
to tack other teams.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Uh Sean Sayde is with us the State the Stats
and Schames newsletter. Sign up for it now sumer sports
dot com. If if not for Flacco's heroics with Higgins
and Chase, we're talking about another dreadful night for the defense.
They've made some changes there, right, They They've decreased Logan
Wilson's playing time. You're seeing more of Barrett Carter. We

(01:34:29):
didn't have Drey Hendrickson. We saw more of Shamar Stewart
until we stopped seeing Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 4 (01:34:34):
I just the Flacco thing is fun. I worry about
how sustainable it is. Not so much because of him.
They just can't get stops. And I know I've asked
you this a billion times, but like Al Golden is
trying stuff, He's benching Cam Taylor Brick, He's trying lineup changes,
and yet the results, especially.

Speaker 5 (01:34:54):
When they need stops, are.

Speaker 4 (01:34:57):
The same every single week. What is the defense some
coordinator do?

Speaker 16 (01:35:00):
Now?

Speaker 13 (01:35:02):
Yeah, I mean I think you're hoping to play a
game against the Steelers where I mean you get those
two interceptions and you're just playing a variance game overall,
I guess when I looked at Rogers, this success a
lot of it is kind of between the numbers seventeen
for twenty two for one hundred and seventy yards and
four touchdowns between those numbers, So attacking that kind of
middle of the field area and having success where on

(01:35:22):
the outside Rogers through both of us picks kind of
outside that numbers areas. So it can just be a
little bit of a thing where, look, linebackers in the
NFL are are a vulnerable position.

Speaker 12 (01:35:33):
It is really really tough to play down there.

Speaker 13 (01:35:35):
But is it just a kind of a game to
game basis where maybe you just keep saying, hey, go
and push the wall to the outside, like we're going
to force you to make those throws.

Speaker 17 (01:35:43):
We're gonna trust at least one of our corners to
make at least one play a week, and then you're
kind of just living with it just because you know,
from an up and down talent perspective, it's it's not
to me a situation where you said, are well, you're
gonna be able to win in these five places, and
now you can start feeling really comfortable.

Speaker 5 (01:35:59):
Are the Jets so bad?

Speaker 16 (01:36:02):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (01:36:03):
It's it's it's quite unfortunate. It really really is.

Speaker 13 (01:36:06):
I have friends and that in that in that building
that have worked that team for a while, and it's
hard to i think, come out of that this season
so far with positives really at any level. The offense
I think is sometimes efficient on a down to down basis.
I think you can take a little bit of positive
away from some of the things you see on the
offensive line, but they are They're a stick in the

(01:36:28):
mud on offense.

Speaker 17 (01:36:30):
Their defense has certainly regrets from what we think of
them a few years.

Speaker 13 (01:36:33):
Ago, and it is I think pretty clear to me
that they're the worst team the league.

Speaker 12 (01:36:39):
Obviously, it's easy to say when you start the season.

Speaker 4 (01:36:41):
Oh seven, Okay, So, like you know, Zach Taylor is
going to say all the things about the Jets that
he should. You know, you don't overlook an opponent, you
don't take one for granted. But they are zero to seven.
The game is in Cincinnati. I guess Tyrod Taylor is
going to play quarterback for the for the Jets at least,
all signs point toward that. If if they're gonna ruin

(01:37:02):
Sunday in Cincinnati, how do they do it?

Speaker 6 (01:37:05):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:37:06):
Man?

Speaker 12 (01:37:06):
I mean definitely a little bit of turnover luck.

Speaker 13 (01:37:08):
I think that's something that has been so far against
the Jets this season, just like unfathomable kind of turnovers
happening over and over for that unit. I think, you know,
Tyra Taylor can still play. I don't want to pretend
like he can't. I think it's a real ground and
pound type. Hey, we're just gonna turn out first downs
on the ground against you Flacco. Maybe you know the

(01:37:29):
two games are just a little bit too magic and that.

Speaker 12 (01:37:32):
Kind of runs out.

Speaker 13 (01:37:33):
So to me, that's the path for a Jets team that.
I mean, they're they're really kind of grasping that straw.
Sometimes it feels like their defense is a little bit
just gonna have to just based on kind of the
ideas that are happening there. So I certainly wish the
Jets luck in this game.

