October 3, 2025 • 8 mins
Shawn Syed's Stats and Scheme Newsletter is terrific. He joined us to discuss the obvious. Again.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So typically Sean saya Stats and Schemes newsletter joins us
on Tuesdays. But you need to move everything because of
you know, Monday Night football. And that's given Sean twenty
four hours more to come up with a way to
fix what I think is the unfixable the Bengals, their offense,
their defense. You should subscribe to his newsletter. Get it
(00:23):
at sumer sports dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
How's it going, Sean, No, it's you know, maybe gone
a little bit better for me than the Bengals overall.
You're right, you know, you get that extra time. You
just kind of mulling things a little bit. And I
might be lying if I said I had some grand
solution for what's going on with the Bengals of this season.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, you can't. I mean, you have an offensive line
of guys that can't run blocks, so you can't run
the ball. You have a backup quarterback that's not thrown
to the right guy. Like I don't I don't know.
I don't know that there's a scheme that can overcome
those things. And today they have elite playmakers on the outside,
But when your QB doesn't throw the ball at the
right guy, I don't know what schematic advantage you can
(01:02):
come up with.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, I certainly agree, and I think because I
feel like everyone knows that, then you turn to all
the things that you actually can control, whether it's things
that are coached, whether it's the overall discipline of the team,
whether it's those just minute details not getting illegal formations
on big throws like that is what I think we
can really focus on now and say, Okay, well are
these like operational aspects of this team and issue And
(01:27):
you could say, okay, well you drop one player and
then it kind of it hurts everyone, Like absolutely, I
get that there are still things in your control that
I think, no matter who you're putting out there, you
would hope are able to get to a certain level.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, it starts with having the right number of players
on the field and then having them line up correctly,
and then you can come up with something is there
is there anything schematically that if you're a Zach Taylor
you can you can try that you haven't tried yet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I mean that I feel like you lean as much
on the game as you can. As you said, you know,
your offensive line is maybe not the best run game unit. Overall,
you're trying to just like shrink the kind of margin
for error that your quarterback can sort of have. Now
you could say, hey, like let's call up New York
see if Jameis Winston wants to make the trip a
little bit out to to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
May maybe you look at that just a little bit.
But I feel like the.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Only solution is, okay, heavy runs, heavy play action shots
to the outside.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
But when you're already down, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Pretty quickly in these games, and I think teams are
probably sitting on that type of approach.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It makes it pretty hard.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Like it's sort of disheartening to have to watch it
and kind of think about it and look at it
and say, okay, well there's just no solution, Like that
can't be it. So you are leaning into just you know,
maybe you're able to get just one or two just massive,
massive games from Chasin Higgins, and you're able to ride
that into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So Jake Browning plays seven games two years ago, and
the one thing they did, and I think you and
I have talked about this, the one thing they were
able to tap into was a screen game. They still
had Joe Mixon. They started to use Chase Brown a
little bit more, and we joked about it here, like
they're going to screen pass their way into the postseason.
So I go to this game on Monday, and the
Denver Broncos. One of their deficiencies has been allowing a
(03:16):
lot of yards to running backs when they're used as receivers.
So I don't know how you don't marry those two.
Here's something we have used in the past with this
quarterback against a team that has this particular weakness. And
late in the third quarter, before the game totally got
out of hand, they had one reception for Chase Brown.
So I guess my question is, like, isn't that something
(03:39):
they should be tapping into because they have had success
with this quarterback in the screen game before.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I do think the screen game is a smart way
to lessen the burden on your offensive line a little bit,
Like your quarterback is not really having to make a
full read kind of decision. Obviously you have a plan
making running back in Chase Brown, So I do think
that's a smart way to approach it. To me, it
also goes back to the details of the kind of approach,
like if you have a sloppy screen game that sometimes
(04:06):
is the sign of like an offense that you know
you're not on kind of all of your details all
the time.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
If you look at the.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Buccaneers last year, had just this absurd screen game where
it's like everyone's foot is in the exact right spot
exactly when it needs to be. You're able to get
defensive linemen up the field, and I want to just
make yeah, probably does go off through the rest of
the season, just because you're looking at it like this
week saying in Hutchinson really riving back up off his
injury and say, okay, well we got to have something
(04:32):
that can flow back that down.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Let's talk about the Lions. So they lose both coordinators
Ben Johnson, renowned for his work with that offense. They
had a hiccup Week one. Offensively, it feels like they
haven't skipped a beat. It's very good personnel. Jamier Gibbs
is terrific. I love him on Ray Saint Brown. Jared
Goff has sort of rebranded himself in Detroit. Why though,
(04:57):
given the fact that everybody talked about the brain drain
this all season, are they doing Are they running the
exact same offense? Are their dramatic schematic differences why have
they barely skipped a beat on that side of the
ball in Detroit?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know, I wouldn't say it's the exact same offense.
