9/14/26 -- The Tony and Mo Football Show: The Bengals Defense Wasn't Dominant, But It Dominated The Day.

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kroger.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Touchdown!

Speaker 3 (00:02):
Bengals!

Speaker 4 (00:03):
The Bengals travel to Texas to take on Houston in
a Lone Star Showdown.

Speaker 5 (00:09):
Which raises an important question. What style of chili.

Speaker 4 (00:13):
Do I prefer?

Speaker 6 (00:14):
Hmm.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
I'm not sure, but they both make me gassy. Can
the orange and black handle Houston? Or will the Texans
defend their home turf? Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app
or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 5 (00:35):
It's the Bengals and Texans. This is the.

Speaker 7 (00:39):
Tony and Moe Football Show, live from Twin Peaks. Brought
to you in part by Encore Technologies. Visit Encore.Tech. OrthoHeal,
the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com.

Speaker 8 (00:55):
On to East.

Speaker 7 (00:56):
Cincinnati's ultimate Honda experience. First state bank built on belief.
R & L Carriers. Visit RLC.com and make R &
L Carriers your global transportation provider. And by your tri-state
Chevy dealers. Chevrolet, the number one selling brand in Cincinnati
for the past 10 years.

Speaker 8 (01:16):
Chevrolet, together, let's drive.

Speaker 7 (01:20):
On ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 9 (01:26):
All right, good afternoon from Twin Peaks in Westchester. It
is the first Tony and Mo football show of the
2026 season. We are, as always, broadcasting from Twin Peaks.
This is our seventh year.

Speaker 6 (01:38):
Is it really? At Twin Peaks. Back where it.

Speaker 9 (01:41):
All started, the Westchester location. We are here today and
next week we'll be in Florence two weeks from today.
We'll worry about that later on. It is a gorgeous
day to celebrate a victory Monday. If you haven't been
to Twin Peaks, what have you been waiting for? Westchester location,
right off I-75, get off at the Union Center Boulevard exit.

(02:02):
You've got a great place to watch Monday Night Football tonight.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
A good one.

Speaker 9 (02:05):
Only one game, a good one. Patrick Mahomes makes his
return as the Chiefs take on the Broncos. You have
the Reds playing for their lives, hosting the L.A.

Speaker 6 (02:15):
Dodgers. Continuity in those Reds, too.

Speaker 10 (02:17):
Tragic number is two. Must win tonight.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:20):
So if you're thinking, man, I want to watch that
and the football game and whatever else may be happening,
Twin Peaks and Westchester, come see us.

Speaker 10 (02:27):
Come have dinner. Come stay and watch the games. Can't
ask for anything more.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
This is such a big deal that I said, screw it.
I'm going to be here week one this year. And
God willing, I'm here every other week and not taking
a hiatus at some point during the season as well. No,
this is exciting. We talked about this on the pregame
show yesterday. There's an optimism and an excitement and a
buildup around this year's Cincinnati Bengals team that I don't

(02:54):
remember going into a season. And it would have been
really tough to come in here today. And I have
to talk about a loss. Yes. They get a win.
They get a win by not playing their A or
B game, in my opinion. And dare we say, they
got a win on the shoulders of the defense.

Speaker 9 (03:11):
Yeah, that was the question we all had, right? Like, yes,
they've made defensive upgrades. Yes, they've been aggressive and trying
to fix it. Yes, the defense should be okay-ish at worst.
But what I wanted to know was, can the defense
win a game for you?

Speaker 6 (03:27):
Did yesterday. Did yesterday. And how appropriate is it? All
these additions we talked about all had an impact. Jonathan
Allen had a sack. Dexter Lawrence got credited with a
QB hit. That was it. The two of Baker's fumbles
were caused because Baker had to leave the pocket. Dexter

(03:48):
Lawrence disrupted that whole game. Tristan Wirfs looked like he
was struggling going against Boye Mafe, who forced a fumble
and recovered a fumble. Brian Cook. forced a fumble, and
recovered a fumble. All of these guys not only did
well themselves, they opened things up, as we'll discuss, for
the linebackers. I thought Jordan Battle was good. Miles Murphy,

(04:09):
I thought, had a great game. All of these guys,
because of forced multipliers on the course of that defense,
except the inability to understand when the ball's right in
front of you how to line up on sides. Four
interior defensive lineman penalties. Two on Jonathan Allen. How? Yeah.
But all in all, a great day for the defense.

Speaker 9 (04:31):
By the way, this is the 12th year of the
Tony and Mo football show. This is the first ever
episode of this show that's being streamed live.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
You can watch. How can someone watch it? You can
watch it on Twitter. You can watch it on YouTube.

Speaker 9 (04:43):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (04:43):
Yeah. It's big. You could actually come to Twin Peaks.
That would be best. Pull it up on YouTube. You could.
Watch what you're listening to.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:51):
It's unbelievable. The advancements we've made.

Speaker 9 (04:53):
With where we're situated as the day unfolds, we may
be dealing with a little bit of a back glare problem,
but that's okay.

Speaker 6 (05:01):
We're fine. We're good. You get the idea.

Speaker 9 (05:03):
It will make you feel like you're here, but it's
still not as good as being here. And by the way,
we'll call folks out because the season ends every year,
and it's like, yeah, I meant to get.

Speaker 10 (05:13):
To one of those shows. We didn't get to make
it out. Didn't get to make it? Like, what day
is it?

Speaker 6 (05:17):
My favorite is the folks that will wait until we
declare where we're going.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (05:21):
Where are you at today? Yeah. Westchester.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (05:24):
If it was Florence, I'll be there.

Speaker 10 (05:25):
There's a lot of that.

Speaker 6 (05:26):
And then, magically, when we get to Florence, it'll be,
I wanted to come to Westchester today. What day is it?

Speaker 5 (05:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (05:32):
Oh, if it was tomorrow, it's like, well, it's kind
of stupid to do it on Wednesday. So, yeah.

Speaker 10 (05:37):
Nonetheless.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
Mondays. We are here.

Speaker 9 (05:39):
Victory Mondays. Victory Monday. I jotted down a lot of
names on defense, but I'm going to start with Barrett Carter.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (05:47):
There is, and Demetrius Knight as well we'll talk about,
but there is not a player who going into the
offseason I felt more strongly about them needing to not
replace on the team, but find an alternative for in
free agency. They didn't. Maybe they tried, but they didn't.
Barrett Carter had a good training camp. It was pretty

(06:11):
quiet down the back stretch. Yesterday, he was awesome.

Speaker 6 (06:16):
Isn't it weird, just thinking as you said that, isn't
it weird every time we bring up Barrett Carter, Demetrius Knight,
it feels like you have to mention the other? Yes.
Like they're just like a package deal. Higgins and Chase, yeah.
They came into the league together. They are two of
the most self-aware players you'll ever meet. We talked to
Demetrius Knight during training camp. I talked to Barrett Carter
after the game yesterday. They know they were bad last year,

(06:37):
and they're also appreciative of the faith that was instilled
in them by the coaching staff and this organization. Again,
an organization who completely revamped and reworked a lot of
this roster, but said, we believe enough in these two
to not touch the linebacker room. Much at times to
my dismay, I thought they should have added a linebacker

(06:57):
because of what the play was last year. But if
you think about it, and Demetrius Knight told us, they
came in with thinking, okay, we got Logan Wilson here
in the room. He'll help guide us. And then he
was gone. And then Al Golden's a linebacker guy, but
he's running a defense for the first time for the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (07:12):
Just felt like, I think to borrow something from the Reds,
they were probably just trying to keep their head above
water for much last year. Now they feel more confident.
They feel more comfortable in the system. I think they're
playing instinctively. They're faster. They're getting to the ball. Barrett
Carter mentioned the ability to play behind that front and
how it frees up some of those running lanes and

(07:33):
how they can feel and visualize what they need to see.
Barrett Carter was all over the field yesterday. And it's
such a positive sign. I know it's only one game.
But that is the position. And it still is. Zach
Robinson tried to attack it and exploit it yesterday. I'm
sure if you watch what the tight ends and David

(07:53):
Montgomery did for the Texans yesterday in a loss, they're
going to try to exploit the middle of the field.
That's where teams are still going to try. But a
one-game sample size was a passing grade in flying colors.

Speaker 9 (08:05):
I thought Boye Mafe's Bengals debut was terrific.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
And.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
You know, they get Dexter Lawrence. They get Brian Cook.

Speaker 9 (08:15):
Boye Mafe sort of, from the standpoint of how we
talked about the defense and how we talked about what
they've done with it, I don't want to say lost
in the shuffle.

Speaker 6 (08:24):
But he wasn't talked about as much as those other guys.
Should be talked about a lot today. He should be.
And we probably didn't do enough of talking about him
coming from a Super Bowl championship team.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
We talk a lot about culture in the locker room,
yet we didn't talk a ton about adding that element
to the locker room you follow a lot of seattle
seahawks folks they were upset about losing him because there's
a lot of upside there he's going to get more
snaps here he's going to get more opportunities he's going
to see a heck of a lot of one-on-ones and
yesterday against a a player in the nfl who's been

(08:56):
an all-pro right and left tackle tristan wharfs he hit
him all over the place yeah false start penalties two
false starts yesterday on tristan wharfs i thought mafe was
great forced to fumble and recovered one as well um
I don't know if you could script a better start
for the defense and how they reworked it than yesterday.
And Brian Cook.

Speaker 9 (09:18):
I mean, like, it's every new guy making an impact.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
It's hard with Brian Cook not to. He was the
first guy I wanted to talk to after the game. And, yes,
because of on the field, but what it meant to
him in Cincinnati. Yeah. Grew up here, played at the
University of Cincinnati, has been to the mountaintop multiple times
in the National Football League, And is so emotional and
excited about bringing that to Cincinnati. Not just riding out

(09:43):
the career here, but bringing a championship to Cincinnati. And
what does he do on the first opportunity? Recovers a
fumble and forces a fumble. And it's just, he's flying around.
One of the underrated plays in the game, first series
of the game, they go play action. Somehow, Ibuki. is
on with Jalen Davis. Ibuka, if it's a better throw,

(10:03):
it might be a touchdown. Baker underthrew it a little bit,
but Brian Cook from the middle of the field gets
there and breaks that ball up. Just little things like
that where he's in the right place at the right time.
We saw instances of Jordan Battle yesterday flashing. I think
that's a correlation of having Brian Cook, and I go
back to the offseason, there were like signature moments, and

(10:24):
you talk about the Dexter Lawrence moment a lot when
he was signed here, started right away. I go back
to all the times in the offseason we heard Joe
Burrow talk. And while they had so many new additions,
he always went out of his way to talk about
the addition of Brian Cook. And you saw that yesterday,
what he means to the back end of this defense.

Speaker 9 (10:41):
I moved seat locations this year, so I'm sitting to
my left next to a total stranger. And so when
Brian Cook makes that play, this guy just says to me,
Geno Stone doesn't do that.

Speaker 6 (10:50):
It's true. It's true. It is. Right. Brian Cook isn't
rated as the best safety in football. No. But from
how bad Geno Stone was last year to getting Brian Cook,
you could argue that it's the single biggest improvement of
any position in the NFL offseason.

Speaker 9 (11:07):
Maybe.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
Teams upgraded, but they upgraded probably decent players. You go
from Geno Stone to Brian Cook, it might be the
biggest upgrade in the NFL.

Speaker 9 (11:16):
16 minutes after 3 o'clock. We are here until 6.
By the way, Zach Taylor's weekly Monday press conference will
carry at least the first.

Speaker 6 (11:25):
Part of it for you at 345. Okay. I wanted
to start the 3 o'clock hour with us. Yeah. Live. Well, also,
you're not working enough today. I ain't working tomorrow. So
you can get anything out of me tonight that you want.

Speaker 10 (11:40):
If I'm going to give you a break, it's going
to be a little bit later on.

Speaker 9 (11:42):
But so if you're waiting to hear from the head
coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, we'll have at least the
first part of his press conference for you coming up
in just about 30 minutes.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
Did you write down 418 rushing yards anywhere for UC?
I got it in my– We'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
I know it's part of victory. 400, like the sixth
highest in school history.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (12:00):
We will talk about that.

Speaker 9 (12:01):
We're going to get to what happened with Ohio State
on Saturday night. We've got the AFC North to talk about,
week one around the NFL, some surprises, tons of offense.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (12:10):
A team loses a game because it tries a shovel
pass on the game time two-point conversion. But most of
the focus, obviously, on the Bengals. We've touched on what
the defense did yesterday. Now let's talk about the afternoon
for Joe Burrow and the offense. We'll do that when
we come back. Twin Peaks in Westchester. It's the Tony
and Mo Football Show. We're here until 6 o'clock on

(12:30):
ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.

Speaker 6 (12:37):
Traffic.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
From the UC Health, the traffic.

Speaker 9 (12:40):
23 minutes after 3 o'clock, this is the Tony and
Mo Football Show.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
At Twin Peaks in Westchester, we are here until 6 o'clock.

Speaker 9 (12:49):
I don't know if I've ever eaten anything faster than
I just inhaled nearly an entire.

Speaker 6 (12:55):
Plate of chicken tenders. It's one of the more impressive feats.
I was hungry. When you do a show on location. Yeah.
And you get that break.

