Tony Pike's Cincy 360 -- 11/25/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ike sincey three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in
part by Skyline Chili. Stop by Skyline Chili for a
three way or cheese cony today. Feeling good, It's Skyline time.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi, Hello and welcome in two Tony Pikes since e
three sixty here on ESPN fifteen thirty. I am not
Tony Pike. My name is Austin Elmore. The big fella
is out today. He's feeling a little bit under the weather,
and I don't blame him. You know, the voice. He
was struggling to finish things up after doing six hours

(00:41):
of radio yesterday. He of course called the UC game
with Dan Hord out in the cold over the weekend,
had the Holy Grail on Sunday morning for pregame sports talk.
So his voice definitely needs a rest. And we'd like
to make fun of Tony and call him part time Pike.
But I've had this, Moe has had this. It's kind
of gone around between the three of us here at

(01:03):
the radio station and Tony feeling a little under the
weather today. So hopefully everything goes well for him today
and he's able to come back tomorrow. Tomorrow will be
our last show of the week. We'll have a carefully
curated edition of Sincy three to sixty that will air
on Thanksgiving Day and we'll try to keep that as
topical as possible ahead of Bengals Ravens MO. We'll have

(01:25):
pregame sports talk ahead of Bengals Ravens on Thanksgiving. Looking
forward to that, and Tony and myself are off on Friday.
Back to the regularly scheduled programming on Monday, typical Tuesday show. Today,
we'll talk to joe Daniman at one pm from Fox nineteen.
He of course covering the Bengals. He was at Saint

(01:48):
x Elder over the weekend. I want to ask him
a little bit about that environment and so much more.
Always looking forward to our conversations with Joey D. Mo
Egger will join us hopefully at the end of the show.
Into the show is going to be a little bit
funky today. Why because Joe Burrow is going to speak
with the media now. Earlier this week it was sent
out the media schedule and who's supposed to talk and

(02:13):
win and the other day it said Bengals QB at
two forty five on Tuesday, and then yesterday that was
updated to Bengals QB Joe Burrow at two forty five
on Tuesday. So Joe is going to talk at two
forty five. Jamar Chase, who is back in the building,
is going to talk at three o'clock. MO and I

(02:34):
have discussed we're going to air both those press conferences.
Obviously Jamar coming off of his suspension, and Joe and
Jamar in their history in Baltimore, especially on Thursday night
games and big games, and this, if you look at
it through the perspective of the entirety of the season,
is a relatively big game and obviously means a lot

(02:56):
to Joe Burrow since he is going to be coming
back in and almost certainly starting this game on Thursday night.
Phone lines are open five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty. You can also tweet it me at Audi Elmore.
That's a U T Y E L M O R.
In addition to hearing from Joe Burrow and Joe Danoman

(03:17):
and perhaps even Moegger, we'll do our college basketball rewind.
We'll talk or we won't talk, but we'll hear from
what Richard Patino had to say. Their big win over
the weekend. We had to go all football yesterday. Didn't
get a chance to talk about that. Wes Miller in
his opening statement after Cincinnati got a ninety four sixty

(03:38):
seven win over n JI T last night at Fifth
Third Arena, and Darren Hornon, the head coach of the
NKU Norse NKU was trailing e KU by two at
halftime last night, but they came back to win eighty
two seventy one. You'll hear from him as well. And
I have a few snippets from Zach Taylor's Prescot conference

(04:00):
yesterday talking about Joe Burrow, talking about his decision on
fourth and one, and also talking about Trey Hendrickson. And
we'll get into a little bit of Trey Hendrickson because
I just think that that situation is once again going
to be one of the biggest roadblocks, one of the
biggest obstacles, one of the biggest and most important pieces

(04:23):
of the Bengals offseason. I am exhausted by the thought
of that that once again Trey Hendrickson and dealing with
him is going to be a huge part of the
off season. But I do think it is, and I
think the actions that are being taken now by either
the Bengals or Trey hendrickson, whichever side you want to
look at. Are We're going to be revisiting those as

(04:47):
the off season goes along. So let's start with the
story of the week. The story of the season really
has been the absence of Joe Burrow and now what
appears to be his return. I have no reason to
believe he's not going to return. Based off of what
Zach said yesterday, based off of Joe's post on his

(05:08):
Instagram story yesterday, all indications are that Joe Burrow is
going to start on Thursday night in Baltimore, and Bengals
fans appear split on this. I've seen a myriad of
poll questions asking fans do you want him to start?
Yes or no? I think even here at the radio station,

(05:31):
we're split in our opinions. I know Moe has said
he would tell Joe Burrow see you next year. I
know Tony and myself have said he's the best player,
he's healthy, there's six games to go, why not play
the man. I've seen differing opinions all over the place,
and I truthfully want to hear from you, and I
want to hear your reasons why or why not that

(05:54):
you want Joe Burrow to play or not play this season,
And I think I think it kind of comes down to,
like what do you value more? And I do think
by the way that the Trey Henderson thing kind of
plays a role in this that we can maybe get
into the weeds on a little bit later on. But
do you value having a high draft pick? Do you

(06:18):
value the I guess that do you value the draft
pick and the losing that comes with that more than
you value trying to win as many games as possible
and seeing what this team is supposed to look like

(06:39):
with its star quarterback. So obviously T Higgins is not
going to be out there, and T may not play
the rest of the season. You just never know what
the concussion like that, and it's that's one of those
situations where if T has got a concussion and it
was that serious, then maybe there's no reason for him

(06:59):
to play the rest of the considering his injury history,
or maybe it's you know, you do want to get
him back out there when he's fully healthy because you
want to see what everything is supposed to look like altogether.
The offense for the most part has been relatively healthy.
Mike Gasiki is back. I think most people are thrilled

(07:20):
with the development of the offensive line, especially in the
run game, and you want to see offensively what it's
supposed to look like when Burrow is healthy, and we're
going to see that for the most part Thursday night.
Now Higgins isn't going to be out there. But you
have additional opportunities to evaluate Mitchell Tinsley, to evaluate andre

(07:40):
yoshivash To, perhaps if you're interested, evaluate Jermaine Burton, maybe
even if you want to keep Noah Fan around next
year or pursue him. You are going to have to
address the left tackle spot, I think eventually, the backup
tight end spot. Obviously the running backs and the depth
there Toaz Brooks is not going to play. There is

(08:03):
this weird mix of you want to win because you
are alive and because you have a standard that you
want to uphold, but also you know that you have
to evaluate what you have so that you have a
clear path forward and a plan on how to fix
it in the offseason. And the question I would have

(08:23):
is isn't it possible to do both? Can't you do both?
Can't you see what this team looks like with Joe
Burrow and what it's supposed to look like, and also
say these are the things we need to fix. And
if you don't know by now through the first fifteen games,
or through the first twelve games, if you don't know

(08:47):
what the problems are and what needs to be fixed
with or without Joe Burrow, then where have you been.
I don't know that anything over the last six games
is going to change your opinion or your evaluation of
what you have seen up until this point, nor should it.
I had the conversation yesterday. You cannot allow a couple

(09:10):
of wins or a couple of nice plays to be
the reasoning for inaction in the offseason. I think it
has been embarrassing enough and enlightening enough watching through these
first few games, first twelve games, what is their record?
Three and eight? First eleven games? You know what the

(09:30):
issues are and what needs to be addressed. I don't
think the last five games, six games are going to
change any of that, so you might as well get
a full look at your team. I think your answer
your questions have been answered in the backup quarterback position.
I think you know what's gonna happen there. I think

(09:52):
your questions have been answered about the safety position, and
I would love to see some more Dejon Anthony. You
can put your best players on the field and try
to win, and also be in evaluation mode and take
the knowledge that you've learned up until this point so
you know what it looks like without the ultimate equalizer

(10:14):
in Joe Burrow, and still use that information to guide
your decision making in the offseason. The other reason I
think it's important for Burrow to be there is because
I think he raises the standard of everybody in the organization.
I think he raises the standard of the offensive line,

(10:35):
of the run game, of the receivers, of special teams,
of the coaches, of the ownership group, of everybody. I
think he is the standard. And this mentality, this desire
to push and to come back and to try to
win and to put the team on his shoulders, and
this burning, undying passion for winning and greatness, is the

(11:00):
rising tide that lifts all boats for this organization. Let
us not forget. He is the face of the franchise.
He is the reason you tune in. He is the
jersey that you buy. His face is everywhere all over
this city, and for good reason. When healthy, I think

(11:21):
he's the best, if not the second or third best
quarterback in this league. And yes, injuries have been a
part of his story, but he is the rising tide
that lifts all boats in this organization. He is the future.
He is what you build around. And I know that
the coaches and the staff, they don't look around thinking,

(11:42):
all right, we're good now that Joe's back, it doesn't
matter what happens will be okay. No, they're thinking, we
need to win some damn games to prove that this
isn't all our fault, to prove that maybe it is
Duke Tobin and the bad players that were put on
the defense and not just the coaches. They feel the heat,
and they should feel the heat because it's been embarrassing

(12:05):
and they have something to prove as well. And as
much as I love and appreciate Joe Flacco, and we'll
get into that, you know, just a little bit, there
are still a difference between him and Joe Burrow, especially
in the way they play, but I think also in
the way that they lead, and I think the importance
of that on the rest of the football team is

(12:29):
not something you can place a direct value on. I
think the more you see these young players, these young
guys get a chance to play with Joe Burrow and
know what things are like when Joe is around, and
what is expected and the standard and how you approach
every single game, at every single rep, all of that,
I think that's important. I think going up against him

(12:52):
every day in practice is important. I think that can
have a trickle down effect on making these young players
better and play a role in their development. So I
want Joe Burrow around, whether that's in the film room,
on the practice field, in the weight room, in team meetings,
on the sideline, or most importantly, on the field. And

(13:16):
the other reason is I simply do not believe that
you should live your life in fear of getting hurt.
Every player in the National Football League takes a humongous
risk every time they step on the field. They know
that they signed up for that. Few know that better

(13:37):
than Joe Burrow. It is a major, major risk. We
all know it. I don't think you should operate with
the under the assumption that you're going to get hurt again,
or out of fear that injury is going to crop
up again. I've outlined the injuries in the past. Most

(13:57):
of them are fluky, most of them are bad luck.
Most of them are not Joe Burrow's fault. Some of
them are the fault of the players in front of him,
but mostly not his fault. Yes, he's got the injury
prone label, and I understand why, but I don't know
that that label tells the entire story. And if you're

(14:21):
like me and you believe and you want this organization
to come up with a standard and uphold that standard
and be always an aggressive pursuit of a championship, you
need that guy standing in front leading everybody else in
that direction. And that's who Joe Burrow is. And you

(14:41):
cannot operate out of fear because if you do that
as a football team and as an organization, what does
that do to the rest of the team, What does
that do to the fans? That's just not a way
you should look at things. But it does come back
to the point, which is what's more valuable For an
organization that has proven it does not have the ability

(15:04):
to draft outside the top fifteen picks and has missed
on pick after pick after pick after pick in the
last several drafts, they need all the help they can get,
and lord knows, when they're picking one hundred and fifty
days from right now, when the NFL Draft is happening,
they're gonna need all the help they can get in

(15:25):
the further up in the draft order, the higher the
odds are that they're going to get a player that
comes in and has an immediate impact. I agree with
all that, and I think that that is a difficult
place to be to balance the desire for winning and
building on what you've built to this point, and also
understanding that the shortcomings of the organization need to be

(15:47):
addressed and they are not fully equipped to do that
because of the way they do business, and that in
and of itself, you almost want them to lose more
so that they can benefit by the system. But at
the same time, it will be used as an excuse,
it will be used as a way to criticize the
organization that the only way they get good players is

(16:10):
because they sucked bad enough to get those picks. I
don't want to be that type of person. I don't
want to be that type of fan. I firmly believe
that if you have your franchise quarterback and you have
your franchise wide receiver. Then you shouldn't be playing the
lottery game. You couldn't you shouldn't be playing the draft game.

(16:33):
You shouldn't be tanking for anything at any point. That's
my biggest issue. I don't believe in that. I want
to win all the time. Joe Burrow wants to win
all the time, So try to meet that standard as
best you can. By the way, there's been some positive
signs on defense, a very small sample size, not anything

(16:56):
that erases the shortcomings of the past, but there have
been some positive signs on defense. So there's still a
lot to learn about this team. Not that it should all,
you know, the final five games, not that that should
mean everything when you go into the offseason, but there's
still a lot to learn. There's still snaps that need

(17:20):
to be had by young players, there's still film that
needs to be watched. I don't know that you should
treat this as a season that's completely dead and completely
over and from there, the perspective of their chances in
the playoffs, I get it's probably not much there, but
that doesn't mean you can't still get something out of

(17:42):
this and get something out of winning. I think that's
still possible, and we can worry about the draft and
the prospects and those players later because a lot changes
between Thanksgiving and the end of April when the draft happens.
Take a break, we'll come back. This is Tony Pikes

(18:02):
since he three to sixty on the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty. Hey, it's ma legger. Join me this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
I'm doing the show from Oakley Greens in Oakley today
starting at three oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
This is Football in the NATI, brought to you by
Hey during Window Company on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Welcome back in Tony Pikes since e three sixty. I'm
Austin Holmore, the big fella out today. Hope he's feeling better.
We'll talk to Tony hopefully again tomorrow ahead of our
Thanksgiving holiday. By the way, the plan for tomorrow is
to kind of do our Friday show on Wednesday, So

(18:52):
I think we're gonna do picks for the weekend. Great
Thanksgiving Day, Slate, Black Friday, the Black Friday Game is great.
I think there's good college football on Black Friday as well,
and Charlie Goldsmith from Baltimore. It's gonna join us tomorrow
as well. Looking forward to that. Joe Daniman coming up
about half an hour from right now. But this is

(19:14):
football in the Natty. We're gonna get to John and
Steve and Tim in just a second. Let me first
give you an update on the injury reports for both
the Bengals and the Ravens ahead of Thanksgiving night. Now,
neither team practice yesterday. These were estimations of practice participation
should either of them have practice. Now, the Bengals will

(19:35):
practice this evening. They have a night practice tonight. I
don't expect it to be very much, very light as
they continue to recover from the Patriots game. But had
they practiced yesterday, this would have been the report. Dejon
Anthony still on that twenty one day practice window, he
was listed as a full participant. Joe Burrow with the

(19:57):
toe injury listed as a full part anticipant. Flacco with
the right shoulder and with that finger that he injured
against the Patriots would have been listed as limited. Hendrickson
and Higgins both DNP samaj p Ryan would be listed
as full. Sounds like p Ryan is going to be
able to go on Thursday against the Ravens. Cam Sample

(20:19):
dealing with the oblique injury would be listed as limited,
and Marco Wilson a DNP due to that hamstring you
may have seen he got hurt in that game against
the Patriots. As for the Ravens, a bunch of dnps
and two limiteds. The most notable dnps were safety Kyle
Hamilton dealing with an ankle injury and quarterback Lamar Jackson

(20:41):
dealing with a toe injury. Now Lamar has not practiced,
He's kind of been on the same schedule as Joe
Flacco where he hasn't been practicing on Wednesdays, but he
has been on Thursdays. So we'll see what it updates
to today when the Ravens practice. But Lamar Jackson was
technically a DNP. How about defensive tackle Tavan Bryan, remember him,

(21:02):
He was a DNP with a knee injury. And wide
receiver Rashod Bakeman Rashad Bateman, he said limited with an ankle.
That is the injury report ahead of Bengals Ravens practice
later today. We'll give you updates tomorrow as well. In
the meantime, let's go to the phones five one, three, seven, four, nine,

(21:23):
fifteen thirty. If you want to call in and be
a part of the show, let's go to Steve in Montgomery. Hello, Steve,
what's up?

