December 11, 2025 • 9 mins
Rob Weintraub on the Bengals.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Football in the NATI brought to you by bell Terra
Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty three for four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Molegger
Robert Wine Trump right say weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati
Magazine dot com and he joins us every single Thursday. Robert,
It's awesome to have you. Now it's your turn to
go ahead and publicly psychoanalyze Joe Burrow the Flora's yours.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I usually get paid about three fifty an hour for that,
so hopefully if the check will be coming directly from jail,
and that this is a PR firm he is, I
have to say, I mean, this is the spin operation
he is going on.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Is amazing in that.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He'd got the whole world feeling sorry for him coming
up a game where he was the one.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Who basically lost the game.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I mean, the understandable to me if this was a
scenario where it was, you know, the Jets of the
Bears game when Joe Flacco played in the defense snatched
the defeat from the jaws of victory. But here's a
game where you know, I don't want to put all.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
The blame on Burrow.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know, clearly the defense struggled to stop Josh Allen,
but a lot of defenses struggled to stop Josh Allen.
It was always going to be a shootout. And you know,
Burrow blinked a couple. It was a little bit of
bad luck and a great play by the Bill's defensive back,
Christian Benford. But still, and now he comes out and
he feels a little sorry for himself, and all of
a sudden, everybody's like, how.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Dare the Bengals even employ this guy? We're right back
to before the draft. It's unbelievable to me.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So the game on Sunday, though, encapsulated everything I dislike
about the Bengals right now. So Joe made a mistake, right,
that's a pick six that you can't throw. You certainly
can't throw it in that situation in the fourth quarter.
But he's on a team that requires him to be perfect,
and on Sunday he was human, and if Joe is
only human, they can't win.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, well, besides you, who of us really is human?
You know, I mean, it's a slippery slope. And of
course you're right, that's been a problem.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, Burrow is a.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Great quarterback, but even great quarterbacks make mistakes, and you know,
you see it around the league. A lot of guys
we assume are superhuman, suddenly they don't play one hundred
percent perfect in the game and their team looks very
mortal around them in Kansas City and Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
We see it all over the place, and yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It's something that we were promised was a one off
from last year and would never happen again, and here
it is happening again. That's the real issue, I think
for all of us in that you know you're willing
to bite down really hard and choke it down after
last year and think, okay, well it happens, but you
know we're going to change things up in twenty twenty five,
(02:50):
and then we all seldom not really do anything and
promise it was going to be different, and it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Hasn't been any different. In a lot of ways, it's
been worse.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And so that's what makes it really difficult, say as
a Bengals fan, to watch that and to know that
you know, you understand Burrows, you know the weight of
I've always called him at list and yet it seems
like the weight of the world on.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
His shoulders is actually he's feeling these days because it's
just so.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Much on him to be that all pro level quarterback
every single down, every single week, and it's just not happening,
and it won't happen for anybody. And you know he's
feeling it, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He needs help. He needs a better defense. Bengals need
better defensive players. But they they do have pieces. The
obvious one is DJ Turner. Who else on that side
of the ball is worth keeping or building around.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, when you stay building around, I think the players
they are going to build around aren't even on the roster, right,
I mean, that's that's where you take it. I think
you mentioned Turner. He's obviously having an excellent season. You're
not giving up on players like Miles Murphy. He's showing
a flash. I hope that he and Schamar Stewart can
develop together and form a decent at least edge Russian combination. Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You know, other guys have.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Shown moments, Dack, Phil Chris Jenkins. They're not guys you
just automatically flush. I mean, you know in the NFL,
guys you sink or swim at different levels. Some guys
burst out right away and then they you know, kind
of fall off. Some guys take a while to develop
and then they really show who they are and they're
they're fourth even fifth seasons, or they need a new
team sometimes, and you know, you know, that's that's the
(04:29):
nature of the league, and you're seeing that a little
bit in Cincinnati. We hope these guys will finally get
it together. I mean, Al Golden was brought in specifically
to make guys who were young and underachieving under Lunarumo
take that step forward, and then, you know, except for Turner,
you're not really seeing that. So I don't know that
anybody besides him is what you would call a building
block on that side of the ball. And they're going
(04:51):
to bring in a ton of personnel, but you can't
replace everybody else besides DJ. So you're going to have
to hope that some of these other guys continue to develop.
And you know, crussing your fingers hasn't worked that well
so far, but I don't know if we have any
other option.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Robert Wintraub read his weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine
dot com. You're an analytics guy. Do analytics love DJ
Turner as much as as much as I do when
I just apply the eye test, Well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Analytics aren't human, mo, so no, I hope they can't
love like you can as an emotional, breathing human being.