I think there's like in Week one, for example, we
saw the Lions use a lot less motion, a lot
less play action.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I do think they got back to a lot of
those things.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It feels like last year you could almost steel how
like the kind of showiness and the play following a
little bit like and you could see that against the
Lions or something against the Ravens on that Monday night
game where you have those kind of trick plays in there,
and could you see something.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
As the season goes on, it kind.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of continues to be like, Hey, we're gonna beat you,
and we're gonna do it in like the most stylush
ways possible. I do think a big deal is like
their personnel is just really really good, and they have
a lot of the structures there. More than that, Asim
are the offensive coordinator there more and is really familiar
with Dan Campbell as well, So you do have some
different pieces along the offensive line that maybe you can
(05:57):
attack up front a little bit. But the team is
settling and I would absolutely say like this is the
top top end unit in the NFC, where they have
so many.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Different ways to attack you.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I think that the line struggled a little bit against
the Browns last week, in particular when they were able
to get pressure.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So if you can.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Get guys in Jared Voff's face, like Trey Henderson head
let's go ahead and make and try and win us
his game, that sounds great.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But you know, I watched last week, or I watched
on Monday night Cam Taylor Brick got benched again. I
watched Geno Stone take poor angles when he's trying to
make a tackle. I see collectively the same lack of
pass rush. Admittedly, they don't have Shamar Stewart. There are
some young players on defense that I think are interesting,
like Demetrius Knight, but I I don't, you know, it's
(06:41):
sort of a similar question to what we talked about
the Bengals on offense. I don't know that Al Golden
can come up with anything given the fact that he's
got the same players that got the previous defensive coordinator fired.
When he's going up against that Detroit offense, which is
easily the best one they've played.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So far, you know, and you're a team that is
just like a drastic underdogd I think the Bengals are
like ten and a half point underdogs and me the
approach is like you lean into.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Variants as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So you are because if you're like on odds, probably
going to lose, so why don't go down swinging? So
like you increase your blitz rip, you're taking more deep shots.
You're mean onside ki raviously different now, but like those
are the types of things that if you're that out
match even in a league where look, anything can happen
in ku tweek, Like I'm not gonna say the Bengals
have zero for them chance to win on paper.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Of course you're gonna prefer to be the lines in
this one.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you then look at, well, what are just all
the ways that we can have a weird win, Like
is it a special team's block that we could maybe
kind of scheme something up, kind of slim me to
just get get something that you're able to get a
block there? So like do you want to see all
these guys blitz and then you're now putting your cornerbacks
in one on one situations like play after play. Maybe not,
(07:50):
but then also like sometimes you look at maybe the
earlier days in the Minnesota Vikings Brian Flora's defense and say, okay,
well they're just using weirdness, Like the Cardinals did this
as well.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Day Da've been trying to go.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Their defense, like get as funky as humanly possible and
just show these crazy, non traditional looks because it's like, look,
at the end of the day, this game might not
be close anyway, so let's go down and swinging.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That inspires confidence, now, doesn't it. Sean say of the
Stats and Schemes newsletter, I am a huge fan. You
know this. For those who haven't subscribed yet at suomersports
dot com, tell them what they'll get.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Appreciate that, mo, Yeah, Summer Sports dot Com slast subscribe.
You're gonna get advanced data and details for every single thing.
So if you're curious, like is there anything that the
Bengals are really good at that they may have any
advantage against the Lines, you get these nice color coded boxes.
Game reviews for every single week, Game reviews for every
single week. It has been a lot of fun to do,
and I'm excited to write up the Bengals versus the Lines.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
The game this week.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's it's one thing that's exciting about this game. I'm
having a hard time coming up with anything else. Sean,
you're the best. We'll talk to you next Tuesday in
your normal time.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Man, thanks so much, Thanks so much. I appreciate you.
