September 23, 2025 • 41 mins
Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic and The Growler Podcast joined us to discuss the passing of Rudi Johnson as well as a whole slew of Bengals-related issues.
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Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, what's up. It's five minutes after three o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Ballwager. Thank you so
much for joining us. We're broadcasting today from Oakley Greens.
What a day to be at Oakley Greens. It is
gorgeous out and a lot going on Oakley Greens, all
the sports, all the time. If you're headed to the
ballpark tonight, you can have a cold one here at
(00:26):
Oakley Greens before you head downtown. If you're not gonna
pack gabp but you want to be out to watch
the game, certainly could do that here at Oakley Greens.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
TV situation is awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And if it does rain, and obviously we got rain
yesterday for the first time in what felt like four months.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We're undercover. We're outdoors, but we're undercover.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
They've got an inside bar, they've got the mini golf,
they've got corn hole.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
You can rent a cabana. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
In six days, the Bengals are in Denver for Monday
night football. You can have your watch party here or
for any Reds playoff baseball watch parties you may have.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm here at Oakley. Green's Paul Danner Junior's here. Hello,
what's going on? Oh not a lot? No, no, not
in your world. Hey, you know what, it's great. It's great.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Now everybody can go back to talking about the Reds again,
which is it's night. The Reds were like perfect timing
and opportunity to re enter the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So here's where I am with that, right, I'm thrilled
that we're talking about the Reds. The last week of
the season, the first Bengals game in Cleveland, the Reds
played at the exact same time the Bengals beat the Browns,
Hunter Green stuck into the New York Mets to cut
the lead to four. I tweeted something about that and
was told, read the room. Yeah, nobody cares, it's over.
(01:41):
What are you doing? Fourteen days later, I tweeted something
about the Bengals game. Mo, read the room, it's over.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Move on. The Reds had the city's attention.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yes, okay, I'm here to go wherever the attention is.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
They're earning it. I mean they earn it. Both sides
have earned it at this point. Certainly the Bengals earned
it yesterday. But you know, it's stunning both it's kind
of in both ways. And you know, I went up
to Minnesota and thought that it's gonna be a tough environment,
(02:19):
like you know, Brian Flores, just there's a lot of
questions about how the offense would be able to handle that.
You don't turn it over five times and you should
probably be okay, Like I did not anticipate. I don't
think that there was any anticipation of that. But that's
what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Mo.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, when you turn the ball over five times, that's
what it looks like. When you just when you lay
it on the ground three times in four snaps.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That's what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
It looks like worst lost by margin in franchise history, right,
that is that is what happens. I went through all
the exact five turnover you know, the margin was five turnover?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
How many times? What does that look like?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
It was like a last one hundred and twelve times
A team's one hundred and eight three and one half
of them over half of them are by twenty plus points. Yeah,
like this is most almost all of them by double digits.
Like that's what happened. There's no surviving that. So like
I the one part of Sunday that I have a
(03:20):
hard time with is the this is clearly indicative.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Of who they are this entire season.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I think there is a very concerning element to what
happened up there on Sunday, and for obvious reasons that
I know we'll get into. But they're not gonna be
a team that's gonna fumble at a million time homes.
There's no history of that. That said, their margin for
air playing without Joe Burrow is so razor thin. They
(03:49):
have to be a team that wins the turnover battle consistently.
They have to be a team that is efficient running
the football. They have to be a team that can
do some of the basic things not shoot themselves in
the foot.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And when they do have.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The occasional game where they did a couple times too many,
that's what's gonna look like all season because their margin
for air has gone down to be such a small
sliver of what Joe Burrow.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Used to cover.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I want to talk about all of that, what happened
on Sunday, what we do with that game on Sunday, and.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
What lies ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I would feel irresponsible if we didn't start the hour
by talking about Rudy Johnson.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, so if you don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Rudy TMZ reported this this morning, dead at the age
of forty five, and I'll let you go dive into
the particulars of that if you wish. The Bengals have
released the statement. Sitting on my desk this morning, I'm
not going to claim that like Rudy Johnson is my
all time favorite Bengals player, but he is a big
part of my all time period as a Bengals fan,
(04:55):
the mid two thousands and look, Man, twenty one was awesome,
twenty two is great.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I don't know that I could perfectly encapsulize what it
was like to be a fan in the mid two thousands,
when Marvin Lewis came here. They drafted Carson Palmer, they
had Chad Johnson, they had Rudy, They go eleven and
five in two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I revere those teams.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's my favorite all time period as a Bengals fan,
and Rudy was a big part of that. And I
saw that this morning on Twitter. That was like a
knife to the guy that hurt me.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
He was such you know, we talk a lot about
the passing attack on those teams and how fun it
was to watch Chad and TJ and Carson, But those
offenses never really.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Came into their own until Rudy started taking off. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Once he came in at that point midway through twenty
two thousand and three, which led into the Kansas City
game that still looked upon his fans' favorite games in history.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Was when Rudy fully took it over.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
He was active at the beginning of that year, and
he just had this running style like a bowling ball
and this like just relentless motor that was so fun
to watch and meshed perfectly with that line and that
passing attack and him. It was getting the at that time,
and he was just exactly he became kind of their personality.
(06:25):
They just kept coming at you. They just kept coming
at you. And that was his style in the games
where you mentioned this one today again where he had
forty three carries was kind of a breakout. But those
are the San Francisco game I think of like a
bunch of these were you could just keep handing it
to him like it would just be and he would
just wear people down and eventually have one where he'd
(06:48):
bounce off a linebacker and take it for twenty or
thirty mo. I went back through I was looking up
some of his stats because I just remember his consistency,
and you know, he he had thirteen hundred yards and
exactly twelve touchdowns, but at least thirteen hundred yards and
twelve touchdowns in three consecutive seasons four oh five, oh
(07:10):
six now, and there are only five players this century
that can say they have any.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Three seasons like that. Yeah, and he had them all
three in a row.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
He was such a force for that team, you know. Yeah,
just awful sad news to here today because he was
an absolute core of those teams.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I tweeted you mentioned this two thousand and three. My
favorite Rudy game was actually the week before Kansas City,
they played the Texans and there ain't anybody there, Like
the box score says fifty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, nope, blacked out, not on TV.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And the offense was you know, John Kittning is playing quarterbacks,
so there's limitations there. Chad Johnson is ascending, but he
hasn't reached superstar. And yet that day against the Texans,
he carried it forty three times and in the fourth
quarter as they're trying to take the lead and trying
to salt the game away.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Literally felt like he carried it on.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Every play that was their offense, right, and like forty
three was a lot. Then you imagine that now, Yeah,
imagine giving the ball to Chase Brown forty three times.
But it was just there was no disguising what they
were doing. Every single play. We're giving it to Rudy.
And I think I looked it up as longest run
that day was twenty one yard, so it's he gained
(08:33):
one hundred and eighty two scored two touchdowns. It's not
like he had a big seventy yard run. I mean,
it was just you know, just punching away three yards,
four yards, two yards. You know, we giving it to
him on first and ten, Okay, at second and nine, cool,
we're giving it to Rudy, all right, third and six,
we may throw it, but hell, we could give it
to Rudy. And I remember they won the game. And
(08:55):
that's the first time that I can recall everybody and
it might have been forty thousand in the park, Like
you know, we remember that time as like people started
coming to Bengals games again. They didn't that day but
I remember the Rudy champ and I remember going like,
all right, maybe Corey Dylan is expendable, Like yeah, but
there was a that time, like you you say, and
(09:15):
it's it's not that dissimilar from Joe, Jamar and T.