Speaker 2 (01:37:46):
I don't. I hope they get destroyed. But regardless, we'll
talk next week.

Speaker 4 (01:37:51):
Smer sports dot Com, let's start by talking about sumer Brain.

Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
It'll make even smarter. Tell folks how it works.

Speaker 17 (01:37:58):
Of course, soomer sports dot Com slash Suomer Varian based
as all of our data built and just like into
a really really easy chatbot.

Speaker 12 (01:38:05):
You want to know anything, You want to know, what's the.

Speaker 17 (01:38:06):
Jets first down success rate in the third quarter, you
can really really.

Speaker 12 (01:38:11):
Quickly pull that out to me. It's just it's great information.
It is free. It is saving me time, so I
think it'll save anyone's time.

Speaker 13 (01:38:18):
And hey, you know, you get into an argument, you
want to look something up, It's an easy way to
get an.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
Answer, all right. And then the Stats and Scheme Newsletter,
which is a must hip.

Speaker 13 (01:38:27):
We're still preview and reviewing every single game across the
season with advanced stats, you know, specific analytics for specific
types of matchups, whether it's offense versus defense, whether it's
a specific run concept versus a specific defensive concept.

Speaker 12 (01:38:42):
It's done a lot of fun this year. And hey,
you know, it's easy to talk about some fun with
Joe Flacco.

Speaker 13 (01:38:46):
So I'm sure that's going to make it into the
way this week.

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
Black Omania, Sean, it's what we're calling it, at least what.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
I'm calling you.

Speaker 12 (01:38:53):
I'm in, I'm fully in.

Speaker 2 (01:38:55):
All right, we need all the help we can get. Sean,
You're the best. Thank you, as.

Speaker 12 (01:38:58):
Always, thanks to much talk next.

Speaker 2 (01:39:00):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
I love talking with Sean Saya. The Stats and Schemes
newsletter is terrific. Twenty nine away from six o'clock word
Oakley Greens, which is also terrific.

Speaker 2 (01:39:09):
We'll take some.

Speaker 4 (01:39:10):
Phone calls because we have folks who have chosen to
call this show for reasons I'm not sure I understand.
On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 11 (01:39:18):
You've been listening to Football in the NATI, brought to
you by Cincinnati Tax Resolution powered by Toefe Sheldon. On
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center,

(01:39:39):
Mamma Graham, Save Lives Call five one three five eighty
four PINK two.

Speaker 8 (01:39:43):
Schedule your annual mammogram with UC Health's expert team. That's
five one three five eighty four pink. At this time,
Paddock Road remains shut down due to an accident that
is approaching the Norwood Lateral on southbound seventy five. Another
crash at Fort Washington Way. Traffic from the Western Hills
Viaduct and northbound seventy one. It's an accident at Montgomery Road.

(01:40:06):
I'm at a zek with traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:40:08):
Well remains the same. Or at Oakley Greens. You know
what they got coming up at Oakley Greens a week
from tomorrow. Drew's gonna be here, bring his costume, trunk
or treat. No, it's just for kids. Okay, don't be
that guy. Don't be you know, don't be the show
up in your costume and you're in your you know,
early thirties and whatever you are, and the kids are

(01:40:31):
getting candy and you're taking candy from them. There's nothing
worse than than that person. Right, What is the oldest
year were when you went trick or treating? My wife
and I were talking about this the other day.

Speaker 2 (01:40:41):
I think the last time I went trigger treating was ten.

Speaker 4 (01:40:44):
I was fifteen. Wow, I realized we shouldn't trick or
treat anymore. Well, like one of our buddies wanted to
drive from one one neighborhood to thees like we should
probably hang it up. I triggered treated when I was
fifteen years and I wasn't ashamed of it either.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
I don't remember what I was. I just put on
like a Bengals hatter, so I don't know what I
did anyway, I was not ashamed of that, then I
kind of am. Now it's so anyway, Trunk or Treat's
gonna be great. Do you think any kids will show
up as Mowegger? Why would you do that? I don't know,
you're here all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
But perhaps anyway, five to eight, they're gonna have all
the cabanas set up for Halloween, tons of decorations. Your
kids can load up with candy, you can have a beer.
You can then as a family go play mini golf
and it's gonna be a blast. And the cool thing
is it's not on Halloween. It's actually on the Wednesday
before Halloween, and then you know, you rest up on Thursday,

(01:41:40):
then go after it on Halloween and it's like having
multiple Halloweens Trunk or Treat here at Oakley Greens, and
the staff here will ensure that there's no like adult
guy taking all the candies, So don't worry about that.
It's by the way, the bud light five o'clock happy hour.
One of the cool things about today is you know,
Mary from Mount One, Washington is one of our most

(01:42:02):
regular listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:42:03):
Most regular listeners.