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Hey, Austin, how are you doing, buddy?

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm all right, man, Just my.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Different perspective on the Joe Burrow should play or not,
And I'm operating under the same assumption that they are
not going to get new coaches. Whether I want that
or not, That's just what I'm operating under. People don't
understand that Joe Burrow played six meaningful quarters of football
so far this year.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
True, he didn't play again the.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
Rest of this season, he will have gone two years
with a total of six quarters of meaningful football. People
don't understand what that means. Timing is just everything his
being defenses. He probably is scared to death of the
thought of playing six quorders of football over the course

(22:16):
of two years. I don't care what he looks like
when he comes back. I just hope he's rolling by
the end of the year. That, like you said, this
season's bagged anyways. But if I can touch one other
quick thing, sure, the defense I wanted to scream. In
the Steelers game, you let Captain check Down throw the
ball two yards and get fifteen yard completions.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
Out of it.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
The entire game, you're screaming, get up, pressed, pressed, Why
are you playing off coverage? He's just gonna dink and dunk.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
And then you play the Patriots and you play totally
different defense. Why why did they wait till they're eliminated.
It's almost like it's on purpose, and it drives me
freaking crazy.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, I hear you. I mean the things that I
saw from Al Golden, especially at the line of scrimmage,
I thought, where has this been all year? Especially when
it comes to blitzing and using guys like Geno Stone
in blitz coverage and Jalen Davis. I'm just like, how
are you? Why has this not been happening more often?
And Steve, thank you for the phone call. I have
a few thoughts on that. Defensively, I don't know if

(23:22):
it was something they figured out during the bye week,
and I don't know if they're just terrified of DK
Metcalf being a deep threat. I don't think that there's
anybody on that Patriot team that you think is a
deep deep threat Stefan Diggs isn't Matt Collins isn't. Like
that's just not who they are, And maybe they're trying
to confuse Drake May a little bit. But I agree

(23:43):
with you, it was way too much off coverage and
allowing space for the Steelers to operate in that offense
to operate. Now, Pittsburgh doesn't usually work the middle of
the field, and it felt like the Bengals, you know,
didn't do a good enough job of kind of daring
them into the middle of the field. But you know,
that game's neither here nor there. At this point, you

(24:04):
started to see trends at least in the right direction.
When it comes to tackling. They were I believe the
lowest tackle miss tackle rate they've had in any game
happened this week against the Patriots. Barrett Carter missed zero tackles.
That is, in and of itself worthy of a banner.

(24:24):
Your point about Burrow, I agree with you, and I
do think that's something that's been overlooked a little bit,
is the idea that the guy just hasn't played that
much football. And if you it's important for anyone to
do what they do a lot and consistently in the reps,
and Joe's talked often about the reps. Now, Listen, he
could come out Thursday, he might be a little rusty.

(24:46):
We've seen him in the past in the first couple
games of his season. He doesn't look like the same guy.
He looks rusty, and he's often talked about how he
needs the reps. Now, maybe the idea that you start
with the Baltimore Raven essentially on Thanksgiving night in prime time,
that's enough to, you know, kind of unlock that Joe

(25:07):
Burrow that we've seen in the past. But you're right,
reps are important. I also don't think we should overreact
if the guy comes out and doesn't perform at the
level that maybe we saw him early on or at
least early in that Jacksonville game and all of last
year as well. Like it's it's not just hey, here's
Joe Burrow. He's gonna come in and throw for four
hundred and thirty yards and six touchdown. It's not gonna happen.

(25:30):
So I do think, you know, giving him a little
bit of grace is going to be important as far
as that's concerned. As well. Let's go to Tim in
Dell High. What's up? Tim?

Speaker 7 (25:39):
Hey? First of all, I was just wanting to say, hey,
you know, if you took the bet, you were wanting
free Sunday. What does San.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
Asked all bet?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (25:52):
Yeah, yeah, anyway, listen, Uh, I don't I don't care.

Speaker 8 (25:59):
I mean the.

Speaker 7 (26:02):
I understand why Jee wants to play, because he needs
the raps and he wants to play. He's competitor. I
just this season is done. I mean, I want to
see changes because I'm fraid they went out. We're just
gonna get false houts again and they won't make no changes.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
That's that's what your fear is. Yeah, I want.

Speaker 7 (26:32):
Well, you know the last team seasons, well, we finished
strong as I was. Jae was healthy, but was Zach Taylor.
He he has to go. We got to make changes.
I had test play call.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, Tim, are you all right?

Speaker 5 (26:55):
Good?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Just just checking? Thank you for the phone call. Yeah,
you know, I like the previous caller, said Steven Montgomery said.
I operate under the assumption that they're not going to
move on from Zach Taylor. I just don't think that's
going to happen unless the next six games they get
it destroyed and embarrassed. And it feels like any progress

(27:16):
they made the last two weeks goes back in the
opposite direction. I don't think some of the decisions that
Zach and his coaching staff have made this year would
have been made if they didn't think they were safe.
That's just the way I feel about that, and so
I also expect Mike Brown to be patient. I expect

(27:39):
the ownership group to be patient. I think they believe
in Zach Taylor right, wrong or indifferent, that's my guess
onto how they view this situation. And so if you
operate under the assumption that the coaching staff will not
be adjusted, I think that is part of this whole
thing as well. How do they improve, how do they

(28:00):
get more out of the out of their players, and
how can they prove that they should stick around or
that there shouldn't be changes, or can they develop? And
that whole side of things I think is really important.
But I'm not operating under the assumption that there's going
to be wholesale changes. I would love nothing more than

(28:20):
for the Bengals to part ways with Duke Tobin and
to bring someone in from the outside who might have
a little bit more experience with the intricacies of the
salary cap and evaluation and scouting and can kind of
put together a system that can maybe work considering the
circumstances within the Bengals. I would love for that to happen,

(28:43):
but I don't expect it to happen. I would love
for them to hire Sean McVeagh. That's not going to happen.
So just operating with what I think is the most
likely scenario is the only thing I really have to
go off of. Let's go to Boston. Let's talk to John. Hello,
John Austin, how are you. I'm hanging in there, man,

(29:03):
how are you.

Speaker 9 (29:04):
We're doing okay, just getting ready for Thanksgiving. I wish
you and yours a happy Thanksgiving obviously, thank you absolutely.
First of all, when I think Steve two calls before
nailed it as far as the reps and playing, et cetera.
Because Joe's only played six quarters this season and he
doesn't play the rest of the year, he would have
played six quarters from the end of the twenty twenty

(29:26):
four seasons to the start of the twenty twenty six season.

Speaker 6 (29:29):
That does no one any good.

Speaker 9 (29:30):
I mean, he talked about it when he was at
Ohio State when he was at LSU with the Bengals reps, reps, reps.
He wants to get better every day. That's how you
get better in all of our jobs we do. The
more you host your show, the better you get. Just
a lot more reps make it a lot better. So
that is one component why I want to see him play.
The other thing is that you touched on the injuries.
Those injuries he had our fluke injuries, and they're like

(29:52):
car crash injuries. It's not like he showed up the
camp twenty pounds overweight and pull the hamstring.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
You know.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
The last injury, which I think only detailed the.

Speaker 9 (30:01):
Day after the injury, he took the snap, tried to
go to Jamar Chase on a slant. The corner jumped
the route. It within one point three seconds of the snap.
There were three defenders cascading in his lower extremities. That
toe popped out. I don't know what he's supposed to
do other than what happened. You know, he's not a sideboard,
so obviously the injuries are concerned. But also let's not

(30:22):
forget if he finishes this season with six straight starts,
he will have made eighty four starts in six years.
It's not like he's missed eighty percent of the games.
I mean essentially misses three to four games a year,
which is not good.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
That's not good. It's about the same rate as Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
It's not like he's.

Speaker 9 (30:37):
Out from you know, extending periods of time. It's just
when the injuries take place to be problematic. So I
think that's obviously a thing that gets oberrated. And my
final point is, I know people talk naturally and probably
in Cincinnati about the fact that you know this is
the roster you get when you pay your stars so
much money. Well, Joe Burrow, Chase Brown, Jamar Chase, and

(30:59):
t Biggans are their four offensive weapons. They make the
same amount of money as Jalen Hurts, Tae.

Speaker 6 (31:05):
Kwon Barkley, A J. Brown, and Devonte Smith.

Speaker 9 (31:09):
So pick those four players from the Bengals off the roster,
take the four Eagles players out of the equation. How
did Philadelphia build a roster while paying the four guys
the same amount of money that Cincinnati pays him. They
just draft a lot better and they develop a lot better.
So it can be done. And as you've talked about
several times, they're what ten twelve million under the payroll
right now under the sas under the limit, so they

(31:31):
can spend more money. It's just it's it's such an
easy excuse to say, oh, paying a quarterback. Well, when
they have a quarterback like that, you pay him. You
have a receiver like that, you pay him. And it's
it's just all these false narratives that go out there,
and I think that I just want to see the
guy play. I mean, my favorite player, and I just
think for the next six weeks it's going to be
blast to see him play, makes the sport much more interesting,

(31:53):
and he's going to scare the hell out of people
because I know last week at this time, I was
talking to some people in Boston like, we don't want.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
To see him come out on Sunday, you know, we
fear him.

Speaker 9 (32:01):
And I still think if he plays, and if if
you watch Chase played last Sunday, they probably win that
game because the Patriots weren't very good and Cincinnati's defense
looked Okay.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Let's enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, Johnny can be that simple thank you for the
phone call, And it really can be that simple. It
can be that simple as Hey, I want my favorite player,
my best player, to play. I like watching watching him
play football. I like him and seeing him and Jamar
Chase do cool things. I mean, how many players over
the course of the Bengals history would you do anything
to watch them play one more game? I think about

(32:37):
that with Corey Dillon. I think about that with Chad Johnson.
I was at Chad's last home game and and I
think he had like two catches for thirty five yards.
Like I would love I would do anything to watch
one more game with Chad Johnson playing. Listen, this stuff
goes quick. Man Like Burrow already in his sixth season

(32:58):
in the National Football League, Like, I don't want to
throw away any games. I don't want to just move
on now into the year. This year, Miles Garrett probably
going for the NFL record in sacks. I have no
interest in Joe Burrow playing that game. That's completely pointless.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
But like.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
I still I want to see the best players play.
That's what's fun about being a football fan. Like it
can be that simple, Like how many great players have
the Bengals had over the course of their existence that
make you think, Man, I was a great player. I
wish I could watch them play one more time. I

(33:40):
wish I could see Ken Riley streaking down the sideline
on a pick six. I wish I could see Lamar
Parris return a punt. I wish I could see aj
Green go up over top of somebody in hall in
a touchdown. I wish I could see Chad Johnson shake
somebody at the top of a route and cross across
the field, beat a dude to the end zone and
have some crazy touchdown celebration.

Speaker 10 (34:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
I wish I could see vontees Berfect knock the snot
out of a Pittsburgh Steeler again. Those are the things
that you want, and sometimes it can be as simple
as I want to. I want to watch the best
players play football. Take a break, we'll be back. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
You've been listening to football in the Natty on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Your
front row seat to the fierces debates in sports Moegger
Today at three pm on ESPN fifteen thirty, block that.

Speaker 8 (34:44):
Word for Dade a thamas now job top of the circle.

Speaker 11 (34:47):
Didn't think about the three that time Risa Elliot, don't
God five on top of job, I just.

Speaker 12 (34:52):
Play Marcreesta coming off in the Fresh coming off the
screen role player Tom just throwing it up, slimming it down.

Speaker 10 (34:58):
Good job.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
Eight two bear sixty to thirteen left and the half.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
That was a call last night, Dan Horde Steve Logan
on seven hundred WLW Bearcats victorious ninety four sixty seven
over the n JI Highlanders. That's the New Jersey Institute
of Technology Bearcats five and one. And that call brought
to you by our friends at wind Schuler's Cheese Spreads. Listen,

(35:25):
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(35:46):
don't forget go to Winshulers dot com for some easy
to follow recipes if you need something to prepare for
your party, your Thanksgiving, your get together this weekend. A
couple of other things going on in sports a couple
of former Cincinnati athletes. How about this Cad York, the

(36:06):
former Bengal kicker. You might remember he stepped in in
place of Evan McPherson last year. You know, Cad York
actually had the franchise record tied with McPherson for the
longest field goal until McPherson broke it this past Sunday.
It was fifty nine yards. Cade York and Evan McPherson
held that franchise record. Well, Cad York has signed today

(36:27):
with the New Orleans Saints. He was part of a
workout yesterday in New Orleans that featured former Ravens kicker
Justin Tucker Ollkad York has been signed by the New
Orleans Saints, and a former Red was traded today from
the Saint Louis Cardinals to the Boston Red Sox, Sonny
Gray traded to Boston. Boston in return gets a couple

(36:52):
of relief pitchers major league relief pitchers, including one guy
by the name of Richard Fitz Fi t T I
cannot wait for Ellie de la Cruz to hit a
home run off of Richard fits and then make fun
of him by saying Richard giving him fits. These are
the things to look forward to during the summer. But

(37:13):
Sonny Gray on the move today too. The Boston Red Sox.
Boston's gonna be an interesting team next year. By the way,
I think we're one hundred and twenty two days away
from Opening day, pitchers and catchers reporting. In just a
couple of months, there have been a couple of trades
across Major League Baseball, nothing crazy. I'm really curious to

(37:36):
see what the Reds do because they do have some
money to spend, if you believe what Nick Crawl said
in their idea of building this team kind of along
the same lines as last year. I know that they
avoided arbitration with Sam Mall and signed him to a
team friendly deal, and I think that's one of the

(37:57):
important parts of the offseason is getting left handed pitch
and bullpen pitching specifically, that I think is going to
be where most of the money is spent. It's going
to be on those bullpen arms. We've talked about that extensively.
I don't really expect them to do much in terms
of getting an offensive player. I think that they fully

(38:20):
believe in Chris Valaka. I think that they fully believe
in Chris Valaka's ability to turn people around, and they
are really giving him the reins to the entire organization. Now,
you may or may not agree with that. I don't
know that I agree with it. I'm pretty sure I don't.
But the Reds have been pretty open about what they

(38:43):
plan to do with this organization and what the plan
is under Nick Krawl, It's to spend one hundred to
one hundred and twenty million dollars. It's to get young
athletic middle infielders and outfielders and to use their athleticism
to sprinkle them around to different positions and to just

(39:05):
kind of continually keep that train rolling. And Nick Krawl
has said he wants to eliminate peaks and valleys, which
means they want to kind of be about the same
team every year. They don't want to have these dips
and they don't want to have these peaks. You know,
we don't want to win ninety seven games a year.
We'd rather win like eighty five every single year. Like

(39:25):
that's kind of what they're telling you, and that's how
they feel like they can win and how they feel
like is the only option. And on top of that,
they are a team that does not believe in hitting
home runs. They don't believe in hitting for power. They've
talked about how some of their more powerful players in
their system, including Sal Stewart, is working on losing weight

(39:46):
and becoming more athletic. Talked about that with Hector Rodriguez
as well, like, this is who the Reds are, this
is what they believe, this is how they're going to
approach it. Whether or not you agree with it, it's
the unfortunate reaction. And I think Nick Carl kind of
said something along the lines of you got in a
lot of ways draft and develop your pitching and at