Speaker 11 (13:02):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
Can you get that food done before the show gets back?

Speaker 9 (13:05):
If there's one thing that nearly 29 years in radio
has conditioned me to be able to do, it's eat
within like a four and a half minute window.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
And here we are. Pretty good there. Pretty good there.

Speaker 9 (13:17):
Twin Peaks, Westchester, home of the Tony and Mo football show. Again,
we'll be back in Florence two weeks from today. So
Josiah Trotter becomes the first player in NFL history to
have both a pick six and a sack in his
NFL debut. The pick six that Joe Burrow threw. We're
going to talk about his entire day, but can you
tell me what happened there?

Speaker 6 (13:36):
It was atrocious, and Joe would tell you that.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (13:39):
You know, the unique thing about it, and I said
this during the broadcast, I love what the Bengals did
on that play. They ran a play, and then they
got to the line immediately so that Tampa couldn't sub.
So Burrow had 28 seconds at the line of scrimmage.
And he's like, he was taking his time. He was
setting the protection. He's moving guys around, getting into the

(14:00):
look he wanted. He had so much time, there's no
chance he didn't know what the coverage was.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Right.

Speaker 6 (14:06):
Which makes it even more astounding that he didn't look
off Trotter. He knew it was a zone coverage, and
in zone coverage, the defender's eyes are on you because
they're dropping into their zone. They're not watching the man.
They're dropping into a zone. So Joe did nothing to
move Josiah Trotter left at all. He stared down Andre

(14:27):
Yotivash and made the throw. It was such an uncharacteristic throw.
He mentioned it, how much he would want to have
it back. That's obvious. But everything, oddly enough, about the
play other than the result, I liked. Right. Because, again,
I want Burrow to the line of scrimmage with as
much time as possible. It's something we talked about with
him under center and everything else. They did that. They

(14:49):
gave him all the tools. Just a mental error on
his behalf. How would you assess his overall performance?

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (14:59):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
You know, I think there were some reads that he
wishes he would have had back. I went back to
Wednesday night football, and Collinsworth's calling the game. Do you
remember the fourth down where JSN scored? Right before the play,
Collinsworth said, boy, this will be one of the few
times all night that you're going to get one-on-one coverage
with Jackson Smith and Jigba. The play right before the half,

(15:20):
the third down on the goal line, was cover zero,
one-on-one coverage with outside leverage. Jamar Chase ran a slant.
walked into the end zone and Joe Burrow looked to
the left. So I don't think he was necessarily sharp
at times. I think he made some good plays with
his legs, the check on the QB draw up the middle,

(15:41):
the third down where he was able to get a
first down on the sideline. I thought he did enough there,
but I don't think, and I think he would be
the first one to say, I don't think it was
his A game yesterday.

Speaker 10 (15:53):
I thought it was his best week one performance ever.

Speaker 6 (15:56):
Yeah, based on what week ones have been.

Speaker 9 (15:58):
I mean, there have been injuries and mitigating circumstances, but
typically week one, Joe plays poorly. So, yes, there's the
pick six, but 25 of 35 for 254 and a touchdown,
like by week one, by typical Joe Burrow standards, it's
B minus game, maybe C plus. By his week one standards,

(16:18):
that's an A plus.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
And you've seen it floating around. If you come out
of a game and you look at the box score
and Tampa Bay doesn't punt, Jamar Chase has 12 yards receiving,
and Burrow threw a pick six. You would assume they
lost the game.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (16:31):
They found a way to win it. I think it's
good to find a way to win when Joe doesn't
have to be MVP Joe Burrow.

Speaker 11 (16:38):
Right.

Speaker 6 (16:39):
And I think for Joe, he took a big step yesterday.
The way he used Mike Kosicki, the way he openly
took the check down when the zone coverage was dropping
to Pirine and Chase Brown, and then when he needs
it the most. historically, he's at his best. The throw
to T. Higgins to seal the game. The catch by T. Higgins.

(17:03):
The catch by T. Higgins. Because if that drops, then
you're like, well, what are you doing? You're stopping the clock.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (17:08):
There was a third down in the second half where
he pushed the pocket, moved a little bit, and found T.
Higgins on the crossing route that you needed because it
felt like the momentum was shifting a little bit back
to Tampa. So he made the plays when he needed to.
I don't think he's as sharp as we'll see Joe
Burrow going forward. But to your point, knowing how they've
historically struggled and he has in early season moments, to

(17:30):
get out of there with 33 points and a win
is huge.

Speaker 9 (17:33):
So they get the football back after Tampa Bay cuts
it to a one-score game, and the first play is
a pass to Dante Myers.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
Incredible.

Speaker 10 (17:42):
And the next one's the Samajay Piram.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
And, like, they used Dante Myers twice, too. They gave
him the jet sweep where he made the first guy
miss to get 10 yards. Yeah. It's crazy to think
in that situation with 3-14 left in the game, Tampa
had all their timeouts. I don't mind them throwing because
that's an aggressive nature. You see far too many teams
say run, run, pass or run, run, run, make them
use their timeouts. What I like the most, it felt

(18:07):
like not only did the ball go to Dante Myers,
but it felt like the play was called for him.

Speaker 5 (18:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (18:11):
Tampa's loading the box. They send him in motion. It
gets the coverage to loosen up a little bit. You
give him the ball and the flattening makes the guy
miss for 18 yards.

Speaker 9 (18:18):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
And then the next play, they go empty. And you're
thinking like normally, all right, they're going to go empty.
The back's going to come back into the backfield. Linebacker
was out there. Man-to-man coverage indicator. Joto's a hitch to
Samajai Pirine. And two plays in, Mo, they're on the 44.
And you're like, well, McPherson range already.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (18:36):
With how Evan McPherson had been kicking the ball. So
I love the way they handled and aggressively went after
the last drive to say, let's just go win it.
Let's end the game with the ball in our hands.

Speaker 9 (18:48):
Which is the exact opposite of what they did just
a few moments prior, which we'll get to when we
come back. 3.30, Tony and Moe football show, Twin Peaks
in Westchester. Sports headlines coming up. Zach Taylor's press conference.
Only about six and a half minutes today.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
Really? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (19:05):
That is coming up in 15 minutes on ESPN 1530
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
From the UC Health.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
Cincinnati's Sports Station. ESPN 1530.

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Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
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Speaker 6 (19:32):
KelseyChev.com.

Speaker 9 (19:33):
Bengals have been installed as a three-point underdog on Sunday
when they take on the Texans in Houston. That game
at 1, live on ESPN 1530. Zach Taylor said his
team came out of yesterday's game relatively clean from an injury.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
Injury perspective.

Speaker 9 (19:51):
More tonight on Bengals Line, starring Lance McAllister and Tony Pike.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
Yep. Boy, you're busy. Rolling right on through.

Speaker 9 (19:58):
6-9 tonight. That is on ESPN 1530. Monday Night Football tonight.
Patrick Mahomes makes his return. Chiefs hosting the Broncos. You
can hear radio coverage. on Fox Sports 1360. Meanwhile, the
Reds are back home for their final homestand of the season.
First of four against... Did you see how everyone in
here just perked up?

Speaker 6 (20:16):
I did. Kids are crying. You said the Reds and
the kids start screaming. People booed. You know, they won yesterday. Yes.

Speaker 10 (20:30):
They won the last game. They own the Brewers.

Speaker 9 (20:33):
6.40 tonight, Nick Lodola will pitch against Tarek Skubal. The
game is on 700 WLW.

Speaker 6 (20:47):
Go ahead. You mentioned the Texans and being favored. I
know we'll dive into that as well. All the more
reason yesterday mattered so much more. No doubt. After the
Texans go 0-1, the last thing you wanted to do
was feel like you had to go get that one.
Now you're almost, I don't want to say icing on
the cake, but you have a little bit more freedom
there to not play as tight as maybe the Texans will.

Speaker 9 (21:08):
Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami, Ohio State, one through
six in both major polls.

Speaker 6 (21:13):
Louisville, 23rd.

Speaker 9 (21:14):
The UC Kansas State game on Saturday, September the 26th
will take place under the lights, nip at night, 7 p.m.
Bearcats hosting the K-State Wildcats. Before the break... I mentioned
a play that I just, it made me scratch my head.

Speaker 6 (21:32):
Cincinnati is up by 10 points. It's 30 to 20.

Speaker 9 (21:35):
Bengals have the football at the Tampa Bay nine yard line.
It's fourth and two, which means ideally you get two yards,
you get the first down, you can milk some more
clock and then punch it in and the game. They
take Joe Burrow out. They put Joe Flacco in. He
tries to draw them off sides. They get penalized, delay

(21:57):
a game. McPherson comes out. McPherson also made a 58-yarder,
but he makes a field goal 33-20.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
What are we doing? You're getting way too cute. And
the worrisome part there, and it almost came back a
little bit because you saw how quick Tampa went down
the field. You're up 10. Go up three scores and
finish it. In those situations... Like if it's a seven-point
game and you want to make it two scores, I'm
all about it. Yeah, sure, yes. But in that setting,

(22:29):
I would feel better going and ending the game there. Yeah.
Because then it gets awkward. Then you try to play
the prevent defense, and all of a sudden Tampa's down
the field. And before you know it, three and a
half minutes left, and now it's a six-point game. Yeah. Again,
I want the ball in Joe Burrow's hands. Spread him out,
fourth down, let him make a play, and let him
essentially finish the game.

Speaker 9 (22:51):
You're up 10. If you get stuffed, okay, Tampa Bay
has a two-score deficit. They've got to go the length
of the field, basically, to score a touchdown. They still
have to go a long way to kick a field goal.
You said too cute, same verbiage I would use. I
think it was unnecessary.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
I get it.

Speaker 9 (23:08):
The crowd sort of came to life when Joe Flacco
came charging out onto the field.

Speaker 10 (23:11):
I love Joe Flacco, but come on.

Speaker 6 (23:12):
And time and place. I was good. I would have
liked to see him punching him before the half, but
take the points because you get the ball coming out. Agreed.
Fourth quarter, you've got a chance to finish them off.
Don't leave it up to chance. Don't leave it up
to some freak play on the back end. Go finish
it right now. And they didn't. Are they still able
to hold on and win because the offense went and

(23:33):
did what they needed to do to salt the game away?
But you left the door open in that instance, in
my opinion. Let's go through the AFC North, starting with
the Ravens. I am not.

Speaker 10 (23:47):
I am never going to count out Derrick Henry.

Speaker 6 (23:50):
I know. We've done it.

Speaker 9 (23:51):
I'm not doing it anymore. I keep waiting for age
to catch up. I'm not doing it anymore.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Lamar looks sharp. He did. Zay Flowers, who I think
left with a hamstring.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (24:01):
Jesse Minter today called him day-to-day.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
He looked explosive. I thought it would be more clunky
on their offense with the new offensive coordinator. It was impressive.

Speaker 11 (24:14):
And.

Speaker 6 (24:14):
You know, we know because we've talked about it all offseason.
A lot of experts feel that that's a team that
can win the Super Bowl or go to the Super
Bowl out of the AFC. And we don't. I don't. Yeah,
I'm with you on that. But that was a I
thought it would take a little time for them to get,
especially opening on the road. New offense, new system. I
thought they performed really well.

Speaker 9 (24:34):
Derrick Henry now has the most games in NFL history
where a player has rushed for over 100 and scored
multiple touchdowns in the same game. 24 carries, 144 on
the ground, three touchdowns. The big story in the Pittsburgh
Atlanta game was about who didn't play. Joey Porter didn't play.
He was there.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
He was wearing some Steelers shorts.

Speaker 9 (24:56):
There are many reports out there that suggest a trade
could happen as soon as this week. But the Steelers
go on to beat the Falcons 20-13.

Speaker 6 (25:04):
One thing from that, I thought based on how last
year went, like T.J. Watt was kind of at the end.
Two sacks, pick six, multiple quarterback hits, multiple pressures. He
looked like the T.J. Watt of old. Refreshed, renewed. That
defense is still very good. I feel a little bit
for Kevin Stefanski because he went from a nightmare situation

(25:25):
with quarterbacks in Cleveland. Now he's got to start Cooper
Rush in game one. with the Atlanta Falcons. Pittsburgh, rushing,
they weren't able to get anything going on the ground yesterday.
Offense struggled, but that is still going to be a
formidable defense to go against twice.

Speaker 9 (25:42):
The quarterback nightmare does continue in Atlanta, or I'm sorry,
in Cleveland, where the Browns had 34 hung on them
by the Jacksonville Jaguars and where Deshaun Watson very much
looked like a guy who had played in nearly 700 days.

Speaker 6 (25:56):
Has a season ever started and ended... so quickly than
the Browns. I don't know what... I'm watching Deshaun Watson yesterday.
Some of his drops, like Jeff Schwartz on X pointed
it out, some of his drops looked like they were
Hail Mary at the end of the game where he
was just dropping eight yards and running around. It looked
like inmates running the asylum, and it might be in Cleveland.

(26:19):
I don't know what they're trying to do. I expected
their defense to play a little bit better than what
it did, but I think that's also... A little bit
of a credit to how good that Jacksonville team is.
We'll see them in a couple weeks. That's a team
that was red hot to end the year last year,
and Trevor Lawrence picked up right where he left off.