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
There it is, that's the point, is one of our
regular listeners, one of our most loyal listeners, and she's buying.

Speaker 5 (01:42:12):
His bud Lights, so you can't beat that.

Speaker 4 (01:42:14):
We love every listener to this show, but the ones
who show up and bias beer when we come to
Oakley Greens are the absolute best.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:42:22):
We have folks waiting patiently, and I will be totally
honest with you. I have no remote idea what I
have said that would compel any of these people to call,
but I am thankful for them. Nonetheless, Dave, you're on
ESPN fifteen thirty high Dave.

Speaker 16 (01:42:39):
Hey, Mo, how you doing.

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
I'm wonderful yourself?

Speaker 16 (01:42:44):
Good, good, good.

Speaker 9 (01:42:44):
So I have a question.

Speaker 16 (01:42:45):
Before I get the question, I go, do you know
that there is a new animal with the Cincinnati Zoom
named Mo?

Speaker 5 (01:42:52):
No, what kind of animal is it?

Speaker 16 (01:42:55):
It is a Boba russa. You can look that up.

Speaker 2 (01:42:58):
What is that?

Speaker 16 (01:43:00):
It's like a wart hog sort of but with uh
more more tusks on it, and I think it might
be spelled moe. So you might get off. But if
you feel the need to adopt an animal, you could
be that could be your game.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
They named the wart hog mo.

Speaker 7 (01:43:22):
I don't know who you or not.

Speaker 4 (01:43:24):
I don't know the hippo the hippo gets a cool
name like Fiona. Right, the dead ape gets a cool
name like harambe I get.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
The wart hog.

Speaker 9 (01:43:36):
I don't have to tell you, mo, huh.

Speaker 5 (01:43:39):
But I have to have a word with Saint Materer.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
All right.

Speaker 16 (01:43:43):
So I got a question, a football question. Did you
notice how successful they were under center in the offense
on Thursday night?

Speaker 13 (01:43:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (01:43:51):
Like, is there any possible chance is there any chance
that Joe B is watching that saying, hum, maybe I
can like survive and be even better.

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
If not, I don't know what he's I don't know
what he's doing, Like if you're not watching the offense
through the one the lens of why are we so
productive in this area that we're typically not very good at?
And number two, this old quarterback is doing it this
way and this guy like never gets hurt and I
want a career like that. I don't know if you're

(01:44:23):
Joe how you're not putting a lot of thought into
those things. And look, he doesn't have to be under
center every single play. But this is like, to me,
this is the second time we've done this. We have
these same conversations when they started running it effectively with
Jake Browning two years ago, and we wondered, how do
you mesh how they're playing offense now with what Joe
likes to do? And we're watching again a quarterback play

(01:44:45):
under center and having some success.

Speaker 2 (01:44:47):
How How then does.

Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
That not become a talking point between Joe and his
coaches or even for Joe with himself, to figure out
how you blend and the way Joe wants to play
with how the quarterback now is playing.

Speaker 16 (01:45:05):
I mean, I know Joe doesn't like playing under center,
but I also suspect he doesn't like sitting on the
sidelines in a booth.

Speaker 5 (01:45:11):
Right, Like you have to adjust.

Speaker 4 (01:45:14):
I mean, I love Joe Burrow, but like you have
to adjust your style of play. I mean every athlete does,
you know, So I wonder what those conversations are are
going to sound it sound like now, I mean, hopefully
Joe plays this year.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
I don't know. I don't know how you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:45:33):
Say to Joe, like, dude, when you're back, whether it's
in December or next September, we have to take some
of these concepts that we're using with Joe Flacco and
use them and run the ball more effectively and better
keep you upright and you have to develop a comfort
level with turning your back to the defense when you
drop back the pass at least a little bit more frequently.

Speaker 14 (01:45:58):
I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:45:58):
So.