(40:06):
times overpay for pitchers to get them to come to
Great American Ballpark because of the size of the park.
So he'll say that out of one side of his mouth,
and then on the other side of the mouth he'll say, well,
we're working on these guys losing some weight and getting
in shape so we can put the ball in play.
That is their philosophy, and because of that, they're not
going to make a run at Kyle Schwarber. They're not

(40:28):
going to make a run at anybody who hits a
lot of home runs. What I find most interesting is
is kind of going back to last season, Terry Francona
threw the brakes on when it comes to running the bases.
They weren't stealing bases, they weren't as aggressive on the
bass paths. And if you're not going to be a
team that hits extra base hits, that hits home runs,

(40:49):
if you're going to be a put the ball in
play and hit singles type of organization, which is what
I feel their organizational philosophy is, well, then you got
to be able to to steal some bases, You got
to be able to take that extra base. You got
to be willing to toe the line between reckless and
aggressive on the base path. And I hope that Terry

(41:12):
Francona does a better job with that this year, because
there was many things last year that I found myself
scratching my head at Francona's decision making and throwing the
brakes on. The run game was probably the biggest one,
because that's how they score runs, and repeatedly, over and
over and over and over and over and over again,

(41:33):
they were leaving understranded and they were scoring three or
fewer runs every night, and that was just a maddening
brand of baseball to watch, and I hope that they
make some serious, serious gains this year when it comes
to just working the counts and getting guys on base
and actually stealing bases so that it's a much more

(41:54):
fun product to watch. Did not enjoy that this past year.
All Right, we'll take a break. We'll come back, Joe
Dana ten minutes from now on the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen to thirty. Welcome back to Tony Pike since
three sixty, ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore coming up

(42:16):
in about five minutes, Joe Daniman Fox nineteen. He will
talk Bengals with us and a little bit of everything else.
He was at say Nex Elder Friday night in what
looked to be an incredible atmosphere at pay Course Stadium.
I want to ask him a little bit about that.
Other news of the day, the semi finalists for the

(42:38):
twenty twenty six Pro Football Hall of Fame induction were announced.
One former Bengal, Willie Anderson, on the list. He joins
others like Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Torry Holt, Eli Manning, Reggie,
Wayne Jason Witten, who is not a Hall of Famer,

(42:58):
Rodney Harrison, Luke Keikley speaking of Saint X, Vince will Ford,
Adam Vinterteri, Darren Williams, Terrell Suggs. You remember Tis Sizzle
playing with the Ravens all those years. A bunch of
finalists announced and our semi finalists announced. Willie, of course,
Big Willy Anderson was a finalist last year in the
Pro Football Hall of Fame. That is always announced on

(43:21):
the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Who is going in?
So looking forward to hearing about that and hoping the
best for Big Willie. All Right, we'll take a break,
we'll come back. We'll talk to Joey d next. Right
here on ESPN fifteen thirty uc k.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
Y, Cincinnati, make us the number one pre set on
your car radio and on the free new and improved
iHeartRadio app. Free never sounded so good. ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
If you love to face is.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Tony Pike sincey three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, Sponsored
in part by Cincy Shirts Cincy Shirts all sincey all Day.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Hi, Hello, welcome in our two of Tony Pikes since
E three p. Sixty Here on ESPN fifteen thirty, I'm
Austin Elmore. You might be wondering where on God's green
Earth is Tony. He's still employed. He's just a little
under the weather today. So it's just me, hopefully the
big Fellow back tomorrow. But the show goes on, and
every Tuesday we talk to our guy, Joey d Joe

(44:27):
Daniman from Fox nineteen who joins us. Now, Joe, have
you begun your preparations for Thanksgiving?

Speaker 5 (44:35):
I have, and by my preparations, Austin, that means running
extra miles every single day, so I don't feel guilty
about the crime I'm going to commit on Thursday at
the Thanksgiving table ahead of the Bengals in the Raven Gag.
To me, Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year

(44:56):
with I love Christmas. I love Christmas, but Thanksgiving comes
with it what I feel are the two best gifts
to men, food and football, and they come with an
overflowing amount on Thursday. I can't wait. What a huge
Thursday it is for Cincinnati. Everybody gets to eat and

(45:19):
then everybody gets to watch Joe Burrow make his return
on Thursday night football. Happy Thanksgiving, Austin. What a night
it's going to be.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Well, Happy Thanksgiving to you, Joe, and thank you for
being here, and we're thankful for your presence on this
show each and every day. Before we get to Joe Burrow,
let me ask you, how on how many miles a
day do you normally run? And are you the type
of person that does a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning?

Speaker 13 (45:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (45:46):
So I've been training for it because when I was younger,
I was a competitive runner, and I think when you're
a competitive runner, you have a hard time taking that
competition out of your soul. So even when you're in
your forties and you're out running leisurely, you're always racing
against something. I can't turn it off, so I'm always

(46:08):
racing against the clock. So this year I decided to
set a target, and I was preparing for it and
I feel great about it. And then two nights ago
I saw the forecast for Thursday morning and I'm now
officially spooked and I'm on defense. I'm actually going to
do the race. You're talking temperatures in the twenties with

(46:29):
fifteen mile per hour winds and wind guts even higher. A.
That's miserable. B. I think it would prevent me from
running the time I want to run, So I might
be like Ryan Rico and drop back about fifteen yards
a punt on Thursday morning, even though I'm ready, I
will wait, but I'm sure it's going to allow me

(46:52):
to the forecast.

Speaker 13 (46:52):
Well.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
I would share the same advice with you that I
share with Bengals fans who fear the return of Joe
Burrow and getting hurt again, and that is that you
cannot live a life out of fear. You only have
one life and one opportunity. Why Joe Burrow, Why now?
Why is this all happening the way it's happening.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
Well, Number one, I think he's earned it, okay, And
I think it's okay for everybody in this discussion, and
that's everybody listening to this show. I'm sure has had
an opinion on Joe Burrow. Should he come back, should
he not come back? When's the right time for him
to come back? And I'm going to get a lot

(47:33):
of your listeners, or a lot like me, who have
changed their opinion on this and aren't really sure where
to land. And I think that's all right, because you know,
we grew up in the and the Jim Rome. Have
a take and don't suck world of radio. Right, you
have to land on one side, debate it and be
strong in that stance. But I kind of see both

(47:57):
sides of this one, the pros and cop of Joe
Burrow's return. Ultimately, I'll go back to what I said
at the start of your question, which was I believe
he's earned it. When this happened, we were all thinking
a mid December or b the season is going to
be so far gone by then that there's no point.
We'll see you in twenty twenty six. But Joe Burrow

(48:19):
has worked maniacally to give himself a chance to come
back and play football. And if he's given and he
has been given a clean bill to go out and play,
that he's fully healthy one hundred percent, that I think
he deserves to play if he wants to play, and
Joe wants to play, and so I think now is
the time, and not Sunday against the Patriots, just because

(48:41):
of the short turnaround from Sunday to Thursday, and the
Bengals don't know how the toe is going to react
when you get it out there, because, look, you can
do about eighty percent of everything a quarterback has to
do to get ready to play in a game, But
that last twenty percent you can't simulate in practice. You
can't simulate with anything. That's when he's in the game.

(49:03):
The pockets, muddy bodies are near him, on the ground,
near his arm, how does he escape, does he take sacks?
And he tried to make plays that kind of instinct.
You can't simulate that until you get into a game.
And I'm not sure they knew how he was going
to react from Sunday to Thursday playing a game. So
that's why I think Thursday night to night and not

(49:24):
Sunday against the Patriots. We all understand the Bengals playoff chances,
but I think most importantly Joe has earned this, and
I think his presence matters. And I think and we
can debate this too. Certainly a coaching staff that needs
to be evaluated when they have their quarterback on the field.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, I agree with that. Now, there's been a lot
made of the Flacco offense compared to the Burrow offense. Well,
Flacco can't move. The Bengals probably want to protect Burrow
a little bit, not only from defenders but from himself.
Do you think there's going to be that big of
a difference in the actual structure of the offense from

(50:03):
Joe Flacco to Joe Burrow.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
I think there will be changes. I think if you
go back and listen to what Zach Taylor said on
Monday when he was asked about that directly, he didn't
come out fully and say yes, but he didn't come
out fully and say no. So I think there are
going to be some slight variations to what Joe Burrow
does on Thursday night. For me, I go back to

(50:27):
think about Peyton Manning and near the end of his career,
and it was something we probably all laughed at, but
when there was any pressure near Peyton Manning at the
end of his career, he would just fall to the ground. Yeah,
like a folded launch carriage to take a stack. And
that's not in Joe Burrow's DNA. I get that, that's

(50:47):
not who he is, that's not how he plays the game.
So for me to sit here and talk about it
might be a waste of time. But I think there's
probably a happy medium where you don't just play dead
in the backfield like Peyton Manning did, but you also
don't try to be who Daney like Joe Burrow has
been for so many years now. I know it's hard
to tell the guy to play the game differently, but

(51:09):
maybe you do have to tell the guy to play
the game just a little bit differently to start to
see what it looks like, until he feels one hundred
percent comfortable that the toe is okay, the mechanism he's
wearing an his shoe is functional, and that he can
go out there and forget about it and start playing
football like we've seen him play. That's a hard thing.

(51:29):
How it looks different, Will it look different? We won't
know until Thursday night, but I do think reading between
the lines a little bit of hearing Zach Taylor talk,
they're aware of that, and I think you might see
some changes, maybe at least in theory, on Thursday night,
before the live bullets starts flying and Joe Burrow starts playing.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
The Bengals defense has a long way to go, but
they are at least showing signs of improvement, a little
bit of progress over the last couple of weeks. What
stands out to you about the defense and how they've
gotten better against Pittsburgh and New England.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
Yeah. To me, it's about evaluation now of individual players
and seeing which one of those players you can count
on in twenty twenty six. You know, if you start
just in the defensive backfield, I think you can count on. Certainly,
DJ Turners had a great year. I know Dak still
got picked on a little bit Sunday, but I think
he's a guy you can count on as a future

(52:25):
player for this team. We'll see what happens with this
contract going forward, but certainly he's played his way into
a guy that I believe the Bengals believe in. And
certainly with Cam Taylor, Brin's future and how very much
up in the air, I think you like those two
guys at least going forward. But looking in the front seven, right,
you're looking defensive line, You're looking linebackers. We've talked so

(52:46):
much about the linebackers and what they're trying to do
with Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter. Barret Carter had a
good game on Sunday. Yet if you look back and
look at the statue'll see he had sixteen tackles. I
don't know what the mistackle number was, but it was
very small as none zero zero zero. There you go.

(53:06):
So so that's the number. So he played a better game.
And the other guy that I think has started to
flash a little bit and it took a long time,
is Miles Murphy. And here's Miles Murphy. He's had a
couple of nice games back to back, and what you're
looking for from Miles Murphy is and I go back
to this, and the guy that comes to mind with
me is is a guy like Peter Warick. Peter Warick

(53:28):
was a good Cincinnati Bengal but was often in the
crosshairs of criticism because of where he was drafted. You know,
if Miles Murphy was a fifth or sixth round pick,
we would see a guy right now and say, okay,
there's a guy who now has a runway of the
next six weeks to prove he can be a guy
who can produce and be a contributor on this team
and maybe even earn the final six weeks a spot

(53:50):
is a starter next year. But the fact that he
was a first rounder, and the fact that first rounders
come with higher expectations, He's played well under expectation his
entire care here in Cincinnati. But you've seen the last
couple of weeks and flashes, and I think that's what
you want to see individually from the defense overall. Now,
I know as a whole the run defense has been better.

(54:12):
We saw them show some guts, show some fight at
the goal line several plays against the New England Patriots. Now,
are the New England Patriots just a good fit for
the Bengals defense to look better because they aren't just
an explosive offense. Perhaps, and I think maybe you get
a better test of that the next three weeks with
the Ravens twice and the Bills. But I think you
are seeing signs of individual players showing small bits of growth,

(54:37):
and I think that's what's important in the second half
of the season. Here the final six weeks, the guys
like Miles Murphy, Demetrius Knight, Barrett Carter showing signs that
they can be contributors and counted on.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
In twenty twenty six, who plays another snap for the
Bengals first, Jermaine Burton or Trey Henderson.

Speaker 5 (54:58):
Well, oh, that's such a great question, Austen. I'll go
Trey Hendrickson, even though I'm not sure he's going to
play another snap because I think the Jermaine Burton story
is just kind of sailed.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
At this point.

Speaker 5 (55:10):
He can't be counted on, and the Bengals have made
it very clear what they think of him and his
status with the Bengals going forward. Even when he was
asked the question about him on Monday, Zach Taylor took
the question and basically drove it to a different path
of talking about a completely different player when asked about

(55:30):
Jermaine Burton, the Trey Hendrickson thing is going to be
so fascinating because you know who's winning the Trey Hendrickson
air down here, right, Because I don't want to bury
the guy. Because while there hasn't been a ton of
information about his injury and we haven't seen a lot
of them inside the locker room and around the facility,

(55:53):
we are led to believe the guy is actually injured
and can't play. Another question is okay If he is
that injured and Zach comes out every week at the
start of the week and says he's dout for or out,
why is he not on IR And that's a great
question for people to ask, and we don't have a
great answer because it hasn't been given to us. But

(56:13):
as this starts to lead into twenty twenty six and
this upcoming offseason, which is going to be so important
on so many different levels, but most importantly, it's finding
personnel on defense for this defense to take a step
in twenty twenty six. You think back to last year
in the comments Mike Brown made about negotiating with Trey
Henderson and how difficult that is. I just am so

(56:36):
fascinated what it's going to look like this coming offseason
with the option to tag him, and it would almost
feel like a tag out of spite for Trey Hendrickson.
So this could get messy again in the offseason with
Trey Hendrickson, But certainly the lesser of the two that
have a chance to play, I would think would be

(56:58):
Jermaine Burton. I just will see a pat for him
being active the rest of the season, and at least
there is a glimmer that Trey Hendrickson might want to
get out there against some bad teams in the final
couple of weeks and pat his stats a little bit
and look good in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Last Bengals question for you, how do they beat Baltimore Thanksgiving? Night.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Well, Baltimore just hasn't looked great. And so I go
back to what I said last week against New England,
and I didn't think New England was built to blow
the Bengals out, So I thought they would have a
chance in the fourth quarter, and there they were without
Literally there are four best players, Joe Burrow, Jamar J. T. Higgins,
Trey Hendrickson in the final couple of minutes and they

(57:40):
had the ball near the scoring zone to go ahead
and beat the team tied to the best record in football.
Now that's New England, right. I think we all are
smart enough to say, Okay, New England, great story, great record,
certainly deserving of being a playoff team. I'm not sure
we'd go as far as saying they're an elite team
or a super Bowl team. Baltimore has that capability, and

(58:02):
Baltimore has started to figure it out with some scheme
change defensively since since the middle weeks of the season,
and they've taken off on that side of the ball.
The question is, where's the explosion on offense? Why hasn't
Lamar Jackson accounted for a touchdown in two weeks against
the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets. You know,

(58:22):
teams go through stretches like this and oftentimes it's predicated
on their quarterback and his health. Something's off with Lamar.
What it is, I don't know. I know he was
coming back from the hamstring. Now he's got a toe problem.
He's not playing at Lamar Jackson level. So you know,
the offensive fireworks were used to sing with Joe Burrow

(58:45):
and Lamar Jackson on Thursday nights, and going back to
last year, I would point people to go look at
that box score and look what those quarterbacks did last
year on Thursday Night. Did was awesome football to watch,
but too just elite quarterbacks. I'm not sure we're going
to get that because we know Joe. Look, the Bengals
have won seven consecutive games with Joe when he starts

