10/3/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

One last look at Bengals vs Ravens before Sunday's tilt with Jeff Zrebiec, Jay Morrison and Robert Weintraub. The Bearcats are off so instead we talk UC Hoops with Chad Brendel. Plus we have to talk about last night's incident at the FC Cincy game.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So with the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Coverage starts Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Hi, what's up?

Speaker 4 (00:08):
Good afternoon, five after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you for listening. Hopefully you're having the greatest Thursday
of your life. It's the Ortho Cincy Mullagger Show.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Today.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
We are brought to you by Ortho Sincy Orthopedic Sports Medicine,
Ortho ci Ncy dot com. Ay place where you never
need an appointment, Place where I took my daughter when
she broke her foot. Place to the next time I
fall down and hurt myself. I'll be going Orthosincy dot com.
We thank them, We thank you for listening. A show

(00:40):
Rundown is available on x thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union,
your credit union with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Good
EMORYFCU dot org. We're loaded today. We're gonna go to
Baltimore a little bit later on Bengals Ravens on Sunday.
Chadbrendele joins us. I've made an executive decision with Chad
Brendel u see footballs on a bye week, So today

(01:01):
all basketball plus Lee Sterling America's best Handicapper coming up
at three thirty five. And we have somebody who on
the show today at four to twenty is going to
make history on our show, Mullegger's Show History coming up
at four twenty this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I cannot wait. I cannot wait.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Speaking of the Bengals and Ravens, Trey Hendrickson back in
the practice field today. Bengals official injury report on Thursdays
usually comes out between four and four thirty, so we'll
see what his official designation is. Look, this game on
Sunday is massive, right, That's the word that I keep using,
and I keep talking about how the difference between one
and four and two and three is more than just

(01:44):
one victory. It's more than just one game. At two
and three, I think we're gonna feel like game on right.
Here we go, seasons underway, Bengals have put the slow
start behind them again, and now you know, pretty favorable schedule.
The Giants aren't very good, they go there Sunday night.
The Browns aren't very good. They go there two weeks
from this Sunday. You know, the Eagles are vulnerable, the

(02:06):
Raiders are beatable. Like we're we're gonna start talking about
how this team can stack wins. And let's face it,
if they win on Sunday, it's probably gonna be at
least in part due to the continuation of what we've
seen the last couple of weeks, which has been awesome offense, right,
eight touchdowns the last two games, sixty seven points, They've
moved the ball efficiently, they've played effectively, and so I

(02:26):
think if they win this game, we start talking about, Okay,
here we go lose and we're not having those conversations.
Lose and you're gonna find a lot of people who
feel like the season is for all intents and purposes
over from a from the standpoint of how we talk
about the team and how we talk about the season,
I just want the conversation to shift, because right now

(02:48):
it feels like we're focusing on what can they sneak
in and to a degree like I have among those
who believe, if you put Joe Burrow in the playoffs
anywhere against anybody, this team's got a shot, especially the
Joe Burrow leading the offense that I've watched over the
last couple of.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Weeks, but over the coming weeks. What I would like to.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Have happen is for the conversation to shift from how
do they stay alive, which feels like this is what
this game on Sunday is all about, to how do
they sneak into the postseason to getting back to being
about how they win the whole thing. And I think
that's the thing that's a little frustrating about how they
have played so far this season, that we're not so

(03:30):
much talking about them in championship terms. It's about just
staying alive, getting upright, maybe sneaking it. Perhaps they could
take a step toward that this Sunday Bengals Ravens one
o'clock Sunday. Don't forget we're on the air at nine
o'clock in the morning. From the Holy Grail, Tony Pike,
ken Brew and myself. I cannot wait kick off at

(03:50):
one live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Bengals have to slow down,
Derek Henry, it's interesting you talk about the Ravens and
you're gonna hear a clip a little bit later on
from some folks who talk about how Joe Burrow is
not on Lamar Jackson's level. Usually you talk about Baltimore.
You talking about the Ravens offensively, and it's Lamar Jackson.
And you know, last year it was Lamar Jackson and

(04:11):
say flowers a little bit. It's usually Lamar Jackson and
his tight ends. This year it's not so much Lamar Jackson.
It certainly isn't the tight ends, although they've been a
big part of blocking. They've gone run heavy, and understandably
so with Derrick Henry. There's a piece in the Athletic
this week about how in Baltimore they're insisting the Ravens
are insisting, Hey, when we have to throw, we're gonna
be okay.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
They really haven't had to throw, though you could.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Argue they had Lamar throw a little bit too much
against Kansas City, maybe a little bit too much in
that game they lost and blew against Las Vegas last
couple of weeks, Lamar Jackson hasn't gone over eighteen pass attempts.
I want to force the Ravens to play the way
they clearly don't want to play. The way they want
to play is how they played against Buffalo, It's how
they played against Dallas.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
We're gonna get the ball to Derrick Henry.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
We're gonna do some creative stuff in the running game,
and we're gonna see if you can stop this. We're
not gonna throw to our tight ends or not really
gonna throw to anybody. Make the Ravens play the way
they don't want to play. A couple of ways of
doing that would be I don't know if they can
get an early stop or an early turnover, and certainly
if they can score some points early on uh more
on the Bengals as they get said for Sunday, coming

(05:18):
up here in uh in just a bit five point
three seven fifteen thirty. By the way, is our phone
number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven six,
And you can always send a tweet or an X
or whatever we're calling it at Moeger thanks to Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta Dental, oh dot com. Last night was
a fun sports night. Not so much fun, I guess

(05:40):
if you are hardcore FC Cincinnati or even if you're
like me, pretty casual. But they lose in New Jersey
to NYCFC last night. They played in front of like
eight people because that game was being played at the
home of the New York Red Bulls, which is a
pain in the neck to get to no matter where
you are. Plus it was baseball playoff action on all
four games were terrific last night. The results of the

(06:01):
game for FC Cincinnati was not good, to three to
two loss on the night that Miami clinches the Supporters Shield.
But what everybody was talking about in the aftermath of
the game was how in the eighty sixth minute, the
referee stopped a match in response to a homophobic chant

(06:22):
directed at an FC Cincinnati player, a homophobic chant, and it was.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Weird watching it.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
The referee came to the sideline, talked with both head coaches,
they made a PA announcement, and then after a while,
they restarted the game in the ninetieth minute, an FC
Cincinnati ultimately lost. And what's been interesting to me is
reading and following some folks on social media who are.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Close to the FC.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Cincinnati team, know the organization well, attend a lot of
soccer games. For a lot of soccer games, I just
I have this question. I do not, for the life
of me, I don't understand dropping homophobic slurs. I certainly
don't understand a chant which a chant for me, is
it's multiple people, right, It's it's multiple people, or it's

(07:14):
one person who seemingly has the approval of everybody else.
Like I just I can't imagine going to a sporting event.
I'll chant stuff. I can't imagine going to a sporting event.
And hey, here's what we're gonna do. Are gonna are
a chant? We're a chant about how this player's gay.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Like I don't. I don't get that. I don't I
don't understand it. I don't relate to it.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Here's what I want to know, though, because in the
aftermath of last night, I've seen a lot of people
talk about how like, yeah, this happens, a lot happens
all the time. This is almost embedded into the fabric
of the sport. I've I saw the great Tom glet or,
the voice of f C Cincinnati, who obviously big friend
of the show, and you know, he tweeted about the situation.

(07:59):
He obviously was at the match, and he writes, it's disheartening,
it's disgusting, and these incidents continue to happen over and
over and over again, and he adds the abuse and
discrimination must stop. An FC Cincinnati made a statement and
New York City FC, I guess made a statement. A
Major League soccer made a stame. But here's my question, man,
I've got a lot of sporting events. So my favorite

(08:22):
thing to do, my favorite recreational activity with friends, with family,
by myself, professionally, whatever, my favorite thing to do is good.
As sporting events, I've been to thousands of them. I've
been to ninety five percent of Bengals home games since
I was twenty years old. I've seen him on the
road a bunch of times. So whatever number that is,

(08:46):
hundreds of NFL games, thousands of baseball games, I've probably
been to four hundred college football games in my life,
and god knows how many thousands of college basketball games
with a student section very close to the players populated
with college kids. I have never gone to any one

(09:07):
of those sporting events and heard a homophobic chant. Now,
I've seen idiotic fans, usually acting alone, sometimes doing stuff
that's abusive or offensive, but I've never heard a homophobic chant.

(09:27):
I've got a Bengals games every time they're home. I've
seen any type of bad human behavior at Bengals games,
although frankly not so much over the last ten years,
because I think they've done a really good job of
basically making it known, like you're not gonna act like
an a hole here. So I go to all these
other sporting events and you know, again, just because I

(09:48):
don't see it or here, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
But you would think that over the years, go into
all these games, either as a fan or sometimes in
a professional capacity, i'd run into a homophobic chant. Yet
I've never I've never heard one or seen one. So
what is it about soccer that brings this out of people?

(10:10):
What is it about that sport in particular that compels
people to do this, whether it be in unison together
or people acting on their own. What is it about
this sport in particular? Because I'm looking at social media
last night, and I take almost everything I see on
social media with a big, big, big grain of salt, right,

(10:33):
But man, there are a lot of folks who saw
what was happening in that game, who might not have
even been watching the game, who are like, yep, that
just part of part of the sport, part of the league,
part of being around the team. What is it about
that sport that brings out that in people? Like, what
am I What am I missing? What is not happening

(10:53):
at all these other games that I go to, all
these other sports, all these other leagues. I'm not doing
this to criticize the sport of soccer. I'm very casual
soccer fan. I'm new to the sport, but I have
a good time when I go. I like FC Cincinnati.
I love that that team has gotten to be really
really good and really really competitive and at least in
the conversation, to win a championship, Like I was honored
to beyond belief to pull the sword at one of

(11:15):
the games this year. Like, I love going to those games.
And yeah, I've been since twenty sixteen, I know twenty
to twenty five FC Cincinnati games. Fortunately, i've never heard
homophobic chance. I'd like to think that we don't do
that here. But man, I got a lot of folks
in the sport who are including a guy Tommy g
loves soccer. Yeah, it happens again and again and again
and again, over and over and over and over again.

(11:36):
Why why in that sport does it happen over and
over and over again? What is it about that sport
that somehow, somehow, some way lends itself to, Hey, here's
what we're gonna do. We're gonna pay our money and
we're gonna hurl homophobic slurs and do a homophobic chant
at one of the players. Why why does that feel

(11:58):
not exclusive? But why does it feel like soccer has
the market kind of cornered on that sort of thing?
Maybe you could tell me five point three seven four
nine fifteen thirty and eight sixty six, seven oh two
three seven seven six. Well, hear from Orlando Brown, who
was on Bengals Game Plan last night, which was excellent.

(12:18):
We got some folks saying that Joe Burrow is not
on Lamar Jackson's level. I'm going to help that conversation
and a former Bengal player needs our help. I think
we're almost going to stage an intervention today because there's
a former Bengal player who I think is about to
make a really, really bad decision. Seventeen minutes after three o'clock,

(12:43):
we'll go to Baltimore next Bengals Ravens on Sunday. This
is the Ortho Sinse Moeger Show on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
Dot Com he's in Baltimore. Here's what I want to
know first, Which day is gloomier? The day after the
Ravens loss in the AFC Championship game last January or
today the day after the Orioles lost and got swept
at home in the American League wildcard round.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
Wow, I think it would be the AFC Championship just
because you're so close to a super Bowl, and you know,
for you know, as far as the Orioles, they look
like dead, dead team walking for three months. You know,
I think most fans kind of hope that, look, the
playoffs start and a swip of flip switches and it's

(13:37):
a different team. But that was not a very good
baseball team since late June and early July. Sort of
they look like they were sort of running out of
gas back then. But certainly there's a lot of disappointment
with that team. You know, it's not just they haven't
won a playoff series. They haven't won a playoff game.
And to win one hundred and ninety two games in
two seasons and not to win a single playoff game

(13:58):
is you know, is pretty damning, you know, so, but
you know, I think there's kind of getting a re
frustration around these parts about the lack of cutch clutch
gene in the playoffs, and that certainly applied to the
Ravens too.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah, well, you know, those Orioles problems sounds like problems
we would like to have here.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
But everything's relative.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
So Sunday night, the Ravens play a four quarter game
against the Buffalo Bills, and everybody here is talking about, well,
they've got to stop Derek Henry and we know what
Lamar Jackson can do, and it's sort of this rebranded offense.
The thing that stood out to me was they got
four quarters from the defense. So the first three games
some pretty uneven performances, was what was was was Sunday

(14:41):
surprising in that regard from a defensive perspective, specifically against
that Buffalo team.

Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, I think it was in terms of, you know,
just Buffalo and all the problems they represent, you know,
and and what they were able to do and limiting
you know, limiting Josh and consistently getting to them. I mean, Buffalo,
Buffalo's offensive line had been really good coming into that game,

(15:06):
so you know, all along, I thought there would be
a major adjustment with this defense. I thought they'd be
a lot better at the end of the year. But
you got a first year defensive coordinator, you got I mean,
there's a major brain drain from that defensive staff. And
you see it all around the NFL. I mean Anthony
Weavers coaching the Miami defense, and Denard Wilson's coaching the

(15:28):
Tennessee defense, and obviously Mike McDonald is coaching the entire
Seattle Seahawks team. I just fully expected that. I thought
the off season the coaching losses were going to be
a far bigger issue than the player losses, which included
Clowney and Patrick Queen and you know Gino Stone with
you guys. So and I think that played out. I

(15:49):
think there's clearly still an adjustment period going on with
new coaches finding themselves and also new players is the
bigger role. So that certainly was a step again against
the Bills. But even in the early couple of games,
you'd see it. They'd have periods a quarter and a
half of dominance and then they just fall apart in
the fourth quarter. But the fourth quarter issues have been

(16:12):
more of a John Harbaugh and a Raven's problem than
a specific you know, units problem. It's just been across
the board, special teams, offense, defense. They've just not been
a very clutch team late in games. And this goes
back several years. I mean, you guys remember it well,
the Tyler Boyd catch that one year and all that.
I mean, they just blow leads. That's kind of been

(16:33):
what they do. I mean, the one part about it
is they have a lot of leads. You know that
they've won a lot of games, but they certainly have
not been good finishers. And I think that was a
step in the right direction for the Ravens, sort of
team wide, and how they kind of kept the pressure
on the Bills and sort of didn't let down for
fourth quarters.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
You mentioned the name that I wanted to ask you about,
and the reason why was I was reading what you
wrote about Zach Orr and what he's doing with that defense,
and they play the dime and there's a thousand dbs
out there, and I'm reading it going, well, okay, So
I guess I know why. Maybe Genostone was expendable. I
was excited about him coming to Cincinnati. We haven't seen
what we were looking for quite yet. It's obviously only

(17:14):
been four games. Kind of walk me through what it
was like to watch his development from a guy who
it felt like every single year the more they asked
them to do, the more heroes to the occasion. And
then obviously ultimately his departure.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
Yeah, just a steady, smart, smart player, right, I mean
that's sort of he had his strengths. He also had,
you know, not extremely physical or fast guy. So I
think his you know, his strengths as a player were
more his intelligence and knowing where to be. I'm not

(17:48):
taking anything away from Genostone, who's a great dude also,
you know, but a lot of his interceptions were of
being in the right place at the right time and
just being smart and knowing how to be around the football,
rather than any display of unbelievable athleticism to get to
the ball or great ball skills when when the ball
was in the air. I think called warm to the

(18:11):
task a little bit. He's just he's a solid guy.
And I just think with the Ravens, they have a
ton of dbs, they were gonna lose guys. I mean,
I think they knew that Genostone was a number three
safety for him because they have a lot invested in
their starting safeties and it's just a matter of who
do you pay. I mean, you're not gonna pay a

(18:31):
number three safety if you're the Ravens and you have
all these other needs that you need, you know, to
put money towards. So it was time for Geno to
go somewhere else. You got a nice deserving paycheck coming
off the best year of his career, and you know,
they miss him in a lot of ways. I mean
they resigned, or excuse me, not resigned, but they signed
Eddie Jackson, the veteran from the Bears, on the cheap

(18:53):
to pretty much do what Geno Stone was doing last year.
And you know, Eddie Jackson hasn't made a ton of
play so far either, So you know, I just think
it was time. I mean, this is kind of what
the Ravens do. They develop players, and you know they're
not afraid to walk away from them when they kind
of get more expensive than their role here would have demanded.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
I've watched the last two Baltimore games, and I know
fantasy football owners are wondering, what are Mark Andrews and
Isaiah likely going to get their catches? But I see
two tight ends who are still a real, real big
part of the offense. They're just not having football thrown
at them. It seems to me like they've really embraced
what's being asked of them in this new sort of
Derrick Henry rushing field offense.

Speaker 6 (19:37):
Yeah, they a good point mode they really have. The
question is how long will embrace it? I mean everything,
you know it was weird this year. It's almost like
the first two weeks it was like, look, we want
to be more balanced. In the offseason they talked about
being a lot more balanced offensively, challenging other areas of
the field. You got two stud pass catching tight ends.

(20:00):
You're not deep at receiver, but you've got three receivers
you trust who can make plays. And then of course
you've got what you have in the running game. And
it was almost like, Okay, how are you going to
incorporate all this? How are we going to make it
all work? And it's almost like in the first couple
of games, you know, they wanted to show what else
they can do. They wanted to pass the ball a
good bit, and we saw them pile up yards. I mean,

(20:23):
they got plenty of yards those first two games, but
there just wasn't an efficiency. There's some offensive line struggles
there's a lot of penalties, and it was almost like,
you know what, we're all in two. We don't start
winning soon. This is gonna be a long season. Let's
let's stick to what we know we're really good at.
Let's go back to running the football using our you know,

(20:45):
our big back and our full back and our blocking
tight end. They're using a lot of big packages the
last couple of weeks, and we know we can win
that way, and that's kind of what we've seen. Ultimately.
I think they I think they know they're going to
need to be more balanced. I think there's gonna be
times where you know, the run is limited, they're stopped altogether,
and they need to do more in the passing game.

(21:07):
But these last two weeks, it's almost like, if it's
not broken, why no, neither the cow neither the Cowboys,
neither the Cowboys or Bills gave them any reason to
do anything different. So you're seeing a lot of play
action passes for Lamar, a lot of easy completions, and
then a lot of running. And yeah, the skill position
players have bought in. I mean even Jay Flowers is

(21:27):
doing crackback blocks and stuff like that. So I don't
know how long that's gonna last, but somebody's gonna have
to stop it and force them to get out of
their comfort zone a little bit and have to open
up the passing game. And they just haven't had to
do that the last two weeks.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Jeff, I know you have a lot going on. I
always appreciate you giving us some time, man, Thank you
so much.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
No problem. I look forward to the game Sunday.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, me too, no question.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
Jeff rieberc covers the Baltimore Ravens Forthathletic dot Com.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Lee Sterling makes us some money, or at least tries to.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Next it's the Ortho Sensei Moegor Show on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnatis. Last week, he gave you
three games. He gave you three winners. That's what we like.
We got more games to talk about this week.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
What's up?

Speaker 7 (22:13):
Lee?

Speaker 8 (22:14):
Rough lost about three pounds sweating out the Alabama and
my Miami Hurricane game. When you think that you figured
it out and you think you've seen everything, I mean,
who's going to think that Alabama's gonna blow twenty eight
point lead?

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Like?

Speaker 6 (22:28):
What?

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Never right?

Speaker 8 (22:30):
And then Miami looks like I mean hal Mary. They
called it a touchdown, didn't have a real good I
thought replay on it, and it gets overruled and waited
eight and a half minutes for that.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
It's the world of replay lead.

Speaker 6 (22:51):
Well, right, all right.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Let's you know, typically we start with the Bearcats, who
are in a biah this week, so let's talk about
the Ohio State Buckeyes' laying a big number against Iowa.

Speaker 8 (23:03):
So Camb Johnson's really good come out of nowhere. I
don't know if I truly believe him that he wouldn't
have accepted an Ohio State scholarship, but he might have
added a little bolt and board material for the Ohio
State Buckeys. He's good, But Cave Mcnamerica is something's wrong.
I mean, the two games against Division one opponents Iowa
State and Minnesota average eighty yards per game passing. That's

(23:27):
just not good enough here. So last year they didn't
average three point nine seven yards per carry. They averaged
three point nine seven yards per play. This year it's
better at five point eighty seven. I just think that
their defense is not the same too. Their averaging and
giving up just thirteen point eight points per game. But
Let's look from the middle of the season on last year,

(23:47):
and they played respectable offenses. Give up twenty six to Michigan,
thirty five to Tennessee on the neutral field, and thirty
one to Penn State. And this is at Ohio State
where they lost two years ago fifty four to ten.
It's not going to be that bad. But I think
Ohio State's going to start showing what they have flexing
their muscles here. Those wide receivers and their running backs

(24:08):
are scary good buck guys. Thirty eight fourteen.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
All Right, NFL Sunday Night or Pittsburgh is slight home
favored against Dallas.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
A lot of.

Speaker 8 (24:17):
Injuries, I mean they're piling up all across the NFL.
I mean you're seeing it on your team. And look
at this. Got a Pittsburgh Steeler key offensive lineman. He
is not going to play in this game. Dallas, they're
gonna be without possibly a couple of their best players.
But the problem here is I just thought that Pittsburgh
and should have gone after Joe Flacco. I mean, Tomlin

(24:39):
should have been sending the forces after him, but they
didn't hear. So Dallas offensive team, they've got potential Pittsburgh
has faced some really bad quarterbacks Atlanta and Cousins first
game where they wouldn't even put him under center, Denver
with knicks in his second game, Herbert banged up, and
then Indy quarterback who's scattered, armed, unseasoned, who got hurt here.

(25:06):
I just think Dallas has too much on offense here.
Should be a fun game though, Dallas wrong team favorite.

Speaker 6 (25:11):
FO.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, you never have to apologize for picking against
the Steelers on this show. We're all good there at
Sterling Paramount Sports. My first time in a couple of years.
Bengals are getting points at home against Baltimore.

Speaker 8 (25:23):
Yeah, and Baltimore when they have raced out to a lead,
they're just unstoppable. I mean when they took off against
Dallas and got that lead, and then last week against Buffalo.
They're gonna be tough. So I think the game plan
has to be you got to come out and attack,
even if you come out in a hurry up. You
gotta get the lead. You gotta throw the football. The
Ravens have been running about fifty five percent of the time,

(25:45):
so just you got you gotta have faith in that
offensive line here, and you got to make some plays here,
double revenge for that twenty seven to twenty four loss
start the year last year and the short week Thursday
lost with Joe Burrow got hurt. So I think they're
going to be motivated, and I like the two running backs.
You know, some people are talking about the loss in

(26:06):
the offseason with Jack Moss and Chase Brown doing a
nice job. Nice one to two punch here another run
team favorite, who goes get Don thirty three to twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
All right, Lee, there you go, Paramount sports dot Com,
your fleet, your free player of the week. Michigan goes
into the heart of Big ten country to Seattle to
take on Washington.

Speaker 8 (26:25):
Yeah, some long trips, long trips for some of these
Big ten teams. It's going to be interesting. Can Michigan
win like they did in the National Championship Game or
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(26:47):
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Speaker 4 (27:50):
All I get that game eight hundred, four hundred ninety
seven four to one in check out Paramount sports dot com. Lee,
thank you as always.

Speaker 8 (27:57):
Okay, YouTube up here go it is.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Eighteen away from four o'clock. He was he was filled
with energy. Today, our buddy Chad Brendall, Bearcat Journal dot
Com joins us.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Next Ortho Cinc.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
Moegar Show, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Team. Stop calling
it the DL and I'll tell you it's twelve away
from four Orthos Cinc. Moeger Show, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Thank you for listening.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
In thirty minutes, Jay Morrison makes history, Makes Moeger Show History,
ESPN fifteen thirty. History that is coming up at four
twenty plus. Our buddy Dan Klaskins an hour from now
with some help if you're a fantasy football owner. Speaking
of help, we have to give some help to a
former Bengal. Will do that in the four o'clock hour

(28:41):
as well, But first, Chad Brendel's here Bearcatjournal dot Com
on x at Chad Brendel, how's it going?

Speaker 9 (28:50):
What was I supposed to offer to like work for
your birthday as a birthday president? Uh no, no, okay no,
because I would have worked for you today.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
I'm off tomorrow and the Bearcats have a bye on Saturday,
and so you know I don't have to do anything then,
so no. Plus, I love getting showered with gifts and
birthday wishes for my co workers.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Do you believe that actually happened?

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
You have to know that, you have to know who
I am to know that it's my birthday. So clearly
that's something that didn't happen when I came to the
office today.

Speaker 9 (29:31):
And it's also a reminder that my birthday is in
exactly two weeks.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll do the show on
your birthday.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Okay, thanks, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Good.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Here's what we're gonna do today. Okay, Okay, football's on
a bye, yes, so we're gonna talk about back. We're
going to talk about basketball.

Speaker 6 (29:51):
Okay, ready, I'm ready. I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
What is the I don't not so much in the
NCAA tournament because that's about matchups, who you play.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Where you out.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
What is the regular season ceiling for this basketball team?

Speaker 9 (30:09):
Uh, probably pushing up towards the top five in the conference.
I can't. Thisks so stupid that I you know, in
most other leagues, I would say the ceiling is, you know,
contending for a conference championship. I think Cincinnati is probably
right going to be in that range. Of like top

(30:29):
twenty top twenty five teams, and they're probably going to
be fifth, sixth, you know, sixth or seventh in the
conference in the preseason poll. So it's hard to imagine
getting all the way up to the top of the ladder.
But I think, you know, contending in the upper upper
third ish of the Big twelve is reasonable this year.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
Okay, what is your biggest concern for this team.

Speaker 9 (30:59):
I've been thinking a lot about this MO and I
think this.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
Is probably it. Would you agree with me.