But like there's four guys. If I say to anybody
who cares about sports in this town, say which one
about Carson that period of time, Carson, Chad, tj Rudy, Like,
and I felt like those guys then were everywhere, Yes,
pre social media for the most part, Like those dudes
were everywhere, and he was one of the faces of
(09:38):
that man. It made me so sad this morning.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You know, I'm a I know you know, we both
know Paul Docherty really well. And one of the things
that one of my earliest memories of stuff that he
wrote was about Rudy Johnson and he was a column
after one of those games, yeah, and wrote about Rudy
was like how he's always on the bike when the
when the defense is off on the sideline. He's like,
it's to the point that you get mad when someone
(10:02):
else is on the bike.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
No, get off, that's Rudy's bike. Yeah, Rudy's on the
bike because.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
It's even when he's not out there, his legs are
moved and he's thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He was going.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
It was like that was kind of his attitude, perfectly encapsulated,
kind of his attitude as a player, like just always going,
always churning to the next and just and and when
you talk to more people. When I heard people reached
out to me, whether it be on Twitter or whatever,
when this came out today, was so pointing because I wasn't,
you know, around or covering the scene when Rudy was there. Yeah,
but pointed out that he was incredibly giving with his time,
(10:34):
incredibly generous guy and super to deal with off the
field as well, and you know, never you know, the
type that would absolutely never say no to an interview
and always be pleasant and thoughtful and genuine and remembering
him that way too. So sad, awful news. The NFL
is a scary sport. We don't know the details of
(10:57):
any of this, yes, right, but I just the moment
you hear the mention of some of the stuff that's
being mentioned, I just get scared. And I feel for
so many players that play this game knowing the risks
of what could potentially happen. You see it happen all
the time. You know, it's a players now, it's it's
tough stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
You mentioned. Everything you say is correct.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You mentioned being giving of his time, and we had
him on the air in twenty fourteen. We were doing
Throwback Thursday, and the idea was every week, get you know,
a figure from the past. It's like we had David Klengler,
we had David Shula, but the first one we did
was Rudy Johnson, Like, you don't know, like it's been
a few years since he played, is he gonna, you know,
(11:40):
still be Is it gonna be cool talking about his career?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Is he not ready to do that? He was awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And then when he was an active player, when I
think of that two thousand and five season, I think
of Monday nights. For me, this is before I was
on the air, But I would produce Bengals Line with
Andy Furman and Dave Lapham and we would do it
at this Game Day Sports Cafe downtown and they could
never get the star players because they would be overwhelmed.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
So you would always get like.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Anthony Mitchell or you know, we got John Kittna one game,
But you would you wouldn't get Carson Palmer, but we
got Rudy Johnson. And I remember he's he's there to
do six to seven. You've done these shows, you know,
be there for an hour and then it's like, holy crap,
he's going to be swarmed. And he sat there and
signed every autograph, shook people's hands and was just like
(12:27):
this is his off night. It's Monday night, right, Like
all he's obligated to do is be here for an hour.
And I remember doing another hour of the show and
looking over and there's Rudy just and again like I'm
not sure that happens with anybody else now.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Man, it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
No, I mean, I can think I can count on
one hand, you know, all the years we did Beyond
the Stripes. It's very similar step up, yeah, and we'd
have some stars, we'd have some Anthony Anthony Mitchell's of
those times, right, And I can count on one hand
amount of times that people would stay before and after
Giovanni Bernard I remember specifically doing it, and not that
(13:04):
they have to, because they don't have to, right, And
that's sort of the point, is that it's a it's
not even expected, it's truly the extra mile.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's truly the just enjoying.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Being out there and around people and being, uh, you know,
just sort of understanding that you're not bigger than anybody
else and humble and so uh yeah, awful stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Eighteen minutes after three o'clock, Paul Danner Junior, The Athletic
dot Com and The Growler Podcast. I will admit that
I have not had a chance to watch you and
Charlie go over the rewatch of the game.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I understand why people are hesitanting.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's not been. It's been. It's been because of lack
of time. But my goal was My goal was to
watch it so I can react to it. But what
better you guys than me. Yeah, having to rewatch.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
That, well, I gotta tell you I enjoyed doing it
because it is dissecting. I think what is going to
be the conversation piece that's going to define.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
What the rest of this season looks like. All right,
we'll get to that when we come back.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We're at Oakley Green's Paul Danner Junior, The Athletic dot
Com and The Growler Podcast on Twitter at Paul Danner Junior.
He's here till four. We're here till six. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.
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The UC Health Traffic Center. The UC Cancer Center offers
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(14:38):
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Speaker 3 (14:48):
After three o'clock.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
This is ESPC fifteen thirty broadcasting from Oakley Greens located
at Oakley Station right off I seventy one. By the way,
this is something I've asked about often. What about the parking,
Whether got no to pay the park parking's on site,
it's free, it's easy, it's convenient. And by the way,
(15:10):
on top of all that, they have started Bengo every Thursday,
starting at eight during the Thursday night football game. It's
football theme bingo with prizes including autograph Bengals gear and
gift cards, and so it's a great way to watch
Thursday night football and win prizes and have fun and
start the weekend here at Oakley Greens. All the sports,
(15:33):
all the time, the game on. Let me start with
this part. Okay, the game on Sunday. When a team
gets blown out, I think it's easy for people to
default to, well, they quit, and I think that's the
most I think that's the harshest accusation you could throw
at a team or an athlete. I don't love using
(15:54):
that with a broad brush. Maybe it happens anecdotally. I
do think that I don't know that they quit. I
do think there was a, to me watching on TV,
a lack of fight when things got really bad.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
But I I stopped short of saying they quit.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
What do you How do you respond when someone says
that game on Sunday, yeah, fluky stuff happened, but they quit.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah. I don't care if they quite it was over,
they knew, I mean it was it was. We were
going through on the Rewatch show.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I had a clip I was just clipping out the
Chase Brown runs and I had one in there and
I was I had said to try.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
So.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I want to start with this one just because I
always have the score, time, game and situation on the
top just so you can look at it.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
It says forty eight to three when it's at that
point when it's thirty four to three and a half.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I didn't see guys giving up to the point where
you're like, whoa, there is no effort happening.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Were there a couple business decisions.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I guess maybe, were there a more younger guys playing. Yeah,
all the rookies were out there except for Schamar Like
it was a lot of that going on, just playing
it out.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I don't really have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I look at the I'll still look back in to
answer this specific question. I'll look at weeks one and
two when I feel like there was a ton of
fight amidst a bunch of adversity, and they showed a
lot of fight.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
To win a couple of games.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
And we can debate that but like how they should
have won or whatever, but I mean the Jacksonville game
in particular. Yeah, everything that goes down there, no quitting guys.
I look more at that than I do. You know,
how what did they look like when it was forty
eight to three trying to run duo.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So at that point I have no idea because I
wasn't watching it. Yeah, there were good NFL games on.
It was a remarkably fun NFL Sunday and the Reds
were playing, So I quit too, Yeah, I mean honestly,
like I I just oh they quit in the second
half Sunday.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I would have a problem if it was I mean,
if it was something within more reasonable, even if it
would have stayed thirty one to three or something, right,
you know, I just in the fourth quarter when it's
a million to nothing, Like, I don't really know why
we're trying to judge off that. I'll judge off other
situations before that one, I guess.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So the question that has been asked often and you've
written about is about the continued inability to find success
in the run game. Right, So, with an offensive line
filled with guys who are not renowned for their run blocking,
with them not changing the running back himself, the featured
(18:40):
running back, Chase Brown, I'm sure they're not going to
dramatically overhaul the plays in their offense. How does the
running game get better enough for them to survive this season?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
With a backup quarterback. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
I mean, it feels like there aren't a lot of
answers out there. I think there's a couple of things
at play.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
One. I do think that Minnesota was.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
A challenge they weren't ready for in terms of, you know,
they just they're they're not gelled together.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
The plan was giving them fits.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
They were tentative, they lacked any kind of aggression, and
they seem to not know what they were supposed to
be doing right And and I'm not gonna get into
why that is yet, but like so, I do think
that will change, like as time goes on here. I
do think you can grow confidence in young players, especially
(19:42):
how they had two rookie guards out there, a third
and a fifth round pick.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
In that game.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And this is what we said, I mean, if you're
gonna go play rookies, it sounds great to say play
the kid. No, oh no, you were gonna live through
those growing pains. They are gonna see things they haven't
seen before. They're gonna experience the NFL in ways they
didn't know football could be played before. They're gonna go
through a lot of stuff and they have to go
through that. I've referenced this. I'll never forget the conversation
(20:12):
I had with Clint Bowling a couple of years after
when he talked about recognizing after after the fact a
year or two later, how lost he was his rookie year, like,
how lost he felt out there, and he was the
last Bengals pick to get a second contract with Cincinnati
on the offensive line, he was a success.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, but you just have to go through that.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
This is what guys go through when they have to
play as rookies. It's not gonna be clean, they're gonna
make mistakes, they're not gonna play with confidence.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And when you have two of your five spots, Dalton
Reisner just got.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
There okay, and whether he should have been there earlier
or whatever, like you talk about that obviously, but that
stuff happening, the lack of confidence, the lack of totally
understanding what you're supposed to be doing because of rookies,
because of being new, because of gelling, because of scheme,
maybe they're not learning it right, whatever, any of that
(21:11):
all is that can get better in time. So I'm
trying to answer your question, Yes, that can get better
in time if they can start playing confidently and know
what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
It's obviously it's not a Chase Brown problem. I felt
bad yesterday. I was just trying to filter out Chase
Brown's running game yesterday and questions of Zach Taylor.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I think he felt like I was saying Chase Brown
is stinking it up, and I enjoyed that interaction.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I wasn't that I was trying. I was not trying
to say that. I was trying to say, like, what's
happening with the run game. I didn't want to get
into the gadget plays and everything and the like, oh,
what if Taj Brooks did in the fourth quarter. Let's
talk about, you know, forty seven carries for ninety three
yards or whatever. And somehow I think I came off
as saying Chase Brown's problem with you.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Know, the before contact numbers are.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Negative fifty four yards before contact this year for Chase Brown.