Speaker 9 (26:36):
Zach Taylor talked with the media a short while ago.
You'll hear his Monday afternoon press conference out of contractual
obligation when we come back. Tony and Moe Football Show,
Twin Peaks in Westchester, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (26:52):

Speaker 6 (26:56):
Traffic.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (27:00):
Excuse me.

Speaker 9 (27:01):
Tony and Moe Football Show rolls on from Twin Peaks
in Westchester on ESPN 1530. Don't forget tonight, Bengals Line
airs on ESPN 1530 from 6 until 9 o'clock. Right now,
it's time for Zach Taylor's Monday press conference on ESPN 1530.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
No, pretty.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Good.

Speaker 12 (27:23):
I mean, maybe a couple guys limited early in the week,
but it came out pretty clean.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
How would you describe the impact Dexter made yesterday?

Speaker 12 (27:31):
Big, you know, and it's not always going to show
up on the stat sheet. It shows up because of
the production that a lot of guys around him get oftentimes.
And he still was in there and made his presence felt,
and Baker had to try to get away from him
a couple times.

Speaker 13 (27:43):
Had some runs he really affected as well.

Speaker 12 (27:46):
But as much as anything, you just see the production
that comes to other people because of the attention he draws.

Speaker 6 (27:53):
You saw in Barrett and Demetrius yesterday compared to the.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Film from last year?

Speaker 12 (27:57):
I think just the speed in which they diagnose things
and go make a play. There's no hesitation, which over
the course of the season, they certainly improved on. But,
you know, and they trust the talent around them. So,
you know, you don't have to do too much. I
thought that they had really good command of the defense,
you know, Barrett with the headset and doing a great

(28:17):
job getting us in the right calls. So I was impressed,
and again, there's improvement for everybody to be had, but
I thought it was a good starting point.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
How good was the O-line yesterday?

Speaker 5 (28:28):
They were good.

Speaker 13 (28:29):
They kept them clean.

Speaker 12 (28:30):
It was a lot of pressure looks that we had
to go over to get ready for the game. They
got great front, and so I was really impressed with
the job that they did, number one, in protection, keeping
Joe clean, giving him a lot of time. um to
either extend the pocket and make some plays or just
just stand back there and wait for somebody to get
open um the run game there's some really big holes

(28:53):
there for chase um some grimy runs there at the
end of the game that that were good and then
there's some opportunities i think just all across the board
with everybody involved in the blocking to get some bigger
plays that that we may be missed knowing.

Speaker 11 (29:06):
That it's week one and there's still a long way
to go how good was it um to get a
three-phase win?

Speaker 13 (29:12):
Yeah, I think just week one, there's so many unknowns.

Speaker 12 (29:16):
In every way imaginable. And so just for a team
to come out and start the game the way that
we did, you know, getting up 21-3 at one point,
I think is big to capitalize on the confidence that
we had coming in. And then just to, there's a
lot of things that we can learn from, but just overall,
I was proud of the effort, probably the enthusiasm the

(29:39):
guys played with, the confidence they played with. And then
the objective isn't to be your best team week one.
It's to be your best team at the end of
the season. And so I just want to see that
process continue to improve for us as we get ready
for Houston.

Speaker 13 (29:52):
What'd you make of the rookies that played yesterday?

Speaker 6 (29:54):
It seemed like they got something to do with it.

Speaker 11 (29:55):
But actually, what'd you make of how they performed in their.

Speaker 13 (29:57):
First real game? Yeah, I thought it wasn't too big
for them.

Speaker 12 (30:01):
You know, as I'm thinking through who Cassius made an impact.
Bobo went in there, and he had the one that
came to him early, you know. And so we've got
to be better with our body position, our hands. But
he's impressed me throughout. Who else am I missing there?
I'm trying to think through those two you're talking about.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Um, that closing drive starts out with a play to Dante.
What did you like about him in that spot and
to play that he made?

Speaker 12 (30:29):
Yeah, he made really two space plays where there's a
player there that can make the play on them. You know,
one was the jet sweep and one was the drive
started there. So I was just really good confidence by
him with the ball in his hands to make people
miss good ball security, stay in bounds.

Speaker 13 (30:44):
So good situational awareness.

Speaker 12 (30:46):
Um, You're really calling that play, hoping maybe they play
some zone and Jamar gets the ball first, play the drive.
But they didn't, they took him away and it gave
Dante a free shot there. Joe did a good job
with the location on the ball, allowing him to catch
and turn and get upfield. And so again, just really impressive,
the plays that came his way, he made them yesterday.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
And then you spoke a bit about it yesterday, but
that throw to T, was that maybe even more impressive.

Speaker 13 (31:09):
When you rewatched it?

Speaker 5 (31:11):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 13 (31:14):
It's the gravity of the situation. I think usually when
we make that throw, it's for free access.

Speaker 12 (31:22):
It's usually a single high, corners playing off, so you
can run it off of steps.

Speaker 13 (31:28):
Quarterback can plant, throw, put it to a spot.

Speaker 12 (31:30):
They got their hands on T, so T did a
really good job being strong and not getting washed inside.
They really swapped the coverage because Jamar was on the shallow,
so they passed it off, and so you had a
new safety coming back in the middle. Joe, you could
see his eyes on the TV copy. He did a
good job locating him and then just putting the ball
where only really a 6'5 receiver could go get it.
And for him to trust with the timing he did it,

(31:53):
it's hard. Those throws are really hard because, again, when
the corner puts his hands on you, it's not a
free-access throw anymore. You don't actually know the timing that
your receiver is going to come out of the break.
And so I think that's furthermore impressive that he let
it go. And how team came down with the ball,
I'm still not clear on it, but he's done that
routinely for us, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
Tell you those two plays? I mean, how much is that?
I know it's a small sample size, but how much
does a guy that does those with his.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Two opportunities make you guys come back on Monday and
Tuesday and say, we should.

Speaker 13 (32:22):
Try to expand more?

Speaker 12 (32:23):
I think, you know, it's just, our offense is about
guys making the plays that come to them. And so we, we,
we have plenty of guys we can design plays to.
And we focus primarily on, on, you know, a couple
of them, but what's key is that the, the other
players that have roles for us, they make the plays
that come to them. And, You never know, we're always
gonna try to get the ball to Jamar. That's always

(32:45):
part of our plan, but then sometimes other guys are
just gonna come open. And when your number's called, you
have to make that play. And Dante made those two
plays for us yesterday.

Speaker 13 (32:55):
Go with you, Hub, and then we'll go back. Thank you.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
You also had enough confidence to make a return.

Speaker 5 (33:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
And I'm wondering what you and Darren saw there.

Speaker 12 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean, I just have the confidence in him to,
to make some splash plays for us and be sound
with the ball security. And, um, he's got good speed
and quickness and I feel like he can, he can
make some explosive plays for us in their turn game.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Sorry about that. Um, broad question, but what did you
think of the tackling in general yesterday?

Speaker 12 (33:25):
I thought there's going to be moments where we got
to be better coming to balance and get guys on
the ground. But, um, I thought the effort was there.
I thought guys did a good job of leveraging the ball.
I thought, um, Our vice tackling, you saw a lot
of journeys around the ball. A lot of times the
ball got in space. Sometimes our coverage.

Speaker 13 (33:40):
Was really good.

Speaker 12 (33:42):
Made them drop it down. You'd see three or four
guys rally to the ball, get the ball carrier on
the ground. So overall, it was good for week one,
and we'll just continue to improve from there.

Speaker 11 (33:53):
Going back to the film, what did you see on
Joe's pick six? And also, he has four since the
start of last season. So how much of a concern
is that?

Speaker 12 (34:02):
I'm not concerned about Joe. I think he's going to
do a great job taking care of the ball. we'll
progress through on that one, you know, to the next progression.
That's one he'll want to have back. But overall, he's
unbelievable with his decision-making. And, of course, we don't want
that to happen, but I trust him fully.

Speaker 6 (34:18):
Was it his call to go no huddle there? It
looked like you guys were trying to rough dock that yard.

Speaker 12 (34:21):
Trying to catch 12 on the field. And so they
got the 12th on. And so we got to a
play we wanted to get to. So we were still
able to get that executed. Obviously, it just didn't work
out for us.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
What's next?

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Kind of what happened with the offsides penalties i'm sure
it was something you were addressing during the game.

Speaker 13 (34:35):
Yeah and they kind of neutral zone.

Speaker 12 (34:36):
Yeah yeah we can't have it you know we had
four of them um and and we've got to be
better at it i think they'll see that very clearly
when they see the tape of what we were trying
to communicate over the course of the game because it
was wasn't the same guy over and over it was
multiple guys and so um you know some of them
were good plays by our defense where we we get
a stop and then they get a free five and

(34:58):
So we're not going to accept.

Speaker 13 (35:00):
That, and I know our guys are professional enough to
understand that. Thank you.

Speaker 9 (35:11):
All right, Zach Taylor's Monday afternoon press conference, the day
after the Bengals' 33-27 victory.

Speaker 6 (35:16):
Over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 9 (35:18):
A lot more tonight on Bengals Line 6 until 9
on ESPN 1530. We have two hours to go. Tony
and Moe Football Show, Twin Peaks in Westchester.

Speaker 6 (35:27):
There we go.

Speaker 9 (35:28):
Coming to life a little bit here. The crowd has
woken up, which is great.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
It's like we lost yesterday.

Speaker 9 (35:33):
I thought for a second, like, yeah, did they actually
win the football game?

Speaker 6 (35:36):
They did win, right? Things are okay. There we go.

Speaker 10 (35:39):
I think the beer is just now starting to flow.
What's going on here?

Speaker 6 (35:43):
First one's down.

Speaker 9 (35:45):
Well, I guess that means it's time for us to imbibe.
It's coming up on 4 o'clock, Tony and Moe Football Show,
Twin Peaks and Westchester, ESPN 1530, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 7 (35:56):
This has been the Zach Taylor Press Conference on.

Speaker 8 (35:59):
ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
a Lone Star showdown, which raises an important question. What
style of chili do I prefer? Hmm, I'm not sure,
but they both make me gassy. Can the orange and
black handle Houston, or will the Texans defend.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Their home turf? Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app
or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
It's the Bengals and Texans.

Speaker 7 (36:46):
This is the Tony and Moe Football Show, live from
Twin Peaks. Brought to you in part by Encore Technologies.
Visit Encore.tech. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com.
Honda East, Cincinnati's ultimate Honda experience. First state bank built

(37:07):
on belief. R & L Carriers. Visit RLC.com and make
R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. And by
your tri-state Chevy dealers. Chevrolet, the number one selling brand
in Cincinnati for the past 10 years.

Speaker 8 (37:23):

Speaker 7 (37:27):

Speaker 9 (37:33):
Our number two of the Tony and Mo football show
at Twin Peaks in Westchester.

Speaker 10 (37:38):
It is awesome to be here.

Speaker 9 (37:39):
Great to be celebrating a victory Monday after the Bengals
beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The crowd has come to life.
Right now what you have is you have people who
are either excited and cheering over here or folks over
here who are looking at us going, why are people yelling?

Speaker 10 (37:54):
Why are they yelling? What are they doing here? And
when are they going to leave?

Speaker 6 (37:57):
Six o'clock. For some of us.

Speaker 10 (38:01):
For some of us, yes.

Speaker 6 (38:02):
Others might watch Monday Night Football here. Or the Reds.
Others might watch the Reds chase that magic number. By
the way, speaking of the Reds, I got a note
from back in Kenwood.

Speaker 9 (38:11):
I was told to ask you if you wouldn't mind
hosting extra innings tonight.

Speaker 6 (38:19):
After the ball game. I unfortunately couldn't tell you the
last Reds game I sat through and watched. All right. Well,
I guess that's a no.

Speaker 8 (38:24):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (38:26):
It's the Dodgers. It is the Dodgers. That's cool.

Speaker 9 (38:28):
Tarek Skubal's in town. But more importantly, the Bengals win
yesterday 33-27. They ran it yesterday. Chase Brown under center snap.
17 rushes, 78 yards. They missed on a play action
pass running under center. How did you feel that operation went?

Speaker 6 (38:45):
I thought it was clean. I saw it. Joe looked
more comfortable. I thought the play action where he turned
his back, hitched once, and found Jamar Chase was a
really good and well-executed play. I'll contest that the Tee
Higgins catch was overturned. I still don't know what catches
are in the NFL. Yes. I thought it was a catch.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (39:05):
And I thought it was a good job because he
got his head around, identified the pressure, pushed up, and
still made the throw. But what I like the most
about them being under center is most of the time,
They were at the line with 18 to 20 seconds
on the play clock. If you're going to go under
center and you want Joe Burrow comfortable, then you have
to be able to give him time to evaluate what
the defense is doing. The one time it didn't happen

(39:26):
was after the long game to T. Higgins. Took a
little bit longer. They got to the line. He had
to burn the timeout because there was just more that
he wanted to do and didn't have a chance. But
how many times yesterday did you see him changing the
play or changing protections or moving guys at the line
of scrimmage? The more time he has to do that,
the better. I thought he looked comfortable under center. I

(39:47):
thought they went under center more than I expected them to.