Speaker 9 (31:06):
That a roster consisting of the most talented players would
include some combination largely of Gisel James, Dan Skilling, Simas Lucocius,
Dylan Mitchell and his ease bendego. Yes, not a lot
of shooting, Yeah, so that would probably be my you know,

(31:29):
unless you know, Gisel and Dan have the ability, I
think to move up into that like you know, thirty three,
thirty four, thirty five percent range from three and that
happens with Siemos. I think they'll be fine, But you're
not going to get three point shooting from Dylan. You're
not going to get three point shooting from Disease on.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
A consistent basis.

Speaker 9 (31:51):
So those three guys, if that's your best lineup, would
have to carry the load or you're gonna have to
for significant stretches is working Connor Hickman and CJ. Frederick
and potentially Tyler Betsy, you know, all guys that shoot
it at a pretty high cliff, which means you're taking
one of your best you know, your your five most

(32:11):
talented players off the floor, so you know it's I
think the roster was constructed with plenty of shooting. I
just wonder how much of that shooting is going to push,
you know, twenty plus minutes a night because the guys
in front of them are are considered you know, better defenders,

(32:32):
better rebounders, maybe even better pure overall scorers. But man
college basketball in twenty twenty four, twenty five, you'd better
be able to shoot the basketball.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
Where will this team give opponents fits defense?

Speaker 9 (32:51):
I think you know, when you talk about that lineup
I just mentioned, I think we saw Djisel make and
make great strides last year, and Dade tom as we know,
is an outstanding defender. I think Dan looked really good
as the season went on. You know, you didn't see
him getting kind of lost in in space, lost in
the crowd.

Speaker 6 (33:13):
Simous is solid. He's not gonna, you know, lock you down.

Speaker 9 (33:16):
But Dylan Mitchell is a plus plus defender as these
mandego as a plus plus defender in this league. I think,
you know, that group at the top of this roster
is poised to be, you know, as good as we've
seen since twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, when Mick really had
that you know, that matchup zone that he switched to

(33:41):
and they were you know, top ten, top fifteen and
defensive efficiency.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
I think this team.

Speaker 9 (33:46):
Has that kind of upside on defense.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
If if, if somebody asks you about the players who return,
I'm sure the conversation always begins with some form of
what's next for Jisel year or two? Or where does
Dan improve going into this season? Look at the returning
guys that don't include those two. Who is the player
to you that is most intriguing.

Speaker 6 (34:10):
Seamous?

Speaker 9 (34:11):
I mean we only saw, like, you know, really a
a half of a year because he got hit by
a car that was going fast enough for him to
shatter the windshield. I don't think for the first you know,
at least through the non conference, I don't think we
really got to see what his ceiling was what we

(34:33):
saw at the end of the season. You know, has
to have you fascinated for what he looks like now
that he's comfortable, he knows the system, he knows his role,
he knows what's being asked to them.

Speaker 6 (34:45):
He can really shoot it.

Speaker 9 (34:46):
He's crafty, he can pass, he can initiate offense. I
just think with a full year in his you know, pocket,
I think he has a chance to be you know,
because you're gonna you have to pick your poison on
which three of those guys you're gonna want to slow down.
I think a lot of the attention is gonna go

(35:06):
to Jis and Dan because athletically they're so dynamic. But
for me, Siemos is just a guy that really knows
and understands how to play the game and understands what
he's good at. And I think that's going to see
a big jump for him from you know, over a
full course of the season this year.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
Who was the newcomer whose game I am most likely
to fall in love with?

Speaker 9 (35:32):
That's a good one. I mean, Dylan Mitchell is the
easy answer. I think this fan base is gonna love
Connor Hickman. And if you go back to what he
was able to do in that Bradley game, Like if
you translate that to Cincinnati, where just yeah, just a
couple stretches right of like two three minute bursts where

(35:52):
five six, eight points, bang bang, and he's able to either.

Speaker 6 (35:56):
You know, I wouldn't rule him out as a starter.

Speaker 9 (35:58):
But even at coming off the and giving you that
offensive pop. You know, I thought their bench was good
last year, but at times you would see those guys
out there and it would result in like mo kind
of not a full pen throw, but maybe a pen
like jab onto the table. Yeah, as you're like, where's
the scoring going to come from with this group? I

(36:21):
think Connor Hickman's going to give you some pop, both
shooting the three, getting to the rim, you know, doing
the things that you like really want from your like
veteran combo guard in terms of sparking offense.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Very good.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
This was good. I enjoyed it. We'll resume our football
conversation next week.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well, there's one thing we had to mention before you
let me go.

Speaker 9 (36:47):
Yeah, please, High four star wing Sean abev Visit concluded
his official visit to Cincinnati this morning, and then as
soon as he got on the plane high four star
wing Dave On Hannah arrived in Cincinnati for his official visit.
So these are our two guys that wes Miller is

(37:09):
really really pushing for to add with Keishaan Tillery in
this twenty twenty five class. Cincinnati is right there in
the top group of.

Speaker 6 (37:17):
Boat for both.

Speaker 9 (37:19):
Let's see if wes Miller can finish and add one
to the class.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
More at Bearcatjournal dot com.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
There you go, Thanks.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
Mel, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
There you go, Cha Berthday, Thank you very much, Chad Brendel,
Bearcat Journal dot com. Go to his website, subscribe, post
on the message board how much you like this segment whatever.
It is a couple of minutes away from four o'clock.
A former Bengal needs our help. By the way, I've
just posted three poll questions on x am Moweger thanks
to United Heartland Insurance. Ay, former Bengal needs our help.
And no, we don't need a best of five wildcard round.

(37:49):
All that and more plus history will be made on
this show at four to twenty on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
This report It's Burrow versus Jackson.

Speaker 10 (37:59):
Hello, spikes the ball to the back of the.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Outside here for an AFC North Wolf.

Speaker 10 (38:05):
Tamahawk chops up to the ground.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Mark Jackson and it's two and two Raven line up
against Joe Burrow and the one and three Banks show.

Speaker 11 (38:12):
Burrow whether it's third touchdown pass well.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Zach Taylor's men pound the coven nails the call live
from Dan Horde and Dave Lappa. Coverage starts Sunday morning
at night on the ESPN fifteen, the official home of
the Bengals.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Right the go, it's a six head for four. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Molegar. Have a lot going
on today. We've barely scratched the surface of stuff that
we have to get to on this show, The Orthos
Cinciamo Egger Show on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Thank you for listening and hopefully you're having an awesome Thursday.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
I mentioned before the top of the hour that till
we've got three pole questions thanks to our friends how
United Heartland Insurance. Go to uhion dot com and they'll
take care of any insurance need you have home boat.
I don't know I always mentioned boat before car. Maybe
it's because I wish I had a boat, But then
everybody who's ever had a boat, it's like, actually, dude,

(39:11):
you don't want a boat.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
But if I had a boat, I would need to get.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
It insured, and so I'd go to United Heartland Insurance
Car insurance. I'm in a bit of a tussle with
the BMV. I wonder if they can help with that.
They haven't sent my registration sticker, so I am currently
driving a car with expired tags. So that's nice. Applied
for the sticker like two and a half weeks ago.
Good work BMV. Anyway, United Heartland Insurance can't help with that,

(39:34):
but they can help with your insurance.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
Go to uhions dot com. I saw this story today.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Chad Johnson says that he is going to get in
the octagon with former Steeler and Bengal James Harrison. They're
gonna have an MMA exhibition fight in New Orleans leading
up to the Super Bowl, which maybe the Bengals will.

(40:02):
Johnson said on a post on X I'm fighting James
Harrison in an exhibition MMA format three round bout in
New Orleans before the Super Bowl. I'm so excited. Harrison
then replied that the fight is actually scheduled to be
five rounds now. No other details of the possible fight

(40:24):
have been announced, so this could just be these two
guys having fun on social media. They haven't announced the venue,
the specific date, who else might be on the card,
or how you get tickets or where we could watch. Now,
I like Chad Johnson. If you're a Bengals fan, I
would like to think you like Chad Johnson. Do we

(40:48):
have to stage an intervention here.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
For Chad?

Speaker 6 (40:53):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Now, I know Chad boxes keeps in very good shape.
I watched that show he does Inside the NFL with
Bill Belichick, and he looks great.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
It's a very good show.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
And if he wants to, if he wants to dabble
an mma, by all means, I would support him.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
But how about we not?

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Like if I could think of football players from the
last twenty years that I would least want to fight,
James Harrison might be at the very top of that list,
because you know, old boy's gonna take it seriously, right,
you know it. He's James Harrison. He takes everything seriously
like we can't. This is a bad idea. This is

(41:35):
a bad, bad, bad idea. I need someone in Chad's life,
somebody who knows him personally, somebody to step in and go, dude,
how about we not? So one of the pole questions
is who would you put your money on? Not who
would you root for? I'll be rooting for Chad, But
who would you put your money on?

Speaker 11 (41:56):
Now?

Speaker 4 (41:57):
This is a wager, Okay, this is non emotional decision.
You've got an amount of money. You want to make
some money off that amount of money? Are you putting
it on Chad Johnson in an MA fight MMA fight
against James Harrison? If you don't know who James Harrison
is is or anything about just you got internet access? Right,
how about we not? Eighty five point two percent say

(42:21):
you're putting your money on James. By the way, so
am I if this actually happens, I would assume somewhere
I could wager on it. I'm betting on James.

Speaker 7 (42:30):
I'm gonna ask him a question on his nightcap show
with him a Shannon Shark.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Look, he's gonna believe he can do it. He's Chad Johnson.
He is a man of supreme confidence. This is not
gonna end well for him. James Harrison I haven't seen recently.
I'm sure keeps himself in amazing shape, and I'm still sure.
I'm sure he still has an attitude like this. This
is this is a bad idea. Not being an MMA

(42:56):
fighter do it? Getting in the octagon with James Harrison
bad idea. I mean, aside from maybe Adam Jones, could
you think of an NFL player from the last twenty
years that you would rather fight least? I can't, Chad,
don't do it. That's actually our second ball question. First,

(43:20):
once about the game on Sunday. If the Bengals fout
a one and four, is the season essentially over? Sixty
three percent of you say yes? The results on the
Chad Johnson eighty five point two percent of you so far.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I can't talk today.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Eighty five point two percent of you so far and
I just posted these say your money is not on, Chad.
The other questions about the baseball playoffs. We had three
teams see their seasons come to an end yesterday. The
Baltimore Orioles lose at home, so they're swept lost to
the Kansas City Royals. The Houston Astros got swept at

(43:52):
home by the Detroit Tigers, and the San Diego Padres
finished off their home sweep of the Atlanta Braves. Meanwhile,
the Brewers came trailing in the eighth inning last night
Jackson Surio, who is awesome, great job managing the bullpen
by Pat Murphy, and the Brewers tie the series at one.
Game three is tonight. Now you knew this was gonna
happen because it's a best of three. It's the third

(44:14):
year we've done this best of three. Three of the
four series end in sweeps. Most of the series in
this format have ended in two game sweeps. There is,
of course a demand on the internet, because on the Internet,
everybody is always demanding something. Demand on the internet that
Baseball extend these these series. You can't do that, but

(44:35):
it's apparently unfair that baseball. It's too random and the
season's too long for a team's postseason stay to last
exactly two games. So the poll question what should MLB do?
Make it best of three, or keep it best of three,
make it best of five, make it best to seven,
which is ridiculous, or make it a best of one,

(44:56):
which is what it was when we only had t
two wild card teams.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
I like this format.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Number One, if you don't want to play, if you
don't win your season, to come down to a best
of three series, win more games. Like, what I like
about this is there's clear incentive to avoid the first round.
Number one is you get to rest, you get to
set your rotation. Number two is you're not at the
mercy of a best of three. In a longer series,

(45:24):
you know there's a chance to come back, there's a
chance for things to correct themselves. You might argue there's
less of a chance of randomness. We have three game
series all across a big league season, of course, and
the inferior team wins often often, Sometimes the inferior team sweeps.
We saw the Reds this year sweep teams that were

(45:44):
far better often this season. It happens. If you want
to avoid that, win more games. But as a fan,
I love the instant drama. The playoffs begin and we
have instant drama. You're two games away from elimination. I

(46:04):
think one of the reasons why the World Series in
the month of October, it's stuck against all this other
stuff happening. But also by the time the World Series
begins in game one, it's like, Okay, we've just had
three weeks where the postseason and now we're starting with
a series that, well, we've got to play a few
games before the real drama begins. In the early rounds,

(46:26):
the drama begins instantly. It's like we automatically go to
a game five of a best of seven series.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
It's perfect. It's not perfect for the regular season.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
As a lover of the regular season, it's stupid that
we have twelve playoff teams.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
It's dumb that we have owners who will now try
to build eighty seven win teams. But once the playoffs
do begin, Yes, it's awesome, it's entertaining. The great thing
about postseason play in any sport is the drama. Baseball
gives that to us immediately. That's what we love about
the NCAA tournament. I think it's what we love about

(47:03):
football playoffs. Instant drama. We don't wait for it to build.
Doesn't need to be changed. Sixty three point two percent
of you say keep it as is best of three.
How many rounds do we think Chad will last? If
it's let's say it's five, does Chad get to the
second round? That should be the pole quest. I'm gonna

(47:25):
have to make another pole question. They only give you
on X four options do we I'll give him, I'll
give him into the second round. And look, this is
more of a statement about James Harrison than it is
an indictment.