(59:06):
a game, But we know when Joe starts seasons or
comes back from injuries, he often starts low. So I
don't know what to expect from Burrow on Thursday Night,
and certainly don't know what to expect from the Ravens offense.
So I think the pass for the Bengals to win
this game is that the Ravens continue to scuffle and
get in their own way on offense, and Joe Burrow

(59:28):
and Jamar Chase can find that magic they've often had
against the Baltimore Ravens. And I think that's that's a
plausible thing, that that's not a far fetched thing to
sit here and think that the Bengals can go challenge
the Ravens at offense that just hasn't looked good for
a couple of weeks and try to get a win
on Thanksgiving night.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Talking to Joe Danaman Fox nineteen, I know this is
kind of old news now, but I want to ask
you about it. The Saint ex Elder game at pay
Court Stadium. What was that environment? Like, how much fun
was that for you? You as someone who you know
isn't taking a side but just kind of got to
soak it all in and cover that event.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
Yeah, and someone who's from here and understands what it
means the high school football that is in the Tri
State area. You know, It's funny because I talk often,
you know, to high school kids and college kids about
my job, and and a lot of times kids will
ask me if you ever thought about going to a
different city, And the hardest thing for me to leave
would be the high school football and high school sports

(01:00:28):
scene in Cincinnati. It means so much to people. Uh,
the community is so strong in that in our area.
It's it's a bit unique to our city, to our region,
to our state. So so that that's the one thing
that that I love about Cincinnati and to see it
on display, listen, if you're going to make the commitment

(01:00:51):
to move a game that felt that big. Look the
two big brands right a Saint accent Elder and the
biggest football stadium. It's a great headline. But then the
game has to deliver. And the game delivered, and the
crowd delivered, and the atmosphere delivered. Like I want you
to picture in your mind, it rained all the way
up to kick off, and it then was misty during

(01:01:13):
the game and there was a fog in the air.
The lower bowl was almost completely full. And a lot
of times when you put these teams in these huge stadiums,
like when Ohio Stadium was hosting the state championship games,
it just felt empty. It felt cavernous, like you would
take shots of these teams playing and you would see
nothing but empty seats. But if you go back and

(01:01:34):
you look at the highlights of that game, all the
seats behind the players were full, and it just added
an aura to what was a great game. And then
the two teams combined seventy six points. There are a
listers on the sideline. You know, I got to talk
trash a little bit to Dave Portnoy. That was funny,
funny story if you want to hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, that was my next question.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
Portnoy walked in and I had been tipped off that Portnoy,
Brady Quinn, Matt Linert, and Urban Meyer were all showing up,
and I said, listen, I mean, what an amazing open
shot to the highlights it would be to see that
quartet walking down the tunnel towards the field. And so
by the time I get there, I'm told, Okay, Portnoy's

(01:02:18):
showing up early because he's shooting a bit for Big
Noon on Fox, and then the other guys are going
to show up later, and Urban actually never did show up.
But so I get the shot at Portnoy walking in,
and then he goes and does his bit, and then
I'm told that Brady Quinn are coming. So I go
back into the hallway and Portnoy's down there was I
guess what was his social media team, and the guy

(01:02:40):
was showing him the clip that I put on Twitter,
and he had no idea that I was the guy
who shot it and was standing two feet from it
and he's looking at his phone and he says, Gus,
they made me look like Joe Burrow walking into this place.
And I said, hey, that was a great shot. Well
he's like, yeah, it's a great shot. I'm like, well,
it came from this camera right here. And he got
a kick out of that. So we had a good

(01:03:00):
time with it. And you know, he was talking, you
know about Michigan and about Ohio state, that kind of thing,
and some guy yelled to him, oh, and he looked
at me. He said, are those the only letters that
people in this state know? I have the biggest shake
out of that. So he was a good sport. Was
a lot of fun with it. And to have those

(01:03:20):
guys on the sideline and be part of it, I
think added to the moment and certainly to the experience.
You think about the high school student sections. All those
kids wanted pictures, wanted a moment with fort noise, So
it was a cool thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Well before I let you go. You mentioned it, Ohio
State Michigan coming up this weekend on Fox. Who You Got?

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
So I was having some fun yesterday inside the Bengals
locker room, and I'll tell you that you know it's
going to be the eye roll again, but there is
a different energy about the room. When Joe gets back.
He has a presence. Listen, man, that presence is real.
Like those young players that they see him walk in
that room and they see him back and guys raise

(01:04:07):
their game. They understand the standard of Joe Burrow being around.
So there's a different energy, a different vibe in the room.
But I was curious to talk to Chris Jenkins and
DJ Turner about whatever the special secret sauce that Michigan
has had the last four years against Ohio State, because
as I told Chris, and you know, he nodded along

(01:04:29):
with me, it feels like every time Ohio State plays
this game, they're they're ranked higher, they're they're favored to win,
and then they kind of get on the field with
Michigan and it starts to turn on them, and you
wonder if it's an oh no, here it comes again
kind of feeling. And Chris made a good point Christy
and Chris Jenkins. He said, I feel like when we

(01:04:51):
get on and we, being Michigan, get on the field
with Ohio State, we're the team that isn't afraid of them,
and they sense that. And when Ohio State walks out
there and they throw their jersey and their helmet on
the field, teams are afraid they're going to get run
out of the building. And with the physicality and the
confidence that Michigan brings to the game, he feels like

(01:05:14):
that affects Ohio State, their players, and their coaches. Has
Ryan Day figured it out? That's the question, right, Has
Ryan Day figured out how to coach this game? And
are his two star wide receivers at or near one
hundred percent or good enough to be difference makers in
this game? Are the two biggest keys. If those things

(01:05:36):
are figured out, Ohio State wins. If not, Michigan with
Jordan Marshall, the pride of moll Or High School are
going to do what they do and that's choke Ohio
State out with physicality, run game and confidence, and beat
them again at Michigan. So I'm fascinated to see if
Ryan Day has got it figured out. I'm fascinated to
see if Carnel Tate and Jeremiah Smith of themselves on

(01:05:57):
Saturday in the Big House.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
So you're just not going to make a You're gonna
set the fence on this one, Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:06:03):
If you want me to make a pick, I'll pick
Michigan until until Ryan Day proved damn it. He's got
it figured out and can beat Michigan. He's only one
in four against them. And you know, Michigan, it feels
like to me, is built to beat Ohio State the
way they're built offensively, defensively, and the way their coaches coach.

(01:06:23):
My pick is Michigan to win on Saturday, because until
Ryan Day proves it, I'm gonna stick with Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's fair. I regret asking you
the question because sometimes the truth hurts, but it's it's
the truth.

Speaker 7 (01:06:37):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Joe, You've been generous with your time, really appreciated. Hope
you have a great Thanksgiving. We appreciate you and we'll
talk to you again next week.

Speaker 5 (01:06:45):
Thanks man, Austin, happiest of Thanksgivings. Eat like a champion
on Thursday, get it done, yeat, yeat.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Indeed, that is Joe Danivan, he's the best. We are
way late talk backs for next SPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
It's that time for talkbacks.

Speaker 14 (01:07:03):
Press the microphone and record your message for Austin and Tone.

Speaker 15 (01:07:08):
Please keep it clean and don't be mean at a
sprinkle sprinkle, drift drifts.

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
It's that time for talkbacks.

Speaker 14 (01:07:17):
It's our favorite part since three sixty.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
Yeah, Austin, buddy, play.

Speaker 14 (01:07:24):
Those talkbacks on your screen and please drive out to Cybertage.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Welcome back in to Tony Pikes since he three sixty.
I'm Austin Elmore, big fella out sick today. Hopefully he
is back tomorrow. We've got a light batch of talkbacks
to get to. But that's all right, let's get started.
Can we get Brian Flores Ordvance Joseph here to be
a head coach?

Speaker 5 (01:07:47):
Love that you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
I'm not sure about the Brian Flores thing, because I
know he has ongoing litigation with the NFL about a
hiring issue previously that I want to say was involved
with the Giants or something, and the stuff that happened
with the Dolphins. I don't know exactly, so I don't
know about his his I don't know. I don't know

(01:08:10):
if that has an effect on anything. Vance Joseph, who
used to be a coach here and is the defensive
coordinator for the Denver Broncos, I think he would be
one of the top candidates when you look at the
way the Bengals do things and the familiarity and all that,
I think Vance Joseph would be one of those top candidates.
Don't know if that's a good thing, but yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
It's the Lord.

Speaker 16 (01:08:33):
I was reading that Lamar Jackson has another injury. It's
his toe. That's that he that he ain't that asting
any truth to this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Uh yeah, we talked about it earlier today, But just
about two minutes ago the Ravens practice began and Lamar
Jackson ran out there helmet on and is practicing. So
didn't practice yesterday. He is out there in uniform warm
for practice today for the Ravens.

Speaker 17 (01:09:03):
So the season is pretty much over. We know that
anything after this probably just leads to heartache. But I'm
of a mind that until you are officially mathematically eliminated,
you give it all you got, You try everything, and
you play the man. But as soon as you're eliminated,
shutting down it's too valuable, too much of a risk
for nothing to play for.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Okay, I get it.

Speaker 18 (01:09:28):
Thoughts on Joe Burrow playing tomorrow night.

Speaker 19 (01:09:52):
Okay, thank you, Hey boys. Hey, I may be full
of opium.

Speaker 20 (01:09:58):
Yeah, I know I'm the optimistic, but as far as
I can see, the Bengals have their destiny in their
hands and they control their playoff outcomes. Assume they win
the next six, we only need six losses between Buffalo
or between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. They play each other twice,

(01:10:19):
plus we would have beaten the Ravers twice and neither
of those teams are gonna win out.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, Baltimore plays
Pittsburgh twice. As you mentioned, Baltimore has to go to
Green Bay, and they play New England. It's not crazy
to think that they lose a couple of those games.
The Steelers obviously played Baltimore twice, they play Buffalo, and
they play at Detroit. It's not crazy to think that

(01:10:48):
if the Bengals were to go on a run similar
to what they've done the last two years, that they
could be right there in the conversation at nine to eight,
let's say, and that'd be enough to win the AFC
North just based off the schedule of the other teams. Obviously,
the Bengals have to take care of their own business,
but I don't think it's it's insane to think so.

(01:11:08):
And the main reason I feel that way is if
you look at the defense the last two weeks, and
I know it is a very small sample size and
it's not against the two best offenses in the NFL. However,
if the Bengals defense can force a turnover a game
and or get three stops, like you feel confident that
you have a chance, you at least give yourself a chance,

(01:11:32):
and that I think would be if nothing else interesting.

Speaker 8 (01:11:37):
Hey Addie Joe from case here, what I love when
you get the chance to host. I totally agree with
you about Burrow. If he's healthy, he should play. In
addition to everything you mentioned, I just want to say,
you know, when you would get into like load management stuff, right,
I mean, in the end, it's the entertainment business. They're
there to entertain. People are spending money to buy tickets.

(01:12:00):
They're not spending money to watch healthy Joe Burrow sit
on the bench today.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Yeah, that's a good point. Now, let's say Thursday happens.
Let's say the Bengals get blown out. Let's say it's
thirty seven to ten in the fourth quarter. Oh, Joe
Burrow doesn't need to be playing in that situation. Like
then you could go back to Flacco, go back to
Jake Browning somebody else. There there is a balance that
has to be struck by Zach Taylor.

Speaker 13 (01:12:23):
Here, my golly, if we played a drinking game for
every time then I heard the word compromised in between
the Monday Midday Quarterback and the Tony Inmo Football Show,
I'd have been on the floor by about four thirty
how many times I heard that. But anyways, final thought
here Walker from the West Side. If Flakka was that compromised,

(01:12:46):
wouldn't we rather have Joe Burrow compromise if it was
seventy five percent versus seventy five percent?

Speaker 19 (01:12:52):
Last thought, We're on to Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Yeah, that's the argument that I made last week going
into the New England game.

Speaker 18 (01:12:58):
What's up body, tj Burrow in or Burrow out? I'd like,
whatever the hell gets rid of Tobin and Taylor. He's
an ocat best, not a head coach. Marvin went oh
for seven to playsfs and Brown kept him on for years,
Marvin turned into a smug Belichick wanted because he knew
he was safe. Dave Shuler win eleven thirty for thirty seven.
Let me repeat eleven for thirty seven in his first
three years, Brown offered him a contract extension. Price is right,

(01:13:21):
Bob Zach stinks, Coven sucks. Mike makes me want to hurl.
But go Burrow, go Bangles, Who dai get better?

Speaker 5 (01:13:27):
Tony?

Speaker 6 (01:13:28):
There you go?

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
I mean that's how he feels.

Speaker 15 (01:13:30):
So the one hundred talented BYU fans and had a
knack for recruiting, AKA would be in the parking lot
at the UC game trying to convert UC fans to
BYU fans because they Mormons go door to door trying

(01:13:51):
to convert people and they have a knack for recruiting.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
Oh never mind, Oh.

Speaker 12 (01:14:00):
Okay, repping the city out here, Sonny hots On and
what upie? See you riding the ship solo today? That's
okay to show it's still on point and fire us always.
The Cats won last night, I mean a good rebound win.
The win is a win, But you know, I want
to see them set up these shots a little bit better.
They just run down the court and shoot up too
many threes. I'm starting not to like that, you know what.

(01:14:22):
The return of JB nine, I'm feeling it. I was
against it, but now I love it. The heart of
a competitor. That's a true beast of a quarterback. We
got go get them all right, Thank you one time
for a double loh for the keys to victory for
Thursday night. First of all, we have to run the
ball consistently and stay with the run, especially if it's working. Second, Burrow,

(01:14:42):
can you manage the offensive line correctly? I mean, I
know this is your first game back, but can you
pick up the rhythm that you had? Chase is gonna
be double and bracketed, so I'm looking for Gooseki to
step up and on defense contain Lamar. Don't let him
rush out the pocket. Figure way to apply pressure and
wrap up in ten.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
There you go.

Speaker 18 (01:15:03):
The top three things that Jamar Chase did last weekend
instead of playing football.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Attended sensitivity and.

Speaker 18 (01:15:11):
Conflict resolution classes at Madam Beefee's School of Etiquette.

Speaker 4 (01:15:15):
Active as a judge at Cheeks Gentlemen's Club for.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
The Itty Bitty Gritty Committee.

Speaker 18 (01:15:22):
Met with architects and designers for plans on his New
Sports Club.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Lougis, all right, we'll talk a little bit about Jamar. Later,
he did issue an apology of sorts. Hooday Tom Turkey
chiming in.

Speaker 21 (01:15:43):
Yeah, were regards to the Ohio State game, I think
Ohio State is gonna win by two or more scores.
I don't care that they lost four in a row
or whatever it is. At one point, Ohio State won
seventeen of eighteen or something like that just before the
four game losing streak, So you know, it's cyclical. Expect
them to fully dominate this game, and you know, the game,

(01:16:03):
it kind of feels like it's lost.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
It's lost there a little bit.

Speaker 21 (01:16:06):
I mean, Ohio State lost it last.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
Year and still won the national title, So you know whatever.

Speaker 21 (01:16:10):
From regards to the Bengals and Ravens, you know whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Okay, thank you. I think the Ohio State Michigan game
is just it's all mental on the Ohio State side,
and I think part of it like from the Michigan
side as well. And I think Joe Daneman was right,
like Michigan does not fear Ohio State and that's really
the only team they face all year that feels that way,
and sometimes that can make you clinch up a little

(01:16:35):
bit in certain parts of your body. And I think
there is a mental block with Michigan for Ohio State,
and until they get past it, I don't know. Hopefully
last year and everything that happened afterwards is enough to
kind of carry through that and then be the release.