But yet the numbers do back up the eye test,
no question. You know, the Bengals are right at near
the top and enemy number one guarding by DVOA.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
They don't throw at DJ Turner hardly at all.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
He's received, by percentage, the second fewest passes thrown in
his direction at any corner out there. And when you
know the opposing quarterback has such a buffet of options
to throw elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Why would you throw a DJ Turner?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Right? I mean, they're giving up ten passes in nearly
ninety five yards of game to tight end.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Just it's in human numbers.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Turner is having the excellent season. We have a DVOA
for cornerbacks set which you can find at FtM.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Fantasy, and he's in the top five. So it's really
kind of remarkable that he's having this, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Excellent, close to all pro level season on an island essentially,
and you know it's the old Deion Sanders thing, he's
doing his job and taking away the number one target
for enemy quarterbacks, and yet nobody else can step up
and stop them. And it's just it's really they've let
him down almost as much as they've let down Joe Burrow.
(06:37):
I don't know if J's given any press conferences with
the way of the world on his shoulders, but maybe
he should because he's playing extremely well and nobody else
is around him.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Give me thirty seconds on whether or not the Ravens
this week opponent, are done done.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, I don't think they're done. They obviously are underachieving
this year in a lot of the same way as
the Bengals are mostly tied to their quarter help.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
As we know.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, they're sixteenth in DVOA, but the teams are
lumped around the Patriots and the Chargers and the Buccaneers,
teams that we don't consider done. They're playing at basically
that level. Lamark can break out at any time. I
don't think they'll turn the ball over five times again,
and you know, they don't look good, and there's not
a lot of reasons for optimism in Baltimore necessarily, but
(07:23):
I wouldn't taint them as done, they can easily, you know,
make a run and win the division, and that would
be the first time any AFC North team has won
the division three times in a row since the inception
of the of the AFC North. So we definitely don't
want that better Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Really even in that scenario than.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The Dravens winning a three straight times doing something on precedent,
and we can't live with that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I agree with that wholeheartedly, no psycho analysis needed. I
appreciate it as always. Man, I will talk to you
in a few weeks. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yes, have a great holiday season, everybody, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
That's our guy. Robert win traub Reid is Bengals column
right now, Cincinnati Magazine dot com. It's twenty nine away
from five o'clock. I'm mullweger uh.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We have room.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, we're not.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
We have a segment.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We have a guest free segment, so to speak. Before
Dan Klaskin's coming up at four forty five on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You've been listening to Football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. At uce Health, you'll
find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your best
tomorrow possible. That's found this care for better outcomes. Expect
more at UCHealth dot com. East found two seventy five
three left lanes blocked from an accident between Princeton Pike
in seventy five in Ohio traffic stop and go from
(08:55):
Springfield Pike with a fifteen minute delay. On's found two
seventy five accident on the left shoulder before seventy four
traffic slow from Blue Rock that ezelic with traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
This report is
Football in the NATI brought to you by bell Terra
Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty three for four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Molegger
Robert Wine Trump right say weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati
Magazine dot com and he joins us every single Thursday. Robert,
It's awesome to have you. Now it's your turn to
go ahead and publicly psychoanalyze Joe Burrow the Flora's yours.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I usually get paid about three fifty an hour for that,
so hopefully if the check will be coming directly from jail,
and that this is a PR firm he is, I
have to say, I mean, this is the spin operation
he is going on.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Is amazing in that.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He'd got the whole world feeling sorry for him coming
up a game where he was the one.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Who basically lost the game.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I mean, the understandable to me if this was a
scenario where it was, you know, the Jets of the
Bears game when Joe Flacco played in the defense snatched
the defeat from the jaws of victory. But here's a
game where you know, I don't want to put all.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
The blame on Burrow.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know, clearly the defense struggled to stop Josh Allen,
but a lot of defenses struggled to stop Josh Allen.
It was always going to be a shootout. And you know,
Burrow blinked a couple. It was a little bit of
bad luck and a great play by the Bill's defensive back,
Christian Benford. But still, and now he comes out and
he feels a little sorry for himself, and all of
a sudden, everybody's like, how.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Dare the Bengals even employ this guy? We're right back
to before the draft. It's unbelievable to me.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So the game on Sunday, though, encapsulated everything I dislike
about the Bengals right now. So Joe made a mistake, right,
that's a pick six that you can't throw. You certainly
can't throw it in that situation in the fourth quarter.
But he's on a team that requires him to be perfect,
and on Sunday he was human, and if Joe is
only human, they can't win.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, well, besides you, who of us really is human?