I mean, so it's negative zero point six yards before
contact per carry and the worst the NFL average is
positive point two six.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
There's it's it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
It's crazy that you're constantly having to work behind any
you know, and Chase Brown now has going back to
the year two thousand first three games of a year
minimum forty attempts, the worst.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Output in terms of yards per carry.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
One point ninety seven that we've seen this century in
that in this scenario, incredible from a guy who I'm
telling you I couldn't find a soul in that building
that watched the media, any of us that had seen
last year, saw what he looked like now heard everything
that they were saying, that would ever say that, Oh,
(23:01):
Chase Brown's not gonna do You're much from him right
right now. Granted the Borough thing is another part of this,
but it's stunning. It's it's stunning that it's this bad
when you have him and kind of know what you
have and have the other weapons that you have. I
don't think it will continue at this level. Uh, they're
(23:24):
they're looking at they're looking at tweaks and schemes they
got to be they're looking at you know, maybe it
is a ripping up of the whole thing that we
seem to talk about at this time every year. Uh,
there's gonna be changes, but I think you're banking on
the changes, building confidence in those changes, in those news schemes,
and then the inevitably it's just gonna come back to
the players playing confidently and knowing what they're doing in
(23:47):
front of Chase Brown.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Paul Danner Junior, the Athletic Dot Com in the Growler Podcast.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like to
rewatch that football game.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Well, I filtered it out. I certainly did not rewatch
the whole entire thing. I definitely picked the spots I
wanted to focus on.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
How all right, hang tight sports headlines are. Next, we're
at Oakley Greens. Here at Oakley Station, the home of
Fairway Feud every Wednesday from a seven to nineteen trivia
family Feud style Here at Oakley Greens. It's twenty six
from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
SINCY three sixty with Tony Pike. If we want to
move on, I have to keep going and Boston Elmore, I.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Think you should continue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow, which
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northbound seventy five slow down from Mitchell Over towards Paddock
Road on that ezelic with traffic from the.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Service of Kelse Chevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life
Kelsey chev dot Com Reds and pirates first to three
tonight at GABP final three home games at the regular
season for Cincinnati, Brady Singer. We'll throw against Johann Oviedo
(25:19):
six is Tonight's first pitch.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
The game is live on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Reds and Her play even up with the Mets in
the hunt for the last wildcard spot. Obviously, Cincinnati possesses
the tiebreaker. New York, after an off day yesterday, is
in Chicago to take on the Cubs. Arizona is one
game behind both New York and Cincinnati. D Back start
a series tonight against the LA Dodgers. Former Bengals running
(25:44):
back Rudy Johnson passes away at the age of forty five,
still holds a number of Bengals career and single season
rushing records. Bengals with today off They've got the Denver
Broncos on Monday night. Scott's Adafield Show Tonight at eight
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty from the original Montgomery and
the Bearcat's getting said to take on Kansas on a
(26:06):
Saturday afternoon Where to Oakley Greens Here in Oakley Paul
Danner Junior from the Athletic The Reds play the Pirates tonight. Now,
many believe that Hunter Green should pitch tonight's game, so
he could also throw on Sunday. Do you concur with
that chunk of the fan base?
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I like Brady Singer. Brady Singer has been really good, Rachel.
I mean I don't. I don't know, what's some stats?
I mean since July twenty first R two one five.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah, it's good. I think more Hunter Green is good.
But I also think that you're partially don't. I don't
want to get into the logistics of this because I'm
probably gonna mess it up. I've been focused on what rewatched.
But if Hunters should be pitching game one of the playoffs, right,
if this works, it works out well, If yeah, you
(26:57):
do jeopardize like, okay, what are we doing? But if
you want him for Game one of the playoffs. Then
got to get there. You gotta get there. But I
just think I have faith. I would have faith, and
Brady Singer, yeah, I would have faith, and I know
whatever whatever they're gonna do. I like the setup that
they have now with wou Tell, Martinez, Chase Burns, Yes,
(27:20):
as three wild card pieces to shove in there, and
it cleans up everything you can. I mean, you can
do a game with those three and feel great. You
know what I mean if you wanted to put together
a game. They may end up doing that. But like
I like, I like the setup of those three guys.
As they now start playing more, Playoff should be managed
like Playoff style based from this point forward.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I think you saw it with how they used Burns,
and I think you saw it with Nick Martinez in
the role that is perfect for him. I know you
were in Minneapolis on Sunday, but I mean to me,
like we've said it all year long, what's it's what
makes them dangerous if they get there.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
They're really good starting pitching, but.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
A couple of bullets you could use at any point
in the game to get more than just one innings
worth of outs.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Gotta get South Stuart in the lineup, no question, I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I I understand.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
It's like where got to get when you're when you're
trying to win these playoff type managed games and you
are riding the back of pitching.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
In defense and that's fine.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Uh huh one swing from south Steward can win you
a game. Yes, you're counting us that so, yes, d
h whatever matter. Need him in the batter's box right, Yes,
it's where he plays. And you've just seen too much
to this point of of what he can bring you,
uh to to not I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
I just I want you need more at batch from
South Stewart's part of this. Uh, it's my mini Reds analysis.
That's good. That's good. I think most would would agree.
I learned that listening to power Sacks. Power Sacks is awesome.
It is awesome. Yeah, yeah, Charlie and Bryant killing it
right now. I did listen to that. Yes, yes, great stuff.
The rewatch I'll get to tomorrow. It's okay, Well we'll
talk tomorrow. Listen to it. You'll be on the podcast
(29:02):
tomorrow morning. I don't have to rewatch the game. Maybe
I'll save some of my favorite clips for you. In
the the.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
The run up to the game on Sunday, many wondered,
are the Bengals gonna go get a quarterback? And could
that guy be the long term dude? At least long
term meeting the next three months. In the aftermath of
Jake Browning's performance, many have yelled and screened, now you
have to go get somebody. Let me start with Jake
on Sunday. He wasn't good. He had a lot of
help in not being good. How much do you put
(29:34):
specifically on Jake minimal? I mean, understanding what he is.
He's a backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, I don't. I don't come out of that game.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
They're gonna have to figure out how they can have
him better walking the line, you know, between aggressive and reckless.
The Dan PITCHERR reference with us yesterday, which I think
he has struggled.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
With a little bit here.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
In these first two games, five picks, but a couple
of them have been just throw them all away, right,
And Dan Pitcher admitted that the pick six was just
you just got You're gonna have to make some throws
for them to win, but you gotta know when not
to better. And I think that's where they're at kind
of with Jake. But it's about the pressure. It's about
it being third and long over and over and over again.
(30:26):
You want to see how you lose, and lose ugly
being third and long in that building against Brian Flores
all day right, Like he's out there, guys are doing
three different pre snap looks. Everyone's running all over the place.
You can't hear yourself think for a second. No one
can call out any kind of an adjustment or audible
(30:47):
talking to the person next to him. Everybody's moving around
and it's third and ten again. Okay, that is no
way to play football. It's no way to win in
that building. It's as tough as it gets in terms
of trying to actually execute. That's why we keep talking
about the run game from the other day and the
(31:08):
lack of any kind of efficiency on first and second down,
Like if you can't find some way to keep yourself
out of I mean, it was seven first downs or
seven third downs in the first half, and all of
them except for one or eight or longer. I mean
it's over, man, Yeah, it's over, and you have to
(31:31):
find a way to get that help. He is going
to be a part of the problem until you help
the rest of the players be a solution. Like you
have to have good down and distance, you have to
have a balanced run game. You have to be running
more under center play action. I hate to keep harping
(31:52):
on it, but like, yeah, they did it five times
the other day. It's a successful thing when Jake has
done it every time. They do it at one of
the lowest rates in the league. Like, you've just gotta
beat keeping the other team thinking about is this a
play action play that they can get me? Not just
firing off on the under center runs and all that stuff.
You've gotta be doing more screens Chase Brown. Okay, this
(32:15):
is one of my favorite things. I was looking at
right before I came over here.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Do you remember his.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Miles per hour play that we talked about in Yeahpolis
twenty two miles per hour. Yeah, under center play action
screen to Chase Brown. He takes it fifty four yards.