So typically Sean saya Stats and Schemes newsletter joins us
on Tuesdays. But you need to move everything because of
you know, Monday Night football. And that's given Sean twenty
four hours more to come up with a way to
fix what I think is the unfixable the Bengals, their offense,
their defense. You should subscribe to his newsletter. Get it
(00:23):
at sumer sports dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
How's it going, Sean, No, it's you know, maybe gone
a little bit better for me than the Bengals overall.
You're right, you know, you get that extra time. You
just kind of mulling things a little bit. And I
might be lying if I said I had some grand
solution for what's going on with the Bengals of this season.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, you can't. I mean, you have an offensive line
of guys that can't run blocks, so you can't run
the ball. You have a backup quarterback that's not thrown
to the right guy. Like I don't I don't know.
I don't know that there's a scheme that can overcome
those things. And today they have elite playmakers on the outside,
But when your QB doesn't throw the ball at the
right guy, I don't know what schematic advantage you can
(01:02):
come up with.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, I certainly agree, and I think because I
feel like everyone knows that, then you turn to all
the things that you actually can control, whether it's things
that are coached, whether it's the overall discipline of the team,
whether it's those just minute details not getting illegal formations
on big throws like that is what I think we
can really focus on now and say, Okay, well are
these like operational aspects of this team and issue And
(01:27):
you could say, okay, well you drop one player and
then it kind of it hurts everyone, Like absolutely, I
get that there are still things in your control that
I think, no matter who you're putting out there, you
would hope are able to get to a certain level.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, it starts with having the right number of players
on the field and then having them line up correctly,
and then you can come up with something is there
is there anything schematically that if you're a Zach Taylor
you can you can try that you haven't tried yet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I mean that I feel like you lean as much
on the game as you can. As you said, you know,
your offensive line is maybe not the best run game unit. Overall,
you're trying to just like shrink the kind of margin
for error that your quarterback can sort of have. Now
you could say, hey, like let's call up New York
see if Jameis Winston wants to make the trip a
little bit out to to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
May maybe you look at that just a little bit.
But I feel like the.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Only solution is, okay, heavy runs, heavy play action shots
to the outside.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
But when you're already down, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Pretty quickly in these games, and I think teams are
probably sitting on that type of approach.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It makes it pretty hard.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Like it's sort of disheartening to have to watch it
and kind of think about it and look at it
and say, okay, well there's just no solution, Like that
can't be it. So you are leaning into just you know,
maybe you're able to get just one or two just massive,
massive games from Chasin Higgins, and you're able to ride
that into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So Jake Browning plays seven games two years ago, and
the one thing they did, and I think you and
I have talked about this, the one thing they were
able to tap into was a screen game. They still
had Joe Mixon. They started to use Chase Brown a
little bit more, and we joked about it here, like
they're going to screen pass their way into the postseason.
So I go to this game on Monday, and the
Denver Broncos. One of their deficiencies has been allowing a
(03:16):
lot of yards to running backs when they're used as receivers.
So I don't know how you don't marry those two.
Here's something we have used in the past with this
quarterback against a team that has this particular weakness. And
late in the third quarter, before the game totally got
out of hand, they had one reception for Chase Brown.
So I guess my question is, like, isn't that something
(03:39):
they should be tapping into because they have had success
with this quarterback in the screen game before.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I do think the screen game is a smart way
to lessen the burden on your offensive line a little bit,
Like your quarterback is not really having to make a
full read kind of decision. Obviously you have a plan
making running back in Chase Brown, So I do think
that's a smart way to approach it. To me, it
also goes back to the details of the kind of approach,
like if you have a sloppy screen game that sometimes
(04:06):
is the sign of like an offense that you know
you're not on kind of all of your details all
the time.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
If you look at the.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Buccaneers last year, had just this absurd screen game where
it's like everyone's foot is in the exact right spot
exactly when it needs to be. You're able to get
defensive linemen up the field, and I want to just
make yeah, probably does go off through the rest of
the season, just because you're looking at it like this
week saying in Hutchinson really riving back up off his
injury and say, okay, well we got to have something
(04:32):
that can flow back that down.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Let's talk about the Lions. So they lose both coordinators
Ben Johnson, renowned for his work with that offense. They
had a hiccup Week one. Offensively, it feels like they
haven't skipped a beat. It's very good personnel. Jamier Gibbs
is terrific. I love him on Ray Saint Brown. Jared
Goff has sort of rebranded himself in Detroit. Why though,
(04:57):
given the fact that everybody talked about the brain drain
this all season, are they doing Are they running the
exact same offense? Are their dramatic schematic differences why have
they barely skipped a beat on that side of the
ball in Detroit?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know, I wouldn't say it's the exact same offense.