Speaker 14 (01:16:52):
Well, the last time I tuned in and Audie started
the show and said that Tony wasn't here, we heard
the terrible news that he had been let go. Fortunately,
Tony's just sick, Yay, of course, I'm just getting get
well soon, Tony.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
Tony.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
Alston, what's going on?

Speaker 10 (01:17:12):
My man?

Speaker 5 (01:17:12):
Lean and trunk Hart.

Speaker 22 (01:17:14):
I love Joey deep, but he is crazed.

Speaker 4 (01:17:17):
Ryan Day better get.

Speaker 6 (01:17:19):
The job done.

Speaker 22 (01:17:19):
And look, I kind of somewhat agree with him, you know,
because when it comes to this game, if it's close
in the fourth quarter, hey, it's going to get real
spooky for os US fans.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
But he gotta get it done.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
He gotta get it done.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
He cannot lose the Michigan for the fifth straight year.

Speaker 3 (01:17:37):
Beat Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Preach brother, I agree with you.

Speaker 23 (01:17:43):
Hey, Austen Marcos from the Groove up, I know we
don't give this guy a time of day on the show, Uh,
because of this horrible takes in general.

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
But I don't know if you saw Chris Canny's h.

Speaker 10 (01:17:56):
About the Bengals still having a shot to win it
division and make the playoffs, you know what mean?

Speaker 5 (01:18:03):
You ain't got to give me much to go on
about giving me hope.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
Yeah, I did, you know? I actually heard, to his credit,
I heard two complimentary things from Chris Canty today about
the Bengals. The first was, I think Evan Cohen was
asking him, do you buy into these teams? It was
a list of teams and he got to the Bengals,
and I think Michelle Smallman said no, and Chris Canty said, uh,

(01:18:31):
it's it's possible with Joe Burrow, like it's possible. And
then in a separate part talking about the future of
the AFC North and who could win that division, Chris
Canty doubled down with Joe Burrow, the Bengals can win
that division. So maybe a changing of the tune there
for old Chris Canty. But you know, if we want
to make fun of him for all this stupid stuff

(01:18:53):
he says, you know, he at least was complimentary this time.
Mike and independence here the burrow thing. Think of it
this way.

Speaker 11 (01:19:02):
Let's say you're working in warehouse and you break your
wrists and work, so you get back.

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
You're ready to come back to work, and they're like, no, no, no,
we don't want to risk it.

Speaker 11 (01:19:13):
The rest of this year. Numbers are down. Just take
the ear off. We'll pay you come back next year.
It's not how it works. It's good to play.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Let's play correct a mundo, bro.

Speaker 10 (01:19:23):
Why do we do this?

Speaker 24 (01:19:24):
Why do we keep doing this? We say every week
before the game, all they lose this one, this is
the must win. If they lose this one, they're done.
We've done it for the last three weeks. They've lost
all three of them, and then by Tuesday or Wednesday
we're talking about all they could be back in it
if they do this. If they do that, they have
a less than one percent chance to make the playoffs.
Their minus ten thousand miss playoffs.

Speaker 21 (01:19:45):
Like let it come, it's over.

Speaker 24 (01:19:48):
My goodness, All.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Right, man. I don't know what show you're listening to,
but at no point have I on this radio station
said that I believe the Bengals are good enough to
get to the playoffs. I will openly talk about the
possibilities and the facts and like what the probabilities are,
or if this happens, this happens, and this happens and
they get in. But I have said for over a

(01:20:10):
month now that the season is over and they will
not get to the playoffs. I have said on the
air I expect them to lose every single game the
rest of the way. Now, with Joe Burrow, it's a
different team, and you wonder how it will be different
with him on the field. But no one is on
this radio station saying that the Bengals are going to
go win the AFC North and go deep into the playoffs. Technically, mathematically, factually,

(01:20:35):
it's still a possibility, and that possibility is alive. And
so you can't acknowledge that doesn't mean I believe it
or know that it's gonna do, that it's true, or
that I believe that it's gonna happen. Just because you
acknowledge the possibilities and the realities does not mean that
you are preaching from the mountaintops that these things are
going to happen. But also, there are varying members of

(01:20:59):
this audience that have different beliefs and different views and
different thoughts on the Bengals, on the sports world, on
all of it. Some people are overly optimistic, some people
are overly negative. It's my job to be able to
reach all those people, not just those who have given up.
That's it's kind of how this thing works.

Speaker 6 (01:21:20):
Hey, Audi, it's Chris and Alexandria. I liked your list
yesterday of all the potential candidates. Thank you and who
you thought fit. But the problem is the Bengals don't
bring in guys who have head coaching experience. True, they
sometimes bring in offensive or defensive coordinators. What qualified Zach
Taylor to be here? I mean he was a quarterbacks coach.
Who knows who they're going to bring in? Who knows

(01:21:42):
who the better option is. I have no idea what
they're going to do. Probably just sit tight.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Yeah, I think that's fair Chris, and you're exactly right.
It just doesn't happen very often. All right, we'll take
a break. That was it will come back with a
football in the natti. This is ESPN fifteen thirty eight.
Tooker pimesl There.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
The Nattie brought to you in part by bod Light
and by Oakley greens On ESPN fifteen point thirty, the
official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Welcome back in Tony Pikes since he three to sixty.
I'm Austin Elmore. We'll talk a little bit more about
the Bengals and the Ravens coming up in hour number three,
including what Zach Taylor had to say about Trey Hendrickson
that I find interesting. But I went and spliced together
all the questions and all the answers from Zach Taylor's

(01:22:33):
Monday press conference in which he was asked about quarterback
Joe Burrow. I think it's interesting the way he discusses it,
discusses his philosophy ahead of Thursday night's game. Here's the
Bengals head coach in his conversations with the media about
quarterback Joe Burrow in his potential return.

Speaker 25 (01:22:54):
I anticipate him playing, but we'll continue to work through
the week. I'm not going to declare that definitively work
through the week coming off an injuries. Done everything he could.
He put himself in a position to do his best
to play yesterday, and we'll continue with that mindset. But
he looks like he's in good shape right now.

Speaker 10 (01:23:09):
He'd be ready to go.

Speaker 26 (01:23:11):
How much did you guys bake that into schedule last week?
Nowhere be a limited week this week to get Joe
those reps last week?

Speaker 25 (01:23:17):
No, I mean really last week he just fell because
of it was it was easier for us to handle
because Joe Flacco has been limited in practice and so
his schedule had been conducive to Burrow coming in there
and taking all the snaps. So it didn't throw anything
off kilter because that had been our team previously. He
just took a bunch of reps that Jake Browning had
been taken when when Flac goes out. So so from

(01:23:39):
that perspective, it worked out. Well, we're able to balance
that without disrupting anything. And now you'll go into just
walk through reps, which is really what we're doing the
next two days. So it's nothing physical, walk through mental
reps and getting everybody ready to go play.

Speaker 26 (01:23:51):
What's the energy like around when you Joe is you know,
when you know what he's going to be playing on
Thursday in that kind of game, in the kind of environment,
what does that do with the locker room?

Speaker 25 (01:23:59):
Well, I mean he's he's a great player, obviously, and
so it's exciting to have it back. I think our
energy has been really good. I don't feel like that's
been an issue for us, you know, And you see
the way the team fought there till the very end,
trying to trying to get stops in all three phases
and and score points on offense. And so these guys
fought tooth and nail, played with really good energy. Obviously,
when you got one of the greatest players in the

(01:24:19):
world coming back, that's that's another boost on top of that.
And so you know, when we do get Joe back,
it'll be exciting to watch him out there and play,
and I'm sure it's energy for for everybody involved at least.

Speaker 26 (01:24:29):
Look like first game back hasn't played in a few months.

Speaker 5 (01:24:32):
What do you think that will look like?

Speaker 25 (01:24:33):
Difficult, difficult to predict. You know, it has been several months,
and so again I'm not gonna make any predictions on
what it looks like. But again, he's he's put himself
in great shape. It's good to see him through the
progression that we've had over the last several weeks. I
think was it was a fair progression for him to
do the seven on seven, do the eleven on eleven,
get your mind right, try to try to get ready
to play in a game, and then ultimately, well we'll

(01:24:55):
wait and see where aliens. But I think it's been
a really good progression. It's been helpful for him and
done everything he can and we can to get him
ready to go play a game.

Speaker 27 (01:25:04):
With Burrow, he's just so good at off script plays.

Speaker 28 (01:25:07):
Do you try to whenever he comes back coaching out
of that or do you just have to let him play?

Speaker 25 (01:25:14):
It's a great question. There's a balance there of obviously
him coming off of injury, you want to be very
mindful of that, and that a lot of that will
be up to him as he as he feels his
pocket movement and his play style. Those are decisions that
that he's gonna have to feel out as he goes forward.
And sure i'd love to say, you know, let's let's

(01:25:34):
be productive and and not put him in an environment
where that's gonna happen. But you out there in the
football field, and that's that's the way it's gonna take shape,
especially on third downs, especially in no in passing situations.
That's a good defense. You know, these guys will do
a lot to disrupt you and throw you off course
in the skies and pressure from different angles, and they
got good players and so you can't it's the NFL.
He can't go out there with with kid gloves on

(01:25:55):
and say we're never gonna let this happen. It's some
things are gonna happen naturally, and it'll be in his
hands to take care of it if he's out there.

Speaker 29 (01:26:02):
Over the last few months in the background, have you
made any tweaks kind of the Borough offense and the
idea of how things look from Burrough comes back or is.

Speaker 27 (01:26:09):
It just like normal?

Speaker 4 (01:26:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 25 (01:26:11):
I mean, like we game plan for the teams we're
playing against, and you know, so a lot of times
that's that's the forefront of it, is how do we
utilize our weapons and how do we game plan against
the team, you know, for all the things they're showing
us to keep them off off kilter. So that's always
what we balance and that's what we'll continue to do as.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
We move forward.

Speaker 30 (01:26:33):
Is Joe Burrow articulated why it's so important for him
to come back or is it just understood because it's Joe.

Speaker 25 (01:26:39):
Yeah, that is a great question that I'd rather him answer.
You know, I think when you get an opportunity to
talk to him. Is he and I have had conversations
on everything leading up to these weeks and so I'll
leave that to him to better answer.

Speaker 2 (01:26:53):
Did you guys talk much when he was like out out?

Speaker 31 (01:26:56):
But what were the conversations like when he was still early?

Speaker 25 (01:27:00):
I mean there was times I would catch him in
the weight room as they's going through his rehab progression.
So I don't I can to find a lot, but
we've certainly had several conversations throughout the weeks, and then
he started getting back into full blown meetings, you know,
as partners with limiteddy's in a boot so we're not
asking the travel stairs all the time. And then we
got out of that. He became full time back in

(01:27:20):
meetings several weeks ago and he's been back in the
picture ever since. So he and I have had a
lot of dialogue, especially these last probably three weeks, and
a couple more before that when he first come off
the entry.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
Good stuff there from the Bengals head coach Zach Taylor
loved that question from Dan Horde about you know, has
Joe articulated why this is so important to him? And
Zach said, you have to talk to Joe. Well, Joe's
supposed to talk in just under an hour from right now.
We'll cover that for you live right here on ESPN

(01:27:50):
fifteen thirty. Jamar Chase slated to talk after that. We
will have it all covered for you right here on
the Home of the Bengals. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
I'm listening to Football in the NATI on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 5 (01:28:10):
Three sixty continues on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:28:17):
Briefly wrapping up our number two here on Tony Pikes
since e three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty. For those of
you that geek out on uniform news like I do,
you might be wondering, well, what are these teams going
to be wearing on Thanksgiving Night? What's Cincinnati going to
be wearing, What's Baltimore going to be wearing? Well, the

(01:28:41):
Bengals are going to be going with their traditional road
white uniforms, white jerseys, white pants, black socks, and their
orange helmet, I think one of the best looks in football.
Baltimore is going to be going with their alternate purple
rising helmet which are purple with a gold face mask

(01:29:03):
and the ugly looking raven bird on the side of
the head there. And they're going to have their purple
jerseys with the gold numerals, purple pants, purple socks, all
with the gold trim for Thanksgiving Night. Now you remember
Bengals have played there in the past, they've gone the
darkness thing where it's all black and blah blah blah
blah blah. Well, all purple up against all white with

(01:29:25):
the Bengals orange helmet for Thanksgiving Night football coming up,
looking forward to it. We'll have it for you right
here on ESPN fifteen thirty, hour three. Coming up next
on the Home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen to thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
This is Tony Pike Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in hard by Penn Station East Coast Subs, pancreft
in hot grilled subs, fresh cut fries and lemonade. It's
all about good taste. Penn Station East Coast Subs. Order
mine today. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
Hi, Hello, Welcome in final hour of Tony Pike since
e three sixty Here on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore.
You might be wondering where in God's green Earth is Tony.
Tony still here? Are still with us? I should say
he's still employed here. I know everybody has PTSD from
a month or so ago. He's just under the weather today,

(01:30:27):
and Lord knows, it's been going around. Mo had it
for a while. I had it for a little while.
I'm still dealing with it my throat. I just can't
get it to feel comfortable. It's just irritated. And that's
what happens when you talk for a living. It's part
of the deal. But hopefully Tony feels better tomorrow and
he'll be back in the big chair for our final
live show of the week prior to Thanksgiving, Black Friday

(01:30:49):
and the holiday weekend. Want to talk a little bit
of college basketball. I want to talk a little bit
about Trey Hendrickson coming up. At the end of this hour,
around two forty five, will check in briefly with Mo
Egger and Joe Burrow is slated to speak with the
media for the first time in a week or so,

(01:31:11):
so Joe ahead of Thursday night, Thanksgiving Night, supposed to
talk to the media will carry it for you live
here on ESPN fifteen thirty, and then we'll probably just
do a natural transition into MO. I expect Joe to
talk well through the end of our show, so MO
and I'll be on together, and then MO will take
over after Joe begins talking. So that's what you have

(01:31:35):
to look forward to. Also, as I mentioned, a little
bit of college basketball and Trey Henderson as well. But
we'll start the hour with a phone call. Our guy
Chris in Alexandria wants to talk Bengals.

Speaker 6 (01:31:46):
What's up, Chris, Hey, Audi, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 2 (01:31:49):
Yeah, thanks for calling.

Speaker 6 (01:31:51):
I know you hear this probably more than you care too,
and I think I understand the why of it. But
your off air voice is terrified.

Speaker 5 (01:32:00):
My my.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
Oh yeah when I when I'm screening the phone calls. Yeah,
I don't know why it does that. We've never been
able to figure that out, but for whatever reason, it's
like our voices like distorted and it Yeah, it sounds
like something out of a horror movie.

Speaker 6 (01:32:18):
It does. It's like when they're interviewing something someone that
wants to be incognito. And one of the murder shows my.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Wife watches mm hmm. Yeah, it's so weird.

Speaker 6 (01:32:30):
Anyway, Hey, I think you agree with me here. I've
gone back and forth on the Burrow thing. When he
first was hurt and it was like December comeback. I
was like, man, if we're out of it, don't play
the guy like there's no need for it. But you know,
there's still a third of a season left, and I
think I'm in your camp that I do want to

(01:32:51):
watch winning football, like at least last week. Last week,
the game was watchable.