Do you know how many times they have run an
under center play action screen to Chase Brown since then?
Less than five, zero, sew times they have done that
since then? Good coaching under even just one time in
(32:42):
the Pistol they did one time in the pistol they did.
He got twelve yards and had space to maybe break
it farther against the Raiders last year. That's it doing
so to me, like that's he's a weapon when when
when Jake Browning came in in twenty twenty three, one
of the biggest things they did was they started heavily
leaning into the screen game. It was the best I've
(33:04):
ever seen a screen game on a team I've covered. Yes,
it was unbelievable. Every time they threw it. We talked
about it like anything I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
It was crazy. All of a sudden, they were in
a great screen team.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
We talked about them screen passing their way to the
postseason because they did it.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yes, because they tried it, because they were doing it,
and you find things that way.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
That year. That was the thing they found.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
When we talk about how they've changed schemes and leaned
into certain things to invigorate running game or situations that
weren't ideal, like the fact that that has to be
something that you're doing, the fact that you're just not
doing it even once a game, two, three times a game,
like it doesn't no one's saying going out here and
screen it twenty times, but like you have to be
(33:45):
trying to do some of this different stuff to just
to try to open everything up, and I think you're
hoping that you'll see more of that. They obviously didn't
have a ton of rhythm or game script to do that,
or the moment they did start moving the ball, it
got laid on into the ground.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
It was a bit of an anomaly game on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
But as we go forward, there's just gotta be more
of that kind of stuff. They're not gonna just suddenly
be able to move people. They're an offensive line of
pass protectors that aren't great at run blocking, and the
whole thing doesn't seem to be working real well together
right now. You can tinker with that all you want.
I don't know that you can change that dramatically. You've
(34:23):
just got to start being way more diverse than some
of the other stuff that you're doing to keep the
the defenders off balance, it seems like, and they certainly
weren't doing enough of that on Sunday, And maybe that's
something that comes out in the next few weeks.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I have three minutes to go over two more things. Okay,
number one, no on Kirk Cousins. Then oh, sorry, Russell Wilson, Yeah,
I don't need that. I don't think Jake Browning is
the problem, but I don't. Do you want what you've
seen fro Russell Wilson?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Do you like that? You like what you've been seeing
some farm good? Is he better than Brett Rippon? Though
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
I didn't like what they're doing with the backup thing.
You don't want to be in a world where you
have to watch Brett Rippon or Sean Clifford or and
you know, no offense to those guys. I just don't
really care to sing Mike White. I would have liked
to have seen someone with a little bit more experience
and a little bit I've been kind of banging the
Tyler Huntley drum. He's just sitting on Baltimore's practice squad.
He's played a lot more, he's been successful to a degree,
(35:17):
more so, certainly more experienced than those guys have recently.
I'd like to feel better about your backup, so you
could maybe turn to that you don't going out and
like thinking that Kirk Cousins is gonna come in here
in salvage some kind of this season, or be that
dramatically different.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah, I don't. That's a bucket of cold water you
just threw. Sorry is fine? No, it's a here to
be the voice of reason to be. I don't know.
Maybe maybe I'm unreasonable, Maybe I hear a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I just think the guy that's been here this long,
that does know that have is the trust of the
team and and chemistry with the receivers, has a better
chance of digging you out of this than somebody who
shows up and says, Hi, my name's Kirk.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Who is your name? Jamar? Like and they do.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Would imagine Kirk Cousins knows Jamar Chas's they chake hands. Yeah,
there might be other teammates that he's not that familiar with,
but Jamar, I'm thinking he would know who that.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
I wonder what it's like to throw up the football
to this guy, right, I don't want to have to
think about that.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Okay, that's all the Other part of this is you
talked about them like not being ready, and we hear
what's the Brian Flores defense, and like this is wearing
on me Game one.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
It's just a bad matchup.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
I know, Okay, division team they see twice a year,
can't figure it out elite wide receivers. Okay, bad matchup?
How many more of these teams are they gonna play?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Where you go?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Oh, you know, the other team's just got this great
defensive coordinator. Or hey, the other team's got good corners
and you can't expect Jamar and Tee to get open.
Or boy, this other team they just they got a guy.
He's a really good three technique. Like I'm already tired
of hearing about how just throw your hands up, because
not a lot you can do against the immortal Brian
Flora is in his defense that the Atlanta Falcons figured
(36:54):
out a way to score twenty two points against like this.
It's not to say that the expl as to why
things went poorly is invalid, Certainly.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
It is, but why three games in twice?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
It's whether there's just nothing they can do against the
opponent when you got Miles Garrett or when you got
Brian Flores Like, well, the other teams have good coaches
and players too, so there's not gonna be a thing,
just another bad matchup.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
I mean, they scored thirty one against Jacksonville, who looks
to have a pretty good well.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
They only play them once. I'm just I mean, the
Browns are a good defense. The Browns just held the
Packers to ten. Were they a bad matchup for the
Baltimore Ravens?
Speaker 2 (37:30):
What's that where the Browns defense a bad matchup for
the Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Ravens obviously goes well for the Browns. I'm not saying,
I just it's like, okay, I'll give you the fine.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
The Browns are a bad matchup to the Packers stink
because they they lost to the Browns. As far as
I'm concerned, you only get to play the bad matchup
card once Bengals played at Week one, and don't get
to play it again week eighteen since it's the same team.
If if the if, the the excuse every week is
gonna be well just can't can't, can't do anything against
(37:59):
that Green Bay defense, then what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (38:01):
I think they went into those two games, the Minnesota
game and the Cleveland game, specifically playing conservative game plans
to try to not turn it over and try to win.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It that way.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
That is the type of game they wanted to play.
One of them they didn't turn it over. The other
one they turned it over five times. I think they
thought they could go to Minnesota and win like they
won the Cleveland game by being safe, and that means
it was you're not gonna see some of the open
stuff that they played differently against Jacksonville they did. They
(38:37):
just they let it rip more. They just said we're
gonna dictate with our passing game. I think that's more
of who they're gonna be all year. But I think
part of what they were trying to do this year
is to try to just win the turnover battle early
on when they don't quite know what they have, because
they feel like that's where they have lost.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Games early in seasons in previous years.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Comes a lot harder to go through all of that
evolution as you deal with the burrow, the browning thing
that's happening. But I think that's part of that's part
of what's happening this one. When you, like I said,
when you're in third and lungs, Yeah, when you're when
it's when you're down by a bunch in that building.
I think that's a bad match up for the NFL.
(39:21):
I think putting yourself in those spots, I think they
tried to avoid that by running the ball and for
on the early downs as much as they did it,
just they just couldn't do it. Is they needed to
find other ways to get yards. They probably need to
do more of the gadget stuff that they tinkered with
or the quick game that they were tinkering with. They
didn't and it put themselves in those bad spots all
(39:41):
over and over again. I think that's that is all
part of what has gone wrong. I'm curious to see
how it evolves. I don't see them being.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Bad.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I think they try to praise the other team afterwards
because they're not trying to take credit away from them.
I don't think that there's you're gonna have a season
of them playing the bad matchup game. I understand you're
sick of hearing. I don't know, not like it just
started this year.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I know what I want to fire into the sun
with more emphasis strike technique or bad matchup.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Yeah, well there might be something fired into the sun
if this year continues like.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
This up front, thank you as always. Yeah, it's a pleasure.
We talked about the rest. That part was fun. I know,
I enjoy it. I enjoyed this.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
Come on, you know, I thrive and things going sideways.
I love I lived on sway to the nineties. As
a child of the nineties, you know, you know, I
appreciate this portion of the program.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
We are broadcasting from Oakley Greens. There is no better
plays to watch the Bengals and Broncos on Monday Night football.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Think of next week you'll.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Have the Reds in the postseason, perhaps the Bengals on
Monday Night. By the way, full slate of college games
this weekend and the Ryder Cup here at Oakley Greens.
And while you're watching the Ryder Cup, you could play
mini golf with your buddies out back. It is a
five away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Traffic southbound seventy one seventy five. It is an accident
on the Collector Ramp from two to seventy five and Erlanger.
The center lane blocked on that Collector ramp. Burnett Avenue.
It's another accident between King Drive and Goodman Street. And
River Road accident between Evans and State. I'm at ezelic
with traffic.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
This is Jeff for tri statement
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, what's up. It's five minutes after three o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Ballwager. Thank you so
much for joining us. We're broadcasting today from Oakley Greens.