Speaker 7 (47:42):
Well, I need more, question, I need more if three
minute round or five minute rounds, that's a.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Good question, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Tweet Chad and see how many, how long the rounds are,
and see if he'll give us some clarity.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Because no other details have been announced.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
This could all be a ruse, This could all be
nothing but helping me have content for a few minutes.
I hope he has second thoughts. Don't just let's somebody
get a hold of him and say, like, Chad, don't
hope you haven't have you signed anything? You haven't signed
the contract? Have you have you signed anything? We have
audio of Ted Carris explaining the Bengals new media policy.

Speaker 7 (48:20):
It's not just the Bengals to protect the sanctity of
the locker room NFL.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
To protect the sanctity of the locker room across the NFL. Okay,
all right, we'll have that audio for you coming up
here in a bit. But first, Jay Morrison's about to
make history on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Cincinnati's ESPN Let's Wrestle with the Ravens. Coverage starts Sunday
morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty. The Official home
of the Bengals is Football in the NATI, brought to
you in part by Modern office Methods. On the Official
Home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
One, half performed This is ESPN fifteen three On Oeggor,
Jay Morrison joins us on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
This is a big deal. He is making history.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
This has never happened in the history of this show
We've been on for seventeen years. In the afternoon and
in just about ten seconds, Jay is going to become
the first person to ever appear on this show. Having
represented four different media outlets. He is, he is now,
He's with our friend James Rapine. He didn't take James job.

(49:25):
Bengals Talk dot Com under the Sports Illustrated Umbrella at
by Jay Morrison on Twitter. Congratulations Jay, what.

Speaker 6 (49:34):
Can I say? I've got a gypsy soul?

Speaker 4 (49:38):
Very good. Congratulations on the new gig. Yeah, it's awesome.
It's very good. And you and he didn't replace James.
That was my first boy? Did Jay do?

Speaker 12 (49:47):
My guy?

Speaker 3 (49:48):
James dirty no tag teaming, which is awesome.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
No. When I decided I was leaving PFN, I told
everybody in the media room, and there's obviously a lot
of conversation. James tech to me within one minute and
said let's talk, and it came together really quick. And
I'm thrilled to be working with him. I respect him
for a long time and it's great to be his
colleague now.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
Yeah, No, it is.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
It is awesome, all right. So they're inching, They're inching
closer to health. They're inching closer to health. Jay, You're
written about Miles Murphy. Should I be skeptical that he's
going to come in and make an impact in his
first NFL action of twenty twenty four or should I
cling to the idea that what I saw late from
him last season can be what we see this Sunday.

Speaker 6 (50:32):
Yeah, maybe a little both. I Mean, it's a lot
to ask to have this be your first game back
after an injury. That Baltimore offense is so hard to
deal with. He talked about he feels really good, his
explosion feels really good. But it's still a different thing
getting out their full speed against Lamar and your eyes
just have to be more disciplined than against the normal opponent.

(50:56):
So I don't know that maybe next week against the Giant.
So when he could just pin his years back and
rush Daniel Jones, you might see what you were hoping
to see building on from last year. This is just
going to be kind of a hold onto your butts
thing and just try to try to limit this Ravens offense.
And I mean two hundred and twenty rushing yards per game,

(51:16):
and we know what Lamar can do with his arm.
It's good that he's getting back, if for no other reason,
even if he plays average, he takes some of the
workload off of the other guys and especially Sam Hubbard,
and I think that's the really big thing.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Plus PJ.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Hill, they're expecting him to get back, so just being
able to have that kind of rotation against this kind
of rushing attack is going to be huge.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
So Trey Hendrickson has been a participant in practice, which
means I guess we expect him to play, But are
we expecting him to take on his normal workload on Sunday?

Speaker 6 (51:50):
Yeah, I would think so. I think if he can go,
it seems like it's going to be a pain management
thing and not necessarily anything that limit him, you know,
like an anchor or a knee would. So I think
if he's out there, you're gonna see You're going to
see pretty close to a normal load from him. And
you know, Zach said it, it's very painful. But he's

(52:12):
a tough guy and we've seen this. He sometimes he
plays his best games when he's fighting through injuries. They're
gonna need every bit of him on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
So we're fearful of what Derreck Henry could do, and
understandably so. And we have seen firsthand what Lamar Jackson
can do. We saw firsthand what Derek Henry can do
last year when they played when they played the Titans
in Nashville. But I don't know, Jay, I'll take my
chances with the offense that I've seen the Bengals put
on the field each of the last couple of weeks.
And to me, that conversation, as good as Joe has

(52:42):
been for all the multitude of weapons, as much as
I think Eric All is going to be in Canton
one day, what I'm most encouraged by has been to
play of the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
Absolutely, no sacks last week, fourth time, fourth in Joe
Burrow's career that he's not been sacked in a game,
first since twenty twenty on. And it's it's not just
the pass protection. They are running the ball really well,
and yeah that Zach Moss and Chase Brown get credit
for that, but the offensive line gets a lot of
credit for that too, and they weren't bad. But I

(53:13):
think a Marius Mims has made a huge difference. And
you just bring that guy in and put him on
the on the end and he's only going to get better.
I mean, his first career start on Sunday against Carolina
and Orlando Brown's playing maybe the best football his career.
So that is that is the most encouraging part of this.
We've said it for years. You get Joe Burrow, a
decent offensive line, and let's see what this offense can do.

(53:35):
And we're starting to see it. I believe it's twelve
of the last seventeen drives they've scored points. In eight
of those they've scored touchdowns. You're going to need to
keep doing that. You can't have too many drives against
the Ravens without points if you want to win.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
They drafted Eric All for a reason and yet and
I've had fun with it, but it's they just haven't
had many guys like him, like do everything tight ends,
and it's it's obviously very very early and see if
the way he has played carries forward through at the
rest of his rookie season. But how eye opening in
the building and even just among you guys has been

(54:08):
what he has done so far in these first four games.

Speaker 6 (54:12):
Yeah, I mean, remember when they drafted him, we talked
about this possibly being a red shirt year. Yeah, he's
coming off the ACL and it has been. And it's
not just what he's done on the field, it's what
Zach said about. They can put as much on his
plate as they want, and he gets it all and
he is just so up to task on everything mentally

(54:36):
and he does everything right technique wise. And that's just
really exciting when you see a guy that's already four
games in his career performing well physically and then knowing
that he's only going to continue to grow and he's
only going to continue to get a bigger role in
this offense. He's been targeted twelve times, he has twelve catches.
He hasn't had, you know, the big splash play yet
that's coming. What he's doing in the run game is

(54:58):
just totally transformed offense, and it's allowed them to lean
more into this more of a running game, and it's
just opening things up for Joe where there's just so
many easy completions on every single play and it gets
in with combine that with the way the offensive line
is blocking. He can sit back there, pack the ball
a little more. He doesn't have to go to one

(55:19):
read to recheck it down. He can let things develop.
It's just a just a big, big bush americall big
steel at fourth round pick.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Yeah, no, it it definitely feels like that is James.
So is James your boss now?

Speaker 6 (55:32):
Uh yeah, I guess he technically is. But he's far
from a slave driver. So it's it's been great. It's
been a great first week.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
I would I would ask to get paid in cash.
That's That's all I'll tell you.

Speaker 6 (55:42):
Well, he did send me a PayPal already today, so
I guess that accounts with cash.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
Awesome, man, Well, congrats on on the new gig. Always
love having you all man, Thanks so much. All right,
thanks both, sorry guy Jay Morrison.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Check them out. It's a new outlet. Well, it's a
new outlet for Jay.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
It's Bengals Talk dot Com, which is to the SI Umbrella,
something that was launched by our guy James twenty twenty.
I think it was like like right in the height
of COVID, James came back and that thing has taken off.
James has taken off, and Jay will take off, not
that he already hasn't at Bengals Talk dot Com. It
is twenty nine after four, So we have we have

(56:20):
to play the ted Ted Carris explaining the new media
policy I have.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
I have listen.

Speaker 4 (56:25):
I got a chance to listen to during the last break,
like twenty five seconds of this. I'm not sure I
have an issue with this. So we'll have James doing that.
We'll move the Orlando Brown audio. I guess Arran is
the Orlando Brown audio.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
Any good.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
I didn't think he really said anything worth as worthy
of plane.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Okay, good bye executive decision.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
But we'll replace Orlando Brown with Ted Carris and UH
and more. Plus our buddy Dan Klaskins get sports Info
dot Com on Fantasy Football at four forty five on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
You've been listening to football in Thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnatis ESPN.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
Thy football Folly's what do they call that thing? Well,
it's the same show, it's the same people. Friday Frenzy,
Friday Football Frenzy twenty five away from five o'clock sports headlines.
Our service to Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for

(57:31):
life kelseyshev dot Com. No change to the Bengals injury
report today, which it's not good news if you're hoping
to see Mike Hilton on Sunday. The Bengal slock corner
missed one play in the game against Carolina, had a
knee injury, and then didn't practice yesterday. He did not
practice today. It would push or put Josh Newton in
the cross ears to start at the slot position. Jermaine Pratt,

(57:54):
Trey Hendrickson, bj Hill limited, Joe Burrow still listed on
the report with the wrist Tanner HUDs and Chris Jenkins.
Cordell Volson's full go. Sheldon Rankins did not practice yesterday.
He did not practice today. Miles Murphy, McKinley, Jackson, clear
to go. Full participants yesterday, Full participants today. Bengals Ravens
one o'clock Sunday Live on ESPN fifteen thirty Pregame coverage

(58:17):
from the Holy Grail. Join us on Sunday morning starts
at nine a m. It's time now for this Sweet
Life HVAC Sweet stat of the Week. It is brought
to you by Sweet Life Heating and Air. I love
these guys. Jay Royer his company in Northern Kentucky. They
serve Greater Cincinnati, they serve Northern Kentucky, they serve Southeast Indiana.

(58:40):
If you haven't seen the Sweet Life HVAC truck, it's
the coolest truck ever. Call him, make an appointment just
so the truck sits in your driveway and they'll asso
fix your furnace or tune it up for winter, fix
your ac service whatever you need. Put in a new
furnace if you need it. Service always comes with a
cherry on top. Gonna call sweet Life dot com. So

(59:03):
Bengal's got to slow down. Derrick Henry, he has been
awesome in creating yards after the contact or after contact.
He currently is second among running backs with two hundred
and sixty seven yards after contact.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
I think about this.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
That is a total that if you just took those
yards right and put him on the list of NFL
running backs yards on the season, just his yards after
contact would make him fourteenth in the league. Now here's
what's interesting. Among forty nine running backs with at least
twenty five rushing attempts this year, Chase Brown, we talk

(59:38):
about yards after contact.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
He is number one in.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
The NFL four point five yards after contact per attempt.
Chase Brown. His role should and will only expand. But
Derreck Henry has been an absolute beast. I did folks
say to me after he ran that one of the
house eighty seven yard Sunday night against Buffalo. Didn't realize
he was that fast. That's what's made him awesome. He
can run you over, he can run past you, and

(01:00:04):
he can leave you in the dust. Two hundred sixty
seven yards after contact in four games for Derrick Henry.
Hopefully the Bengals don't allow him to build upon that total.
Call sweetlife dot com. That's good, it's a call sweet
life dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
All right? Uh I have not heard this. I heard
like the very very very beginning of it. This is
how Tarren? How long?

Speaker 7 (01:00:27):
Is this a whole Thing's about three men's But we're
just gonna get test statement.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
Who are we stealing this from?

Speaker 6 (01:00:33):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (01:00:34):
Our friend Mike Petrellian.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Mike Petralia who sent me a nice Facebook message wishing
me a happy birthday. Mike Petralia tracks All right, here's
Ted Carris outlining the Bengals new media policy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Go ahead and hit it.

Speaker 13 (01:00:46):
Yes, So, as you've heard from a couple teams now
in the NFLP is going to come out with a statement.
In an effort to protect the sanctity of the locker
room and the comfort of the players, each team is
going to figure out a pro to where we conduct
our interviews outside of the locker room.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Now, this doesn't bar you from the locker room. We
can't do that.

Speaker 13 (01:01:06):
But what we want to do is get cameras off
guys in private moments in our locker room. So I've
been working with Emily, I've been working with PJ, and
I'm gonna work with you guys to figure out the
best solution so that you guys get the content you need.
The sanctity of the locker room is protected. And this
is what our membership wants to feel more comfortable in

(01:01:27):
a private space that is the locker room. So if
you guys have any questions about it, please come to
me and ask. We want to make this as smooth
as possible. This is not an indictment against you. This
is what our membership feels is best.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
For the players. I don't have any problem with that.
I don't know that I would have used the word sanctity.
That sounds a little holier than that, but I mean,
I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Remember COVID, of course you do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
And the folks who cover the teams would have to
do all their interviews via zoom, and nobody wants to
go back to that, of course, but they would do
all their stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Via zoom, and I kind of thought, like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:04):
All right, there's not going to be zoom interviews anymore,
but they might do away with like just rolling into
the locker room with your microphone and camera and having
the players talk like there's I don't I don't have
an issue with that. I don't have an issue with
what he said. Are people complaining about this? Taran folks
losing their mind over this uh Nott shit? Like with
the current way they've done things, players can still decide

(01:02:26):
I'm not going to talk. I think a good media
relations department, which the Bengals have, a good media relations department,
is going to figure out a way to facilitate conversations,
whether they are one on one or with a group
of media members as a whole, facilitate those conversations, facilitate
those media sessions. And I think the Bengals can do that.