Speaker 9 (39:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:50):
Especially with Vita Veya lined up right over top of
Ted Karras.

Speaker 9 (39:53):
We talked a little bit earlier about the job that
Amarius Mims did on Reuben Bain. How would you assess
the overall play of the offensive line as a whole?

Speaker 6 (40:01):
I thought it was clean. I thought there were a
couple instances where if Joe could have held the ball
for maybe a half second more, they could have had
more opportunities down the field. But for week one, again,
against a dominant nose like Vita Veya, you look at
and read anything about Tampa, they invested on their pass rush.
They expected that to be better. Todd Bowles brings exotic blitzes.

(40:22):
They still weren't able to get home but once. And
the time they did get home, I thought was one
of Joe Burrow's better decisions to not try to force anything,
but to kind of take the sack and know you
got Evan McPherson to come on and kick a field goal.
So sometimes the defense is going to win. I thought
overall the pass protection was a winning grade. And I
thought their under center execution was better than what I

(40:45):
even expected to be on the first game.

Speaker 9 (40:46):
Jamar Chase had two catches and two for 12. One
went for 16 yards. He caught one for a loss.
I thought there were a couple of plays where Joe
could have hit him. There was one, I think, midway
through the third quarter where it felt like Jamar was
streaking down the field and Joe could have gotten it
to him. But it was a quiet day for Jamar Chase. Why?

Speaker 6 (41:09):
I don't know. You know, I am I'm always going
to be one. that when you pull up the box score,
there needs to be double-digit targets for Jamar Chase. If
things had not gone their way yesterday, that would have
been the number one topic today. In a loss, why
did Jamar Chase only get four targets? Now, you sweep
it under the rug a little bit in a win,

(41:29):
but still, if you want... I mean, the aspirations are
not one... This is an AFC North contending team. You
want them contending for the AFC title. You want them
going to the Super Bowl. You're going to need Jamar Chase...
getting 10 plus targets to do that. I don't know
if yesterday was Jamar still working his way back to

(41:49):
a hundred percent. I don't know if yesterday was let's
come out early in the year and let's spread the
ball out and make other teams have to defend more.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (41:57):
Like I thought more than yesterday, Mike Kosicki turned into,
I'm not saying he turned into Travis Kelsey, but if
you watch Travis Kelsey, he doesn't run routes. He finds zones.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:10):
And I thought Mike Gesicki did that yesterday. They put
T out wide. They put Jamar out wide. And when
a team's running a zone defense, when those receivers are
out there, you're taught all week, get width. Get width
so you can get underneath those throws. We have help
over the top and help underneath. Gesicki, I thought yesterday,
just found the open spots.

Speaker 11 (42:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:29):
And so now, as a defense, that's in the repertoire.
If you're going to drop deep into coverage, Joe Burrow
is more than capable of dumping it down. He did
that yesterday with Chase Brown and Samaj P.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Ryan.

Speaker 6 (42:40):
I think they're more versatile. I think they're able to
spread the ball around more, even with Dante Myers and
what they did, and Andre Josivas had two catches. I
don't foresee that. If you come out of Houston and
it's four or five targets, then I would raise the
red flag a little bit. But as of right now,
easing him back in after a little bit of the

(43:01):
scare and getting other guys into the offense, I would
chalk it up to.

Speaker 9 (43:06):
If the biggest questions coming out of game one are...
Is Joe going to throw a lot of pick sixes?

Speaker 6 (43:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (43:12):
And is Jamar Chase washed?

Speaker 6 (43:14):
Okay. Pretty good. We're in a good spot. Pretty good place.
We're in a good spot. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (43:18):
I didn't think that, like, Tampa Bay's coverage on Jamar Chase,
it wasn't like they were selling themselves out to take him.

Speaker 10 (43:25):
Out of the game.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
No.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
And, again, I thought there were instances where down in
distance or coverage dictated what they could do. And those
are times, as we've talked in the past, where you
have to make sure you're feeding– a guy like that.
We've told the story before, but even when I was
playing of, Hey, you know, it's been two or three series. Let's,

(43:47):
I'm going to call this play to get him a
touch just to get him back into the game mentally.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
And you didn't really find that yesterday. He kind of
at times felt like a decoy on the field for
other things. And I get your, you're about the 11.
You're about the team. You're about finding a way to win.
That all works. But at the same time, this doesn't work.
If number one's not, performing at a high level and
getting the touches.

Speaker 11 (44:13):
Right.

Speaker 6 (44:14):
It is what it is. He's the best receiver in football.
As far as I'm concerned, yes. He's the best receiver
in football. You have to treat him like that. The turnovers.
How much was Baker Mayfield culpable?

Speaker 8 (44:29):
A lot.

Speaker 6 (44:30):
But it's also what makes Baker, Baker.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
The extending the play. You're going to harp on the ball, security,
and different things like that going forward. I thought... More
so than anything, it's what we've talked about, the uncomfortable
nature of Dexter Lawrence and the interior of the D-line. Baker,
when he scrambles, he wants to get out of the pocket.
Those instances where the pressure came up the middle, it

(44:53):
happened a little bit too fast, maybe got out of
the way the opposite of what he was hoping to.
I thought the first, the scoop and score was Dexter
Lawrence pushing him out of the pocket. Miles Murphy relentlessly pursuing.
Barrett Carter helping. And the other... where he went up
the middle and Barrett Carter forced the fumble, that was
Dexter Lawrence applying the pressure again, arguably getting held on

(45:16):
both of those. But I thought it was just more
the nature of making Baker uncomfortable and not allowing him
to settle, having to make him escape sooner than he
wanted to, and then you maybe catch him off guard
a little bit. But it's hard with Baker because it's
part of what makes him so elusive and part of
what makes him so great. But at the same time,

(45:37):
if If I'm in Tampa today, we just gave this
guy $ 55 million a year.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (45:41):
He put the ball on the ground three times because
he wasn't terrible in the air.

Speaker 9 (45:45):
No. When he wanted to throw and did throw, he
was fine.

Speaker 6 (45:50):
He's 23 of 28. Yeah. But the two scramble fumbles maybe,
no NFL quarterback should sit in a pocket and double
pump three times waiting for his third fumble was terrible.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
There's no excuse for that. Your internal clock has to
go off. But the other two, I think, great plays
by the Bengals' defense.

Speaker 10 (46:12):
I did think there was an element of, like, Baker,
you're not Lamar.

Speaker 6 (46:16):
Especially after the first one.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
Or maybe the second one. Yeah, second one. Okay, the
focus now. Yes. Because if you're Tampa, they averaged 5.4
yards per play. It wasn't like they were third and long.
They moved the ball well. Those turnovers are just backbreakers.

Speaker 9 (46:32):
We have a lot more on the Bengals to get to.
Let's go around the NFL. Can we spend some time on...
My favorite play of the day.

Speaker 6 (46:38):
Yes, I knew it. As soon as I watched it
happen live, like, man, we're going to hear about this one.
And we will.

Speaker 9 (46:43):
Next, 16 after 4, it's the Tony and Mo Football Show,
Twin Peaks in Westchester on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (46:53):

Speaker 6 (46:54):
Traffic.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
From the UCHealth Traffic Center, UCHealth offers multiple sclerosis infusion
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Learn more at uchealth.com.

Speaker 7 (47:09):
This is Football in the Natty, brought to you by
Belterra Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN 1530, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 9 (47:20):
22 after 4, this is the Tony and Moe Football
Show at Twin Peaks, from Twin Peaks in Westchester.

Speaker 10 (47:29):
We are here until 6.

Speaker 9 (47:30):
O'clock on a glorious, gorgeous Victory Monday, day after the
Bengals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brenneman and Jones on
baseball coming up later on this hour. 5 o'clock hour,
we'll do some college football. UC wins, Ohio State loses,
a whole bunch of other stuff to talk about, including
maybe the angriest I've ever been at losing a bet.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (47:50):
That happened this weekend. Wow. Let's go around the NFL.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Okay.

Speaker 10 (47:53):
Talk about some games that stood out. Week one, you
don't want.

Speaker 9 (47:56):
To overreact, but there are things that you believe for
months on end that at least in a short window
get proven wrong.

Speaker 10 (48:03):
I might have been wrong about the Chicago Bears.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
And the crazy thing about that, I don't think the
Panthers are going to be that bad either.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
No.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
No.

Speaker 6 (48:11):
They put up 59 after their coach in the offseason
openly talked about wanting to set the all-time record for
scoring in a season.

Speaker 10 (48:20):
They're on their way.

Speaker 6 (48:21):
And then he doubled down on it after the game,
essentially saying, if you're not trying to do that, then
what are you doing here? You're not trying to be mediocre.
I think it took a little time, but I think
that mesh between Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson is starting
to show itself, and they are going to be a dangerous,
dangerous team.

Speaker 11 (48:40):
Now.

Speaker 6 (48:41):
I don't think they're great defensively. I think they got
some holes on the defense.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
Right.

Speaker 6 (48:46):
But you weren't talking about getting into some shootouts. I
think they can do that.

Speaker 9 (48:49):
Ten teams scored 30 or more points. The Lions and
Saints needed overtime, but still, first time since 2002 and
just the third time since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
Do you attribute that to anything, or is there just
a one-week anomaly?

Speaker 6 (49:04):
I think a one-week anomaly. I also think you're seeing
the rise in offenses across the league. I mean... the
Jags in their 34, Liam Cohen year two as the
head coach, more comfortable with Trevor Lawrence. The Saints, I
think Tyler Shuck and the Saints are up and coming.
I think they're going to be a good team. The Lions,
they've had the coordinators and play callers come in and out,

(49:29):
still trying to get their understanding and who they have.
They still have Jameer Gibbs and Amon Ross St. Brown.
They're going to score points. The one that I didn't
see coming, was the 39 the Vikings put up. 29 unanswered.
Especially when Kyler Murray went down.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (49:43):
And you're on your third string quarterback. I think Kevin
O'Connell is one of the most brilliant offensive minds in
all of football. But that was, to me, surprising for Minnesota.
It's got to be disappointing if you're a Packers fan
with kind of coming into the year of an unknown
and getting steamrolled in Minnesota. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (50:02):
In a game that it felt like Green Bay was
in pretty good control of and then just the wheels
completely fell off.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I think.

Speaker 6 (50:08):
I also think the most surprising was what the Bills-Texans game.
Not that the Bills won, but the score. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (50:16):
I mean, you know, we tend to overhype things a
little bit because there's such a long run-up to the season.
We've joked about how everybody's made the Rams out to
be a combination of like the 84-49ers, 07 Patriots, and
85 Bears. The way people have talked about the Texans defense,
who would think they were the 2000 Ravens? I still
believe over the course of the season that They're going

(50:36):
to end up having a very good defense. But Josh Allen,
who historically has not been great against Houston, two TDs passing,
two more rushing.

Speaker 6 (50:44):
You know, it's interesting. They scored 36 and only ran
52 offensive plays. That's efficient. Almost eight yards per play.
And they didn't do much on the ground. James Cook
had a quiet day. Josh Allen, I mean, ran the
ball well. effectively, but didn't run for a ton of yards.
He threw it for over 300. And you're thinking, man, okay,

(51:05):
if a team's going to drop back 29 times against
the Texans, that's not going to be good. They had
no problem. They only gave up two sacks on the day.
I was shocked, not that Buffalo won, because I know
Buffalo's good. I was shocked that they did so by
scoring 36 and needed all of it. C.J. Stratton, you
want to talk about quarterbacks not protecting the ball. He
passed the ball well. Two costly fumbles, though, that he

(51:27):
lost in the pocket.

Speaker 10 (51:29):
Here's when you know you've made an impact.

Speaker 9 (51:31):
When something happens and people think of you first.

Speaker 6 (51:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (51:36):
So I was at an event early yesterday evening, right
around when some of the 4 o'clock and 425 games
were coming to an end, including Philadelphia and Washington.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Oh.

Speaker 10 (51:47):
So the Eagles win by two points.

Speaker 9 (51:49):
Washington scores to make it a 24-22 game with about
one minute to go.

Speaker 10 (51:52):
Now, it was made that.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
Because Stephon Diggs had scored earlier in the game and
gets a celebration penalty.

Speaker 11 (52:02):
Right.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
So they couldn't go for two there. They had to
take the extra point, which that's Stephon Diggs in a nutshell.
It sure is.

Speaker 9 (52:08):
So Washington decides to run a shovel pass to their
tight end.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (52:15):
It gets snuffed. Philly stops it. Washington loses. My phone
blows up.

Speaker 6 (52:20):
I was going to say, how many texts do you get?

Speaker 10 (52:22):
I mean, my phone blows up.

Speaker 9 (52:23):
And it's like– and based on, like, the reaction– You
and Austin were on a thread together. Austin sent it.
And so I didn't write back until an hour later.
Based on what people were saying to me, I couldn't
tell if it was successful or not. But I knew
a shovel pass had been run. And for those who
don't know, I have a few pet peeves in sports.
Near the top is the shovel pass.

Speaker 6 (52:45):
I hate it. I get it.