What a day to be at Oakley Greens. It is
gorgeous out and a lot going on Oakley Greens, all
the sports, all the time. If you're headed to the
ballpark tonight, you can have a cold one here at
(00:26):
Oakley Greens before you head downtown. If you're not gonna
pack gabp but you want to be out to watch
the game, certainly could do that here at Oakley Greens.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
TV situation is awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And if it does rain, and obviously we got rain
yesterday for the first time in what felt like four months.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We're undercover. We're outdoors, but we're undercover.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
They've got an inside bar, they've got the mini golf,
they've got corn hole.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
You can rent a cabana. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
In six days, the Bengals are in Denver for Monday
night football. You can have your watch party here or
for any Reds playoff baseball watch parties you may have.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm here at Oakley. Green's Paul Danner Junior's here. Hello,
what's going on? Oh not a lot? No, no, not
in your world. Hey, you know what, it's great. It's great.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Now everybody can go back to talking about the Reds again,
which is it's night. The Reds were like perfect timing
and opportunity to re enter the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So here's where I am with that, right, I'm thrilled
that we're talking about the Reds. The last week of
the season, the first Bengals game in Cleveland, the Reds
played at the exact same time the Bengals beat the Browns,
Hunter Green stuck into the New York Mets to cut
the lead to four. I tweeted something about that and
was told, read the room. Yeah, nobody cares, it's over.
(01:41):
What are you doing? Fourteen days later, I tweeted something
about the Bengals game. Mo, read the room, it's over.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Move on. The Reds had the city's attention.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yes, okay, I'm here to go wherever the attention is.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
They're earning it. I mean they earn it. Both sides
have earned it at this point. Certainly the Bengals earned
it yesterday. But you know, it's stunning both it's kind
of in both ways. And you know, I went up
to Minnesota and thought that it's gonna be a tough environment,
(02:19):
like you know, Brian Flores, just there's a lot of
questions about how the offense would be able to handle that.
You don't turn it over five times and you should
probably be okay, Like I did not anticipate. I don't
think that there was any anticipation of that. But that's
what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Mo.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, when you turn the ball over five times, that's
what it looks like. When you just when you lay
it on the ground three times in four snaps.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That's what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
It looks like worst lost by margin in franchise history, right,
that is that is what happens. I went through all
the exact five turnover you know, the margin was five turnover?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
How many times? What does that look like?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
It was like a last one hundred and twelve times
A team's one hundred and eight three and one half
of them over half of them are by twenty plus points. Yeah,
like this is most almost all of them by double digits.
Like that's what happened. There's no surviving that. So like
I the one part of Sunday that I have a
(03:20):
hard time with is the this is clearly indicative.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Of who they are this entire season.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I think there is a very concerning element to what
happened up there on Sunday, and for obvious reasons that
I know we'll get into. But they're not gonna be
a team that's gonna fumble at a million time homes.
There's no history of that. That said, their margin for
air playing without Joe Burrow is so razor thin. They
(03:49):
have to be a team that wins the turnover battle consistently.
They have to be a team that is efficient running
the football. They have to be a team that can
do some of the basic things not shoot themselves in
the foot.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And when they do have.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The occasional game where they did a couple times too many,
that's what's gonna look like all season because their margin
for air has gone down to be such a small
sliver of what Joe Burrow.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Used to cover.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I want to talk about all of that, what happened
on Sunday, what we do with that game on Sunday, and.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
What lies ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I would feel irresponsible if we didn't start the hour
by talking about Rudy Johnson.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, so if you don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Rudy TMZ reported this this morning, dead at the age
of forty five, and I'll let you go dive into
the particulars of that if you wish. The Bengals have
released the statement. Sitting on my desk this morning, I'm
not going to claim that like Rudy Johnson is my
all time favorite Bengals player, but he is a big
part of my all time period as a Bengals fan,
(04:55):
the mid two thousands and look, Man, twenty one was awesome,
twenty two is great.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I don't know that I could perfectly encapsulize what it
was like to be a fan in the mid two thousands,
when Marvin Lewis came here. They drafted Carson Palmer, they
had Chad Johnson, they had Rudy, They go eleven and
five in two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I revere those teams.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's my favorite all time period as a Bengals fan,
and Rudy was a big part of that. And I
saw that this morning on Twitter. That was like a
knife to the guy that hurt me.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
He was such you know, we talk a lot about
the passing attack on those teams and how fun it
was to watch Chad and TJ and Carson, But those
offenses never really.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Came into their own until Rudy started taking off. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Once he came in at that point midway through twenty
two thousand and three, which led into the Kansas City
game that still looked upon his fans' favorite games in history.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Was when Rudy fully took it over.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
He was active at the beginning of that year, and
he just had this running style like a bowling ball
and this like just relentless motor that was so fun
to watch and meshed perfectly with that line and that
passing attack and him. It was getting the at that time,
and he was just exactly he became kind of their personality.
(06:25):
They just kept coming at you. They just kept coming
at you. And that was his style in the games
where you mentioned this one today again where he had
forty three carries was kind of a breakout. But those
are the San Francisco game I think of like a
bunch of these were you could just keep handing it
to him like it would just be and he would
just wear people down and eventually have one where he'd
(06:48):
bounce off a linebacker and take it for twenty or
thirty mo. I went back through I was looking up
some of his stats because I just remember his consistency,
and you know, he he had thirteen hundred yards and
exactly twelve touchdowns, but at least thirteen hundred yards and
twelve touchdowns in three consecutive seasons four oh five, oh
(07:10):
six now, and there are only five players this century
that can say they have any.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Three seasons like that. Yeah, and he had them all
three in a row.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
He was such a force for that team, you know. Yeah,
just awful sad news to here today because he was
an absolute core of those teams.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I tweeted you mentioned this two thousand and three. My
favorite Rudy game was actually the week before Kansas City,
they played the Texans and there ain't anybody there, Like
the box score says fifty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, nope, blacked out, not on TV.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And the offense was you know, John Kittning is playing quarterbacks,
so there's limitations there. Chad Johnson is ascending, but he
hasn't reached superstar. And yet that day against the Texans,
he carried it forty three times and in the fourth
quarter as they're trying to take the lead and trying
to salt the game away.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Literally felt like he carried it on.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Every play that was their offense, right, and like forty
three was a lot. Then you imagine that now, Yeah,
imagine giving the ball to Chase Brown forty three times.
But it was just there was no disguising what they
were doing. Every single play. We're giving it to Rudy.
And I think I looked it up as longest run
that day was twenty one yard, so it's he gained
(08:33):
one hundred and eighty two scored two touchdowns. It's not
like he had a big seventy yard run. I mean,
it was just you know, just punching away three yards,
four yards, two yards. You know, we giving it to
him on first and ten, Okay, at second and nine, cool,
we're giving it to Rudy, all right, third and six,
we may throw it, but hell, we could give it
to Rudy. And I remember they won the game. And
(08:55):
that's the first time that I can recall everybody and
it might have been forty thousand in the park, Like
you know, we remember that time as like people started
coming to Bengals games again. They didn't that day but
I remember the Rudy champ and I remember going like,
all right, maybe Corey Dylan is expendable, Like yeah, but
there was a that time, like you you say, and
(09:15):
it's it's not that dissimilar from Joe, Jamar and T.
