Charlie Goldsmith -- 11/14/25

Tony and Austin talk with Charlie Goldsmith on ESPN 1530!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Tony Pike's Friday Football Frenzy show, brought to
you in part five fellow Windows and door making life
writer Pelen Now day later, Skyline Shilly Stealing Good. It's
Skyline time. Encore Technologies. Visit OnCore dot Tech haves an
oil stealing champions on and off the field, am Day,

(00:22):
Men's health, Start your best life today and by the
Creation Museum It's more than a museum. Visit Creation Museum
dot org today on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home
of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome back our two Friday Football Frenzy. Thanks to Sinci Sharts.
Thank you for listening. If you are a listener, you
know what time it is. It's Friday. It's one o'clock.
Our good friend Charlie goldsmiths Danny boy to join us
right now. Your talkbacks follow that immediately. Charlie, what's going on.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Doing Tony?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Charlie, I'm great man.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
How are you? I'm doing great?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Let's start with the game on Sunday, Charlie. Coming out
of a bye and the defense we know has not
been good. How much better can the defense get coming
out of a bye with looking at tendencies with doin
some self scouting. Are there things available for this defense
to improve with starting on Sunday?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Not as much as say you'd have with the twenty
twenty one or the twenty twenty two Bengals. Those are
teams that I remember talking to Loui an Arrumo about this.
Harry heavily studied their scheme during the bye, came out
with brand new wrinkles, new coverage looks, new blitz packages,
and had things that I remember. Some of the best
football they played was out of the buy in twenty

(01:46):
twenty two with these unbelievable wrinkles that lou Ana Rumo
dove into. Well, they're not elevating this scheme, they're simplifying
this scheme. The only thing, you know, they could be
running the best scheme of the world. But what you're
seeing right now is in one on one siga situations,
fundamental technical mistakes, guys not executing their assignments, and that's
stuff that you can't sit down in a meeting room

(02:07):
in fix. Because of the level that they're at. These
young guys just need to play, They need to develop,
they need to grow.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
You went into the weeds a little bit over the
bye week, and you came out of the weeds with
some interesting stuff on the Bengals defense and how they
approach third down defense, in particular how they're guarding opposing
team's tight ends. We know tight ends have been an issue.
Pat Fryermuth did make some plays obviously in that first
go round, but talk a little bit about some variations
that maybe we can look for when it comes to

(02:36):
third down against the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Tight ends have been a huge issue this year on
early downs, on first and second downs. Third downs not
as much, but still more than they have been in
the past. But I believe last year, outside of the
Kansas City game, they didn't allow a catch to a
tight end on third down all season. Lou Anarumo very
comfortably had the Tray Flowers role, the tight end stopper,
Dejohn Anthony had it, dj Ivy had it well. This year,

(03:03):
they just keep their traditional dime defense on the field.
That's our golden plan for third downs. They just bring
in Josh Newton, they spread out assignments, the safeties get
more involved, and there's not a general tight end guy.
It's one of the biggest just pure schematic differences from
last year to this year. And it's been fine but
not good enough, but still okay from a tight end perspective.

(03:24):
The one exception though, is when they played the Steelers,
they brought back out dj Ivy to be their tight
end stopper because Pittsford's receiver's depth receiver depth is that bad,
and because they have some nice tight ends Friar Johnny Smith.
You know Washington lefto is a pass catcher, but still him.
They wanted more size to face tight end, so they
brought in dj Ivy more on on their dime defense,

(03:47):
kind of in the Luenna Remo style. And I bet
we'd see them do something similar again on.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Sunday, Charlie coming out of a buy. Just from a
personnel standpoint or a scheme standpoint, we know now they're
going to be without Stewart and Trey Hendrickson. Anything they
can do to give themselves a competitive advantage by just
the personnel they're going to try to use on the field.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
I did while I was in the weeds, I did
a deep dive on Barrett Carter and I did find
the one thing that he's doing better than what Logan
Wilson did, and that's what he can do in pass
rush games on third downs, you know, you can have
them kind of be a guy who chases around a pick,
who kind of just kind of shoots out of a
cannon to try to get to the quarterback. Now, sometimes

(04:28):
they'll just miss the tackle, sometimes it'll come up empty,
but opportunities like that to take advantage of Carter's speed,
and now they did have some more time to work
on that during the bye week heading into this week. Remember,
Carter made his first start against the Packers and only
had a short week to get ready for the Steelers.