Speaker 9 (52:46):
Sometimes it does work. Sometimes you can drink a bunch
of beer and drive home and get home safely. Doesn't
mean you should do it. Maybe an unfair analogy, but nonetheless. So, obviously,
like an hour later, I look at my phone. I
saw the play. If I was a Commanders fan, the
reason I hate the play is it's just haphazardly throwing

(53:10):
the ball into a lot of traffic.

Speaker 10 (53:11):
There's a lot of bad stuff that can happen.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (53:15):
I hate it.

Speaker 6 (53:16):
I despise the play.

Speaker 9 (53:17):
I am happy Washington lost, and I have no skin
in the game. I'm not an Eagles fan. I couldn't
care less. You run a shovel pass with the game
hanging in the balance.

Speaker 10 (53:26):
You deserve to lose.

Speaker 6 (53:27):
I got home last night, and kids are kind of
getting themselves ready for bed. I pour a drink. I'm
watching the end of that game, getting ready for Sunday
night football, and I watch the play happen, and in
my mind, I'm like, Mo's going to love that. Like,
now that's what it's become. That's... What was my... Like,
in my mind, man, Mo's going to love that. I
hate it.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (53:47):
Because I got a whole bunch of, like, did you
see that? And I'm thinking, okay, people want to rub
my face in, like, the shovel pad.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
Yeah, it worked. It does work. And then I saw it,
and I'm like, ha-ha.

Speaker 10 (53:56):
I would be beside myself if I'm a.

Speaker 9 (53:59):
You have a chance to go on the road, tie
the game, maybe beat the Philadelphia Eagles week one, and
you run a shovel pass on a two-point conversion.

Speaker 6 (54:07):
Correct. Correct. I'm just saying. Were you... Were you surprised
in how Sunday night football went? Because it wasn't like,
I didn't feel like the Giants, I just feel like
the Giants were better.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (54:19):
And the Cowboys are one of those teams that's getting
a lot of that preseason love. With their defense.

Speaker 10 (54:23):
The Giants ran the same play like nine consecutive times.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
The swing out of the backfield. Somebody go with the
running back.

Speaker 9 (54:31):
I don't think I've ever seen that. Dallas had two
offensive drives in the second half. The way in which
New York just lined up and beat them, Isaiah Likely
was terrific last night.

Speaker 6 (54:42):
Justin Dart at the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (54:44):
Very impressive. What was the worst performance or the worst loss?
The Chargers loss? The Chargers. Or the Titans loss?

Speaker 10 (54:54):
Chargers because they're supposed to be good.

Speaker 6 (54:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (54:56):
And they played a team. You talk about a lot
of people losing their Survivor Leagues week one. I can't
imagine how many people took the Chargers.

Speaker 6 (55:03):
I'll say it.

Speaker 10 (55:04):
Justin Herbert's overrated.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
He is.

Speaker 6 (55:05):
He is.

Speaker 10 (55:07):
Like, Tony, he gets talked about in the same conversation.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
But it's always like, well, they're healthy this year.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (55:12):
And you threw that bubble up in week one.

Speaker 9 (55:14):
And maybe Arizona isn't as bad as we all anticipate.
But like last year, and I said it last week
to you, Chargers lost their two starting tackles. Harbaugh and
Herbert still found a way to win 11 games. But
he was terrible in the postseason. How do you lose
week one to the Cardinals?

Speaker 6 (55:30):
Who's your most impressive week one team? Chicago.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (55:34):
With the offense.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (55:36):
I mean, I know they gave up a bunch of points,
but it's Chicago. Chicago and San Francisco.

Speaker 6 (55:42):
Yeah, San Francisco, a little out of sight, out of mind.
If I was to go opposite of you, I think
the Bills going to Houston and putting up 36 is
very impressive. And I don't like giving the compliments to it,
but new OC on the road, Baltimore putting up 41
and doing so with kind of the same formula of
that's Derrick Henry. What are you going to do about it?

Speaker 10 (56:03):
I hate to tip my hat to Derrick Henry because
he plays for the Ravens.

Speaker 6 (56:06):
He's awesome to watch. I don't know how he keeps
doing it, man. Dude, he is awesome to watch. I
don't know how he does it.

Speaker 9 (56:13):
We'll get to the Texans specifically since they take on
the Bengals on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (56:18):
An hour and a half to go, midway through. That's already? Already.

Speaker 11 (56:21):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (56:22):
Tony and Moe Football Show, Twin Peaks in Westchester, ESPN,
1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 7 (56:28):
You've been listening to Football in the Natty, brought to
you by Kingdom Built Exteriors on ESPN 1530, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (56:40):

Speaker 5 (56:42):
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Speaker 9 (56:47):
Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home Up Lifetime
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To yours for life. Excuse me, KelseyChev.com.

Speaker 9 (57:00):
Zach Taylor today says that the Bengals players came out
of the game yesterday pretty clean.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
No major injuries.

Speaker 9 (57:07):
Might have some guys who miss a day just to
get some rest, but pretty clean bill of health for
the team, Bengals and Texans on Sunday at 1. More
tonight on Bengals Line, starring Tony and Lance McAllister. Tony
has told me that for tonight's show, he is going
to up his card reading game.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (57:26):
That's my main goal tonight. Up the card reads. Only
one way to go for me historically, and that is
way up.

Speaker 10 (57:33):
Ohio Valley Sotney was a long time ago.

Speaker 6 (57:35):
Yeah, and then like under the read, like Stone was
in the read. And I just didn't put it together
because I was so focused on what was actually on
the card. Can we give one shout out? Of course.
He was inactive yesterday. No better game day fit than
what Landon Robinson did yesterday.

Speaker 8 (57:53):
Dude.

Speaker 6 (57:54):
I respect that dude so much. 100%. He was inactive yesterday.
There will be a time this year where he's active
and he makes a key play for the Bengals.

Speaker 9 (58:02):
So, I saw the inactives at 1130. I wasn't stunned.

Speaker 6 (58:07):
Right.

Speaker 9 (58:08):
But, like, if I'm Zach Taylor and I see him
walk in.

Speaker 6 (58:12):
Yeah. We might have to change that up. And he's
wearing what he was wearing.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (58:16):
Which is the... And I don't want to get this wrong.
It's the naval uniform that they use for formal events.
Is that the right way to put it? If I said, like, dude, Landon,
you're up.

Speaker 6 (58:27):
Sorry. Somebody else. Well, the whole thing is probably between
him and Chris Jenkins. Jenkins played eight snaps and had
a sack. Had a sack.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (58:33):
So he produced as well. But, again, I have so
much respect for Landon Robinson. And the story is awesome.
But he is going to make plays this year on
this team. He'll be active on some games.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
But I thought that was cool the way he– He
came to the stadium. Don't you have to do that
every game now? Now eyes are on you. Yes. You
can't go from that to just normal street wear.

Speaker 9 (58:56):
And also, game day fits are a big thing for people.
So there's a lot of coverage of the players as
they arrive.

Speaker 6 (59:04):
How do you top that? Correct.

Speaker 9 (59:05):
People love to obsess over what Joe Burrow wears. If
you're Joe, it's like... I'll play it for a second.
Nothing's going to top that.

Speaker 6 (59:12):
You've got to pull Landon aside like, dude, you can't
do that. This is about me right now.

Speaker 9 (59:18):
Has an inactive player's outfit ever been talked about as much?

Speaker 6 (59:22):
No. Not on this show. Not on this show. Not
on this show, which right now I understand you could
watch live. Yeah, you could watch it on. Folks could
watch this right now if they're not able to be here. Yeah. Unbelievable.
And we've.

Speaker 9 (59:34):
You know, we're at the mercy of wireless, but our
guy Mike Mills sort of helped us with a solution
that has made things look a little bit cleaner.

Speaker 10 (59:41):
Yes, you can watch this show on Twitter and on YouTube.

Speaker 6 (59:44):
That's unbelievable.

Speaker 9 (59:45):
Fox Sports 1360 has the game tonight between the Broncos
and the Chiefs.

Speaker 6 (59:52):
I'm like you.

Speaker 9 (59:53):
You could tell me the Chiefs are going to win
12 games, 13 games.

Speaker 6 (59:57):
I buy that.

Speaker 10 (59:57):
You could tell me they're going to win seven. I
would buy that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
Yeah. I viewed Denver as a team. I knew the
Patriots were going to take some step back. There's still
stuff with Denver. I think their defense is going to
be really good. I need to see more from Bo Nix,
and I need to see more consistency in their running game.
I think it was a low-key, under-the-radar move to get
Jalen Waddell opposite of Corton Sutton. That's going to help them.

(01:00:22):
I don't know what to expect from Kansas City. I
don't know is the offensive line built to protect Mahomes,
the Cyrus Allen effect, who had a great camp for them.
What's their defense going to be?

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:00:35):
We talked a lot about the offseason, and it certainly
came yesterday because, you know, top 10 defense, top 15,
what do the Bengals need to have? I said, can
they get two to three extra possessions to the offensive game?
I don't care if that's by fumble, interception, or punt.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:00:51):
Yesterday they did that, and they won the game. Kansas
City's defense possesses the ability to get Mahomes more touches
in a game like tonight where they're probably going to
be at a premium because of how Denver runs. I
think it's going to be interesting.

Speaker 10 (01:01:04):
Reds were in action tonight, first to four with the L.A. Dodgers.

Speaker 9 (01:01:08):
Reds are still mathematically alive in the hunt for a
playoff spot.

Speaker 6 (01:01:12):
You're looking at the lineup. You're interested. You better burrito it.

Speaker 10 (01:01:15):
Juan Brito is in the starting lineup.

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
Juan Brito is in the lineup. Yes.

Speaker 10 (01:01:18):
Do you want me to read the lineup?

Speaker 6 (01:01:19):
Who still hits lead? Is it like leadoff by committee still?
What's his team doing?

Speaker 10 (01:01:22):
Dane Myers is leading off tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:01:24):
Okay. For the Reds. All right.

Speaker 9 (01:01:27):
Myers, De La Cruz, Stewart, Stevenson, Suarez. Brito is playing second. Bleda, Hayes,
and Rodriguez and Wright.

Speaker 6 (01:01:35):
Suarez is going to end up hitting 30 home runs.

Speaker 10 (01:01:37):
Quietest 30 home run season.

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
It will be. And then, like, Sal Stewart is going
to win rookie of the year. Chase Burns is going
to finish the year with an unbelievable stat line. Ellie
is going to have his best career year. And they
will have zero to show for it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
Correct.

Speaker 9 (01:01:52):
College football, Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami, and Ohio State,
one through six in both major polls.

Speaker 6 (01:01:59):
Louisville is 23rd.

Speaker 9 (01:02:01):
The UC-Kansas State game will be a nip at night
affair on Saturday, September the 26th.

Speaker 6 (01:02:07):
We'll dive into the Bearcats. UC receiving votes yet?

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:02:11):
Kansas State received one. It did. It did. Don't let
them come here. Don't let them come to nip at ranked.
It's a good game in the Big 12 Friday. Yeah.
Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (01:02:21):
We'll get to the Bearcats and the Buckeyes coming up
a little bit later on next hour. Tony and Moe
Football Show, we're broadcasting from Twin Peaks in Westchester on
ESPN 1530. We are going to be at the Florence
location two weeks from today. We've talked about the Bengals'
defense and generating all the turnovers and the Dexter Lawrence effect.

(01:02:44):
We'll dive deeper into that coming up in the 5
o'clock hour as well. A little bit more on the
ups and downs. of the offensive performance yesterday. I want
to know how your regular season broadcast debut went.

Speaker 6 (01:02:56):
Are we contractually obligated to read a Reds lineup?

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:02:59):
I can't believe we just got that in today.

Speaker 9 (01:03:00):
No, I'd rather talk about your regular season Bengals Radio
Network debut.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
I'm in for that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
We're going to do that now.

Speaker 10 (01:03:08):
You were so locked in on the Reds lineup that you.

Speaker 6 (01:03:10):
I can't function.

Speaker 9 (01:03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:12):
You have it pulled up on your computer still. I
wanted to read it to the audience. And it's like...
I'm stunned. I'm stunned.

Speaker 9 (01:03:18):
Yeah, I wanted to serve the audience that might not
have access to the Reds lineup tonight by giving it
to them. And so what are you trying to figure out?

Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
What's the first name of some of these guys?

Speaker 9 (01:03:31):
How many hits they might get against Eric Skubal? How
did it go yesterday?

Speaker 6 (01:03:35):
It was awesome. You know, you come from the grail
in that environment. And then, like, you've got to kind
of foster a whole different demeanor.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:45):
Because you're in the booth and it's game one. Like,
I walk in. Marvin Lewis is in there talking to
the guy. Like, it just feels big. Marvin did national radio.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:53):
It just feels big. Like, it's so different. And, like
I said, Dan and Lap are so good with what
they do. I just, I'm finding it a little bit easier,
and I'm glad we had preseason to do this, of
when to talk and when not to talk. Because that's
the one thing I went in to not, like, I
just don't want to go in and mess up the

(01:04:14):
greatness that they already have.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:16):
And now finding ways of when to interject. You know,
we're at the point now where Lap a couple times
tossed something to me. I tossed it back to Lap. Like,
I just feel like it went a lot smoother. And
obviously any time you can call a win, which has
been four of them so far, if you count the preseason. Wow.
Maybe there's a correlation. Yeah. Tampa cut it to seven.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:40):
And I started thinking, man, it would be terrible to
have to do a locker room after a loss today.