You know, I mean, it's a slippery slope. And of
course you're right, that's been a problem.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, Burrow is a.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Great quarterback, but even great quarterbacks make mistakes, and you know,
you see it around the league. A lot of guys
we assume are superhuman, suddenly they don't play one hundred
percent perfect in the game and their team looks very
mortal around them in Kansas City and Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
We see it all over the place, and yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It's something that we were promised was a one off
from last year and would never happen again, and here
it is happening again. That's the real issue, I think
for all of us in that you know you're willing
to bite down really hard and choke it down after
last year and think, okay, well it happens, but you
know we're going to change things up in twenty twenty five,
(02:50):
and then we all seldom not really do anything and
promise it was going to be different, and it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Hasn't been any different. In a lot of ways, it's
been worse.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And so that's what makes it really difficult, say as
a Bengals fan, to watch that and to know that
you know, you understand Burrows, you know the weight of
I've always called him at list and yet it seems
like the weight of the world on.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
His shoulders is actually he's feeling these days because it's
just so.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Much on him to be that all pro level quarterback
every single down, every single week, and it's just not happening,
and it won't happen for anybody. And you know he's
feeling it, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He needs help. He needs a better defense. Bengals need
better defensive players. But they they do have pieces. The
obvious one is DJ Turner. Who else on that side
of the ball is worth keeping or building around.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, when you stay building around, I think the players
they are going to build around aren't even on the roster, right,
I mean, that's that's where you take it. I think
you mentioned Turner. He's obviously having an excellent season. You're
not giving up on players like Miles Murphy. He's showing
a flash. I hope that he and Schamar Stewart can
develop together and form a decent at least edge Russian combination. Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You know, other guys have.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Shown moments, Dack, Phil Chris Jenkins. They're not guys you
just automatically flush. I mean, you know in the NFL,
guys you sink or swim at different levels. Some guys
burst out right away and then they you know, kind
of fall off. Some guys take a while to develop
and then they really show who they are and they're
they're fourth even fifth seasons, or they need a new
team sometimes, and you know, you know, that's that's the
(04:29):
nature of the league, and you're seeing that a little
bit in Cincinnati. We hope these guys will finally get
it together. I mean, Al Golden was brought in specifically
to make guys who were young and underachieving under Lunarumo
take that step forward, and then, you know, except for Turner,
you're not really seeing that. So I don't know that
anybody besides him is what you would call a building
block on that side of the ball. And they're going
(04:51):
to bring in a ton of personnel, but you can't
replace everybody else besides DJ. So you're going to have
to hope that some of these other guys continue to develop.
And you know, crussing your fingers hasn't worked that well
so far, but I don't know if we have any
other option.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Robert Wintraub read his weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine
dot com. You're an analytics guy. Do analytics love DJ
Turner as much as as much as I do when
I just apply the eye test, Well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Analytics aren't human, mo, so no, I hope they can't
love like you can as an emotional, breathing human being.
But yet the numbers do back up the eye test,
no question. You know, the Bengals are right at near
the top and enemy number one guarding by DVOA.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
They don't throw at DJ Turner hardly at all.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
He's received, by percentage, the second fewest passes thrown in
his direction at any corner out there. And when you
know the opposing quarterback has such a buffet of options
to throw elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Why would you throw a DJ Turner?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Right? I mean, they're giving up ten passes in nearly
ninety five yards of game to tight end.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Just it's in human numbers.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Turner is having the excellent season. We have a DVOA
for cornerbacks set which you can find at FtM.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Fantasy, and he's in the top five. So it's really
kind of remarkable that he's having this, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Excellent, close to all pro level season on an island essentially,
and you know it's the old Deion Sanders thing, he's
doing his job and taking away the number one target
for enemy quarterbacks, and yet nobody else can step up
and stop them. And it's just it's really they've let
him down almost as much as they've let down Joe Burrow.
(06:37):
I don't know if J's given any press conferences with
the way of the world on his shoulders, but maybe
he should because he's playing extremely well and nobody else
is around him.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Give me thirty seconds on whether or not the Ravens
this week opponent, are done done.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, I don't think they're done. They obviously are underachieving
this year in a lot of the same way as
the Bengals are mostly tied to their quarter help.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
As we know.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, they're sixteenth in DVOA, but the teams are
lumped around the Patriots and the Chargers and the Buccaneers,
teams that we don't consider done. They're playing at basically
that level. Lamark can break out at any time. I
don't think they'll turn the ball over five times again,
and you know, they don't look good, and there's not
a lot of reasons for optimism in Baltimore necessarily, but
(07:23):
I wouldn't taint them as done, they can easily, you know,
make a run and win the division, and that would
be the first time any AFC North team has won
the division three times in a row since the inception
of the of the AFC North. So we definitely don't
want that better Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Really even in that scenario than.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The Dravens winning a three straight times doing something on precedent,
and we can't live with that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I agree with that wholeheartedly, no psycho analysis needed. I
appreciate it as always. Man, I will talk to you
in a few weeks. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yes, have a great holiday season, everybody, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
That's our guy. Robert win traub Reid is Bengals column
right now, Cincinnati Magazine dot com. It's twenty nine away
from five o'clock. I'm mullweger uh.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We have room.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, we're not.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
We have a segment.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We have a guest free segment, so to speak. Before
Dan Klaskin's coming up at four forty five on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You've been listening to Football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. At uce Health, you'll
find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your best
tomorrow possible. That's found this care for better outcomes. Expect
more at UCHealth dot com. East found two seventy five
three left lanes blocked from an accident between Princeton Pike
in seventy five in Ohio traffic stop and go from
(08:55):
Springfield Pike with a fifteen minute delay. On's found two
seventy five accident on the left shoulder before seventy four
traffic slow from Blue Rock that ezelic with traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
This report is
Mo Egger News
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