(04:49):
So one difference could be is what they do from
a Barrett Carter Blitz perspective, something they've actually had time
to work on and see how it looks now. But
even with that, the results are far from guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
What about Cedric Johnson, I know he's expected to play
a little bit more of a role with Trey and
Schamar out. What have the coaches kind of been saying
about him, and obviously had a good offseason and now
that he's back in the fray.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well, first, he's the type of guy you want to reward.
He's like on offense, we've talked about like Joseavash and
to an even bigger extent, Chase Brown being one of
the best kind of do everything culture behind the scenes
about all of the right stuff like and Seid Johnson
really is one of those guys. He does one thing

(05:34):
very well, which is when he gets into a full sprint,
he can chase down the quarterback and he can kind
of find pressure opportunities with his speed. Now said not
as much by a cup of tea, because the pass
rush plan the games, the opportunity and ability on a
down to down basis being consistent at the line of

(05:54):
scrimmage against different types of tackles, winning with power impacting
the game again to run all those on his strength.
But he's got the ability to chase down a guy
and he plays pretty discipline, so you know, ideally that
gives him a bit of a spark compared to a
guy like you know, Shamar Stewart who hadn't really been
doing much of anything well as a pass rusher, Cam Sample,

(06:17):
who's been pretty stiff as a pass rusher. So Seed
Johnson does help because he does a couple of things
at a pretty decent.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Level offensively, Charlie, what's the challenge now that presents this offense?
Because they've been so good and they've been so dynamic.
Go back to the second half against Green Bay and
how they were against Pittsburgh and the Jets and the Bears.
Now you go into a buy what's the biggest challenge
this offense will face in trying to find that consistency
in that scoring on offense again on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
I think the biggest thing is continuing to have that
baseline level up front in a way that lets Flaco
operate quickly and with confidence. Being confident that when he
throws the ball in the game, then he'll be able
to do so clean. That very important because when he
doesn't have that, that's where you see Flacco's well documented
historical you know, turnover issues both fumbled in interceptions become

(07:09):
a bigger part of the equation. So letting Flaco continue
to operate consistently with that, that's going to be the
name of the game for this Bengals offense for as
long as flackos their quarterback. Because there's really only one
style they can play. And we'll just some of what
they do against Pittsburgh based off some of their personnel.
They you know, Joey Porter Junior is the corner. They

(07:29):
have a lot of respect for obviously a lot of
fear for TJ. Watt and for Cam Hayward. But there's
still one clean vision of how looks that we saw
them execute pretty perfectly the first time against Pittsburgh. They're
going to have to pretty much recreate that on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Defensively, for Pittsburgh, they played so much man the first
go around, and it's well documented the targets and the
catches that Jamar Chase was able to have. They just
didn't want to play zone defense. And I remember watching
Thursday Night Football and watching along and watching halftime, and
everyone's just shocked that Pittsburgh is not changing from man demand.
Now that they've had a chance to, I think regroup,

(08:07):
Jalen Ramsey's playing some more safety. Do you envision them
still trying to go man demand or do we see
more zone on Sunday against the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
The biggest thing I'm expecting, whether it's man or zone,
is just for them to show a lot of fear
in both Jamar and t I just think as a whole,
when you look at the way they're going to try
to deploy their resources, it's a unit that's going to
try to take them away above all else. That's kind
of how all of the defenses have been played, not
a pretty much the majority of these defenses have been

(08:36):
playing the Bengals this year. They haven't seen so much
double double this year. There have been so many cases
where teams change everything of what they do and what
they're built on and their philosophy and their foundation to
play more double double against Tomar and t because they're,
you know, such a unique receiving duo in the league.
So I would look at Pittsburgh continuing to kind of