Speaker 11 (01:04:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
That is by far the most nervous of any of
the new roles I have is, locker room.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
Because I know how much I hated when the media
came in.

Speaker 11 (01:04:54):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
And, like, you're almost trying to, like, hide.

Speaker 10 (01:04:58):
And what you're doing is live on the air.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:05:00):
So it's like I know they don't want to talk
to me. Right. Because I didn't want to talk to
me when I played. And so you've got to, like,
kind of, like, and I try to keep it easy.
I'm like, all right, there's Brian Cook. I know that guy.
I'm going to go to him. You meet guys. I
thought us meeting some guys during training camp helped. I
was able to go over to Chase Brown, get a
couple minutes with him. And Barrett Carter was awesome with

(01:05:23):
his time. So that eased it a little bit. And
I think as relationships go, it'll be easier to ask
those guys for their time. Right. But that is by
far the most nervous point that I have.

Speaker 9 (01:05:33):
For years, what I've said, my favorite part of the
Bengals on radio is lap them in the locker room.

Speaker 6 (01:05:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:05:38):
And, you know, guys are more willing to participate when
they win. When they've suffered a tough loss and on
the air, he's got to be like, you.

Speaker 6 (01:05:45):
Know, okay, here's how. Yep. That'll keep me up at night.
He said, oh, boy, he big said, okay, okay, okay.
He's not going to talk to me.

Speaker 10 (01:05:52):
Okay, let's see if Jermaine Gresham.

Speaker 6 (01:05:54):
That's where you go and like, all right, Dante want
to talk? Can I get Landon? Yeah, but it's, I mean,
there were moments yesterday, like during the national anthem, and
you're like watching Jermaine, everything going on in front. And
I kind of stand behind, so like Dan and Lap
are in front of me. And it's just one of
those moments, it's like I can't believe this is happening

(01:06:16):
because I've grown up listening to what they've done. And
that was a really cool moment yesterday and one that
I'll obviously remember.

Speaker 9 (01:06:24):
12 away from 5 o'clock. I know what you're really
excited for, though. Brenneman and Jones on baseball.

Speaker 6 (01:06:31):
I thought you'd never get there. That's why we did
the lineup.

Speaker 10 (01:06:33):
That's right.

Speaker 9 (01:06:34):
It's a good segue to Brenneman and Jones on baseball
during a football show. It's next on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):

Speaker 6 (01:06:45):
Traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
From the UC health traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
a Lone Star Showdown, which raises an important question. What
style of chili do I prefer? I'm not sure, but
they both make me gassy. Can the orange and black
handle Houston? Or will the Texans defend their home turf?

(01:07:10):
Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Stream for free
on the new and improved iHeartRadio app. Or on ESPN 1530,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. It's the Bengals
and Texans.

Speaker 7 (01:07:25):
This is the Tony and Moe Football Show, live from
Twin Peaks. Brought to you in part by Encore Technologies.
Visit Encore.tech. OrthoHeal, the test that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com.
Honda East, Cincinnati's ultimate Honda experience. First state bank built

(01:07:47):
on belief. R & L Carriers, visit rlc.com and make
R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. And by
your tri-state Chevy dealers. Chevrolet, the number one selling brand
in Cincinnati for the past 10 years.

Speaker 8 (01:08:03):

Speaker 7 (01:08:06):

Speaker 9 (01:08:12):
Final hour, the power hour of the Tony and Mo
football show at Twin Peaks in Westchester, a Victory Monday edition.
Of the Tony and Mo football show here at Twin
Peaks in Westchester. Twin Peaks in Westchester is right off I-75.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
Get off at the.

Speaker 9 (01:08:29):
Union Center Boulevard exit, and you will be here within
a minute and a half.

Speaker 6 (01:08:33):
If you're coming from the south, though, don't turn right
at the red light.

Speaker 10 (01:08:36):
Correct.

Speaker 6 (01:08:37):
Wait until it turns green.

Speaker 10 (01:08:38):
And if somebody in front of you is obeying traffic rules.

Speaker 6 (01:08:41):
No need to honk at them.

Speaker 10 (01:08:42):
Obeying the sign, not turning on right. I get impatience.

Speaker 6 (01:08:46):
Yeah. But don't get mad at the person in front
of you. Just so eager to get here. Yeah, I
get it. But, you know, it's not a long light. Right.

Speaker 10 (01:08:52):
So you can be here within minutes. We love coming
out here.

Speaker 9 (01:08:56):
We'll be back here. We have no chance of this
being the best hour ever now. We'll be back here
in a week, and then we're in the Florence location
two weeks from today, which.

Speaker 6 (01:09:06):
Is the 28th. Looking forward to that.

Speaker 9 (01:09:08):
Bengals win 33-27 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 6 (01:09:12):
A day.

Speaker 9 (01:09:13):
The defense wasn't dominated, but I thought the day was
dominated by defense.

Speaker 6 (01:09:18):
Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it.
That's pretty clever now, isn't it? That's running through my
mind right now. I hear you. In circles.

Speaker 10 (01:09:23):
Could have used that on the broadcast yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:09:25):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
You need to start feeding me some stuff to get
in on the broadcast. The defense, it's hard because so
much of the offseason we built them up. And then
so much of training camp we built them up. And
I feel like at times it was hard. I was
walking into the game like, it's kind of hard to
deliver on how much we've built them up.

Speaker 5 (01:09:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:09:46):
And the way the game started, thinking like, man, what
would be disaster? I was talking to Jeff Hobson before
the game about this. He asked me, I said, if
Tampa were to get the ball first, and go on
like this 10 to 12 play drive, and then we
get it and go three and out. I was like,
that would be disaster. Because the crowd's ready, we've all

(01:10:07):
been waiting, and that's what happened. Tampa goes down, they score,
we punt, only punt of the game. Luckily, we get
the scoop and score, but it didn't start great. Tampa
moved the ball well on their first drive, had some
chunk plays in there, but they bowed up, they got
the job done, and I think over over-delivered on the hype. Because, again,

(01:10:31):
every player that we spent so much time on the
defensive side of the ball talking about did something significant yesterday.

Speaker 9 (01:10:37):
I just felt for me like there's the raw production,
which is the four turnovers, it's the four sacks, it's
the fumbles.

Speaker 10 (01:10:48):
But to me, more than anything, it's how they looked. Like,
I watched every.

Speaker 9 (01:10:53):
Snap of that defense last year. What I saw yesterday
was entirely different.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:10:59):
There was consistent pressure. There were always people around the ball.
We saw linebackers in pursuit.

Speaker 6 (01:11:04):
Not a lot of separation on catches.

Speaker 9 (01:11:06):
The tackling was good. It was more physical. It looked different.
And that comes with having better players, which undeniably they do.
We wondered how are they going to fit. But you
just mentioned it. What I loved is I sat down
this morning and jotted down nine names of defensive players
that I wanted to talk about today.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:28):
Were you surprised at all we didn't see Kyle Duggar?
A little bit. I thought he had a good camp. Yeah.
And I think, again, position versatility. Right. What other offenses
want to try to do in personnel, he's going to
match that. But, no, I thought all in all it
was solid. In watching yesterday's game, if there's a part

(01:11:48):
of the defense that you want to see take that
week one to week two leap, what is it? They've
got to be better on third down.

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
Yeah, I think getting to third and longs. I think
too many times.

Speaker 9 (01:12:06):
The overall third down conversion rate set up by the
fact that they had a lot of.

Speaker 6 (01:12:09):
Third and shorts. Yeah, they just gave up a little
bit too much in the margins there, I thought. And again,
when a team is getting 5.4 yards per play, you're
not doing enough to get those stops. That to me
is where that back end is going to start to
come in and start to see those interceptions. If a
team is operating at a third and short too much,

(01:12:31):
You're just not going to see the opportunity for those
50-50 balls to go make a play on.

Speaker 9 (01:12:36):
I felt like they allowed Baker Mayfield to complete too
high a percentage of his passes.

Speaker 6 (01:12:40):
Yeah, it became... And again, it wasn't like Baker diced
them down the field.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:12:46):
Right?

Speaker 6 (01:12:46):
His long throw of the day was 30 yards. It
was a lot of short, quick, intermediate stuff. I thought
the best throw he made all day was dropped.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:12:55):
By Kate Otten.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:12:56):
You know, oddly enough. But yeah, it felt at times... Like,
he was able... And again, he's a good quarterback. I
don't think he's one of the elite quarterbacks. Would you
have paid him? It's a hard situation because he's beloved
by his teammates. Like, he just fights, and he scratches,
and he claws. And there's so much of what makes

(01:13:19):
him Baker of those plays he made yesterday that he'll
finish going forward. He didn't do it yesterday. Picked a
bad time after getting $ 55 million a year. That Baker
Mayfield yesterday... Like, I watch the difference in the quarterbacks.
Baker doesn't check anything really at the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:13:38):
What they call he goes and runs. Joe Burrow is
constantly moving and getting pre-snap looks. And maybe that had
to do with the headset, which, again, is one of
my biggest pet peeves in sports. You know, you have
the shovel pass. I have the headsets that don't work. Right.
I don't get it. How in this day and age

(01:13:59):
does that happen? How do the headsets not work? I'll
go back to it because I got into it with
Austin about this when it happened. How do we have
video calls on the dark side of the moon that
had never been explored before?

Speaker 11 (01:14:10):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:14:11):
And crystal clear phone calls. And yet 100 yards away
we can't get electronics in a helmet to work.

Speaker 10 (01:14:19):
You can watch like war correspondence.

Speaker 5 (01:14:23):
Yes.

Speaker 10 (01:14:23):
In some of the most like war torn places on
the planet.

Speaker 6 (01:14:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:14:27):
Where most people don't have cell service. They'll talk to
a war correspondent in some, like, rubble-filled town in the
Middle East.

Speaker 6 (01:14:35):
Crystal clear.

Speaker 10 (01:14:35):
And they'll put them on CNN, and it looks like they're.

Speaker 6 (01:14:38):
In the next room. Yeah. Right?

Speaker 9 (01:14:40):
But we can't perfect helmet communication in the National Football League.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
And it does play a significant role. A $ 25 billion
annual league. It plays a significant role. It changes how
you operate. Like, I saw in the preseason in Philly,
Josh Johnson was running to the sideline in between plays
to get the play and come back in. So that's
the thing. When the headset doesn't work, what are your options? Signals?
Run over old school? Run a player in.

Speaker 10 (01:15:06):
With a play each time?

Speaker 6 (01:15:07):
Messenger guard. It does. It throws things off. So as
an offense, you do have to have a plan in
place of, hey, these are our go-to plays or these
are our signals if we lose communication. Because oddly enough,
it always seems like that communication is cut out at
a pivotal moment. Pivotal drive, things like that. Two-minute warning,
end of the game. You do, as an offense, you

(01:15:30):
have to have plans for that in place.

Speaker 10 (01:15:31):
Well, part of the issues might have been, you know,
I was at the game.

Speaker 6 (01:15:37):
Oh.

Speaker 9 (01:15:38):
But, you know, the cool thing is when you go
to a game, they usually pipe in the audio in
the men's room. So I get up at the end
of the first quarter, and I think, oh, I'll hear
a little of Tony.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:15:49):
Reds game.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (01:15:50):
Oh. There was one point.

Speaker 9 (01:15:55):
I'm listening to Tommy Thrall interview Terry Francona as I'm
relieving myself in a football game.

Speaker 6 (01:16:01):
There was one point on like a break where our guy, Yid,
David Armbruster, like flashed me the phone to show me
the score. And I was like, okay. I don't care
right now.

Speaker 9 (01:16:16):
I literally go in the men's room. Reds game started
at like 210. So I go in the men's room. Yeah,
typically for years, like, they carry, you know. You get
to hear what you're missing.

Speaker 10 (01:16:26):
Dan and Lap, right?

Speaker 9 (01:16:28):
So I go in, and I'm like, oh, it's Tommy
Thrall talking to Tina Francona.

Speaker 6 (01:16:35):
Is this like a crossover broadcast?

Speaker 9 (01:16:36):
Yeah, and then so I went in at the end
of the third quarter to go again, and I'm listening to,
you know, bottom.

Speaker 6 (01:16:44):
Of the fourth inning. Dang, man.

Speaker 10 (01:16:47):
So maybe whoever was.

Speaker 9 (01:16:48):
In charge of the headsets was also in charge of
making sure that we had the right clock.

Speaker 6 (01:16:52):
That's got to be fixed. If there's one place I
want to be heard.

Speaker 9 (01:16:56):
And I was like, I wonder how Tony's doing. I
don't know, but I can tell you Juan Brito's gotten
a hit.

Speaker 6 (01:17:04):
My grandma used to come to games, and she would
listen to the game from the bathroom because she'd be
so nervous.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
Really?

Speaker 6 (01:17:11):
And if they didn't have that back then, what would
have happened? She had actually watched the game. I don't
know what was going on in the bathroom. I don't
know what was going on. It's warmer in there when
it's colder. Yeah. Warmer at times. If you're a little nervous. Yeah,
that's got to be fixed.

Speaker 10 (01:17:26):
We've got to fix that, and we've got to fix
the headset.