Speaker 23 (01:32:56):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:32:57):
It wasn't me and my buddies sitting around sarcastically talking
about how we're going to figure out a way to lose.
It was watching, Yeah, and it was it was good
to see guys like Flacco out there giving it there
all when clearly clearly they weren't one hundred percent. You know,
they haven't given up. That's that's something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
And I thought, you know, a game like the Patriots
game after where they after the way they lost to uh,
the Steelers, and coming out of the by and all that,
I thought that that was a chance we'd see them
give up, or we'd see some guys quit, or we'd
see a lack of effort. Kind of like we saw
from Genostone, but I saw the opposite. I saw a

(01:33:38):
team that really fought and really played hard. I do
think that's a credit to Zach Taylor.

Speaker 5 (01:33:44):
Totally agree.

Speaker 22 (01:33:45):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:33:46):
I think it's interesting when you go into a game
expecting to lose more touchdown by four touchdowns and you don't.
How I don't leave as depressed as you think they're
going to beat the Jets and you don't. But then
you think, oh, this one's going to be a blood
bat and you're like, oh, okay, like they're still trying.
There's a good at least watchable football because I like football,
you know, I want to watch a good football game.

(01:34:09):
So with the Borough thing, also he doesn't he's also
if they're putting the ball in his court and he
gets to say he wants to play football. But also
this would be a third season ending injury, and I
think he doesn't want to be known as that a
guy who missed three full seasons because of injury and
he's going to come back for a third of a season.
And yes, he missed most of the year, but I

(01:34:30):
think you know, at the end of the year, at
the end of the day, if he stays healthy for
these six games, he will have played eight games, so
he you know, that's more than half a season, or
plants less than half season. But you know what I'm saying,
So I get that, I understand all that. That all
being said, I'm not optimistic about Thursday. We do play

(01:34:50):
Baltimore pretty well, and you know, I think we match
up well, and I don't think Lamar Jackson is himself,
but one of the odds, Burrow comes out hot and
Jamar Chase looks good, and it doesn't look like we're
going to have Higgins. We know we're not gonna have Hendrickson.
And the defense actually plays the way they played the
last two weeks, and our offense actually plays the way

(01:35:13):
we want them to play, with at least almost a
full compliment. And Joe Burrow, it's gonna take a lot
of things.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
To go right for us.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
Yeah, yeah, And that's kind of where they're at as
a team, like it takes a lot of things going
their way, a lot of luck, you know, the penalty
goes their way, the balls fumbled in their direction, or
whatever it might be for them to win games. So
I agree with you. I don't know that I go
into Thursday night thinking, yes, Burrow's back, We're going to
beat them by four touchdowns. I'm just like, Okay, let's

(01:35:42):
see how he looks. Maybe they can pull something off here.
But I don't have a lot of expectations. And it's
tough to go primetime on the road AFC North short week.
We've talked about that a lot. It's just not easy
by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm still like,
I'm mainly in the valuation modes, like, Okay, what do
they got, how does he look? What's the defense look like?

(01:36:03):
Are there actual signs of improvement? What can we learn
about next year's team through the rest of these these games.
That's kind of where my mind is.

Speaker 6 (01:36:10):
That I feel the same way. I'm watching the offensive
line thinking okay, okay, like we've that's been so bad
for so long, and now it's not terrible, and you know,
we're watching guys like Miles Murphy put in a little
tape and it feels good. I'm in the same way.
I'm kind of watching players and watching units and seeing
how they play, But I just don't have a lot

(01:36:32):
of expectation, especially since Beck Taylor's always talking about complimentary football.
But man, if you're losing games where you're running back
kickoff for touchdowns and you're getting picked sixes for touch
you know, and you're losing those games, it's real hard
to think you're gonna you're going to be able to
put it all together. But man, I just hope they
show up and give us, give me something.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. And Chris, thank you
for the phone call. Man, I really appreciated it. And yeah,
he's right. I mean, they've they've found ways to lose
that they have no business losing. They haven't played complimentary football.
Just hasn't worked. And there's not a lot of reason
to believe that just because Burrow is back, the defense
is gonna play better, or special teams is gonna play better,

(01:37:13):
or other teams are gonna play worse. It's still a long,
long road, a long way to go for this team
to get better. And I mentioned to Chris that that
I'm in that mode of like evaluation and trying to
figure out what we can learn about next year's team
through this year's team. And yesterday around this time, when

(01:37:35):
I was talking in Tony's absence as he was heading
to twin peaks. I was trying to go through, like
my thought process of even if they're good over these
last six games, you should not allow that to justify
inaction this coming off season, because this past offseason, Duke
Tobin kind of said multiple times, we just got unlucky.

(01:37:57):
We just got unlucky with a snap being dropped, a
penalty being called, a fumble going into the end zone,
and whatnot, or else we would have been right back
in the playoffs. And they reacted in the off season
according to that line of thinking, which is that they
didn't quite do enough. Yeah, the firing of Louenna Rumo,

(01:38:17):
the hiring of Al Golden, they got TJ. Slayton, they
let Jermaine Pratt go.

Speaker 5 (01:38:23):
All that.

Speaker 2 (01:38:23):
On paper, I could see the vision and it at
least made sense to me. But that plan hasn't worked.
So you cannot repeat that mistake if you were to
have any success over the last six games. And one
of the decisions that they made in the off season
was re signing Trey Hendrickson. And they even though they
went through the drama and the nonsense with Trey throughout

(01:38:45):
the off season, one of the things was I believe
they re signed trade because they truly thought they were
that close. They thought this year, based off the AFC,
based off the team, based off everything I said that
they prince last year, they could be the number one
seed in the AFC. They thought they could win the
Super Bowl. Now, obviously their projections were off, and this

(01:39:07):
season has not gone to plan, and the Borrow injury
plays a role in that. But I've always thought that
the Bengals did that deal with Trey Hendrickson thinking we
can get back to the playoffs, we can get back
to the super Bowl this year, and we can franchise
tag him if he's still productive at a rate that
is not ridiculous. I thought it was a brilliant move

(01:39:29):
by the Bengals. I thought they fleeced Trey Hendrickson. I
thought Mike Brown and Katie and Troy had finally had
won another contract negotiation because I don't believe that the
Bengals believe in Trey Hendrickson beyond this year, and so
they wanted an out and that's why they didn't negotiate
a long term deal with him. And I've talked ad

(01:39:49):
nauseum about why I feel similarly, the Bengals have moved
on from a lot of guys once they get to
thirty or thirty one years old. Sometimes they're right, sometimes
they're wrong. A lot of times the Bengals have been right.
And one of the reasons I felt that way about
Trey Hendrickson is that he's not an elite athlete. Yeah,

(01:40:09):
he takes great care of himself, and he plays really
hard and all that stuff, but he's not a Miles Garrett.
He's not a Max Crosby, he's not a Micah Parsons.
He's not a complete freak of an athlete. He has
to work his ass off to get to that level,
and eventually your body will break down, and there are

(01:40:30):
drop offs for players at that position at that age,
and I thought, based off everything I had seen, that
Trey was susceptible to such a drop off. And so
this year he's been injured and he's not really in
a position to feel like he's going to go get
a significant amount more this offseason if the Bengals aren't

(01:40:51):
a franchise tag him, and because of his displeasure maybe
with the way the Bengals have handled things, and because
of the way this season has gone, and because of
his uncertain future I think a lot of people are
now under the assumption that Trey Henderson's not going to
play again this season, whether he's healthy or not. And

(01:41:13):
I find that debate interesting. Tony and I have talked
about how strange it is that Zach Taylor, who is
keeps his cards close to the vest, really doesn't show
too much early in the week, has immediately over the
past couple of weeks, nipped it in the bud the
idea of Trey Hendrickson playing well. He did that again yesterday, Trey,

(01:41:37):
of course, dealing with a hip slash pelvis injury. Charlie
Goldsmith asked Zach Taylor about this. Here's the exchange from Monday.
One more injury thing? Has she listed?

Speaker 31 (01:41:50):
Hendrickson has out doubtful pretty quickly over the last couple weeks.
Has he made any progress?

Speaker 25 (01:41:55):
Still just recovering from Andrew, you know, and so with
a short week, I think it's easy to climb out.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
That's weird, isn't it? Still just recovering from the injury.
So with the short week, just to clare amount, I
don't know about that. That doesn't sound right to me.
And you know, Trey didn't travel to Pittsburgh. He was
on the sideline yesterday or Sunday against New England. There's

(01:42:23):
a lot of this belief that's like, he's not going
to rush himself back, especially if he has a chance
to hit free agency. And I wouldn't blame him. And
there may not be a lot left to play for,
and the Bengals may not be rushing him back because
there's escalators in this contract about playing time and this,
that and the other. I get all that, But where

(01:42:44):
this all comes to a head is once again in
the offseason, whether or not Trey plays. It's fascinating to think.
And I know Joe Daniman touched on this when we
talked about it. The Bengals have a chance to franchise
tag him at a number that is not ridiculous. It's
between twenty seven and thirty million dollars, and for a

(01:43:04):
good pass rusher, that's fine, and for a guy who's
at his age and maybe at his production level, you
can justify that. But if Trey Hendrickson is number one,
if they franchise tag him, who's to say he's gonna play?
He very easily could throw a fit and go through

(01:43:26):
this whole process all over again, he could franchise tag
him at that number and probably get a decent return
for him if they chose to trade him. And also,
are you going to learn anything about your team in
place of Trey Hendrickson over these last six games that
give you a better understanding of the future of Miles
Murphy or the future of Shamar Stewart. You might not

(01:43:46):
see much with Stuart. Miles Murphy is just eclipsed the
one thousand snap threshold and is starting to play like
a first round pick at least over the last couple
of weeks. And I've said many times the Bengals have
plenty of money as of right now, sixty nine million
dollars in cap space going into next season. So let's

(01:44:12):
say it's seventy and let's say Trey's franchise tag is thirty.
Do you want to take thirty million dollars out of
the seventy that you can spend? Or in the Bengals case,
they typically spend right up into ten to twelve million
dollars until the cap. So let's say it's sixty million
dollars and thirty million for Trey. Do you want to

(01:44:33):
spend fifty percent of your available money on an aging
pass rusher who has barely played this year, has not
been that productive when he did, and is at odds
with the team. Talked often about Trey being a leader.
I don't know that he's a leader. You don't hear

(01:44:54):
much about him. You don't hear much from him. I
don't know that he has that many friends left in
the LA locker room. I just wonder what the endgame
is here for both sides. The Bengals might look at
it and say, you know what, it's time to wash
our hands of this. We can spend that thirty million
dollars in better places because we believe in Shamar Stewart.

(01:45:17):
Whether or not they do, that's one thing. But Miles Murphy,
we'll bring him back. We'll bring Shamar Stewart back. Maybe
we'll bring Joseph O's side back. Or we can go
out in free agency and get another pass rusher. We
can get an interior defensive lineman. We can work on
our safety depth, we can work on our cornerback depth,
and you can put that money to good use elsewhere

(01:45:37):
and instead of putting it in one player who really
sinks the rest of the defense if he's not available,
you can spread that out amongst the myriad of positions
that need help. Or are the Bengals going to look
at it and say, last year was just a tough one.
Twenty seven and a half million dollars is a great

(01:45:59):
deal for a pass rusher. Let's put that money back
into tray and give him a chance to be a
part of a defense that we can rebuild on a
budget with the rest of the money. But either way,
it looks like we have gotten to a point where
once again the Trey Hendrickson saga will be a big

(01:46:19):
talking point going into the offseason, because the Bengals reserve
the right to franchise tag him, and because they did
a good enough job in creating that contract to where
it makes sense financially for them to do that, and
they have plenty of cap space. Whether they do it
or don't do it, they deserve credit for the way

(01:46:41):
they've manipulated the cap I think going into twenty six
and into twenty seven where they have tons of money
to spend. But again, the offseason it will be centered
around not only how do the Bengals fix their defense,
but if they do and when they do, or is
Trey Hendrickson a part of fixing the defense. I don't

(01:47:04):
know that he is, and I don't know that that's
necessarily a bad thing. Take a break and be back.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:47:13):
From locker room whispers to stadium roars. He's got it all,
Moeger Today at three pm on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:47:24):
What are your tail getting in the park?

Speaker 31 (01:47:25):
Ports?

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
Welcome back, ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Austin Elmore.
You'll hear from Joe Burrow about twenty minutes from right
now when he meets with the mediahead of Thanksgiving Night
football in Baltimore. I'll talk a little bit of college basketball,
though didn't get a chance to do that yesterday obviously
with the Monday midday quarterback and what we're trying to

(01:47:50):
do this year. We've talked about it is, you know,
just a little whip around what each coach had to
say about their last game. And I want to do
that here, even without tone. And one of the things
that kind of got swept under the rug over the
weekend of all the stuff that was happening inside the
city of Cincinnati was the fact that Xavier was on
the road sort of they were at the Shriners Children's

(01:48:13):
Charleston Classic down there in Charleston where they played West
Virginia Xavier beat them by ten seventy eight sixty eight.
The Muskies get to four and three rebounding from that
difficult loss against Santa Clara. Here is what Richard Patino
had to say after the Muskies win over West Virginia.

Speaker 32 (01:48:33):
Well, certainly a terrific win for our program. I mean,
it's just it all starts with on the practice court.
You know, you saw a shoot around today and it
was one of the hardest practices we had of the year,
and it was early in the morning. These guys are
foming at the mouth to compete with each other to
get better every single day. The response, certainly from the

(01:48:54):
Santa Clara loss and how we responded, it looks like
a different team, and I'm proud of them. It's a
very very confident group right now, and they're playing the
right way. They're sharing the basketball, they're shooting well, they're
taking good shots, doing a lot of great things.

Speaker 2 (01:49:08):
Richard Patino after the win over West Virginia Xavier. Back
in action Friday night, Friday afternoon, five thirty is the
tip off, they'll take on Texas A and M Corpus Christy.
Then on December first, it's Saint Francis. Those are the
two final tune ups before the Crosstown shootout December fifth
at seven thirty pm. How about last night Cincinnati in

(01:49:32):
action against n j IT the Highlanders the New Jersey
Institute of Technology at fifth Third Arena. Cincinnati trying to
rebound from the loss to Louisville over the weekend, and
they won ninety four to sixty seven at home. Here
is Bearcat's head coach West Miller after the victory.

Speaker 10 (01:49:52):
He it's good to get back on the court after
Friday night. And I think the thing that that I
like is we're having high assist numbers, which means we're
sharing the ball and making some good decisions. And so
I look down and there's twenty four assists. I like
that tonight, and I think we had nineteen or eighteen

(01:50:15):
Friday night.

Speaker 19 (01:50:16):
So I like that.

Speaker 10 (01:50:19):
I was glad we got to get some extended minutes
for some guys that haven't been able to get them.
Like I think Keishaan Tillery is so important to our
team this year as we move forward, and you know,
him getting out there and getting extended minutes and being
able to play through some mistakes. I think that's really
important because we're going to need him to be confident

(01:50:40):
and ready to compete and ready to play. And I
thought there were some really good moments for him tonight
that he should gain some confidence from. Same thing Halvin,
you know, getting the extended minutes, and I think doing
a nice job with him. He did some good things
on the backboards. So I think again that those are
some of the positives. I thought Jordi right Riguez as well,

(01:51:00):
Like I thought he had a great loose ball that
was a bearcat type of play, and you see that
some of these guys that have been here, they're starting
to try to get it. We had the second or
the second to last media time out the under eight
media in the second half. I really challenged them to
just play play bearcat basketball, to play the right way,
like no matter what's going on and who the opponent

(01:51:22):
is or what the score is. And I thought that
group came out for the next couple of minutes and
did that, and I think we're still learning what that means.
But there were some moments tonight you could see that happening,
and that's the good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:51:36):
Bearcat head coach Wes Miller after the win. Cincinnati back
at home tomorrow night against Eastern Michigan. On December first,
they'll take on Tarleton State and their final two tune
ups ahead of the crossdown shoot At the shootout, the
Bearcats are five and one on the season. One other
local team was in action last night. They got the victory.