(08:56):
fall into that bucket as opposed to maybe going down
the general en some process that they'd use if they
were just facing the normal, typically built offense this week.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
The rebuttal to that for the Bengals would be andre Yosi,
Vash Tanner Hudson, Noah Fan, Mitchell Tinsley. Those four receivers
combined for ten catches in this team's last game against
the Chicago Bears. How important is the emergence And you
could throw Chase Brown into that as well, who had
eight catches. How important is the emergence of those receivers

(09:25):
if a team is going to come out and double
double Tea and Jamar.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
So first, I mean, there are examples we can point
to this year, Like Jamar had a double move go
against the Lions. He had a bench rout against the Bears.
I can't think of as many off the top of
my head with Tea, but but I guarantee you they
I feel like the slant for a touchdown against the Steelers,
Like the Bengals have routes and concepts that they feel
pretty confident in to still get them the ball when

(09:52):
those guys are doubled. And we've seen that on tape.
We've seen that, you know, that was the whole Bengals
offense in the second half of the twenty twenty two
AFC Championship Game, trying to find ways to get them
the ball, and they've shown that they can still do
that and get big plays when teams try to take
them away. But yes, I've held on to and andre
Yosivos stock along and what's been a turbulent season for him.

(10:14):
I trust him to win in one on one opportunities.
And Sam has just had a nice, solid, healthy season
and it's been exactly what the Bengals were hoping for
when they signed him. And you know he's throwing a
dash here and there from Kinsley and Hudson overall, you
wish still were a little more speed they were getting
from their still guys behind the top two they still

(10:35):
desperately missed Jermaine Burton. I've been thinking about that a lot.
You beat double double with a guy with great downfield
speed who can turn in an explosive play down the
down the field out of the slot, like they're missing
that still. But on the whole, you like where you're at.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
How shocked were you when you saw the news that
Joe Burrow was going to be returning to practice and
that his window was open, And what has kind of
been the reaction internally from what you've heard.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
It's something that if he continues on the track he's on,
becomes the second biggest story of his career, the biggest being,
of course, leading the Bengals to the Super Bowl in
year two and rewriting the narrative at the time about
how the Bengals were and how they felt and what
they represented around the league. Again, They've got to get
back there now, But it would be the craziest story

(11:25):
of Joe's career. You know, I'm just imagining what if
he did come back against Baltimore and play at a
high level and lead the Bengals to the win, to
a win. Now, I'm kind of saving that that admiration,
that adoration, all that reflection until Burrow actually does it.
I'm kind of keeping the the I'm keeping a little
bit of a distance right now because this is the

(11:47):
part where things get muddy, where you know, how does
Burrow react when he does this. Here's where he's really
testing himself, seeing what he can risk, seeing what he
can't risk. So I can't be like two over the
moon impressed until I really see how it what's on
the field. But then once he's there, I mean, we've
got all the time in the world to say how
unbelievable this comeback process has been.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
Do you think the Bengals would tell him no, if
they win the next two or if they lose the
next two weeks, maybe you give it.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Another week in that scenario. But I also think Burrow
needs to play for the good of the twenty twenty
six Bengals like to basically go two full years without
playing football. To me, that's too much, that's too long.
You know, we've forgot We've gone so far past the
slow start storyline. If only that were the Bengals' biggest
problems still. But if you want to avoid a slow

(12:36):
start in twenty twenty six, you have to play Burrow
down the stretch in twenty twenty five, or else there's
just too much Russ Charlie.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
We would be were missed not to ask you because
you were at the Major League Baseball GM meetings, any
interesting Reds nuggets that you have to share from what
you learned.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
The Hunter Green trade rumors have been a non story
all along, Elie de la Cruz staying at shortstop. The
Reds biggest focus is, you know, kind of rebuilding, strengthening
their bullpen with a guy who probably has high leverage
experience as well as the left handers. Now, what I
expect our approach to be there is, let's see where