(01:02:48):
And I mean, at the end of the day, not
barring them from the locker room, but it is it
is their space. It is the place where they get dressed.
It is a place where I don't know, I've always
and I say, this is somebody who like, I'm not
down there on Mondays and Wednesdays, and so I don't need.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Those players for my job. I don't need to be
there for my job.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
But as long as the players are making themselves available,
which most do, and as long as the media relations
department is providing the players that the media wants to
talk to most, and as long as there's locker room
access to a degree that allows members of the media
to foster their own personal relationships as they wish with

(01:03:28):
individual players. I don't have I don't say anything wrong
with that, dude, we don't want cameras in here while
we're getting dressed.

Speaker 8 (01:03:35):
That's not that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Doesn't struck me. Is that much of a request.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
So if people are mad about that, then you're just
looking for something to be mad and it look at
it be an adjustment for the people to cover the team.
I get it like I on Tuesdays, and it's on
a different scale, I understand, and there's differences between pro
and college.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
On Tuesdays, I.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Go to UC and I interview players and coaches for
our pregame show.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
And it's every Tuesday, and.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Usually it's from like ten forty five until twelve o'clock
and then Scott Saderfield as his press conference at twelve o'clock.
And I don't go into the locker room to do it.
I send a request. Here are the players, here's the
coach I want to talk to this week, and we
have to work around class schedules and other commitments. But
it's it's typically cool. You're gonna talk to this guy
at eleven. You're gonna talk to this guy at eleven twenty.

(01:04:25):
You're gonna talk to this guy at eleven forty and
again it's one on one, but then there's a news
conference and usually two or three players are made available
and nobody's bringing a camera or a or a microphone
into a locker room. And it's pretty easy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
And again it's different, there's no union, different rules.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Can't just do that again, like they did their jobs
via zoom and nobody wants to go back to that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
So I thought.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
It was gonna be like this thing where like the
Bengals decided, we're not going to talk to the media. No,
it's nflpay And I wouldn't have gone with the word sanctity.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
At the end of the day. It's a locker room.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
It's a glorified bathroom, a place.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Where dudes getting naked. It can't not that much sanctity
to that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
Uh, but yeah, I get it, Like can we it's
just can we just?

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Can we do this somewhere else?

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
Can we? Can we do this? Can we do this
in like they have an interview room? Can we do
this in the interview room?

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Makes sense to me? Seventeen away from five o'clock.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
Dan Klaskins Fantasy Football Help Next, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
What's the best place to reach new customers. Dan Klaskins
is here.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
It's the ortso sin Cy Muegger Show on ESPN fifteen thirty.
It's our weekly fantasy football assistance, help, advice, whatever you
want to call it. Get sportsinfo dot com. Dan is
on x at Dan Klaskins. I am four and oho
in a fantasy football league for the first time ever.

Speaker 12 (01:05:53):
Dan, Yeah, it's been one of the seasons I expect
the unexpected, and that's about as unexpected.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
As a cup, truly is.

Speaker 4 (01:06:00):
I'm one in three in the other so I'm not
I should get too cocky, but I'm four and own
a fantasy football league. I'm the lone undefeated owner, so
I'm feeling quite good about myself.

Speaker 12 (01:06:10):
Ten leagues, I'm in pen leagues. I'm not four and
oh any.

Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
Of my friends.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
All right, this is an important week.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
We've got to let the audience know about some things
that are happening here in week five.

Speaker 12 (01:06:23):
Yeah, let's start with our annual public service announcements. Let's
get the international series continuing out of the way, because yeah,
we saw week one the Friday night in Brazil. That
didn't mess us up too bad. But hey, the next
three weeks we got nine thirty am kickoffs with three
straight games, and London kicked off here in week five
at the Jets and the Viking, Jacksonville and the Bear's part.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
We could jag in.

Speaker 12 (01:06:45):
The pass in week seven, so sethia alarm clocks. Last year,
let me remind you Alvin Kamara, who wasn't even on
the injury report, was scratched at your pregame warm up
around eight fifty in the morning and left many managers
empty handed. The bigger concern this we is bye week's beginning.
We've got four teams on buy this week with the Lions,
the Chargers, the Eagles and the Titans. Four next week

(01:07:08):
and then after that just four total buys in week
seven through ten, Week ten through twelve. You got four
teams on a by no bodyes in week thirteen and
then six a season.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
I sick to fies a week fourteen.

Speaker 12 (01:07:18):
I thought I could figure out the pattern. I can't
really do it. Let's talk about the strategy though, these
three key points. One plan ahead with by weeks. Use
your bench spots widely. If you've got a guy that's
ruled out, you can put him on i RC go ahead
and pick up that defensive week early. Keep an eye
this is the biggest one. Keep an eye on the
transaction daily is managers, especially in tower leagues, they get
forced into tough decisions and you see good players getting

(01:07:40):
dropped like on Friday. And finally, consider bye weeks when
assessing trades, whether you're making a trade or trying to
accept an offer. You know, if a guy has more
games left then the player you're getting in the deal,
that's not a.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Good thing, very good.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
I made a trade yesterday with a co worker and
I felt like I was kind of strong armed and
now I'm already regretting it all. Yeah, I feel like
I was sort of pressured into making the deal that
I actually.

Speaker 12 (01:08:05):
I think when you feel good about the trade is
usually when it doesn't work out.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
That's usually when it's a good sign you're good.

Speaker 12 (01:08:11):
So I don't know, maybe that's just me, but hey,
your four and I'm trying to be that good.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
That's that's right. Everybody's looking up to me. All right.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
Let's look at the injury list, starting with a big
one in Kansas City.

Speaker 12 (01:08:25):
Yeah, well, a devastating blow last week for Fantasy, especially
Rashie Rice, a player that I certainly had plenty of
exposure to in my fantasy portfolio today it was officially
placed than I are. We all know what the results
are there waiting for the swallowing to go down for
what's left to this Chiefs offense. Also Buzzkill City. They
already lost the Checko. They already lost Hollywood Brown. Patrick

(01:08:46):
Malmes suddenly looking pretty average, at least in fantasy. DeVante
Adams missed last week with the hamstring or hurt feelings
or whatever it is, but his dad is the Raider
appear to be over. We'll see where he gets traded
to and that happens. But you can ruin him out
this week. You should book elsewhere obviously. Jakobe Myerson Tray
Turner more of an enhance role there in Las Vegas,

(01:09:08):
Malik Neighbors. This is another pretty big blow here. Rookie
of the Year candidate sustained a concussion a week ago
in one of the final plays of that Thursday night game. First,
the Cowboys beat writers calling him doubtful not necessarily has
a long shot to play here this week, so we're
not expecting to make the trip to Seattle. Thank dll

(01:09:28):
Let's sake, He's on his way back at missing last week,
but the targets are down. I'm going to let him
play his way in the lineup and running back. A
couple of ankle injuries, everybody's going to keep watching Jonathan
Taylor a high ankle sprained last week. I'd be shocked
if he played this week. Tray Sermons is backed up
drim Mixon. I thought he was going to return last week,
maybe return this week. He didn't practice today, so we'll
keep our eyes on that. Brian rich Brian Robinson Jr.

(01:09:51):
I should say, is out a practice so far this
week for the Commanders. We're going to keep a close
eye on that as well. Austin Eckler missed last week concussion.
It could be Joe Flacco time this week if Anthony
Richardson couldn't play. He was a limited participant today for
the Colts. And we'll see if any of these tight
ends trade McBride, Evan Ingram and David and Joe who
get their way back into the make some joke.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
He's already practicing so looking good. The other two. We'll
see how things look on Friday.

Speaker 4 (01:10:15):
Dan Klaskins Good sportsinfo dot Com with our weekly look
at fantasy football and the studs, duds and sleepers.

Speaker 12 (01:10:23):
Yeah, let's start with some studs, and man, it was
pretty studley last week. Good to see Jordan Love back
in the mix there. Did throw a few picks, but
I'll take the four touchdowns in the big yard. It's
all day long. I'm looking for similar things this week
against the Rams. He's locked in as a top five
QV on my board, and Deontay Johnson. Ever since Andy
Dalton has arrived under center here for Carolina, Johnson has

(01:10:45):
been a top ten receiver.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
That's exactly how I'm project him this week. I actually
think the Panthers.

Speaker 12 (01:10:49):
Win in Chicago, and as on the dud side of it,
I do like revenge game narrative in most cases, and
Cam Darnold certainly had an MVP Canadate tight season early on.
Here he plays this former team, the justin London on
Sunday morning. But man, that defense is good. No defense
has allowed fewer fantasy points quarterbacks. So we're gonna sit
Darnold regardless how hot he is. And another dud, Kyle Pitts.

(01:11:12):
How about this for a dud. The guy's had no
more than three receptions. I should say he's only a
clipped three receptions in two of his last fifteen games.
He's sitting until he can play his way back in
don't go with him to night versus the Bucks, and
a couple sleepers a little deeper than my normal sleepers.
I like Rico Dadle this week. He has taken ownership
of that mediocre Cowboys backfield sixty one and sixty one

(01:11:33):
or sixty one and a half sixty one point one
percent shares out of that back to the last two weeks,
and I think he's RB three this week, even in
a tough matchup with Pittsburgh and Jordan Winnington, a guy
who was a fast riser in August after's some training
camp success, obviously had a decorated college career. Twenty seven
point three percent target share against the Bears last week.
That's the highest on the team. Only Cooper Cup in

(01:11:55):
week one got more.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
I like him this week.

Speaker 12 (01:11:58):
I think the Rams are trying to keep pace with
the pack. He is a deep sleeper he should consider.

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Do you think if you start four and oh, you
should get your league feedback?

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
Well, hope we do, mo.

Speaker 12 (01:12:08):
I mean, that's what you're playing for, is the cast
at the end of the season. I will say, I
will say four and os something to be good for
those that haven't started as fast, keep grinding. It's a wacky,
weird season here, and I will definitely think that there's
still plenty of time to turn things around. Obviously, injuries
always sort of stink, but every every fantasy team got

(01:12:28):
injuries on it mod more, some more than others.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
All right, let's talk about what's happening again sportsinfo dot com.

Speaker 12 (01:12:35):
Well, you always get my picks there. Obviously, my podcast,
the Fantastic Insider Football podcast, you can find there. You
can also subscribe wherever that listens. And I got my
Thursday night bet up there this week spoiler. I like
some points to be scored tonight, mo.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
I like some.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Points a very good bucks phalps NFC South Tilt. Looking
forward to it and we'll talk next week hopefully. I'm
five and oh, thank you very.

Speaker 12 (01:12:57):
Much, five and oh five and oh.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Good luck to everybody. Enjoy the game.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
That's our buddy, Dan Klaskins, get sportsinfo dot com. He
is on x at Dan Claskins six away from five o'clock.
I could tell you what was going on in here?
What are we doing all we're talking to Jake zivin
Apple TV. He's got FC Cincinnati this weekend. He is

(01:13:24):
going to join us at five oh five. Our buddy
Robert wintrob Is weekly Bengals column is up. You should
go read it at Cincinnati Magazine dot com. He's going
to join us in five twenty and maybe, as we
say in the Business Squeeze in a phone caller to
as well, we have not really had time to do
that today and we're gonna have to rectify that. We
do have our poll questions. We'll update them at Mowagger.

(01:13:45):
In fact, I got like half a minute here.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
I'll do that. Thanks to you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:48):
Night at Heartland Assurance Number one. First question at the
Bengals fall to one and four. Is the season essentially over?
Sixty three and a half percent of you say yes,
Chad Johnson versus James Harrison in the octagon. Who's your
money on? Eight point five percent say not Chad. And
the baseball playoffs, people are winding about the length of
the wildcard round. What should they do? Best of three,
best of five, best of seven, best of one. Sixty

(01:14:10):
five point four percent of you say keep it as is,
best of three. Thank you and thanks to United Heartland Insurance.
Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our
phone number. U FC Cincinnati loses tonight. The commentator last
night said the race in the East is a two

(01:14:31):
team race and that men Miami and Columbus. I think
that sounds premature. We'll see what our guest, Jake Zivins
says next. Orthos Cinci Moeger Show, ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
Traffic Center. As the only Level one trauma center in
the region. You see health is set in the national
standard for emergency care and preparedness. With the new additions
to the er chwo's U see Health.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
Win you need expert care.