But like there's four guys. If I say to anybody
who cares about sports in this town, say which one
about Carson that period of time, Carson, Chad, tj Rudy, Like,
and I felt like those guys then were everywhere, Yes,
pre social media for the most part, Like those dudes
were everywhere, and he was one of the faces of
(09:38):
that man. It made me so sad this morning.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You know, I'm a I know you know, we both
know Paul Docherty really well. And one of the things
that one of my earliest memories of stuff that he
wrote was about Rudy Johnson and he was a column
after one of those games, yeah, and wrote about Rudy
was like how he's always on the bike when the
when the defense is off on the sideline. He's like,
it's to the point that you get mad when someone
(10:02):
else is on the bike.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
No, get off, that's Rudy's bike. Yeah, Rudy's on the
bike because.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
It's even when he's not out there, his legs are
moved and he's thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He was going.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
It was like that was kind of his attitude, perfectly encapsulated,
kind of his attitude as a player, like just always going,
always churning to the next and just and and when
you talk to more people. When I heard people reached
out to me, whether it be on Twitter or whatever,
when this came out today, was so pointing because I wasn't,
you know, around or covering the scene when Rudy was there. Yeah,
but pointed out that he was incredibly giving with his time,
(10:34):
incredibly generous guy and super to deal with off the
field as well, and you know, never you know, the
type that would absolutely never say no to an interview
and always be pleasant and thoughtful and genuine and remembering
him that way too. So sad, awful news. The NFL
is a scary sport. We don't know the details of
(10:57):
any of this, yes, right, but I just the moment
you hear the mention of some of the stuff that's
being mentioned, I just get scared. And I feel for
so many players that play this game knowing the risks
of what could potentially happen. You see it happen all
the time. You know, it's a players now, it's it's
tough stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
You mentioned. Everything you say is correct.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You mentioned being giving of his time, and we had
him on the air in twenty fourteen. We were doing
Throwback Thursday, and the idea was every week, get you know,
a figure from the past. It's like we had David Klengler,
we had David Shula, but the first one we did
was Rudy Johnson, Like, you don't know, like it's been
a few years since he played, is he gonna, you know,
(11:40):
still be Is it gonna be cool talking about his career?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Is he not ready to do that? He was awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And then when he was an active player, when I
think of that two thousand and five season, I think
of Monday nights. For me, this is before I was
on the air, But I would produce Bengals Line with
Andy Furman and Dave Lapham and we would do it
at this Game Day Sports Cafe downtown and they could
never get the star players because they would be overwhelmed.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
So you would always get like.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Anthony Mitchell or you know, we got John Kittna one game,
But you would you wouldn't get Carson Palmer, but we
got Rudy Johnson. And I remember he's he's there to
do six to seven. You've done these shows, you know,
be there for an hour and then it's like, holy crap,
he's going to be swarmed. And he sat there and
signed every autograph, shook people's hands and was just like
(12:27):
this is his off night. It's Monday night, right, Like
all he's obligated to do is be here for an hour.
And I remember doing another hour of the show and
looking over and there's Rudy just and again like I'm
not sure that happens with anybody else now.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Man, it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
No, I mean, I can think I can count on
one hand, you know, all the years we did Beyond
the Stripes. It's very similar step up, yeah, and we'd
have some stars, we'd have some Anthony Anthony Mitchell's of
those times, right, And I can count on one hand
amount of times that people would stay before and after
Giovanni Bernard I remember specifically doing it, and not that
(13:04):
they have to, because they don't have to, right, And
that's sort of the point, is that it's a it's
not even expected, it's truly the extra mile.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's truly the just enjoying.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Being out there and around people and being, uh, you know,
just sort of understanding that you're not bigger than anybody
else and humble and so uh yeah, awful stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Eighteen minutes after three o'clock, Paul Danner Junior, The Athletic
dot Com and The Growler Podcast. I will admit that
I have not had a chance to watch you and
Charlie go over the rewatch of the game.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I understand why people are hesitanting.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's not been. It's been. It's been because of lack
of time. But my goal was My goal was to
watch it so I can react to it. But what
better you guys than me. Yeah, having to rewatch.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
That, well, I gotta tell you I enjoyed doing it
because it is dissecting. I think what is going to
be the conversation piece that's going to define.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
What the rest of this season looks like. All right,
we'll get to that when we come back.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We're at Oakley Green's Paul Danner Junior, The Athletic dot
Com and The Growler Podcast on Twitter at Paul Danner Junior.
He's here till four. We're here till six. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
The UC Health Traffic Center. The UC Cancer Center offers
personalized prostate cancer care, exclusive clinical trials and treatments you
won't find anywhere else. Call five one three five eighty five. UCCC.
Still only that one problem, the disabled vehicle on River
Road near Elbaron Avenue. Otherwise, construction work on southbound seventy
(14:38):
five between Ronald Reagan Highway and Norwood Lateral. Three lanes
are open, but the southbound left lane is now a
contraflow lane. I'm at exelic with traffic more.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
After three o'clock.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
This is ESPC fifteen thirty broadcasting from Oakley Greens located
at Oakley Station right off I seventy one. By the way,
this is something I've asked about often. What about the parking,
Whether got no to pay the park parking's on site,
it's free, it's easy, it's convenient. And by the way,
(15:10):
on top of all that, they have started Bengo every Thursday,
starting at eight during the Thursday night football game. It's
football theme bingo with prizes including autograph Bengals gear and
gift cards, and so it's a great way to watch
Thursday night football and win prizes and have fun and
start the weekend here at Oakley Greens. All the sports,
(15:33):
all the time, the game on. Let me start with
this part. Okay, the game on Sunday. When a team
gets blown out, I think it's easy for people to
default to, well, they quit, and I think that's the
most I think that's the harshest accusation you could throw
at a team or an athlete. I don't love using
(15:54):
that with a broad brush. Maybe it happens anecdotally. I
do think that I don't know that they quit. I
do think there was a, to me watching on TV,
a lack of fight when things got really bad.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
But I I stopped short of saying they quit.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
What do you How do you respond when someone says
that game on Sunday, yeah, fluky stuff happened, but they quit.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah. I don't care if they quite it was over,
they knew, I mean it was it was. We were
going through on the Rewatch show.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I had a clip I was just clipping out the
Chase Brown runs and I had one in there and
I was I had said to try.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
So.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I want to start with this one just because I
always have the score, time, game and situation on the
top just so you can look at it.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
It says forty eight to three when it's at that
point when it's thirty four to three and a half.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I didn't see guys giving up to the point where
you're like, whoa, there is no effort happening.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Were there a couple business decisions.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I guess maybe, were there a more younger guys playing. Yeah,
all the rookies were out there except for Schamar Like
it was a lot of that going on, just playing
it out.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I don't really have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I look at the I'll still look back in to
answer this specific question. I'll look at weeks one and
two when I feel like there was a ton of
fight amidst a bunch of adversity, and they showed a
lot of fight.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
To win a couple of games.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
And we can debate that but like how they should
have won or whatever, but I mean the Jacksonville game
in particular. Yeah, everything that goes down there, no quitting guys.
I look more at that than I do. You know,
how what did they look like when it was forty
eight to three trying to run duo.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So at that point I have no idea because I
wasn't watching it. Yeah, there were good NFL games on.
It was a remarkably fun NFL Sunday and the Reds
were playing, So I quit too, Yeah, I mean honestly,
like I I just oh they quit in the second
half Sunday.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I would have a problem if it was I mean,
if it was something within more reasonable, even if it
would have stayed thirty one to three or something, right,
you know, I just in the fourth quarter when it's
a million to nothing, Like, I don't really know why
we're trying to judge off that. I'll judge off other
situations before that one, I guess.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So the question that has been asked often and you've
written about is about the continued inability to find success
in the run game. Right, So, with an offensive line
filled with guys who are not renowned for their run blocking,
with them not changing the running back himself, the featured
(18:40):
running back, Chase Brown, I'm sure they're not going to
dramatically overhaul the plays in their offense. How does the
running game get better enough for them to survive this season?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
With a backup quarterback. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
I mean, it feels like there aren't a lot of
answers out there. I think there's a couple of things
at play.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
One. I do think that Minnesota was.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
A challenge they weren't ready for in terms of, you know,
they just they're they're not gelled together.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
The plan was giving them fits.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
They were tentative, they lacked any kind of aggression, and
they seem to not know what they were supposed to
be doing right And and I'm not gonna get into
why that is yet, but like so, I do think
that will change, like as time goes on here. I
do think you can grow confidence in young players, especially
(19:42):
how they had two rookie guards out there, a third
and a fifth round pick.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
In that game.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And this is what we said, I mean, if you're
gonna go play rookies, it sounds great to say play
the kid. No, oh no, you were gonna live through
those growing pains. They are gonna see things they haven't
seen before. They're gonna experience the NFL in ways they
didn't know football could be played before. They're gonna go
through a lot of stuff and they have to go
through that. I've referenced this. I'll never forget the conversation
(20:12):
I had with Clint Bowling a couple of years after
when he talked about recognizing after after the fact a
year or two later, how lost he was his rookie year, like,
how lost he felt out there, and he was the
last Bengals pick to get a second contract with Cincinnati
on the offensive line, he was a success.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, but you just have to go through that.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
This is what guys go through when they have to
play as rookies. It's not gonna be clean, they're gonna
make mistakes, they're not gonna play with confidence.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And when you have two of your five spots, Dalton
Reisner just got.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
There okay, and whether he should have been there earlier
or whatever, like you talk about that obviously, but that
stuff happening, the lack of confidence, the lack of totally
understanding what you're supposed to be doing because of rookies,
because of being new, because of gelling, because of scheme,
maybe they're not learning it right, whatever, any of that
(21:11):
all is that can get better in time. So I'm
trying to answer your question, Yes, that can get better
in time if they can start playing confidently and know
what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
It's obviously it's not a Chase Brown problem. I felt
bad yesterday. I was just trying to filter out Chase
Brown's running game yesterday and questions of Zach Taylor.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I think he felt like I was saying Chase Brown
is stinking it up, and I enjoyed that interaction.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I wasn't that I was trying. I was not trying
to say that. I was trying to say, like, what's
happening with the run game. I didn't want to get
into the gadget plays and everything and the like, oh,
what if Taj Brooks did in the fourth quarter. Let's
talk about, you know, forty seven carries for ninety three
yards or whatever. And somehow I think I came off
as saying Chase Brown's problem with you.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Know, the before contact numbers are.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Negative fifty four yards before contact this year for Chase Brown.