(01:51:58):
I'll tell you about them next is since E three
to sixty on ESPN fifty welcome back since E three
to sixty. I'm Austin Almore. I mentioned there was one
other team that won last night. That would be the
NKU Norse. They were hosting the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Norse
were actually down two at the half, but outscored EKU

(01:52:19):
forty nine thirty six in the second half to win
eighty two seventy one. Here as head coach Darren Horn
after the victory.

Speaker 33 (01:52:27):
And I thought his team really reflected that tonight. I mean,
they're down several guys and just came in here and
just competed their tails off. And so I hope the
Colonel Faithful understand how fortunate they are to have a
guy like aw Hamilton at the Helm. I mean that
was a tremendous effort by his guys on the road
on a quick turnaround. I mean they played Saturday and

(01:52:48):
had to bust up here and play today. And so
that said, I didn't think we were our sharpest in
a lot of areas, especially down the stretch. And I
was concerned coming into the game after playing so well
at Central Michigan that we would be unto our offense.
And as soon as the shots weren't going in in

(01:53:08):
the first half, not we really let it affect us
or not strong defensively, and you know the difference if
you look at the percentages from first to second half,
especially from the three for them, you know that was
the difference in the game. And so we still got
a lot of guys that are learning how we win
here and that's with defense and rebounding and playing smart.

Speaker 2 (01:53:28):
And so do not do that at the level that
we would like to.

Speaker 33 (01:53:32):
That said, really proud, because good teams find a way
to win when they don't play their best, and I
think our guys did that tonight. And you go down
the box score and it's not one or two guys
got four guys not just in double figures, but with
fourteen or more and different guys stepping up at key
moments throughout the game. And basically we've been on a
ten day road trip. I mean, we haven't been able

(01:53:53):
to practice in our own facilities since like last Tuesday.
We had to bust up early because we don't have
a second gym to practice in. We don't and then
of course with the turn of being hosted here, which
was awesome for our volleyball team, so thankful for that
and proud of those girls. But we literally have not
practiced in our own gym since last Tuesday, and so

(01:54:16):
we've been on a week long road trip essentially, and
so far guys will respond the way they did, and
it'd be a collective effort, not just one or two guys.

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
I thought was really good. That is n k U
Norse head coach Darren Horn after the victory last night.
All right, we'll take a break, we'll come back, we'll
check in with mo Egger. Then we'll hear from the
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow meeting with the media this afternoon
ahead of Thanksgiving night football. That's next. This is ESPN

(01:54:45):
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:54:46):
From the Brown Heating tempts.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
It's time for since the three sixty quick hits on
ESPN fifteen thirty looking.

Speaker 2 (01:54:53):
I think we found Mo. I believe he's at Oakley
Greens for his typical Tuesday show and Moe joining us. Now, Hi, Mo,
how are you?

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
I am well? And I just want to say one
thing about today's show. Okay, guaranteed human, guaranteed human. That's
been that's been the thing around. If you if you
come to Oakley Greens, you'll you're guaranteed to see a
human me.

Speaker 2 (01:55:18):
That's true. Andrew is Drew gonna be Is he going
to be parking cars or anything?

Speaker 4 (01:55:23):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:55:23):
We we uh you know it's it's Thanksgiving and so
uh Drew has a busy couple of days in front
of him. Sure, yeah, he's a delivering turkeys. Oh that's right, folks,
over the next couple of time, helicopter. I believe, well,
he's just true, he's going door to door.

Speaker 2 (01:55:37):
Okay, As a Bengals fan, what do you want to
hear from Joe Burrow and his press conference today?

Speaker 3 (01:55:42):
I am one hundred percent.

Speaker 6 (01:55:47):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (01:55:47):
That's it, that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:55:48):
I mean, I'm here to save the day. We're going
to win these next six I want to hear, like,
is there residual discomfort? How much? How much at all?
Is he going to be compromised or is he like
like he was before the injury, Like that's to me,
that's the most important thing we'll see. My guess is

(01:56:10):
we're not going to hear him say I'm one hundred percent.
But if there's one thing I want to hear when
he steps to the podium, hopefully on time, it's I'm
one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
Are you not buying that he is one hundred percent?

Speaker 3 (01:56:22):
I don't know. I don't know. I would be unsurprised
if he wasn't just and look, man, I'm not a doctor.
I'm not being asked to examine his foot. Weird if
I But the original timeline for this was best case
is early December. It feels like he is rushed back.

(01:56:45):
And I mean, I don't mean like he's doing something irresponsible,
like he has worked his ass off to get back.
But is is the fact that he is ready to
play on Thursday reflective of the fact that he is
more willing to deal with pain than perhaps originally thought.
The timeline hasn't been accelerated here. Does that mean he's

(01:57:07):
he may be pain free and he maybe one hundred percent.
I don't know, But there was a reason he didn't
play two days ago, right, If he was one hundred percent,
why wouldn't he you have played two days ago? M hm,
So it's fair to wonder. And again, man like, I'm
I'm okay with him playing. It's not my favorite thing
in the world because I don't think this team is

(01:57:27):
going to make the postseason, but all right, they're playing
a game with at least a mathematical chance of making it.
What level of risk is being incurred here that either
that is either equal to or above and beyond the
regular level of risk that every quarterback takes on when
they play an NFL game.

Speaker 2 (01:57:45):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. What do you have
coming up on your show today? Guaranteed human, guaranteed human,
that's it, just human people as a human man you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:55):
ESPN college football writer Bill Connolly is going to be
on the show. This guy. We're gonna talk about the
big weekend coming up in college football. Lots of different storylines,
but he's written what I think is the best sports
book I've read this year where he takes on the
I think pretty unenviable task of trying to examine what
college football's future is gonna look like. He still wants

(01:58:17):
to be the Commissioner of college Football. This has been
something he's been lobbying for for eight years. And so
Bill's gonna come on the show with us at three
forty five.

Speaker 12 (01:58:25):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:58:26):
You know, we don't have our show on Thursday, but
we're doing our Thursday stuff. So you got Lee Sterling
gonna help us make some money this weekend. You got
Dan Klaskin's gonna help us with fantasy football. This weekend.
We're gonna chat with our guy, Sean Saya the Stats
and Schemes newsletter. We're gonna spend some time on the
guy that everybody is writing about as it relates to
the Reds. We'll talked about the current state of affairs

(01:58:48):
with the UC football team and so much more. As
we get said for Bengals Ravens on Thanksgiving evening.

Speaker 2 (01:58:55):
You mentioned college football. Do you find yourself caring at
all about Lane Kiffen and where he goes?

Speaker 1 (01:59:02):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:59:03):
Yeah, I care almost as much about Jordaan Hudson and
Bill Belichick as I do Lane Kiffin? Now, I think
the dynamic of a coach leaving his team while they're
in the playoff is interesting and if we have that,
I never want to hear again anybody complaining about the
players leaving. Okay, you know, because this has been a

(01:59:25):
thing now for all these players they leave and they Okay,
we got a coach who's gonna leave his team, perhaps
while they have a chance to play for a championship.
So miss me with the whole Well, the players need
to show more loyalty. But but no, I don't. I
did the story doesn't. I don't think Lane Kiffin is
as interesting as everybody else does. He's good coach, but

(01:59:48):
I don't find him as fascinating as everybody else. So
I so no, I don't. I'm not losing sleep wondering
we're Lane or Lane Kiffin is gonna go? Nor am
I losing sleep worrying about like is Brian Kelly ever
going to be allowed to have a job.

Speaker 2 (02:00:03):
What I find interesting about that is, you know, how
does Ole miss feel? How do their fans feel? If
it feels like an SEC school is a stepping stone
job to just other SEC schools, and if you can't
get someone like Lane Kiffin. Are you ever going to
really be able to keep a coach that? I think
is it kind of goes into the conversation maybe that

(02:00:25):
you're going to have later on about the future of
college football. I don't know that it's ever going to
settle down.

Speaker 3 (02:00:30):
No, everybody. I think any job can be considered a
stepping stone. Yeah, fair might be a stepping stone to
the NFL, might be a stepping stone to retirement. I mean,
Brian Kelly left Notre Dame to go coach at LSU.
Would we all agree Notre Dame's a destination gig it?

Speaker 23 (02:00:49):
Would you know?

Speaker 3 (02:00:50):
You're not going to want to hear this, But like
Jim Harball had already coached in the NFL, but he
went from Michigan to the National Football leaue? Does that
make Michigan a stepping stone job?

Speaker 10 (02:00:59):
Like?

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
Right, we're talking about highly aspirational figures here and and
just obscene amounts of money. And I think as long
as you have those two things, you're never gonna have
many gigs where the you know, the the coach is
gonna be viewed as somebody who stays forever. I also think,
like we when it comes to coaches, we're still thinking
about coaching and stability and very antiquated, you know terms.

(02:01:27):
I'll use UC basketball as a reference. Bob Huggins and
Mick Cronin spoiled us because you see basketball at two
coaches in thirty years.

Speaker 2 (02:01:34):
That's not normal.

Speaker 3 (02:01:35):
That's that's not normal, and it's not gonna be normal.
If Wes ever gets the program humming, he's gonna get
interest and chances are he's gonna go somewhere, and so
I I what would piss me off as an old
miss fan is we've got a shot to compete for
a national championship and now you're gonna go. And maybe
that's not Lane Kiffin's fault, and maybe that's not Florida's

(02:01:56):
fault or LSU's fault. But again, I never want to
hear about how well the players are ruining the sport
because they could just go wherever they want any time.
When you have a coach who may abandon his team
that has a chance to win a national.

Speaker 2 (02:02:09):
Championship trying to and waiting for Joe Burrow to come
to the podium, he's already five minutes late at a
conference guaranteed human Joe Burrow quickly your thoughts on you
see last night? What was your biggest takeaway? I don't
think I had one.

Speaker 3 (02:02:28):
They won a game by thirty points that I thought
they would win by thirty points. I guess my bigger takeaway, Look,
the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout is fast approaching. I think
a lot of folks viewed that as an inevitability that
you see is going to be Xavier. I don't think
it is anymore. I think it's a fifty to fifty game.

(02:02:50):
I think it's a fifty to fifty game because number one,
you see's got to get Bob and Miller back on
the court. It feels like there's a very distinct possibility
that he will be back on the court Friday. But
I think he is their best player right now. I
think he's their biggest difference maker. But there's been nothing
overwhelming League and Wes Miller has I just I heard

(02:03:11):
you play the postgame comments from last night. He's trying
to be overwhelmingly positive, and I get it, Like, I
don't blame him because the fan base is a little
jaded right now. He's swimming up stream when it comes
to just fans kind of being on board with his
program right now. They did lose a game to a
really good Louisville team, but they lost a game on Friday.

(02:03:32):
But their performances I don't think have made you feel like,
holy crap, this team wants big twelve play kids here
is going to be able to take off. And I
certainly don't think they've played well enough for anybody to
take the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout for granted. And then
you look at the improvement that Xavier has made from
what they were doing when they played Lemoyne and then
obviously the Santa Clara game and to a degree the

(02:03:53):
end of the first half against Iowa to how they've
played since. I was talking about this with somebody at
UC last night, like they're running really good stuff. There's
a talent gap, there's a talent limitation. But that's always
the game that before it happens, it's like, all right, well,
who's gonna win the shootout? Who's gonna win the shootout?
You see does not have history on its side. That
was a game that I think for months people have

(02:04:13):
looked at it and said, this is going to be
the year where you see wins at Cinta Center, and
they may and my guess is they're going to be favored.
And if you made me pick who's going to win
a game and put a gun to my head, which
would be weird, I would say Cincinnati. But I don't
know that anybody should feel as sure about that outcome
as they did a month ago. And if the Bearcats
do lose that game, oh it's I just I know

(02:04:39):
what it's I know what it's gonna sound like. I
know what it's gonna sound like. So that game next Friday,
to me is fascinating for a thousand different reasons.

Speaker 2 (02:04:47):
We're a couple of days away from Thanksgiving. Do you
have a signature dish that you make at Thanksgiving that
you are responsible for?

Speaker 6 (02:04:57):
No?

Speaker 10 (02:04:57):
No, no, no.

Speaker 2 (02:04:59):
Do you Are you in evolved at all in the
making of the Thanksgiving lunch or dinner?

Speaker 4 (02:05:04):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:05:05):
Not really? No, okay, no, there's nothing I'm really I did.
I smoked the turkey a couple of years ago because
I like to smoke stuff, right cigars, I smoked the turkey,
But usually that's my wife, my mother in law. What
I will tell you is this, my mom moved to
Nevada a couple of years ago. Yeah, and every year

(02:05:26):
I talk about to the people I like that I
eat Thanksgiving with they get mad at me because all
they do is talk about how much I miss my
mom's stuffing. My mom's stuffing is the greatest of all time.
There you go, greatest of all time. And uh so
I wish she would make some put it on like
dry ice and ship it here or drive it here.
But no, I'm I'm not really responsible for I'm responsible

(02:05:48):
for the Thanksgiving morning mimosas.

Speaker 2 (02:05:50):
Oh okay, interesting, So you're not running a turkey trot
or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (02:05:56):
Absolutely not. I support everybody who is running in this
year's Thanksgiving Day, right, that is terrific. But I like
a good holiday breakfast cocktail. Okay, sure, so that's that's
I'm kind of responsible for those. I'll do tequila sunrise.
I can make a good bloody Mary.

Speaker 2 (02:06:09):
When's the last time I went for a run?

Speaker 3 (02:06:13):
Oh, like, like like running from a to b or
like running on a treadmill? Like either treadmill this summer? Okay,
we have treadmills on the main floor of our building
at work. The last time I went for a run?

Speaker 2 (02:06:29):
Yeah, like outside you know you threw the shorts on,
you laced them up. You're like, I'm gonna go run
however long twenty twelve thirteen. Wow, Okay, can I tell
you about the time I almost hit Tom Coughlin as
much as time as you'd like to take as we
wait for Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (02:06:49):
All right, So the Bengals are playing the Giants in
twenty twelve and the cold hour is cold out. I
lived on I lived at eight fifteen Elm. I could
say it because I don't live there downtown, yeah, And
I had spent the night somewhere, And so Sunday morning,
I wake up at like six thirty seven o'clock and

(02:07:12):
I'm like fumbling for something. I don't know what I
was doing. But there's a little lot next to the
place I lived in and I go to turn in
it and I like jam on the brakes and I'm like,
holy crap, I must hit that dude. And it was
New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin out for a
morning run. I just rolled down the window as he

(02:07:33):
ran away. I was sorry about that, coach, and he
waved wow. And then I think the Bengals won that
game that day.

Speaker 2 (02:07:38):
They did. There was a lot of snow, if I'm
not mistaken, but yeah, I remember that he.

Speaker 3 (02:07:44):
Was out running at like a Giant's like giant, like
a Giants hoodie or long sleeve shirt on. And but
the I can't say the last time I went for
a run. It's been it's been a while.