Speaker 14 (01:15:01):
Their stop and go traffic that's causing a fifteen minute
delay on southbound seventy five between Hopple Street and Fort
Washington Way, and there's a couple of minutes low down
on westbound two seventy five from Springfield Pike to Winton Road.
And we also have a fifteen minute delay on northbound
seventy one at Norwood Lateral. I'm Nicole with Traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:15:23):
It's five oh five. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Good
afternoon on Belweger. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Hopefully you're having a great Thursday five by five o'clock
happy hours. FC Cincinnati loses last night, the supporter Shielgat
clinched by Miami and what was a really fun game
to watch, a victory over Columbus that our next guest

(01:15:48):
was on the call for last night for MLS S's
and Pass on Apple TV. And now he's going to
be in Cincinnati on Saturday for the home finale for
the Orange and Blue as they tried to bounce back
after last night and pick up three points against Orlando.
That game is gonna start at seven thirty. Of course
you could see it on MLS s'son Pass on Apple TV.
Jake Ziven has the call. Jake, I will admit I

(01:16:09):
was watching mainly FC Cincinnati last night, but you called
it going in the biggest match in MLS over the
last decade. It lived up to the hype last night
in Miami.

Speaker 6 (01:16:19):
It did.

Speaker 15 (01:16:20):
And I'll say this, mode Amen, I'm glad you were
watching FC Cincinnati support your local team.

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
You should have been, but.

Speaker 16 (01:16:27):
Yeah, look, I think it was.

Speaker 15 (01:16:29):
We talked Taylor Twelman, my broadcast partner, and I were
talking kind.

Speaker 16 (01:16:33):
Of over coffee in the morning, and.

Speaker 15 (01:16:34):
When was the last regular season game, right, regular season
game that had this much in it between the stakes
and the stars and you got to go back a decade,
I think, and it was a wild game in Columbus,
probably a little bit too much, so specifically from a
Columbus crew perspective, which f C Cincinnati fans will not
be upset about. They were on discipline, they shot themselves

(01:16:57):
in the foot multiple times, and le Nless he's the
greatest player to ever play the game, and Boom and
to Miami have won the shield. Right, So that's done
and dusted and settled. But now there's a really interesting
race over the final two weeks of the season for
the number two spot in the Eastern Conference between Columbus
and Cincinnati, which will be incredibly important because whoever finishes

(01:17:19):
with the two seed would host a.

Speaker 16 (01:17:21):
Potential conference semi final.

Speaker 15 (01:17:23):
Hell is real, and I hope we get it for
a second straight year in the playoffs because it was
so fun last year.

Speaker 16 (01:17:29):
So it's going to be it's gonna be really important.

Speaker 15 (01:17:31):
These last two weeks for both columbuson Cincinnati to try
to lock up that second spot.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
And so from that perspective, you know, a missed opportunity
for f C Cincinnati last night against New York in
a game that was played in the Red Bulls home field,
and yet FC Cincinnati couldn't take advantage this team. It's
a good team, and I don't think you could talk
about the Eastern Conference and you would know this better
than I. I'm not sure you could talk about the
MLS Cup Pitcher without at least considering FC Cincinnati. But

(01:17:58):
they're not exactly charging towards the post season with ahead
of steam, obviously two regular season games to go, two
consequential regular season games to go.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
What does Pat Noona need to fix? First?

Speaker 15 (01:18:09):
Yeah, man, look, I think it's I think it's the defense, right,
And I feel for Pat and I feel for everybody
a the f C Cincinnati because they've just been ravaged
by injuries. You know, Met me Oskar is the defender
of the year, and and he goes down for the
year on on a heroic play, saving a goal and
smashing his body, sacrificing his body into the post and

(01:18:31):
ultimately suffering an injury that that has him out for
the year.

Speaker 16 (01:18:34):
Nick Haglin, you.

Speaker 15 (01:18:35):
Know, important depth piece on the back line goes out
for the year. You sign Ewasium and he's starting to
fit in and look good and and now he suffers,
you know, an injury and he's been out a few games.

Speaker 16 (01:18:48):
So man, it's tough.

Speaker 15 (01:18:51):
It feels like there's been so much to deal with
for f C Cincinnati that's been beyond their control this year,
And in a way, I think there's an argument that
this could be a.

Speaker 16 (01:19:00):
More impressive coaching job this year than last.

Speaker 15 (01:19:03):
That's probably a little bit of hyperbole, but there's been
a lot more for Cincinnati to deal with. They've had
to replace important players, which they've done spectacularly in the offseason.
If they get a Luca Risano, you know, replacing Alvaro Barrial,
you know, the Strikers situation, I think, yeah, they're still
right with Brandon Vesquez will look good on this team
right now, no doubt about that.

Speaker 16 (01:19:24):
But to me, it's the back line and.

Speaker 15 (01:19:26):
If they can get back to look they're not going
to get back to the level they were with Matt Miyowski.
He was the best in the league. But get a
little bit closer. I mean, it's almost double their goals
against average since my Aska's injury done before one goal
per game allowed before he got injured, one point seven
to four. Since if they can get that down and
get that back on track, they're still the attacking talent

(01:19:46):
and the brilliance of Luciano a Costa, they can carry
them through into the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:19:50):
It felt like for much of the summer we talked
about the East being a three team race, and I've
seen people suggest that it's a two team race between
Miami and Columbus, and I've seen folks suggest, look, don't
count out in New York, don't count out Orlando, and
certainly don't count out f C Cincinnati handicapped the East
as a whole.

Speaker 15 (01:20:10):
For me, yeah, yeah, I would not say it's a
two team race. I think that's disrespectful to f CE Cincinnati,
who have defeated Columbus this season in Columbus, one of
three teams to do so under Wilfred Nancy since he
took over the Columbus crew at the beginning of last year.
They really lost three games in that building. One was

(01:20:30):
to f C Cincinnati earlier this year.

Speaker 16 (01:20:32):
Yes it was. It was in the beginning of the year.

Speaker 15 (01:20:34):
And then that scoreless draw Tikuel Stadium that wasn't the
prettiest game. Look, it wasn't the best game a few
weeks ago. But still they can play with Columbus, There's
no doubt. So to just say two would be disrespectful
a toep CE Cincinnati to just say three.

Speaker 16 (01:20:49):
I think Orlando is good. They're surging.

Speaker 15 (01:20:51):
It's gonna be a really good game on Saturday, because
you're gonna see an Orlando team that sputtered at the
beginning of this year, surprisingly because they finished second in
the Supporter.

Speaker 16 (01:21:01):
Shield race last year behind def C Cincinnati.

Speaker 15 (01:21:03):
So it was surprising for a lot of us to
see Orlando struggled this year because we thought they'd be
right back there in that conversation in twenty twenty four.
But now they're playing that way. They're in really good forms,
they're surging into the playoffs, so I think they're a contender.
New York City, New York Charlotte look. New York City
looked good last night. They look good when they destroyed

(01:21:25):
the Red Bulls the other day. I'm not sure either
of those teams. Are you can really make an argument
that they're in the same tier as Cincinnati, Columbus, Miami, Orlando.
You can maybe make an argument in their current form,
But yeah, I think it's anything can happened in the playoffs.
I'd say it's a four team race and three teams,
you know, if you want to get picky.

Speaker 16 (01:21:46):
But after Cincinnati has to be in that conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
Well again, I was mostly with your colleague Steve Canzelosi
last night, but I did catch a decent chunk of
the game and it was exciting. Your rose to the occasion,
which we knew you would and I know you will
on Saturday. Thank you as always, Jake, and joined the
match on Saturday and your time in Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 15 (01:22:05):
No, I hope it's as exciting on Saturday in Cincinnati
as it.

Speaker 16 (01:22:08):
Was last night in Columbus. Always happy to join you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
Yeah, no question, good stuff, Jake zivin MLS Season Pass,
Apple TV seven thirty excuse me on Saturday night, FC
Cincinnati hosting Orlando, and of course you'll be able to
hear it live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Twelve minutes after
five o'clock. We have a few minutes to talk to
some other people before our friend Robert Wintrop joins us.

(01:22:33):
So let's do that. If I can, I can make
the mouse work. Jeff, you have been waiting patiently. Thank
you for doing that. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's
going on?

Speaker 17 (01:22:42):
Oh, happy birthday to you, Mo, Thank you on Makers
and Coke Thursday.

Speaker 12 (01:22:48):
Yes, whether it's whether.

Speaker 17 (01:22:50):
It's Skyline with Crass or Jeff Ruby's with your wife,
we hope you get to celebrate in peace.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
I can assure you will be one of those things.

Speaker 6 (01:23:00):
Get it? Definitely?

Speaker 17 (01:23:01):
You think Rob Manford is pretty happy to have the
Mets on in primetime tonight, even though it's up against
the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
Sure, Yeah, although my guess is he would have liked
to have had the double dip in both games. But yeah,
he's got the Mets on at seven o'clock tonight and
a fan base which is waiting to implode again given
the fact that they seemingly had that game in control
last night going into the eighth inning.

Speaker 17 (01:23:24):
Yeah, and if you look ahead, you'll know where the
Yankees are. They're not playing before eight o'clock.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
I don't never I can't recall the last time that
during the week.

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
I've seen the Yankees.

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
Look, obviously, this isn't the Yankees of the late nineties
when they were winning every year they won the World
Series in fifteen years. I can't recall what I saw
the last time the Yankees played a postseason game during
the day during the week.

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
It simply doesn't happen.

Speaker 17 (01:23:47):
No, never happened. And your previous chat about fan behavior
really got me to thinking, and it brought up a
few thoughts for me. So I've sat behind the Duke
bench at colefield House Infinity Center, and sat behind the
Maryland bench at Cameron, and the only thing that really

(01:24:07):
crazily got out of hand was JJ Reddick in College Park.
Some of it crossed the line a little bit. There
wasn't organized chance or anything like that, but just you know,
a lot of college kids yelling stupid stuff. And when
when we beat Duke at Cameron on Battier's Senior Night,

(01:24:29):
a bunch of folks tried to rush on the floor
and go jump up and down on the devil and man,
the Duke security team was having none of that.

Speaker 6 (01:24:35):
That was not going to happen. But you're right, I mean,
I think it can get out of hand.

Speaker 17 (01:24:42):
I would say, from my experience, the worst fans I've
ever been around are NC State football fans. Just some
ridiculously bad people with I hate to say it, since
Maryland football is barely a pimple on Ohio State's rear end,
you'll have State fans aren't that great either, which is surprising.

Speaker 4 (01:25:05):
I got hit at NC State UC played there in
twenty ten, Russell Wilson and Russell Wilson carved the Bearcats up.
It was Butch Jones' first year and we're down there
to do the game and we parked. They parked us
in a tailgating lot and I got hit by a
full beer can in the back of my neck, Like,

(01:25:25):
how do you think that felt? A full beer can? Now, again,
that's one person, but still a who throws a full
beer can you could really hurt. Somebody had had a
had a headache for most.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
Of the night.

Speaker 17 (01:25:38):
Philip Rivers was zero to four against Maryland and his
senior game. It was for a trip to the Orange
Bowl and we beat him. And I swear to God
walking out of that stadium, Oranges, Batteries, beer camp, you
name it. Everything was coming rain and down on us.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Wow.

Speaker 17 (01:25:54):
And I would say Browns fans are up there pretty close.
I sat through the rain last year on opening Day,
and mammoth Browns fans, We're just they were intolerable. Now
that UNI lot obviously opens at five point thirty in
the morning or whatever, and people start to hit it
pretty hard in the day. And you know, surprisingly, the
one fan base that has never really bothered me is

(01:26:16):
Ravens fans in Baltimore.

Speaker 6 (01:26:17):
Yeah, I don't know what it is.

Speaker 17 (01:26:19):
And it's too bad this year the games at night
because you really can't go to downtown Baltimore after dark.

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Well, I'm actually I'm actually going to that game.

Speaker 4 (01:26:29):
I went to the game in Cleveland last year and
it was the first I had been to a Browns
game before. But the opener last year was the first
time I was at a Bengals Browns game. And I
think the Browns fans near us fell sorry for us.
Like we watched that twenty seven to three game and
had to drive back to Cincinnati, so they were they
weren't exactly friendly, but they weren't they weren't mean.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
But like the reason I brought it.

Speaker 4 (01:26:50):
Up was the homophobic slur last night, Like that's that's
not one fan act like a jo and that's not
given the other other team's fans a little bit of
a heart time. That's an organized chant towards a player
on the field that's audible on television, and it's homophobic,
and it it feels like it feel and again, I'm

(01:27:10):
taking a cue from people who cover the sport, and
I should have asked Jake about it, but Tommy g
the voice of the teams, like this keeps happening over
and over and over and over again, and it just
feels like in that sport, this is a recurring theme
and I I'm trying to find out why.