I mean, so it's negative zero point six yards before
contact per carry and the worst the NFL average is
positive point two six.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
There's it's it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
It's crazy that you're constantly having to work behind any
you know, and Chase Brown now has going back to
the year two thousand first three games of a year
minimum forty attempts, the worst.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Output in terms of yards per carry.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
One point ninety seven that we've seen this century in
that in this scenario, incredible from a guy who I'm
telling you I couldn't find a soul in that building
that watched the media, any of us that had seen
last year, saw what he looked like now heard everything
that they were saying, that would ever say that, Oh,
(23:01):
Chase Brown's not gonna do You're much from him right
right now. Granted the Borough thing is another part of this,
but it's stunning. It's it's stunning that it's this bad
when you have him and kind of know what you
have and have the other weapons that you have. I
don't think it will continue at this level. Uh, they're
(23:24):
they're looking at they're looking at tweaks and schemes they
got to be they're looking at you know, maybe it
is a ripping up of the whole thing that we
seem to talk about at this time every year. Uh,
there's gonna be changes, but I think you're banking on
the changes, building confidence in those changes, in those news schemes,
and then the inevitably it's just gonna come back to
the players playing confidently and knowing what they're doing in
(23:47):
front of Chase Brown.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Paul Danner Junior, the Athletic Dot Com in the Growler Podcast.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like to
rewatch that football game.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Well, I filtered it out. I certainly did not rewatch
the whole entire thing. I definitely picked the spots I
wanted to focus on.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
How all right, hang tight sports headlines are. Next, we're
at Oakley Greens. Here at Oakley Station, the home of
Fairway Feud every Wednesday from a seven to nineteen trivia
family Feud style Here at Oakley Greens. It's twenty six
from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
SINCY three sixty with Tony Pike. If we want to
move on, I have to keep going and Boston Elmore, I.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Think you should continue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow, which
twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Lane restrictions have now been lifted southbound on seventy one,
and this is after Western Row Road. Some slow traffic
though northbound seventy one between Ridge and Stuart Road and
northbound seventy five slow down from Mitchell Over towards Paddock
Road on that ezelic with traffic from the.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Service of Kelse Chevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life
Kelsey chev dot Com Reds and pirates first to three
tonight at GABP final three home games at the regular
season for Cincinnati, Brady Singer. We'll throw against Johann Oviedo
(25:19):
six is Tonight's first pitch.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
The game is live on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Reds and Her play even up with the Mets in
the hunt for the last wildcard spot. Obviously, Cincinnati possesses
the tiebreaker. New York, after an off day yesterday, is
in Chicago to take on the Cubs. Arizona is one
game behind both New York and Cincinnati. D Back start
a series tonight against the LA Dodgers. Former Bengals running
(25:44):
back Rudy Johnson passes away at the age of forty five,
still holds a number of Bengals career and single season
rushing records. Bengals with today off They've got the Denver
Broncos on Monday night. Scott's Adafield Show Tonight at eight
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty from the original Montgomery and
the Bearcat's getting said to take on Kansas on a
(26:06):
Saturday afternoon Where to Oakley Greens Here in Oakley Paul
Danner Junior from the Athletic The Reds play the Pirates tonight. Now,
many believe that Hunter Green should pitch tonight's game, so
he could also throw on Sunday. Do you concur with
that chunk of the fan base?
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I like Brady Singer. Brady Singer has been really good, Rachel.
I mean I don't. I don't know, what's some stats?
I mean since July twenty first R two one five.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah, it's good. I think more Hunter Green is good.
But I also think that you're partially don't. I don't
want to get into the logistics of this because I'm
probably gonna mess it up. I've been focused on what rewatched.
But if Hunters should be pitching game one of the playoffs, right,
if this works, it works out well, If yeah, you
(26:57):
do jeopardize like, okay, what are we doing? But if
you want him for Game one of the playoffs. Then
got to get there. You gotta get there. But I
just think I have faith. I would have faith, and
Brady Singer, yeah, I would have faith, and I know
whatever whatever they're gonna do. I like the setup that
they have now with wou Tell, Martinez, Chase Burns, Yes,
(27:20):
as three wild card pieces to shove in there, and
it cleans up everything you can. I mean, you can
do a game with those three and feel great. You
know what I mean if you wanted to put together
a game. They may end up doing that. But like
I like, I like the setup of those three guys.
As they now start playing more, Playoff should be managed
like Playoff style based from this point forward.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I think you saw it with how they used Burns,
and I think you saw it with Nick Martinez in
the role that is perfect for him. I know you
were in Minneapolis on Sunday, but I mean to me,
like we've said it all year long, what's it's what
makes them dangerous if they get there.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
They're really good starting pitching, but.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
A couple of bullets you could use at any point
in the game to get more than just one innings
worth of outs.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Gotta get South Stuart in the lineup, no question, I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I I understand.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
It's like where got to get when you're when you're
trying to win these playoff type managed games and you
are riding the back of pitching.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
In defense and that's fine.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Uh huh one swing from south Steward can win you
a game. Yes, you're counting us that so, yes, d
h whatever matter. Need him in the batter's box right, Yes,
it's where he plays. And you've just seen too much
to this point of of what he can bring you,
uh to to not I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
I just I want you need more at batch from
South Stewart's part of this. Uh, it's my mini Reds analysis.
That's good. That's good. I think most would would agree.
I learned that listening to power Sacks. Power Sacks is awesome.
It is awesome. Yeah, yeah, Charlie and Bryant killing it
right now. I did listen to that. Yes, yes, great stuff.
The rewatch I'll get to tomorrow. It's okay, Well we'll
talk tomorrow. Listen to it. You'll be on the podcast
(29:02):
tomorrow morning. I don't have to rewatch the game. Maybe
I'll save some of my favorite clips for you. In
the the.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
The run up to the game on Sunday, many wondered,
are the Bengals gonna go get a quarterback? And could
that guy be the long term dude? At least long
term meeting the next three months. In the aftermath of
Jake Browning's performance, many have yelled and screened, now you
have to go get somebody. Let me start with Jake
on Sunday. He wasn't good. He had a lot of
help in not being good. How much do you put
(29:34):
specifically on Jake minimal? I mean, understanding what he is.
He's a backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, I don't. I don't come out of that game.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
They're gonna have to figure out how they can have
him better walking the line, you know, between aggressive and reckless.
The Dan PITCHERR reference with us yesterday, which I think
he has struggled.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
With a little bit here.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
In these first two games, five picks, but a couple
of them have been just throw them all away, right,
And Dan Pitcher admitted that the pick six was just
you just got You're gonna have to make some throws
for them to win, but you gotta know when not
to better. And I think that's where they're at kind
of with Jake. But it's about the pressure. It's about
it being third and long over and over and over again.
(30:26):
You want to see how you lose, and lose ugly
being third and long in that building against Brian Flores
all day right, Like he's out there, guys are doing
three different pre snap looks. Everyone's running all over the place.
You can't hear yourself think for a second. No one
can call out any kind of an adjustment or audible
(30:47):
talking to the person next to him. Everybody's moving around
and it's third and ten again. Okay, that is no
way to play football. It's no way to win in
that building. It's as tough as it gets in terms
of trying to actually execute. That's why we keep talking
about the run game from the other day and the
(31:08):
lack of any kind of efficiency on first and second down,
Like if you can't find some way to keep yourself
out of I mean, it was seven first downs or
seven third downs in the first half, and all of
them except for one or eight or longer. I mean
it's over, man, Yeah, it's over, and you have to
(31:31):
find a way to get that help. He is going
to be a part of the problem until you help
the rest of the players be a solution. Like you
have to have good down and distance, you have to
have a balanced run game. You have to be running
more under center play action. I hate to keep harping
(31:52):
on it, but like, yeah, they did it five times
the other day. It's a successful thing when Jake has
done it every time. They do it at one of
the lowest rates in the league. Like, you've just gotta
beat keeping the other team thinking about is this a
play action play that they can get me? Not just
firing off on the under center runs and all that stuff.