Speaker 2 (02:07:55):
There was a similar thing that happened to me once
before a Bengals Sunday night game. I think it was
they hosted the Steelers on a Sunday night and my
dad and I were walking around downtown getting ready for
the game, you know, tailgating and all that, and this
car nearly hit us as we were crossing the street,

(02:08:15):
slammed on its brakes, whipped around us. It was Ray
mal Luga. Oh wow, on his way lots of questions
about that. On his way into the stadium, license plate
said sting ray r E.

Speaker 6 (02:08:29):
Y Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:08:31):
But yeah, And I'm sure there's plenty of Ray mal
Luga's stories similar out there from people in this area.

Speaker 3 (02:08:37):
When I first met my wife, his name came up.
Oh boy, and again this is many. I met my
wife thirteen years ago and she said to me, oh,
we met Ray mal Luga. They were at a bar
and let the club her and her friends. Ray mal
Luga comes over and brings a bottle Oh boy, and
drinks it with them and then left, didn't pay for it.

(02:09:00):
Oh okay, Ray mal Luga, I think has reconfigured his life.

Speaker 6 (02:09:04):
He has.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
Yes, I was about to say that, and and so
good for.

Speaker 3 (02:09:09):
Him for doing that, because it felt like for a
while his life needed to be reconfigured.

Speaker 2 (02:09:13):
We have we have Joe Burrow at the post. Let's
go to Joe Burrow.

Speaker 29 (02:09:17):
Human When when you got hurt, were you told this
would be a three month process and obviously you cut
it down?

Speaker 5 (02:09:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 34 (02:09:28):
You know, originally it was twelve weeks and then you know,
we'll start to talk about it. But just like with
any injury, you start to learn more about it and
start to ask questions.

Speaker 27 (02:09:39):
About things you can and can't do.

Speaker 34 (02:09:41):
You know, what do we have to avoid in certain
time periods post surgery and let's kind of take it
as it goes.

Speaker 27 (02:09:47):
Did you get creative to cut that time down the Yeah, yeah,
I guess you could say that.

Speaker 10 (02:09:54):
I think.

Speaker 34 (02:09:57):
Number one, I have a physical therapist in Nick and
trainers mainly Matt that really understood what stress the repair
what we could and couldn't do in certain time periods,
and so we push it within the limits of what
we could do and kind of just based it on

(02:10:20):
how how I was feeling, how I was recovering, how
it looked the next day after we push it, and
just went from there was last week.

Speaker 35 (02:10:27):
For you getting multiple full practices and doing that for
the first.

Speaker 5 (02:10:31):
Time, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 27 (02:10:32):
It felt good.

Speaker 5 (02:10:33):
I needed it.

Speaker 34 (02:10:36):
It felt good to get some live reps, both Scott
team and first team. And I think that will serve
me well this week, having a full week where you
know you're expecting to play and you're going through your
preparation like like you're gonna play and then it doesn't happen.
So but it's good to have that under your belt,

(02:10:59):
to to think under this week where you're not going
to get a ton of full speed reps because it's
a Thursday night against the team that played a million times,
And uh, I think that will service was the unknown.

Speaker 35 (02:11:10):
Last week as you're pushing I think to play and
you don't know if it's going to happen or not.

Speaker 27 (02:11:15):
Yeah, that's in that situation. Yeah, I've been I've been
in that spot before, and.

Speaker 34 (02:11:20):
You know, trust the decision makers, and trust the medical
people and everybody that was involved in the decision making.

Speaker 27 (02:11:28):
And you know, I thought we made a good decision.
And now this week will be rid up, ready to go.

Speaker 26 (02:11:33):
Jude, just to be clear, you're playing on starting on Thursday, correct,
Like that's okay. You said that this would be very
meaningful to come back on Thanksgiving. Why does this carry
so much meaning to come back for this game specifically?

Speaker 34 (02:11:45):
Number one, it's a division game. I got a lot
of respect for the people on the opposite side of
the ball, But when you play people twice a year, it's.

Speaker 4 (02:11:56):
You.

Speaker 34 (02:11:57):
You get tired of them, you don't like them. It's
a division rivalry. You got respect for him, but it's
intense out there. It's something I wanted to be out
there for playing on Thanksgiving, something I've always wanted to
do that I pushed for in the past, and the
NFL gave it to us, and then you know, the
injury happened and thought I wasn't gonna be able to play,

(02:12:18):
and then as we got closer, I you know, felt
like it was a real possibility.

Speaker 27 (02:12:22):
So that's exciting to me.

Speaker 34 (02:12:24):
And it's a national stage to go out and improve
yourself again after not playing for several weeks, and every
opportunity that you get to to go improve all the
hard work that you've put in, the type of player
you are is something that I try to take advantage of.

Speaker 26 (02:12:43):
Your second Thanksgiving Day game correct with at L s
U A M was Thanksgiving card?

Speaker 34 (02:12:48):
Maybe I don't quite, I don't really, I don't. I
don't remember if that was Thanksgiving or not. I don't
remember playing on Thanksgiving before, but.

Speaker 27 (02:12:56):
Could could be.

Speaker 3 (02:12:58):
What what do you like about?

Speaker 1 (02:12:59):
What?

Speaker 26 (02:13:00):
What's so meaningful about that day?

Speaker 27 (02:13:01):
Specifically?

Speaker 3 (02:13:02):
Like why have you always liked to want to play
in this said?

Speaker 34 (02:13:06):
I think just like a lot of kids, you you
grow up going through Thanksgiving, You have your meals with
your family, and then you go and stay on the
couch and typically there's not a lot on except football.

Speaker 27 (02:13:19):
Back in the day it was Lions and somebody.

Speaker 34 (02:13:23):
You go watch Matthew Stafford throw for three hundred four
hundred some yards with Calvin Johnson and probably lose the game,
but it was fun to watch. You know, those are
memories that you have, and so I kind of always
wanted to be the person out there.

Speaker 2 (02:13:41):
You've You've done some really cool things.

Speaker 27 (02:13:43):
In your career.

Speaker 29 (02:13:44):
Is are you able to just appreciate how cool it
is to come back from major area on a prime
time thanks citing game that's particularly it's an increase.

Speaker 5 (02:13:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:13:55):
I think.

Speaker 34 (02:13:58):
Obviously the winning and the division championships that we've won
are are the most exciting things that that we've done.
But whenever you have an opportunity like this against a
divisional opponent that's one five straight and you're playing on
a on a Thursday night in front of the world,

(02:14:20):
that's a that's an exciting opportunity.

Speaker 28 (02:14:22):
Whe regardless of what this team's record is or.

Speaker 2 (02:14:26):
Was going to be, that you were going to come back.

Speaker 27 (02:14:29):
As soon as it happened, I was.

Speaker 5 (02:14:31):
I was pushing to.

Speaker 27 (02:14:34):
Do everything that we could to try to get back
on the field. I'm a football player.

Speaker 34 (02:14:39):
I get paid a lot of money to go and
play a game with my friends, and we work really hard,
and you know, it's intense and there's jobs on the line,
but at the end of the day, it's a game.
And I've worked hard to put myself in this position
and get as healthy as I can be to to
go out and play with these guys, and that's something
I wanted to do.

Speaker 30 (02:15:00):
Thoughts when people say you're the franchise, you're the most
important player, importaniz age, and you should be protected for
next year and going forward behind that.

Speaker 34 (02:15:13):
You understand, Yes, I understand why people feel that way,
But if you look at it from my perspective, I'm.

Speaker 27 (02:15:24):
A football player, and.

Speaker 34 (02:15:27):
If I get hurt, I'm gonna go through the rehab process,
and then I'm gonna let everybody know when I.

Speaker 5 (02:15:32):
Feel like.

Speaker 27 (02:15:34):
I can go out there and play. I don't really
know what else to say about that.

Speaker 34 (02:15:41):
I'm not gonna ever go to somebody and say, yeah,
I'm healthy, But you know, I don't think I don't
think I should go out there and play.

Speaker 27 (02:15:51):
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Speaker 34 (02:15:53):
I'm not gonna live my life and play this game
scared of something happening.

Speaker 27 (02:16:00):
Something's gonna happen.

Speaker 34 (02:16:01):
It's football. Guys are gonna get hurt. Guys are gonna
get concussions. You're gonna break bones, tear ligaments. It's a physical,
intense game. That's that's part of this. And yeah, I've
had injuries. There's not a lot I can do about that.
I worked really hard to have that not happen. But
what I can do is when it does happen, I

(02:16:22):
can control how I'm attacking my rehab and attacking practice
and doing everything in my power to get back as
quickly as possible.

Speaker 32 (02:16:29):
That's what I did on the other Change anything about
the way you play, like extending plays and being cautious
with that, or you're out there and you're.

Speaker 33 (02:16:35):
Just gonna play the way you play.

Speaker 27 (02:16:38):
We'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 34 (02:16:40):
I think I'm feeling I'm feeling good, good enough to
go out there and move and and extend. Obviously pick
my spots when when to do that and when not to,
but I feel confident that in certain moments I'll be
able to do that.

Speaker 23 (02:16:55):
Sunday probably tough loss for you to have to sit
back and watch, but I mean with Pittsburgh using as well,
really didn't lose any ground in the division race. So
at this point in time, you know, if you guys
are able to win out, probably a pretty good chance
that you could still get in, or you confident that
you guys can run the table down stretch.

Speaker 27 (02:17:12):
I think we just got to take you one game
at a time. I think, yeah, like you.

Speaker 34 (02:17:17):
Said, we have to win every game at this point.
The only way that you're going to do that is
by attacking each week like you have to be. Want
to know that week and then move one in the next.

Speaker 2 (02:17:27):
How hard has it?

Speaker 35 (02:17:29):
I know, the rehab and the injury and all of
those things, but watching the team go through what they've
gone through over the past ten games or nine games
about you, how hard does it?

Speaker 34 (02:17:37):
Yeah, it's it's always tough when when you're not out
there and you can't contribute to when you're losing on
the field.

Speaker 27 (02:17:46):
That's typically the hardest part about this whole thing.

Speaker 13 (02:17:50):
So, yeah, it was tough.

Speaker 27 (02:17:51):
It's tough to watch from my position. Obviously, I want
to be out there with everybody.

Speaker 5 (02:17:57):
So but that's part of it.

Speaker 31 (02:17:59):
You big Blacko's brain and try to learn from him.

Speaker 34 (02:18:03):
Yeah, I think whenever you have a guy that's played
that long, you can, especially a guy that plays so
much differently than you do, you can you ask him
what he thought in this situation or how how would
you react to this or that? And he's played a

(02:18:24):
long time and played at a high level. So that's
something that I did take advantage of.

Speaker 26 (02:18:29):
Going back to the earlier question about play style in general,
just not even injury related, but just having been through
it and once you get back to full striketh fully,
is there something that you thought about maybe I'd like
to play a little bit differently. Have you assessed how
you might like to play as a quarterback roverboard?

Speaker 27 (02:18:43):
Does that change at all?

Speaker 26 (02:18:44):
Given what happened with this injury?

Speaker 34 (02:18:46):
You think about a lot of different things when number
one you have time to think about him, and you know,
you watch a lot of games across the league and
you see who's playing well, who's not, what's working schematically?

Speaker 15 (02:18:58):
What isn't.

Speaker 27 (02:19:00):
You evaluate everything?

Speaker 28 (02:19:02):
Joe, what's been your impression of the running game the
last month, month and a half and how instrumental can
that be and kind of helping you ease your way
back here?

Speaker 34 (02:19:10):
Yeah, we gotta keep building on that. That's been that's
been a positive of everything that's been going on. I
think we've been physical, I think schematically we've done a
lot of things to get an advantage in that in
that realm, and we've got to keep building on it.
Chases gonna run like he runs, He's gonna make people
miss and have explosive plays.

Speaker 27 (02:19:31):
He's got to keep blocking the way that we are
in the run game, and I think that momentum will carry.
I assume it's fair to say that it was not
one hundred percent. Where would you put it right now?

Speaker 5 (02:19:40):
It's tough to say.

Speaker 27 (02:19:41):
I feel I feel confident that I can go out
and do everything that I need to do to win
a game.

Speaker 35 (02:19:45):
Can you take us through and this is going way
back to the injury, but just take us through the
play where you're looking at Jamar and what was going
on through your mind during that play?

Speaker 2 (02:19:55):
Obviously you end up getting hurt on Yeah, that was h.

Speaker 34 (02:20:00):
You're trying to get the ball out and some unexpected
things happen that you can't really let it go, and
then pocket starts collapsing. You try to buy a little
time and then I just tried to get myself up
and my foot got comm then turf, so.

Speaker 27 (02:20:18):
Unlucky.

Speaker 35 (02:20:19):
Is there anything you could have done differently? I mean,
he's obviously jammed up, it's not free. You're trying to
hit him right away, like quarterback wise, Is there anything
that you would have done differently in that moment?

Speaker 34 (02:20:29):
Hindsight is twenty twenty. You can't you can't play a
play or game or a practice or anything worried about getting.

Speaker 27 (02:20:38):
Hurt or doing anything like that. So there's not anything
I would have done differently.

Speaker 28 (02:20:42):
In that play safe to say, this is an extremely
unique situation where football expression is train's moving at one
hundred miles an hour and you're jumping onto a moving
train at one hundred miles an hour. You thought about that,
about what you're going to have to do, not only.

Speaker 2 (02:20:59):
Get ready and you might either play at that level.

Speaker 27 (02:21:01):
Yeah, it's certainly a different.

Speaker 34 (02:21:05):
Mental space that you have to be in throughout the
week to prepare the way you need to to go
out and play great. That's one of the reasons I
wanted to get two full weeks of practice before I
went out there and performed, and then you know, we
we were going to move up that timeline and then

(02:21:27):
obviously didn't end up playing last week.

Speaker 27 (02:21:29):
But you know, preparing that whole week like I wasn't
going to play, I think.

Speaker 34 (02:21:37):
Putting yourself in that mental state to get back into
the swing of things it's a it's a it's an
intense place to be at times. So I'm glad I
had that week to feel that before Thursday.

Speaker 31 (02:21:50):
In twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, you basically
missed like six weeks of camp and came back and
played with about two weeks of practice. That belt all
similar to this, just in terms of missing a decent
chunk of time and coming back with limited practice ships.

Speaker 5 (02:22:04):
Yeah, maybe a little.

Speaker 27 (02:22:05):
I think, you know, I think I've had more practice
this year.

Speaker 34 (02:22:11):
I went through a full training camp, I got preseason reps,
played a game, played another quarter and a half, and
then had two full weeks these last two weeks. So
I think I'm probably in more advantageous spot this time
than that time.

Speaker 27 (02:22:25):
So I'm happy about that.

Speaker 26 (02:22:27):
In twenty two, I think after the won the division, well,
I think somebody asked you about the window. You said
the window is your whole career. Has that changed in
your mind after what's happened over the last three years.
How much have you thought about that championship window given
what's happened now since you've made that statement.

Speaker 27 (02:22:43):
To now, Yeah, I think anytime.

Speaker 34 (02:22:47):
Any of us step foot on the field, we are
confident that we can go and be whoever I'm I'll
never step on the foot on the field, and I
don't think we can win when I don't think that
I can go out and play great and put us

(02:23:09):
in a position to win. The second that that happens,
then I shouldn't be playing anymore. So I'm always confident
in myself and my teammates for sure, whether.

Speaker 26 (02:23:19):
It's this year or next year, whenever, what needs to
happen from here on out to put you all position
to be contending, in a position to be pushed towards
the playoffs with better odds than where we all have
been this year and last year.

Speaker 27 (02:23:30):
Players gotta go play great, We gotta go play you know,
we have good coaches. We have There's not there's not
a scheme in the end,

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