Speaker 3 (01:27:24):
Jeff I gotta run man. Thank you, Yeah, have a
great birthday, mo, thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
Seventeen minutes after five o'clock, Robert Wintrob's gonna join us
bud Light five o'clock Happy Hour.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
By the way, it's being a bud Light tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:27:38):
You can take a step toward winning Super Bowl tickets
thanks to bud Light. It's their football face off. See
if you have what it takes to be a national champ,
if you go to tonight between seven and nine o'clock,
Blind Pig Downtown on Third Street and game on in
White Oak. You could play the football face off thanks

(01:27:58):
to bud Light and advance maybe to play in Vegas.
And if you'll win in Vegas, you're going to New Orleans.
I've got details on my Instagram at Moegar and my
ex at Moeger. Or you could just go to those
two fine establishments to night Blind Pig there on Third
Street Downtown and game on in White Oak and you
can play the football face off thanks to bud Light.

(01:28:19):
Get an ice cold bud Light, and maybe maybe you'll
end up in Vegas, and maybe you'll end up in
New Orleans, and maybe the Bengals will be there. We'll
discuss that and more with Robert Wintrop. Next, it's the
bud Light five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
This is Football in the Nags run by blud Light
and by Skyline Hilly on the official home of the Bengals,
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
Those are two things I enjoyed twenty three minutes after
five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Bengals Ravens Sunday
at one o'clock. We will be broadcasting from the Holy
Grail on Sunday morning at nine am. We have to
see it there. It's a Thursday, which means our friend
Robert Weintrauma is with us does a weekly Bengals column
for Cincinnati Magazine. Get it at Cincinnati Magazine dot com.

(01:29:10):
And it's good to have you.

Speaker 11 (01:29:12):
What's going on, Well, I'm very glad we can finally
talk after a long awaited victory. Yes, it took a
little bit longer than we expected, but you know, this
is what I lived forward looked for talking to you
on Thursdays after a Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:29:27):
W So, but here's the thing, right, So, they they won,
and we're all feeling at least okay, and then we
all watched the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night and a
lot of us stop feeling okay.

Speaker 10 (01:29:39):
Yeah, that was not there. That was just quieting. To
put it mildly, I will say this. You know, it's
very rare for any team to play four quarters of
essentially perfect.

Speaker 11 (01:29:48):
Football in all three phases like the Ravens did against
Buffalo on Sunday. It's even more rare to play eight
straight great quarters, right, So you know, there's a much
rather play a team sort of coming off a blowout
win than you would have it. Let's say the Ravens
got embarrassed by Buffalo on Sunday night and they were
coming in all angry. That would be a difficult situation too,

(01:30:10):
in some ways, I'd rather have it this way. Bengals
know the Ravens pretty well, obviously, they know their tendencies.

Speaker 10 (01:30:16):
These are different teams. Every game is different, but.

Speaker 11 (01:30:19):
You know, it's not like they're all of a sudden,
Oh my god, this juggernaut in Baltimore, how we can
stop them. They played Lamar before, they've played Derrick Henry
before in a different uniform, and they've had success at
times against both those players.

Speaker 10 (01:30:30):
So you know, I don't think the Bengals are looking
at it and shaken in their boots.

Speaker 11 (01:30:33):
It'll be a challenge, no question, but you know it's
not an an insurmountable mountain to climb to beat them either.

Speaker 3 (01:30:40):
No, it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:30:43):
But we've had concerns about the Bengals defense all season long,
and the way the year has played out, those concerns
I think have only been amplified, and I think as
we've talked about them, we've been looking at that Baltimore game, going, boy,
how they going to get off the field? How are
they going to slow down Derek Henry? What's Lamar Jackson
going to do? And I will say this watching them
on Sunday night, I'm watching them against Dallas. We know

(01:31:04):
how good Derek Henry is and we know Lamar Jackson is.
It's sort of a different looking and maybe you could
articulate this better than me, it's sort of a different
looking Baltimore offense.

Speaker 11 (01:31:14):
Yeah, they are very diverse in the fact that by
our efficiency numbers DPOA as you love not only the
Ravens number one running offense, but also the number one
passing offense.

Speaker 10 (01:31:26):
Now, it doesn't look.

Speaker 11 (01:31:28):
That way necessarily, And what it really means is that
Lamar Jackson in the passing game has been efficient.

Speaker 10 (01:31:33):
He hasn't been dazzling.

Speaker 11 (01:31:35):
He's not throwing eighty yard bombs. He's not even really
at times.

Speaker 10 (01:31:39):
Look great even this season.

Speaker 11 (01:31:41):
But he does move the chains when he needs to,
and as we all know, he's extremely dangerous either with
his feet or with his arm in sort of those
money down situations third and short. I mean, and I
think about the game that they played last year, Week two,
Cincinnati hosting Baltimore, similar situation, and the Ravens outgained him.
They put up over four hundred yards, but that game

(01:32:01):
was tight, and what it came down to was a
last possession where the Bengals had to stop the Ravens
to get the ball back and maybe win the game,
and they were unable to. And you know, I think
that's sort of going to be a situation that we
see play out on Sunday as well. It'll be tight,
the Ravens might outgain Cincinnati and look better than them,
but I do think it'll come down to at the
end of the day, you know, a single possession near

(01:32:22):
the end of the game where Cincinnati's either protecting a
lead a small lead, or need to stop the Ravens
get the ball back and maybe try and win the game.
And can they this time make that one happen.

Speaker 10 (01:32:32):
You know, That's that's.

Speaker 11 (01:32:33):
Really a lot of times with all the bells and
whistles and stats we throw out there, that's what it
comes down to.

Speaker 10 (01:32:38):
And right now, the Ravens have been very effective in.

Speaker 11 (01:32:41):
Preventing the other team from getting the ball back and
you know, making a rally against him.

Speaker 10 (01:32:46):
Dallas scored a lot of garbage time points on them.

Speaker 11 (01:32:48):
But you know, the Ravens were in control for most
of that game, and obviously the Raiders came back against
them in the fourth quarter and made it work.

Speaker 10 (01:32:56):
So which one can Cincinnati do?

Speaker 11 (01:32:57):
Can they get the Raiders off the Ravens the feel
when they absolutely have to, or will they.

Speaker 10 (01:33:03):
Succumb and lose like the way Buffalo did? Good question.
You know, I'm optimistic, but not hugely so well.

Speaker 4 (01:33:08):
And what's interesting is there's apprehension about this game on Sunday,
and the Bengals are coming off to terrific offensive performances.
They've scored sixty seven points, eight touchdowns. You know, Burrow
had the one pick, but beyond that, they've played pretty
much mistake free. They're healthy on that side of the ball.
The offensive line is playing well, Marius Mims is living
up to the hype. They've got diversity in the running game,

(01:33:31):
They've got a thousand different tight ends. And yet and
yet it's like that's merely a footnote. And I know
they lost the Washington game, so maybe that has something
to do with it. But boy, if you would have
told me coming into the season, we'd be feeling apprehensive
about the Bengals going into a game where offensively they're
going into it with a full head of steam. I

(01:33:52):
would have said, there's no way, and yet that's where
we are.

Speaker 12 (01:33:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:33:55):
It is a little strange, isn't it. How about this?

Speaker 11 (01:33:56):
The Bengals, by our numbers, their offensive line running the
football is the number one offensive line in the league.

Speaker 10 (01:34:03):
Wow. I mean that's who would have ever thought that?

Speaker 9 (01:34:05):
Right?

Speaker 11 (01:34:06):
And the Ravens, while they have an excellent defense against
the run, in terms of their back seven, they per
event what we call second level or open field yards
better than any team in the league.

Speaker 10 (01:34:15):
They're vulnerable upfront.

Speaker 11 (01:34:18):
They've not stopped a single short yardage situation all year.
The Bengals have been very good in that scenario. And
you know, when you throw out the passing game, you know,
the Ravens played a lot of press man coverage against
Buffalo because they didn't really respect their wide receivers in
that game, and it worked out for him. And you know,
you really saw that Josh Allen really had to, you know,
kind of play hero ball and run around and wait

(01:34:40):
for his guys to shake coverage because they weren't really
winning off the Lions scrimmage. That's not something that the
Ravens do against Cincinnati, and that goes back to the
Carson Palmer against Ray Lewis days. I mean, Cincinnatia has
forever had success throwing the ball against the Ravens. The
Ravens have given up third from the bottom in terms
of number one wide receivers against them and yards and

(01:35:01):
very bad in efficiency as well. In other words, Jamar
Chase should have a decent day against.

Speaker 10 (01:35:06):
Them, if you know, they look that way. And they've
given up a lot of big plays to.

Speaker 11 (01:35:09):
Their big to big receivers so far this year. They're
not in an invulnerable defense by any stretch. And as
you say, the Bengals offense has been outstanding thus far
and have done the things that we've been calling for
really for a couple of years now with the multiple
tight ends. They've got the tandem of the running backs
working extremely well together, and they're they're not coming out
with such obvious scheme and formations every time, and that's

(01:35:32):
kind of what the Ravens live off of the last
couple of years. They had success against Cincinnati's offense because
they sort of knew what was coming and were able
to disguise coverages in a way that confused Burrow long
enough for their pass rush.

Speaker 10 (01:35:44):
To get home.

Speaker 11 (01:35:45):
Now, if the pass rush doesn't get home that quickly,
Burrow was able to look through this third and fourth outlets,
which you know this season have been much more viable
than they have in previous seasons. And they're not just
playing those three wide receivers go and get open guys
kind of style.

Speaker 10 (01:35:59):
They should move the ball with much more efficiency.

Speaker 11 (01:36:01):
So I think you're right in the sense that you
know there's no reason to be apprehensive. Certainly, you know,
Joe Burrow saying he has to play the perfect game
doesn't necessarily lend you to run out with all kinds
of optimism and put your life savings on the Bengals
in the game necessarily, But you know, the advanced that
certainly give the Bengals, at least offense against the Ravens
defense a lot of edges in this game, and there's

(01:36:22):
no reason they can't put up points.

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
Robert win troms Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
Go read it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:28):
Jason Witten holds the record for most Pro Bowl appearances
by a tight end with eleven. My question is will
Eric All break that record in his twelfth NFL season.

Speaker 11 (01:36:38):
I was just wondering if you were going to ask,
can he match Bob Trucks playing slash broadcasting something.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
He's a Rosale Award winner, So let's not get too crazy, but.

Speaker 10 (01:36:48):
You know exactly, let's start there. Yeah, I love the guy.

Speaker 11 (01:36:52):
I mean, it's been four games, so let's not get
over the moon just yet. We've had twenty guys come
through and look great in the first month of the
season and then we forget their names basically by the
end of the year. But this is the kind of
guy they've really needed for some time, a dual threat
tight end who's a you know, can block like crazy,
punished defenders with I think some of the guys in

(01:37:14):
the team called it, you know, willing violence this week.

Speaker 10 (01:37:16):
You know, that's what you like to see in the
Bengals team that has often.

Speaker 11 (01:37:19):
To be Frank kind of played a little bit you know,
less than physical and certain standpoints and across the last
few years, and you know, he gives them a much
needed in combination with the aforementioned to Marius Men's real
physical dominance when they line up together, and that's something
obviously you need against the Ravens in particular, and he's
obviously also proven to be a threat in the passing game.

(01:37:41):
And you know, he got to remember he's missed a
lot of time in college in that aspect in terms
of like a pro style, you know, just knowing where
to get and having the feel for getting open. And
the fact that he's been effective in the passing game
this early.

Speaker 10 (01:37:56):
Is such a great sign.

Speaker 11 (01:37:57):
So he can stay healthy, which is obviously the big
if with him coming out of college. Sky's the limit,
whether it's a dozen throw bowls.

Speaker 10 (01:38:04):
You know, I'm not going to start going.

Speaker 11 (01:38:06):
That far just yet, but I'll take one this year
and we'll work from there for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
I mean, if you assume he plays twelve years, you
can calculate when he gets to Canton. So I mean
we can we can go there if you want. Let
me fling back over to defense. Cam Taylor Britt had
a really bad game against Carolina. Do I chalk that
up to it's a bad game. Everybody's entitled to one,
and lou Romo did with him what he needed to do,

(01:38:31):
or maybe a sign of a bigger problem with him.

Speaker 11 (01:38:35):
Yeah, the problem is he wasn't great against Washington either,
and even against Kansas City he had that incredible, memorable interception.
I feel like he's sort of taken the rest of
the action off since that. He's been living off that
a little bit since he made that play. For better
or for worse. Yes, he's a young player. You know,
the last thing you want to do is bury the
guy the way they kind of have with Jordan Battle

(01:38:57):
mysteriously and you know, put him on in the doghouse
like Marvin Lewis used too. He's one of your key guys.
You know, he had maybe a bad six quarters. He
hasn't been that effective, certainly to the fact that we
thought he was the kind of a lone given coming
in this year in terms of corners. But he's a
young player, and you know, we talked about that a
lot going.

Speaker 10 (01:39:18):
Into the season. The kind of area the Bengals were lacking.

Speaker 11 (01:39:21):
I always thought was just to have that veteran presence
at corner where they you know, throwing Mike Hilton out
as the slot, not really counting him on the boundary.

Speaker 10 (01:39:29):
There are young guys and.