(13:14):
the price points and values go so you can get
a deal that would that would be a win for
the Reds from a value perspective, because they're not going
to be able to go out and splurge and get
like the top guy on their board and beed out
another team in a bidding wharf. There's one guy who
in a dream scenario, they'd have circled with to fifteen
to twenty million dollars to spend. That's just not the

(13:36):
market they're going to be playing in six to spend
for the whole roster, you know, adding to the roster.
So from that perspective, look at the bullpen. Can they
add in some depths or tube on the position players side,
a platoon piece who can hit lefties, that overall would
be their main course for the offseason.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
How long do you think there was a conversation about
Ellie potentially switching positions and do you know if there
is a particular plan with him to shore up his
defense at shortstop, if he's going to stay there.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
It was a realistic conversation out how long the conversation
went on behind closed doors? That can't keep you those specifics,
But you know I heard public Land privately. You know
it's Cross said at the end of the year, like
Ellie's their shortstop right now, and didn't give an definitive
answer on that. That backs up what I heard behind
the scene that obviously you have the definitive answer for now.
So sure there was some gray area that probably meant

(14:34):
there was a conversation, but ultimately what they what they
you know, came to the conclusion was Ellie they felt
that I think you both agree with this. His defense
was was pretty solid in the first half of the year,
especially for a twenty three year old, and then in
the second half it really fell off. Now the story
of his second half, we all know if he was hurt,

(14:54):
he was playing too much. So there I there I.
Their their vision is if he gets some more strategic
off days, maybe at DH day here and then, and
you keep them fresh in twenty twenty six because you
don't make the same mistake of playing him every day
like you did in twenty twenty five, and you have
Freddie Benavidez work on him specifically with some stuff on

(15:14):
the throws and the arm angles and the footwork to
make all that think up on a play to play
basis better. They feel more than good enough about Elliot Short.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
At what point for this group does youth and inexperience
stop being a crutch for maybe some of their struggles.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Well, the the plan is to be young and stay young,
and that that's just who they are, that's where they're
at now, and you can win that way. The Brewers
were unbelievably. They just played a cleaner, smarter, more efficient
brand of baseball. So for me, my focus is on
looking the Red do behind the scenes to solidify streamline

(15:55):
perfect their style of play and how they teach it
and how they execute it. That's where my focus is,
because you know, they're not going to be in a
spot like I don't know, even like the Cubs, where
they've got veterans at most of those key spots on
the field. So this is just who the Reds are
and where they're at, and they just gotta be better
or else they're going to be a big disappointment. They're

(16:17):
fighting against that and they believe they're gonna figure it out.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Charlie, I would be remiss not to ask you about
the showdown at Nippert Stadium tomorrow. Everyone's talking about BYU
and what that game could mean. This is a massive
one tomorrow for the Bearcats, coming off the buy and
the bad loss to Utah. How confident are you and
what the Bearcats can do to get back on track?

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Two big focuses. First, you know, we all know the
story of Brendan Swergby's season last year and how there
was positive momentum and then negative momentum. This is, you know,
coming off the game work sort of, you know, had
a bad day. This is a chance for him to
re establish some of that upward trajectory. And if you
can take that then into such a massive game the

(16:58):
following week against b YU, Now you're cooking or else.
If you can't re establish that momentum in the passing game,
you're on that, you know, soul searching. Kind of got
to figure things out mindset heading into the biggest game
of every year. So that's important to we would Storey also
interested to see Dote corleone. How is he looking, what's
his snap count like? What's the confidence like right now

(17:20):
in the run defense? Can he be more of a
playmaker in it? Those are the two big things for
me tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Awesome, Charlie. We can't thank you enough each and every
Friday for joining us. The best to follow along with
everything that you have covered right now is what.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Just Charlie shockboard on substack got a story up on
DJ Turner and his season up right now. So thanks for.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Having me, Charlie. Thanks so much. A good weekend.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
See you guys have a good weekend, all right.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
That's Charlie Goldsmith. That means your talkbacks Chucky Vegas are
now next after this break the Friday Football Frenzy on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Now your chance to win a thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Entered this nationwide keyword.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
On our website.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
When that's when enter it now.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Hey Alexa, there's