Speaker 6 (01:17:28):
Yes.

Speaker 10 (01:17:30):
I do not understand why the headset.

Speaker 6 (01:17:31):
It drives me wild. Every time I see it, no
matter who the team is, I don't get how they
go out.

Speaker 9 (01:17:39):
I also don't get how they go out and how
some teams function so poorly when they do, because as
you just outlined, that should be the contingency that you're practicing.

Speaker 6 (01:17:48):
Stop me if I'm wrong, but the dark side of
the moon had never been discovered, never been viewed. You
don't even know what kind of service is back there,
and you'd think the moon would be in the way
of it. Yeah. And yet, they're doing video calls. Right.
Crystal clear. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:18:05):
Video calls.

Speaker 6 (01:18:06):
But if Baker Mayfield needs to get a signal midway
through the first quarter, he's not picking up the transmission?
How are we doing this? It's 2026. I don't know. Now,
when we were in Carolina... going to New Orleans, that
week of practice, they always practice headsets going out because

(01:18:28):
historically they went out there. So maybe it's a venue thing.
I don't know. But it seems to happen more and
more in today's football.

Speaker 9 (01:18:36):
Kyle Kasky, who's now on the Viking staff, when he
was here, I asked him once about like, does anything
funny ever happen in the headsets, the coaches' headsets? And
he said in Foxborough, once in the middle of a game,
you heard like a Wendy's drive-thru. And he said it
was like all game long where, like, you could hear somebody, like,

(01:18:57):
spitting out their order. And he said, like, at some point, like,
Marvin Lewis just gave his headset to somebody and said, like,
give me a new headset. And they had to explain
to him, like, Well, Coach, it's not the headset. We've
got to get on a new frequency. That would mess
with me.

Speaker 6 (01:19:12):
It is 17 minutes after. Man, a Frosty sounds good.
It sounds amazing right now. We've got ice cream here once.
You're trying to run a two-minute drill, and you hear
double Frosty, double cheeseburger.

Speaker 9 (01:19:23):
And then if you're the quarterback, that's the play you
spit out, so your teammates are looking at you.

Speaker 6 (01:19:26):
Dave's number one? Hold the lettuce.

Speaker 9 (01:19:31):
It was great because I had the game on in
the bathroom. I come back to my seat, and I'm like, hey,
just FYI. And they're like, what are you talking about?
I'm like, oh, I went to the men's room. Red's
down 2-0.

Speaker 5 (01:19:40):
How do you know?

Speaker 6 (01:19:41):
I heard it in the bathroom.

Speaker 9 (01:19:42):
Resident tried to avoid a sweep. It is 17 minutes
after 5 o'clock. We're at Twin Peaks in Westchester. An
awesome place to watch Monday night football tonight. Great place
to watch whatever it is. Could be college football this weekend.
Could be the Bengals-Texans on Sunday. Could be postseason baseball,
which the Reds mathematically still have a chance to be
a part of. We love Twin Peaks. Back with more

(01:20:05):
17 After 5. We'll get to the college games coming
up in about 15 minutes on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:20:17):
From the UC health of traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:20:18):
This is Football in the Natty. Brought to you in
part by Postman Law. And by Skyline Chili. On ESPN 1530.
The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 9 (01:20:31):
Thank you for, after 5 o'clock, this is ESPN 1530.
Mo Egger with Tony Pike. By the way, stick around
as soon as we're done for Bengals Line.

Speaker 6 (01:20:42):
Yep.

Speaker 10 (01:20:42):
With Lance and Tony.

Speaker 6 (01:20:45):
Scooting out of here. Remarkable. Scooting out of here.

Speaker 10 (01:20:48):
I'll tell you what, you're getting great use out of
the iHeart helicopter.

Speaker 9 (01:20:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:20:52):
It's going to be a long night.

Speaker 9 (01:20:53):
Since the 360 to here and then here back to
the studio for, or Monday, midday quarterback to here and
then back to the studio for Bengals line.

Speaker 6 (01:21:02):
A lot of mileage out of that helicopter. The UC
late game followed by the Bengals home game followed by
the Monday. It's a tricky game. Tricky navigation. What's your
travel for Houston? So, Dan, this is how Dan, obviously,
I'm just attaching myself to his hip because I was

(01:21:24):
just going to try to fly out first thing Sunday
morning from CVG. There's only one flight from Cincinnati to Houston. Okay.
But if you go to Indy, there's like seven. So
you're going to Indy? So after the game Saturday, Dan
and I are going to go to Houston.

Speaker 9 (01:21:42):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
And then fly out first thing Sunday morning.

Speaker 10 (01:21:44):
You're flying out of Indy.

Speaker 6 (01:21:46):
We're flying out of Indy, yes. Gotcha. Because the obvious
nightmare situation is you fly out of Cincy and the
flight gets canceled or delayed and then you're screwed. Indy,
there's so many other options. So I would have just
booked it from Cincy and rolled the dice. Dan is like, no,
let's do it from Indy.

Speaker 10 (01:22:04):
You know, not that it's a day game.

Speaker 9 (01:22:06):
So it's, you know, so you'll be in Indy by
9 o'clock.

Speaker 6 (01:22:11):
10 o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:22:13):
Indy's a fun.

Speaker 10 (01:22:14):
You can go have a couple cocktails in Indy or.

Speaker 6 (01:22:16):
Can you come meet me?

Speaker 3 (01:22:17):
No.

Speaker 9 (01:22:18):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:22:19):
There's no reason for me to go to Indy and
drive back home. It'd be fun. Yeah. Fun.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:22:24):
It'd be a quick turnaround in Houston. 24-hour trip, I guess.
Arrive in Houston, call the game, come back home.

Speaker 5 (01:22:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:22:29):
Pretty good. All right. Well, we... I'm excited. I'm excited
because it... Match-up-wise, it should be great. So, I was
going to go there next. Texans.

Speaker 9 (01:22:37):
Got worked yesterday by Josh Allen, and I'm not going
to make you pretend like you saw every single snap
of the game, but we've talked about the Texans' defense.
Bigger question for that team has, to me, been, like,
what C.J. Stroud do we see? But Josh Allen had
his way at times with that Texans' defense yesterday.

Speaker 6 (01:22:54):
Made some plays with his legs. They weren't dominant on
the ground. They ran it for under 90 yards. They
threw it for over three, what, 330 to Josh Allen?

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:23:02):
So... Anytime you have to drop back and throw like
that against Houston, you're rolling the dice. Credit to Joe Brady.
We've obviously talked a lot about here in Cincinnati with
his relationship with Joe Burrow, but their game plan must
have been enough to limit, I think, two sacks for
Houston on 29 dropbacks, 36 points. That's doing some work.

(01:23:24):
I mean, we talk about trendy picks early in the year.
Houston's a big one that teams think can make a
legitimate run if they get it on offense and The
crazy part about yesterday is they did get the offense.
David Montgomery found the end zone three different times. Nico
Collins had a touchdown catch.

Speaker 9 (01:23:40):
C.J.

Speaker 6 (01:23:40):
Stroud, as a quarterback, played well, did not hold onto
the ball, had two fumbles that he lost, including one
in the last minute inside the 20 going in that
sealed the deal. But who would have thought they would have–
we talk a lot in leading up to games. If
you would have told folks in Houston– You're going to
score 31 in game one. You think you're going to
win the football game.

Speaker 9 (01:24:00):
Especially given Josh Allen's history against the Texans.

Speaker 6 (01:24:04):
And that defense and what they've done in the offseason.

Speaker 5 (01:24:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:24:07):
It has to be a demoralizing loss for Texans fans.
And now for the team, puts a lot of stress
on this one on Sunday. And if you're the Bengals,
we talk about this all the time. The goal should
be the Super Bowl. And if the goal is the
Super Bowl, the easiest way to the Super Bowl is what?
The one seed.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:24:24):
You have a chance to. get a heads-up win, and
put that distance between you and another AFC team at
two games, that early into a season is a huge opportunity.

Speaker 9 (01:24:34):
Well, and for what it's worth, we've talked a lot
about getting off to a fast start because maybe there's
an acclimation period in the AFC North. Baltimore wins yesterday.
I think it was more impressive than Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh
won yesterday. The Browns and the division, frankly... are a non-factor,
and I think yesterday was confirmation of that. But I'm
curious as to see what level of desperation the Texans

(01:24:57):
play with.

Speaker 6 (01:24:59):
Backs are against the wall.

Speaker 9 (01:25:00):
Backs are against the wall. Cannot afford to go 0-2.
They've already lost one home game. I'm curious as to
how that plays out, and watching that front against the
offensive line that I thought for the Bengals yesterday held
up pretty well. I think it's a fascinating matchup.

Speaker 6 (01:25:19):
Yeah, and I still think it's an offensive line in
Houston that's vulnerable to the pass rush. So can the Bengals'
pass rush get home, cause some disruptions, get C.J. Stroud,
which he's prone to do, to turn the ball over,
I think are all going to be massive storylines going
into the game. The AFC North, you mentioned what that
looks like. This is the year that I think any
AFC North team that loses to Cleveland, they're out. It's

(01:25:42):
that year. There's bad losses all throughout the year. You
can't lose to the Browns this year in the North.
I know they're a bad matchup.

Speaker 9 (01:25:51):
They are a bad matchup, but they weren't for the
Jags yesterday. Are the Browns going to go 0-6 in.

Speaker 6 (01:25:56):
The AFC North? They should. They should, will they? They should.

Speaker 10 (01:25:59):
Realistically?

Speaker 6 (01:26:01):
That's the first elimination game. Whoever gets beat by the Browns,
you're out.

Speaker 10 (01:26:05):
The Bengals don't play until December.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:26:07):
Plenty of time. Hopefully one of them doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:26:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:26:10):
I do think it'll be really interesting to see by
the time the Bengals play them what they're doing at
quarterback because the long-term answer is not there. I mean,
Deshaun Watson may play better because, again, he looked like
a guy who hadn't played in whatever it was, 691
days or something. But I don't know, dude, like it
already looks like that. What's that going to look like

(01:26:32):
in December?

Speaker 6 (01:26:32):
Correct. And you've already alienated some of the fan base
by the Watson comments. And he's still the starter. Those
whispers are going to get louder and louder each week.
For Todd Munkin. All right.

Speaker 9 (01:26:45):
We'll talk college football when we come back.

Speaker 6 (01:26:46):
Fantastic.

Speaker 9 (01:26:47):
5.30, Tony and Moe football show, Twin Peaks in Westchester.
Sports headlines as well. Do I do the starting lineup
in the sports headlines?

Speaker 6 (01:26:56):
In case anyone missed it. Okay. You probably should. Could
have folks driving to the ballpark. I can tell you
that Juan Brito is playing tonight. Of course he is.
There you go. You're talking about a desperate team. That's it.

Speaker 10 (01:27:05):
Backs against the wall.

Speaker 6 (01:27:06):
Watch them come out swinging.

Speaker 9 (01:27:07):
29 away from 6 o'clock. It's Tony and Moe football show.

Speaker 6 (01:27:11):
You can bury that lead.

Speaker 9 (01:27:13):
Sunday News Stop, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 7 (01:27:18):
You've been listening to Football in the Natty on ESPN 1530,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):

Speaker 6 (01:27:31):
Traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
From the UC Health.

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:27:39):
Sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life.

Speaker 6 (01:27:47):
KelseyChev.com.

Speaker 9 (01:27:49):
Zach Taylor today said his team emerged pretty clean from
yesterday's season opening 33-27 victory over the Bucs. Cincinnati is
on the road on Sunday to take on the Texans.
They have been installed as a.

Speaker 6 (01:28:00):
Three-point underdog against Houston.

Speaker 9 (01:28:03):
More tonight on Bengals line from 6 until 9. Starring
Tony and Lance McAllister. That is on ESPN 1530 this evening.
Monday Night Football concluding week one. Remember just one week
one Monday Night Football game this year.

Speaker 6 (01:28:17):
I like that. I do too.

Speaker 9 (01:28:18):
Chiefs and Broncos 815 Fox Sports 1360. The eyes of
the nation will be on Great American Ballpark tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:28:26):
Oh, you're going to do it, aren't you?

Speaker 10 (01:28:27):
The Reds and Dodgers start a four-game series.

Speaker 6 (01:28:29):
Please, go ahead.

Speaker 9 (01:28:30):
Reds' tragic number for elimination is two, which means if
they lose and the Padres win tonight, Reds are officially eliminated.
So it's, I guess, technically not a month. win, but
pretty close. Nick Lodolo and Tarek Skubal on the hill.
640 tonight, 700 WLW. Lodolo back against the wall.

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:28:49):
I like their chances.

Speaker 9 (01:28:49):
He's the guy you want pitching in a game like this. Myers,
De La Cruz, Stewart, Stevenson, Suarez, Brito, Bleday, Hayes, Rodriguez.
And if you need to know more.

Speaker 6 (01:28:58):
God help you.