Speaker 11 (01:39:30):
They're gonna make mistakes, and all cornerbacks get beat. Even
Lamar Parrish got beat once upon a time occasionally, but
he did like to throw those old names out there.
I know you love those, and you know, yeah, I
don't think long term, you're looking at a situation where
he all of a sudden he's going to turn into
a guy who can't cover anybody. He's got too much
talent for that, and he's not going to forget how

(01:39:52):
to play in the system all of a sudden. He
had some bad you know, some couple of bad games,
and you know, his confidence is sort of one of his,
you know, best assets, and if you break that, that
really gets a player in a downward spiral spiral.

Speaker 10 (01:40:06):
So I hate to see that, and I think they
are working behind the scenes to get him back to
where he was.

Speaker 11 (01:40:11):
Remember, he came in and had to play early because
of injury to begin with, and he was so much
better than we thought he was going to be. That
maybe it's set a little bit of unrealistic expectations for
the level of play he's going to have going forward.
I mean, you know, like I say, he's a second
round guy who expect occasionally to get beat. I mean,
you know, I don't think overall they're not worried about

(01:40:31):
his play going forward, but it is nice to know
that you also have a DJ Turner who can come
in and you know, give you the same level, if
not better level of play with as many snaps if
you need to. And I expect CTB to shake it
up and get back to where he was, especially against Baltimore,
where you don't have, you.

Speaker 10 (01:40:47):
Know, sort of those elite wide receivers.

Speaker 11 (01:40:49):
They have good wide receivers, but not great ones who
are going to necessarily bury him at the.

Speaker 10 (01:40:54):
Worst possible time.

Speaker 11 (01:40:55):
So hopefully this will be a game where he gets
his confidence back and we get back to the CTB
we love to know and see out there on the field.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
You mentioned Jordan battle quickly. Do is it time to
get him out of the doghouse?

Speaker 10 (01:41:08):
I mean I think so.

Speaker 6 (01:41:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:41:10):
I don't know why he's in there.

Speaker 6 (01:41:11):
That's behind the scenes stuff that we.

Speaker 11 (01:41:13):
Don't know about it, guess. But Von Bell, you know,
he's lou An Rumo's binky. That bunch was obvious coming
into the season. But you know, he's not the player
that he was from twenty twenty to twenty twenty two.
There's a reason maybe that Carolina was like, Okay, see
you later go back to Cincinnati. Not that he's not
valuable in his way, but I thought Battle showed a
lot of promise last year. He's won the few bright

(01:41:33):
spots really in that back end. A heavy player, not
a guy really beats you with elite talent, but knows
where to go and doesn't miss a lot of tackles
and isn't the guy who's gonna, you know, wind up
blowing a coverage for him and give him up a
huge play. And that's what they expect that of Von
Bell too, and the difference being he got a guy
who's ten years younger. It can still be a physical

(01:41:54):
presence out there, which Bell doesn't seem to have in
his bag, at least for the first month of the season.

Speaker 6 (01:41:59):
Right now.

Speaker 11 (01:42:00):
Well, I'm not saying Battle should start, and I'm not
saying you throw him out there for sixty snaps when
he hasn't played all here against Baltimore.

Speaker 10 (01:42:06):
That's a little bit of a deep end of the
pool situation.

Speaker 11 (01:42:09):
But you definitely, I think, got to work him back
into the rotation and get him out there. You're gonna
need him for the rest of the season.

Speaker 10 (01:42:15):
I have no doubt about that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:16):
What they could do is play Eric all both ways.

Speaker 11 (01:42:20):
A little Chuck, Ben and Erek. Yeah, you've got that
throwback president.

Speaker 6 (01:42:23):
That's right.

Speaker 11 (01:42:23):
His fingers are bent out of shape like Chuck.

Speaker 4 (01:42:27):
Probably probably not all right, man, awesome as always.

Speaker 3 (01:42:30):
Well we'll do it again next week.

Speaker 10 (01:42:31):
Thank you, looking forward to it is always mo.

Speaker 6 (01:42:34):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:42:34):
That's our guy.

Speaker 4 (01:42:35):
Robert Wintrobs, Cincinnati Magazine dot Com on those those shouty
shows where they shouted at each other about sports. They
shout at each other about Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow
and well, we have an obligation to play that for
you and react to it, so I'll do that next.
It's the Ortho Cinci Mooeger Show on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:42:54):
You've been listening to football in thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty. Coverage starts
Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:43:07):
All right, it's seventeen away from six. It's the Pudlight
five o'clock Abbey Hour. It's in the Orthos cin C
Moeger Show on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:43:16):
Thank you for listening. A couple of quick notes.

Speaker 4 (01:43:20):
Number one, number one Bengals injury report from yesterday, by
the Way Sports Headlines of service at Kelsey Chevrolet. Bengals
injury report from yesterday the same as today, so I guess,
most notably Mike Hilton, who did not go yesterday. If
you remember, he came off the field with a knee
issue for a play in the game against Carolina and

(01:43:42):
then didn't practice at all yesterday. He was a no
go again today, So maybe we get some Josh Newton
on Sunday. Limited for Trey Hendrickson, same for bj Hill,
no go for Sheldon Rankins, full go for Miles Murphy
and for mckinlee Jackson. By the way, Thursday Night Football
tonight Tampa Bay at Atlanta. The game is on Fox
Sports thirteen to sixty. Number two, don't forget Bengals pep

(01:44:08):
Rally is in in our place tomorrow three to six.
Dan Horde, Dave Lapham, all Things Bengals right after Friday
Football Frenzy on ESPN fifteen thirty and the next Tony
and Mo Football show will be on Monday at Twin
Peaks in Florence. We moved to Florence for the next
two Mondays. We hope to see you there quickly. Speaking

(01:44:28):
of which, and then we're gonna We're gonna play former
NFL player James Jones comparing Laura Jackson to Joe Burrow,
one of our most loyal listeners to this show. And
somebody who he and his wife have come to the
Tony and Mo Football Show at Twin Peaks on a
handful of occasions, which we always appreciate, is a guy

(01:44:52):
that I've gotten a chance to know just a little
bit here, Jeff Carrico, and he and his wife have
come to our show at Twin Peaks and have come
to what we've done draft shows at Long Next and
is super, super nice people, loyal listeners, and cannot express
enough how much I appreciate it, even if I'm not

(01:45:12):
good at expressing it. Anyway, I bring this up. They
lost their son five years ago to cancer while he
was a medical student at Louisville, and which goes without saying,
is just awful. But what's admirable is since twenty nineteen
they have hosted a golf event in his honor that

(01:45:33):
benefits the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation, And if you're a
golfer and Saturday is going to be great weather. If
you're looking for an outing to play in or just
looking to get out at California Golf Course on Saturday,
the Kevin Carrico Memorial Golf Scramble is going to take place,
and again everything benefits the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation. And I,

(01:45:56):
because I'm a moron, I have meant to mention this
earlier this week. I have posted about it on social media.
If you go to my Twitter feed, I've pinned to
the top of it, you'll see the Kevincaroco Memorial Golf
Scramble logo and there's a link, or you could just
go to birdase dot com slash Kevincaroco, which Caroco starts.

Speaker 6 (01:46:18):
With a C.

Speaker 4 (01:46:19):
And if you want to get out and play golf
on Saturday, it's it's California there on the East Side
Fun Course.

Speaker 3 (01:46:26):
It's gonna be a great event.

Speaker 4 (01:46:28):
And if you want to read more about Kevin and
his story and what his family has done in the
aftermath of his passing five years ago, go check that out.
And if you're so moved and you can't play and
you want to donate, well by all means please please
feel free to do that. But I wanted to mention
that Jeff and Marge are loyal listeners and they come
to our show and every year they put on this event,

(01:46:52):
and one year I'm going to play in it. I
cannot unfortunately this Saturday, but one year I'm going to
play in it. But I wanted to help spread the
I know there are spots available. It would be cool
as hell if you know they could sell out all
the spots. So again, birdease dot com, slash Kevin Karroco
or I've posted about it on Facebook. If we're friends,

(01:47:14):
I've posted about it on x and so go check
that out. And if you can't play, perhaps perhaps donate.
That'd be cool, all right? U thirteen away from five o'clock, Tarren,
How are we doing on time?

Speaker 6 (01:47:32):
We got about.

Speaker 7 (01:47:35):
Three minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:47:35):
Three minutes, all right? So play the James Jones audio.

Speaker 4 (01:47:39):
This is from the James Jones played many many years
in the NFL at a good career. One of your
led the League of Touchdowns. He is on a show
on FS one called The Facility. The Facility is it
done from a bathroom? The Facility. It's one of those
shows where they just shout at each other and always
talk about the NFL. Give me James Jones talking about
his quarterback tiers, and here's what he said about Lamar
Jackson and Joe Burrow.

Speaker 18 (01:48:00):
Is Joe Burrow on Lamar Jackson's level, be honest, Frank,
uh uh uh no, no, man, Joe Burrow over the
last year and a half is not on Lamar action
Jackson's level.

Speaker 6 (01:48:17):
It ain't even close.

Speaker 18 (01:48:18):
Yesterday I showed y'all a graphic of Joe Joe Burrow,
and there it is, right there, right now. I believe
he's on Lamar's level. But once Lamar wins this game,
Joe Burrow anounces on down to that did that, and
he's no longer up there within elite dudes. I cannot

(01:48:42):
keep saying that Joe Burrow of the Super Bowl is
coming back, the Joe Burrow of the AFC Championship is
coming I can't keep saying that until he shows me
it again. Right now, Lamar Jackson is so consistent every
single year out there on the football field. He's always available,
and he is consistent. Right now, Joe is not on
Lamar Jackson's level, and he got to go out here

(01:49:03):
on Sunday and he got to approve it.

Speaker 6 (01:49:04):
Man, what happened to improve it? All?

Speaker 9 (01:49:07):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:49:07):
So the Internet lost its mind about that. And look,
I like Lamar Jackson as a football fan. Lamar Jackson
is a blast to watch. I hope he's not a
blast to watch on Sunday. And I think in the
face of a lot of criticism about his game, I
think he's headed himself like a total pro. And if
you said to me the Bengals need a quarterback, here's
Lamar Jackson, I'd be pretty damn happy. He is deserving

(01:49:28):
of his two MVP awards. He is a blast to watch.
He'll probably win another. But I guess there's a couple
of things about this Number One. In Baltimore, they've had
success over the last couple of weeks kind of without him.
It's not a grand total of thirty three passes the
last couple of weeks. It's worked. They've won both games.
I would do the same, But you're putting Joe a

(01:49:52):
notch below a guy that the Ravens have designed their
offense around him frankly not passing. That's interesting. Number Two,
Joe's coming off two great games. If you're gonna say
you're gonna knock him down a level once he loses
on Sunday. That to me suggests he's played at such
a level so far that he's on the verge of

(01:50:12):
being knocked down.

Speaker 3 (01:50:13):
Joe Burrow the last couple of weeks has played really,
really well.

Speaker 4 (01:50:16):
In fact, the week before that he played pretty damn well,
not perfect, made a mistake against Kansas City with the
fumble that got run back, throw a pick against the
Carolina Panthers. He's also led his team to eight touchdowns
the last two weeks. Joe Burrow is trending upward. Lamar
Jackson's trending upward in a different type of offense. Joe
Burrow is trending upward. Look, we all acknowledge this, and

(01:50:39):
if you saw that on the facility, the graphic had
Patrick mahomes above and beyond everybody else, And frankly, he
right now is in a tier by himself, right, I mean,
the only active quarterback to win a Super Bowl since
twenty nineteen that's not named Patrick Mahomess Matthew Stafford. So
like it's gonna take somebody winning one for them that
truly truly be peers with Patrick Mahomes. But Joe Burrow's

(01:51:01):
last full season, he was an MVP finalist, put up
MVP caliber numbers. Joe Burrow, right before he got hurt
last year, was playing a really high level of quarterback,
really high level. Then he got hurt, and that's no
one's fault, and Lamar ends up being the MVP. But
like this, this sounds unfair because he was the MVP

(01:51:23):
last season. Go watch the AFC Championship game last year.
Now again, everybody's entitled to a poor performance. The game
plan itself didn't make much sense. They stopped running the football.
I think the number of running plays the Ravens ran
for guys that weren't Lamar Jackson was eight in a
game that was decided by seven points. But still they

(01:51:47):
said we're gonna have Lamar Jackson win this game with
his arm. They scored ten points, they lost by seven. Now,
Lamar the previous week, if you recall a game against
the Houston Texans, played really really well, played really well,
threw the ball well, completed a high percent of his passes,
didn't throw a pick. Prior to that, Lamar's postseason performances

(01:52:10):
were spotty at best, and in the game where he
had a chance to do what Joe has done, which
is take his team to a super Bowl. Lamar, not
helped by his offensive coordinator, fell flat on his face.
I love both players, and it's not like Joe has
rewritten the record book in the postseason. But that being said,

(01:52:34):
everything I just acknowledged there means that if Joe loses
on Sunday, a regular season game, you cannot drop him
a notch below Lamar Jackson. We're done. Thanks to Tarren
Bland for producing. I am back Monday with Tony on
the Tony and Mo Football Show. Have an awesome weekend
and we'll talk to you on Monday. This has been

(01:52:55):
the Ortho sin C Moeger Show and The bud Light
Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
This season on the new podcast