Tony Pike's Cincy 360 -- 12/2/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Tony Pike Sincey three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in part by Skyline Chili. Stop by Skyline Chili
for a three way or cheeze Tony today.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Feeling good, It's Skyline time.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hi, Hello and welcome in two Tony Pike's Cincy three
sixty here on ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Austin Elmore.
I am not Tony Pike. Once again, Tony Pike not
here for the show that bears his name. Tony will
be on seven hundred WLW tonight from six to nine

(00:42):
for sports talk. He's in for Lance McAllister. So the
schedule for right now, if you want sports talk in
this city, it's me twelve to three right here on
ESPN fifteen thirty, followed by Moe Egger from three to six.
I believe Moe is back at Oakley Greens again today
from three to six, and then you can flip down

(01:03):
the dial to seven hundred WLW at six o'clock to
hear Tony and see what he has to say. A
loaded show for you today. Our typical Tuesday guest will
be Joe Danoman at one pm, and we'll talk a
lot of things with him, most notably, of course, the
Bengals big win over the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving and

(01:26):
now moving forward into the Buffalo game. But there's a
myriad of topics to talk to Joe Danniman about. We'll
also talk to Joe Goodberry multiple Joe's on the show
today and I want to get his perspective. Who's a
great analyst. He's got the YouTube show Bengals on the Brain.
If you're a Bengals fan, chances are you follow Joe
Goodberry on social media and you've seen his content. I

(01:48):
want to know from his perspective, why has the Bengals
defense gotten better and is it sustainable going up against
Baltimore again Buffalo this weekend and the stretch run of
the season with the Bengals playoff hopes right there in

(02:08):
the cross there. So we'll talk to Joe about that.
We'll talk to Mo at the end of the show
for quick hits as well. Talkbacks will happen at their
normal time, and we'll get some audio for you from
last night because there were a couple of basketball games
in the city of Cincinnati last night. Let's start with
everything that happened last night. Cincinnati the Bearcats victorious seventy

(02:29):
eight to fifty six over Tarleton State. The Bearcats were
up by just two at halftime, and I was thinking,
Oh Lord, here we go again. This is not going
to be good. I think Bob I had like eight
turnovers or something like that in the first half. It
was ugly, but the Bearcats ran away with it in
the second half. In their final tune up ahead of

(02:50):
the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout with Xavier, and so you
see wins by the way, spotted at the game former
UC guard Jisel James. Don't know if that means anything,
but Gisel James was there. He was one of about
fifty two people that I think were at the game
last night. The crowd shots that I saw from fifth

(03:10):
third Arena not great, not great, which maybe indicative of
the standing that this program is at with its fan base.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Right now.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
You'll hear from West Miller and what he had to
say after the victory last night coming up later in
the show. Meanwhile, down the road, Xavier won ninety six
seventy four over Saint Francis. They did not necessarily play
well in the first half, either did Xavier, but they won.
You'll hear Richard Patino in what he had to say
about his team. I think they only had eight turnovers

(03:41):
total in the game against Saint Francis. So the final
tune ups for both Cincinnati and Xavier are in the books.
And this coming Friday night it'll be you See and
Xavier in the Skyline Chile Crosstown Shootout. We will continue
covering that for you coming up this week Monday Night Football.
Last night it was the New England Patriots over the

(04:02):
New York Giants thirty three to fifteen. The Patriots have
won ten straight. They are now eleven and two. They
have a bye week coming up, and as they enter it,
are the number one seed in the AFC and Drake
May right there with Matthew Stafford as the odds on
favorites to win the NFL MVP Award. It is unfathomable

(04:25):
that the Patriots go from Belichick and Brady to a
couple of lean years to Vrabel and May, and they
seem to be in a very good position moving forward.
They hit on their draft picks, they hit on their
free agents. They still have plenty of money. They've got
a rookie quarterback on a rookie contract. The Patriots, I
think have some staying power. They're not a perfect team

(04:47):
by any stretch of the imagination, but they have some
staying power in the AFC. That was a fun game
to watch last night, not necessarily because of the score,
but because it felt like an old time football game,
like there was some real hitting going on in that game.
There was a returner for the Giants that was hit
so hard the paint came off his helmet. It was ridiculous.