I think there's like in Week one, for example, we
saw the Lions use a lot less motion, a lot
less play action.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I do think they got back to a lot of
those things.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It feels like last year you could almost steel how
like the kind of showiness and the play following a
little bit like and you could see that against the
Lions or something against the Ravens on that Monday night
game where you have those kind of trick plays in there,
and could you see something.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
As the season goes on, it kind.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of continues to be like, Hey, we're gonna beat you,
and we're gonna do it in like the most stylush
ways possible. I do think a big deal is like
their personnel is just really really good, and they have
a lot of the structures there. More than that, Asim
are the offensive coordinator there more and is really familiar
with Dan Campbell as well, So you do have some
different pieces along the offensive line that maybe you can
(05:57):
attack up front a little bit. But the team is
settling and I would absolutely say like this is the
top top end unit in the NFC, where they have
so many.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Different ways to attack you.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I think that the line struggled a little bit against
the Browns last week, in particular when they were able
to get pressure.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So if you can.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Get guys in Jared Voff's face, like Trey Henderson head
let's go ahead and make and try and win us
his game, that sounds great.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But you know, I watched last week, or I watched
on Monday night Cam Taylor Brick got benched again. I
watched Geno Stone take poor angles when he's trying to
make a tackle. I see collectively the same lack of
pass rush. Admittedly, they don't have Shamar Stewart. There are
some young players on defense that I think are interesting,
like Demetrius Knight, but I I don't, you know, it's
(06:41):
sort of a similar question to what we talked about
the Bengals on offense. I don't know that Al Golden
can come up with anything given the fact that he's
got the same players that got the previous defensive coordinator fired.
When he's going up against that Detroit offense, which is
easily the best one they've played.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So far, you know, and you're a team that is
just like a drastic underdogd I think the Bengals are
like ten and a half point underdogs and me the
approach is like you lean into.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Variants as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So you are because if you're like on odds, probably
going to lose, so why don't go down swinging? So
like you increase your blitz rip, you're taking more deep shots.
You're mean onside ki raviously different now, but like those
are the types of things that if you're that out
match even in a league where look, anything can happen
in ku tweek, Like I'm not gonna say the Bengals
have zero for them chance to win on paper.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Of course you're gonna prefer to be the lines in
this one.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you then look at, well, what are just all
the ways that we can have a weird win, Like
is it a special team's block that we could maybe
kind of scheme something up, kind of slim me to
just get get something that you're able to get a
block there? So like do you want to see all
these guys blitz and then you're now putting your cornerbacks
in one on one situations like play after play. Maybe not,
(07:50):
but then also like sometimes you look at maybe the
earlier days in the Minnesota Vikings Brian Flora's defense and say, okay,
well they're just using weirdness, Like the Cardinals did this
as well.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Day Da've been trying to go.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Their defense, like get as funky as humanly possible and
just show these crazy, non traditional looks because it's like, look,
at the end of the day, this game might not
be close anyway, so let's go down and swinging.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That inspires confidence, now, doesn't it. Sean say of the
Stats and Schemes newsletter, I am a huge fan. You
know this. For those who haven't subscribed yet at suomersports
dot com, tell them what they'll get.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Appreciate that, mo, Yeah, Summer Sports dot Com slast subscribe.
You're gonna get advanced data and details for every single thing.
So if you're curious, like is there anything that the
Bengals are really good at that they may have any
advantage against the Lines, you get these nice color coded boxes.
Game reviews for every single week, Game reviews for every
single week. It has been a lot of fun to do,
and I'm excited to write up the Bengals versus the Lines.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
The game this week.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's it's one thing that's exciting about this game. I'm
having a hard time coming up with anything else. Sean,
you're the best. We'll talk to you next Tuesday in
your normal time.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Man, thanks so much, Thanks so much. I appreciate you.
Mo Egger News
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