Speaker 16 (01:45:58):
Actually, when I was listening to the the guy you
had on just previously while I was on hold, I
almost wanted to ask him to run that data. What
was their success and average of production from under center
versus shotgun.

Speaker 4 (01:46:12):
I will text Sean as soon as we are done,
and we will have that information for you next Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Dave, thank you very much, and I've also I've also
jotted down the zoos infhoo.

Speaker 5 (01:46:21):
Reach out to them all right, take it easy, mo
see you, Dave.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
Thanks Ward hoog mo the war hoog. Jason, you're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Jason, good afternoon. How are you. I'm good?

Speaker 7 (01:46:37):
No, how you doing, Budy, I.

Speaker 2 (01:46:39):
Have never been doing better. Good? Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:46:44):
Good to have the band back together.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
It is all is right with the world. Jason bands
back together. And uh, you got Tony, you got Austin,
you got tarn, you got me, you got Drew, and
you have the No One covers the Bengals like ESPN
fifteen thirty promo.

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
Really we are whole and together in life is good.

Speaker 9 (01:47:06):
Yeah, absolutely so little curveball here, so show showy o Tani.
I listened to a lot of top uh sports talk
radio and stuff like that. I mean, you know some
of the ones in the morning in the morning, yeah,
on your on your station which is on the morning.

Speaker 2 (01:47:29):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:47:30):
But they always they keep saying that the show he
a tany game is the best performance they've ever seen,
and we will never see anything like that. I'd like
to refer back to June twenty third, nineteen seventy one.

Speaker 2 (01:47:45):
I know where you're going.

Speaker 9 (01:47:47):
Yeah, Philly's versus her ads.

Speaker 2 (01:47:50):
Uh huh.

Speaker 9 (01:47:50):
You pitch your Rick Wise mm hmm two home runs,
three Rbistani had three RBIs M and a new hitter M.
Now it was not in a playoff game, I'll give
you that, but right, you know, there have been other

(01:48:11):
performances that are are pretty damn good.

Speaker 5 (01:48:15):
Do you want to know a fun fact about that night?

Speaker 9 (01:48:18):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
That was my parents' first date.

Speaker 4 (01:48:23):
And my dad told me, and I was too young
to understand what he meant, that he had a better
night than Rick Wise. And you know, when I was
like seven years old, I didn't know what he I'm like, well,
did you throw a no hitter? Like, no, I didn't
know what that was my parents' first date. You're right,
two homers drove in free threw a no hitter on

(01:48:44):
the road. The seventy one Reds weren't awesome, but there
were a lot of great players in that Cincinnati team.

Speaker 2 (01:48:50):
I do think though it's the stage.

Speaker 4 (01:48:52):
It was a clinching game International League Championship Series. He
hit three home runs, he struck out ten, Like, if
he does that in June, it's awesome. Doing it in October,
I think amplifies it a little bit more more people
saw it. But sure, man, many have said that Rick

(01:49:14):
Wise's performance that night at Riverfront Stadium was the greatest
individual performance because of the no hitter and the two
home runs. And I guess because he, you know, did
it against a team that had so many just upper
tier dudes.

Speaker 2 (01:49:29):
Hall of famers.

Speaker 4 (01:49:29):
Bench was on that team, more Rose was on that team, Concepcione.
But I think that the stakes in the stage for
showhy you know, probably make that put that a little
bit higher on the list for most people, for everybody
but my parents because they they weren't at that game,
but that they were both there at the Rick Wise game.

Speaker 9 (01:49:52):
And I get that, but it wasn't Game seven and
the Dodgers for to win that series no matter what. Yeah, yeah, correct,
But no, I just I just want to turn that
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:50:06):
I appreciate it. Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 9 (01:50:08):
Thanks Mo see you Rick.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
Wise, my mom and Dad's first day.

Speaker 7 (01:50:14):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:50:14):
Don, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Hi, Don, how are you?

Speaker 14 (01:50:21):
Hell?

Speaker 2 (01:50:21):
Don? Hey? Don? Don? John? Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:50:27):
John, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Let's start over, John.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
How are you?

Speaker 14 (01:50:32):
I'm well, Oh, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
I'm doing I'm doing quite well. What's going on?