Speaker 9 (01:28:59):
College football, Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami, and Ohio State,
one through six in both major polls. The UC-Kansas State
game on Saturday, September the 26th, will kick off at
7 o'clock. FC Cincinnati has announced within the last couple
of minutes that they have waived Matt Miazga. That news

(01:29:21):
was first reported about a week and a half ago.
That game that they had postponed against D.C. United has
been scheduled for Wednesday, October the 21st. And the Big
East schedule for Xavier basketball announced today the Musketeers will
play their first game in conference play on the 22nd
of December against Creighton.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:29:41):
Let's do some college football.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:29:43):
What did you learn about the Bearcats on Saturday night?
They showed that J.C. French can throw the ball. I mean,
I think that was the big thing coming out of
week one. And a good win against Boston College. Watch
Boston College go beat Rutgers. Yeah. 14 pass attempts, under
80 yards passing in week one. You know that at
some point in the year, you're going to have to
rely on the passing game. And I thought using the

(01:30:05):
opponent in Western Carolina to get that passing game going. J.C.
French was efficient, spread the ball out, pushed the ball
down the field. I think checked all of the boxes there.
But what I like the most, I think they can
be very dangerous offensively. with what they have in the
running game. Because they are so good at collapsing the
left side of the line that what we saw Saturday

(01:30:27):
night started to be the next evolution of that. Play
action to the left, roll out to the right. Play action,
set back up in the pocket. They got some good
stuff going on the right side of the offensive line,
which they hadn't got much of this year. I thought
the defense was on their heels a little bit early.
Settled in nicely. Started to get to some third and longs.

(01:30:47):
I mean, that game went from 14-10 to 62-10 in
a hurry. Dominant on the ground. Needed to see more
in the passing game. We saw that. Now they move
on to their next test.

Speaker 9 (01:31:00):
Next test is a game against the Miami Red Hawks,
and they're going to play at TQL Stadium, which I
think is going to be cool. We've talked about that,
each one of us, on the UC broadcast on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (01:31:11):
That is a great venue. Yeah. Which isn't like they
don't have to do anything to alter the venue.

Speaker 5 (01:31:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:31:18):
Like they... Jeff Burding said when they built it, they
installed the hole for the goalpost. They have goalposts in-house
to kind of get everything set up. So I know
it's something they want to do more of, those football
games there. And to be with a rivalry as old
as this, so you have this old rivalry, and then
you have the first-ever game being played at TQL Stadium,

(01:31:40):
that's kind of cool.

Speaker 9 (01:31:42):
Nothing against Paycorp. That's a 65,000-seat stadium. They're not going
to get close to that for UC versus Miami. I
don't know what the ticket sale situation is for this
game on Saturday, but you have a better chance to
have a full house. and a great atmosphere, reflective of
a full house, then you can get 45,000 people. And

(01:32:04):
we've seen the Bearcats play games there where they've gotten 40,000,
45,000 people, and it feels.

Speaker 6 (01:32:09):
What it is, which is one-third empty. You've been there
for FC Cincinnati matches. That place can get loud. Yeah.
It's terrific. It's a great venue. I think for a
college football environment, it's going to be really cool. And
it's different if it was UC Western Carolina. To bring
two local rivals, storied history. You know that you always

(01:32:31):
get Miami's best. UC's going to have to match it.
It's like the old throw everything else out the window
when two rivals clash. I'm looking forward to it. And
I'm looking forward to it because I think it's a
good test for UC as well.

Speaker 9 (01:32:43):
It's also the last scheduled game between UC and Miami.

Speaker 10 (01:32:47):
Would you like to see a resumption of that series?

Speaker 6 (01:32:51):
It's tough. Because for years, it's how much does UC
gain from that? You know, the other side of it
we saw for a couple years. When you lose, it
stings a lot more than a win helps you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
Sure.

Speaker 10 (01:33:03):
No, of the last 18 games, Miami has won one.

Speaker 6 (01:33:08):
That's the one that I think about.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
I hate to say it. That's the hard part about it.
That's the one that I think about. Yep. So the risk-reward,
is it there? Does it make sense for both sides
going forward? I guess I will say this.

Speaker 9 (01:33:19):
As somebody, we've seen so many traditions go away in
college football. You know, granted, like UCM Miami didn't play
last year, so it's not like it's been a continuous rivalry.
I'm willing to listen to the traditional part of it
just because so many traditions have gone away.

Speaker 6 (01:33:36):
It's hard.

Speaker 10 (01:33:37):
Like last year, they replaced Miami with Bowling Green.

Speaker 6 (01:33:41):
I'd rather play Miami. It's hard to.

Speaker 9 (01:33:43):
If you're going to replace Miami with Ball State, nothing
against those schools. If you're going to play a Mac school,
then play the one here. If you're going to replace
Miami with a P4 game, which they've played some people,
Nebraska last year, Boston College this year, and next.

Speaker 6 (01:33:56):
In the future, they're scheduled to play Boise.

Speaker 9 (01:33:59):
Right.

Speaker 10 (01:33:59):
Like, okay.

Speaker 6 (01:34:00):
Fine.

Speaker 2 (01:34:00):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:34:01):
But, like, whenever I'm told, like, let's not play the
game anymore, I go, what are we replacing it with? Like,
last year they replaced it with Bowling Green. Nothing against
Bowling Green. Terran Bland went to Bowling Green. But if
you're going to replace Miami with another MAAC school, just
play Miami. But I can understand, and if you're a
Miami fan or grad, don't take this the wrong way.

Speaker 6 (01:34:20):
I can understand. Brian Kelly made this point in 2007.

Speaker 9 (01:34:23):
A big 12 school going to Jaeger Stadium is just
not the sort of thing that's going to happen all
that often.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
In a comparable situation. Yeah, and I think the unfortunate
nature of rivalry games today lose a little bit. You know,
when I went to UC, one, I had grown up
knowing the rivalry. But two, you spend a couple years there,
you know how important it is. For J.C. French, does
he know about the battle for the victory belt? No.

(01:34:53):
And I asked Scott Satterfield on Saturday, and he said
he made mention of it. But this week's got to
be different. The coach knows to lean into it. I
get it. But, you know, it's how many of the
guys on the team know anything about it? Right. It's true.
And with that, is there the built like there was
a built in animosity when I played.

Speaker 3 (01:35:09):
Sure.

Speaker 6 (01:35:10):
You didn't like those guys. You wanted to beat them.
It's a it's a you know, it's a it's a
rivalry game. It's that same animosity that has made the
shootout what it is for all these years. And that's
why I love.

Speaker 9 (01:35:20):
But even with the shootout, now like Trey Carroll had
a great performance and leaned into it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:25):
But that's why I love Calhoun and Patino because they know.

Speaker 9 (01:35:28):
But like guys come in for a year and it's
like they know it's a big deal. But it's not
like the three or four year players.

Speaker 6 (01:35:35):
Agreed. So for the nostalgia, I like it. You know,
like I grew up with it, so I like seeing
them play. I like when UC wins the bell. And
with it being the last scheduled one, you sure as
heck don't want to lose it on the last go around.
And UC's lead in the series is one. Right. 61-60
to I think seven. A couple ties, yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:35:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:35:58):
Ohio State on Saturday night.

Speaker 6 (01:36:00):
Gosh.

Speaker 9 (01:36:02):
We'll get into the specifics of the game itself. What
is the big picture takeaway from what happened?

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
To the Buckeyes. I hated to see it. I know
you were devastated. I was devastated.

Speaker 10 (01:36:11):
I barely slept. That's why you looked so haggard yesterday.

Speaker 6 (01:36:14):
I was texting you Saturday night because I left the booth,
and as I was leaving, I looked at the scores.
It was 23-3, and nothing dawned on me from the
time I got done at UC to when I got
home to even check on it. And I walk in,
and I see Texas take the lead, and it's like, what?

(01:36:34):
And then you start to look. Another missed field goal.
They punted on the 39-yard line on fourth and four.
The play calling got uber conservative.

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:36:45):
Like, you just dominated a team for three quarters. Why
change anything? Have the trust. That, to me, it's the
worrisome thing. Ryan Day's overall record is awesome. Sure. But
every loss I feel like that Ryan Day suffers follows
the same script. Got tight. Play calling changed. Played not

(01:37:06):
to lose.

Speaker 3 (01:37:07):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 6 (01:37:08):
Can't do it. And if you're Ohio State, like if
you're an Ohio State fan, they've lost three of their
last four games now.

Speaker 10 (01:37:15):
They've lost their last three against people.

Speaker 6 (01:37:17):
Right. They beat Ball State. They're going to beat Kent State.

Speaker 9 (01:37:19):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:37:20):
But, you know, Austin said this earlier today. It now
puts a lot of pressure on the Oregon game, puts
a lot more pressure on that Indiana game. Yeah, the
margin for error. Puts a lot more pressure on the
Michigan game. Michigan looked better, looked physical. They've got to
go to USC. But one of the things with Ohio
State consistently is what? Somehow, someway, they're getting beat up
in the trenches. They're not the more physical team. And

(01:37:44):
I don't know how they can't fit. How can Ohio
State not find the best kicker and say, we'll give
you a million dollars, come here? I don't know. I
don't understand it. It's another in a long line of
devastating losses for Ryan Day in a game they shouldn't
have lost.

Speaker 9 (01:38:01):
Why don't they let Texas score from the one-yard line
with whatever it was, a minute, maybe a minute and
a handful of chains to go. They've got a timeout
the Buckeyes do.

Speaker 10 (01:38:12):
They have Jeremiah Smith, and I know their kicker had
just missed a field goal.

Speaker 6 (01:38:16):
But at least you got a chance.

Speaker 9 (01:38:18):
Your chances of going downfield with, for my money, the
best player in football, Jeremiah Smith, who I know he
had a couple of drops in the game, but did
some unbelievable things in that game, You're changing. of going
down with Jeremiah Smith and putting yourself in a position
to make a game winning kick are better than stopping
Texas four times from the one.

Speaker 6 (01:38:40):
Yeah, like I get it.

Speaker 9 (01:38:42):
They got to stop on first down, then second down.
There was the fumble. Your chances of getting four.

Speaker 10 (01:38:47):
Stops, it's just.

Speaker 6 (01:38:49):
Not when you've been getting beat up in the trenches.

Speaker 5 (01:38:50):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:38:51):
Compared to let's let them score with a timeout and
time on the clock, have arguably the best player in
the country make a player to it and give us
a chance.

Speaker 10 (01:39:00):
Your chances of doing that, I think, are better. Why
not let them score?

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
Agreed.

Speaker 6 (01:39:04):
What did you make of Sark after the game? I
didn't like it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:39:07):
The halftime thing I understand. Hey, I got to talk
to my team. I don't have time to wait. Like,
you've been there.

Speaker 6 (01:39:12):
Agreed.

Speaker 10 (01:39:13):
Like, the coach has to go. After the game, these
coaches make what they make.

Speaker 6 (01:39:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:39:19):
Largely because of the money poured in from media deals.

Speaker 2 (01:39:22):
Yep.

Speaker 10 (01:39:22):
Do a 90-second interview.

Speaker 3 (01:39:24):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:39:24):
Outside of the battle for the victory bell, LSU Ole
Miss is going to be awesome this week. Fantastic. Cannot wait.

Speaker 9 (01:39:32):
Let's also hope that in the battle for the victory bell,
whatever hype videos are out there, let's focus on football.

Speaker 6 (01:39:38):
100%. Let's focus on football. That's a good way to
leave that. All right.

Speaker 9 (01:39:43):
Tony's going to jump on the iHeartMedia helicopter to get
back to the studio to do Bengals Line with Lance McAllister.
You'll hear that in just a few minutes. And then
you're off tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (01:39:53):
Off tomorrow. Well-deserved. Back Wednesday. Let's do it all again.

Speaker 9 (01:39:57):
I am back tomorrow at 3.05. Let's have another Victory Monday.
Let's have another Victory Monday next week. We're back at
Twin Peaks in Westchester a week from today. Our thanks,
of course, to Mike Mills for producing on site. And
our guy, Taren.

Speaker 8 (01:40:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:40:10):
Television producing.

Speaker 6 (01:40:11):
Thanks to everyone that came out and everyone that watched
along today.

Speaker 9 (01:40:13):
Radio producing, making graphics.

Speaker 6 (01:40:15):
Dude does everything. T-Bland. Can't hold the Bowling Green thing
against him.

Speaker 10 (01:40:20):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:40:20):
I like Bowling Green.

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
Sure.

Speaker 6 (01:40:22):
UC played in their basketball. I love the basketball arena. Yeah,
really nice. Stroh Center. And his Vikings won. He's very happy.

Speaker 10 (01:40:28):
He's back in the Carson Wentz band.

Speaker 6 (01:40:30):
He's a Buckeye, though. He is a Buckeyes fan. Sometimes,
I feel like. Other times, he's not. We got to go. Thanks, Darren.

Speaker 9 (01:40:35):
Bengals line is next. We'll talk to you tomorrow. This
is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
From the UCHealth Traffic Center, UCHealth offers multiple sclerosis infusion
therapy at nine locations, making expert care easier to access.
Learn more at uchealth.com. There is still an accident on
eastbound 275 that's on the off-ramp to northbound 75 over
near Sharonville. Left lane blocked on the ramp looks like

(01:41:18):
traffic able to pass through, though. Also on northbound 75
in that same area, accident on the left shoulder between
275 and Union Center Boulevard. I'm Eddie Zellick with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:41:30):
This report.

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