You've gotta be doing more screens Chase Brown. Okay, this
(32:15):
is one of my favorite things. I was looking at
right before I came over here.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Do you remember his.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Miles per hour play that we talked about in Yeahpolis
twenty two miles per hour. Yeah, under center play action
screen to Chase Brown. He takes it fifty four yards.
Do you know how many times they have run an
under center play action screen to Chase Brown since then?
Less than five, zero, sew times they have done that
since then? Good coaching under even just one time in
(32:42):
the Pistol they did one time in the pistol they did.
He got twelve yards and had space to maybe break
it farther against the Raiders last year. That's it doing
so to me, like that's he's a weapon when when
when Jake Browning came in in twenty twenty three, one
of the biggest things they did was they started heavily
leaning into the screen game. It was the best I've
(33:04):
ever seen a screen game on a team I've covered. Yes,
it was unbelievable. Every time they threw it. We talked
about it like anything I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
It was crazy. All of a sudden, they were in
a great screen team.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
We talked about them screen passing their way to the
postseason because they did it.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yes, because they tried it, because they were doing it,
and you find things that way.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
That year. That was the thing they found.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
When we talk about how they've changed schemes and leaned
into certain things to invigorate running game or situations that
weren't ideal, like the fact that that has to be
something that you're doing, the fact that you're just not
doing it even once a game, two, three times a game,
like it doesn't no one's saying going out here and
screen it twenty times, but like you have to be
(33:45):
trying to do some of this different stuff to just
to try to open everything up, and I think you're
hoping that you'll see more of that. They obviously didn't
have a ton of rhythm or game script to do that,
or the moment they did start moving the ball, it
got laid on into the ground.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
It was a bit of an anomaly game on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
But as we go forward, there's just gotta be more
of that kind of stuff. They're not gonna just suddenly
be able to move people. They're an offensive line of
pass protectors that aren't great at run blocking, and the
whole thing doesn't seem to be working real well together
right now. You can tinker with that all you want.
I don't know that you can change that dramatically. You've
(34:23):
just got to start being way more diverse than some
of the other stuff that you're doing to keep the
the defenders off balance, it seems like, and they certainly
weren't doing enough of that on Sunday, And maybe that's
something that comes out in the next few weeks.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I have three minutes to go over two more things. Okay,
number one, no on Kirk Cousins. Then oh, sorry, Russell Wilson, Yeah,
I don't need that. I don't think Jake Browning is
the problem, but I don't. Do you want what you've
seen fro Russell Wilson?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Do you like that? You like what you've been seeing
some farm good? Is he better than Brett Rippon? Though
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
I didn't like what they're doing with the backup thing.
You don't want to be in a world where you
have to watch Brett Rippon or Sean Clifford or and
you know, no offense to those guys. I just don't
really care to sing Mike White. I would have liked
to have seen someone with a little bit more experience
and a little bit I've been kind of banging the
Tyler Huntley drum. He's just sitting on Baltimore's practice squad.
He's played a lot more, he's been successful to a degree,
(35:17):
more so, certainly more experienced than those guys have recently.
I'd like to feel better about your backup, so you
could maybe turn to that you don't going out and
like thinking that Kirk Cousins is gonna come in here
in salvage some kind of this season, or be that
dramatically different.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah, I don't. That's a bucket of cold water you
just threw. Sorry is fine? No, it's a here to
be the voice of reason to be. I don't know.
Maybe maybe I'm unreasonable, Maybe I hear a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I just think the guy that's been here this long,
that does know that have is the trust of the
team and and chemistry with the receivers, has a better
chance of digging you out of this than somebody who
shows up and says, Hi, my name's Kirk.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Who is your name? Jamar? Like and they do.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Would imagine Kirk Cousins knows Jamar Chas's they chake hands. Yeah,
there might be other teammates that he's not that familiar with,
but Jamar, I'm thinking he would know who that.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
I wonder what it's like to throw up the football
to this guy, right, I don't want to have to
think about that.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Okay, that's all the Other part of this is you
talked about them like not being ready, and we hear
what's the Brian Flores defense, and like this is wearing
on me Game one.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
It's just a bad matchup.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
I know, Okay, division team they see twice a year,
can't figure it out elite wide receivers. Okay, bad matchup?
How many more of these teams are they gonna play?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Where you go?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Oh, you know, the other team's just got this great
defensive coordinator. Or hey, the other team's got good corners
and you can't expect Jamar and Tee to get open.
Or boy, this other team they just they got a guy.
He's a really good three technique. Like I'm already tired
of hearing about how just throw your hands up, because
not a lot you can do against the immortal Brian
Flora is in his defense that the Atlanta Falcons figured
(36:54):
out a way to score twenty two points against like this.
It's not to say that the expl as to why
things went poorly is invalid, Certainly.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
It is, but why three games in twice?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
It's whether there's just nothing they can do against the
opponent when you got Miles Garrett or when you got
Brian Flores Like, well, the other teams have good coaches
and players too, so there's not gonna be a thing,
just another bad matchup.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
I mean, they scored thirty one against Jacksonville, who looks
to have a pretty good well.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
They only play them once. I'm just I mean, the
Browns are a good defense. The Browns just held the
Packers to ten. Were they a bad matchup for the
Baltimore Ravens?
Speaker 2 (37:30):
What's that where the Browns defense a bad matchup for
the Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Ravens obviously goes well for the Browns. I'm not saying,
I just it's like, okay, I'll give you the fine.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
The Browns are a bad matchup to the Packers stink
because they they lost to the Browns. As far as
I'm concerned, you only get to play the bad matchup
card once Bengals played at Week one, and don't get
to play it again week eighteen since it's the same team.
If if the if, the the excuse every week is
gonna be well just can't can't, can't do anything against
(37:59):
that Green Bay defense, then what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (38:01):
I think they went into those two games, the Minnesota
game and the Cleveland game, specifically playing conservative game plans
to try to not turn it over and try to win.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It that way.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
That is the type of game they wanted to play.
One of them they didn't turn it over. The other
one they turned it over five times. I think they
thought they could go to Minnesota and win like they
won the Cleveland game by being safe, and that means
it was you're not gonna see some of the open
stuff that they played differently against Jacksonville they did. They
(38:37):
just they let it rip more. They just said we're
gonna dictate with our passing game. I think that's more
of who they're gonna be all year. But I think
part of what they were trying to do this year
is to try to just win the turnover battle early
on when they don't quite know what they have, because
they feel like that's where they have lost.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Games early in seasons in previous years.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Comes a lot harder to go through all of that
evolution as you deal with the burrow, the browning thing
that's happening. But I think that's part of that's part
of what's happening this one. When you, like I said,
when you're in third and lungs, Yeah, when you're when
it's when you're down by a bunch in that building.
I think that's a bad match up for the NFL.
(39:21):
I think putting yourself in those spots, I think they
tried to avoid that by running the ball and for
on the early downs as much as they did it,
just they just couldn't do it. Is they needed to
find other ways to get yards. They probably need to
do more of the gadget stuff that they tinkered with
or the quick game that they were tinkering with. They
didn't and it put themselves in those bad spots all
(39:41):
over and over again. I think that's that is all
part of what has gone wrong. I'm curious to see
how it evolves. I don't see them being.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Bad.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I think they try to praise the other team afterwards
because they're not trying to take credit away from them.
I don't think that there's you're gonna have a season
of them playing the bad matchup game. I understand you're
sick of hearing. I don't know, not like it just
started this year.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I know what I want to fire into the sun
with more emphasis strike technique or bad matchup.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Yeah, well there might be something fired into the sun
if this year continues like.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
This up front, thank you as always. Yeah, it's a pleasure.
We talked about the rest. That part was fun. I know,
I enjoy it. I enjoyed this.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
Come on, you know, I thrive and things going sideways.
I love I lived on sway to the nineties. As
a child of the nineties, you know, you know, I
appreciate this portion of the program.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
We are broadcasting from Oakley Greens. There is no better
plays to watch the Bengals and Broncos on Monday Night football.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Think of next week you'll.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Have the Reds in the postseason, perhaps the Bengals on
Monday Night. By the way, full slate of college games
this weekend and the Ryder Cup here at Oakley Greens.
And while you're watching the Ryder Cup, you could play
mini golf with your buddies out back. It is a
five away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Traffic southbound seventy one seventy five. It is an accident
on the Collector Ramp from two to seventy five and Erlanger.
The center lane blocked on that Collector ramp. Burnett Avenue.
It's another accident between King Drive and Goodman Street. And
River Road accident between Evans and State. I'm at ezelic
with traffic.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
This is Jeff for tri statement
Mo Egger News
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