Speaker 14 (01:50:37):
Uh? I want to follow up kind of on the
last collar in that you know, I live out in
southern California and I've been out here for forty two years. Yeah,
I will die. I will die a red stand period
the end. And I just don't think red stands want

(01:50:57):
to hear about the Dodgers. And I don't think they
want to hear about a former Cincinnati and Mike who
calls it all the time and went over to the dark.
I called the Dodgers like Mike, Hey, Mike, call the
l A radio stations. Man, I'm you know here about
the reds.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
Well, okay, what.

Speaker 5 (01:51:20):
What do you What would you like to say about
the Reds?

Speaker 14 (01:51:24):
Well, i'd like, what do I need to say? They
had a good season. I was surprised. I think all
the fans were. We made the playoff. Why, I don't know.
I I think that the Reds are wrong for putting
Elliott short stop and just picking with him in the

(01:51:47):
season is helpful. I mean, we could talk all day about.

Speaker 7 (01:51:50):
The Reds, but I want the Reds to win.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
I don't meet her.

Speaker 7 (01:51:56):
I want the Reds to win.

Speaker 2 (01:51:58):
Well, I can't.

Speaker 5 (01:52:00):
I can't control what people call in to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:52:03):
So I'm glad you're here talking about the Reds, but
I want him to win too.

Speaker 5 (01:52:07):
I think the l del cruise discussion is fascinating.

Speaker 14 (01:52:11):
I want the Reds, the tangles you see and even
X you to.

Speaker 2 (01:52:16):
Win very too.

Speaker 14 (01:52:17):
Met me too, I know, I know, I know that's
hard when you live in the land of Dodger fans. Okay,
it's like enough already, but thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:52:28):
You could.

Speaker 5 (01:52:29):
You could move back, right? Can you not come back?

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
You know?

Speaker 14 (01:52:34):
I'm I'm I'm an old roommate of wild Man before
he went to w E V N.

Speaker 2 (01:52:42):
No, don't move back far back? Yeah, you know, I'm sorry.
You know what I get. I would have moved to
Russia forget Los Angeles like no I did. Did he
Did he write a chapter about you and his book?

Speaker 14 (01:52:56):
No he didn't because I left before he went to
w E b An No, man, but I text to
talk with him almost daily.

Speaker 2 (01:53:05):
Do you how is he?

Speaker 14 (01:53:07):
Yeah, he's fine. We talked about we talk about sports.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:53:12):
Well give give give Dennis my best.

Speaker 2 (01:53:15):
Nice to hear from you as always.

Speaker 14 (01:53:18):
Well, thank you, man, I really enjoy listening to you.

Speaker 2 (01:53:21):
Thank you, Thanks very much. All right, we'll call again
calling the next thing. You're hanging out with Wildman. A Hey, don't.

Speaker 4 (01:53:31):
Forget Bengo Thursday for the Thursday night football game. You
got the Vikings, he got the Chargers. You got Carson Wentz.
I don't know whatever JJ McCarthy day said few weeks ago.
I was like, oh, it's a bomb ankle guys like
a wall. I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:46):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:53:46):
You got all the Saturday football games College, you got
the Bengals on Sunday. You got the Trunk Retreat coming up. Basically,
you name it, they got it here at Oakley Greens.
The staff is awesome. Mary from Mount Washington bought me this.
I but do one of these deals. Ah yeah, that's
not a Ken Bruce sound effect either. He hits a button.
He's not really opening beers. I just open one and

(01:54:09):
I'm going to enjoy it. Thanks to Drew Westerheidi for
producing on site. Thanks to Tarren Bland for producing in
ken Wood, and in advance, the Marconi Committee for listening
to this show and handing us the hardware.

Speaker 5 (01:54:22):
Have an awesome night. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 4 (01:54:25):
We're back tomorrow at three oh five on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:54:41):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center Mammo Graham, Save
Lives call five one three five eighty four pink two.
Schedule your annual mammogram with UC Help's experteen. That's five
one three five eight four pink. On southbound seventy five,
there is an accident at Fort Washington Way, three to
five minute delay back from the Western Hills Viaduct. Also

(01:55:03):
on northbound seventy one at Montgomery Rode. Another accident in
southbound seventy five at Paddock, the left lane blocked from
an accident. I met Ezelic with traffic

All Episodes

10/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}10/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News .css-1q01m3q{margin:0 0 -2px 0;}

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

All Episodes