(05:09):
Baseball news the New York Mets and closer Devin Williams
remember him, former Milwaukee brewer, former New York Yankee. They've
agreed to a three year, fifty one million dollar contract.
If you remember, at GM meetings a week or two ago,
a couple of weeks ago, the Reds were one of
the teams that were in on Devin Williams. Well, he

(05:30):
gets three years fifty one million from the Mets. And
so the guy that the Yankees changed their facial hair
policy for, Devin Williams is gone a year later and
joining the New York Mets. By the way, speaking of
the Reds, no reds Caravan this year. That was announced
yesterday that due to the timing of Reds Fest, which

(05:51):
was moved back into January to coincide with the new
opening or the reopening of the Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati,
there will be no Red's Caravan this year, So Reds
Fest still scheduled for January. Some college football news, by you,
head coach Kilani Sataki is the top candidate for the

(06:13):
Penn State head coaching job, and apparently there is a
big back and forth going on right now between Penn
State and BYU for the services of one Kilani Sataki.
And oh, by the way, BYU getting set for Texas
Tech in the Big twelve championship game coming up this weekend.
Speaking of Texas Tech, you're gonna hear later on from

(06:34):
their head coach Joey McGuire. I'm gonna get into this
topic here in just a moment, but with the whole
Lane Kiffen nonsense and the college football calendar and where
we're really at, Joey McGuire, the head coach at Texas
gave a reasonable take about a sensible solution to the
college football calendar. I want you to hear that you'll
hear that coming up in just a little bit. By

(06:55):
the way, overnight as well, Kentucky found their head football
coach that didn't last long. They are hiring Oregon offensive
coordinator will Stein. Will Stein will be the new head
coach of Kentucky. You may have heard there were reports
that Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline was going to
interview for that job. Today. Well looks like he's not
even going to get a chance to interview, as they've

(07:17):
settled on will Stein. By the way, Mohler quarterback Ohio
mister football Matt Ponatowski, who's committed to Kentucky, he seems
to be all systems go with will Stein posted a
picture with Stein when he was at a visit at
Oregon and said, yeah, I can rock with this. So
it seems like Matt Ponatowski, who I believe is playing

(07:37):
football and baseball at the University of Kentucky, is going
to stay put at UK. He does plan to sign,
I believe in January, because a lot of people are
wondering are you gonna sign? Are you going to sign?
Because tomorrow is the early National signing Day, which is
kind of hard to believe college football playoff rankings coming

(07:59):
up tonight the latest as we head into conference championship weekend,
and that's kind of what I want to start the
show with a topic about about college football. And I'm
going to open the phone lines at five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. They'll be open all day if you want
to be a part of the show. But just over
the last week or two, or really the last couple

(08:21):
of weeks, I've just kind of been following the Lane
Kiffen thing from the sidelines. I've not been diving too
deep into it. I've not been focusing, you know, on
every little thing that's happened. But over the course of
the last week in this thing finally coming uh to
an end with Lane Kiffin going to LSU and leaving

(08:42):
Ole Miss and the details coming out and reading the
articles and all this other stuff. I've always said that
eventually college football will get to the NFL model, which
means they'll be a commissioner, there'll be a conference, they'll
have playoffs on each side of the conferences, and it
will look basically like the NFL and be a minor

(09:04):
league for the NFL. And my opinion on that has
kind of changed over the last couple of years because
there is no one who can really take control of
college football. All of college football is a power struggle,
and to an extent, all of college athletics are a

(09:25):
power struggle. But college football specifically is its own beast,
and it feels like an untamable beast. It feels like
there's no possible way for there to be a governing
body that actually can control TV networks, head coaches, conference commissioners.

(09:48):
None of it seems viable to me. There is nothing,
almost nothing about college football that makes sense in my mind.
I don't like the rule book. I don't like the calendar.
I don't like the timing of the portal. I don't
like the way coaches moves. I don't like scheduling. I
don't like conference realignment. Like to me, it is this

(10:09):
absolute chaotic mess that I don't see any solutions too,
and yet it is as popular as it's ever been.
Ratings are through the roof. We always joke about how
it just means more to the Southeastern Conference down in
the SEC. Well, that's true. That is their life. They

(10:31):
live and die by college football in the South. I
can speak from experience being an Ohio State fan that
I know people who live and die by Ohio State football.
It means everything to them. There is this level of
pride and this die hard feeling about certain schools and

(10:54):
certain college football conferences that you just don't quite get
in the NFL. There are rabid fan bases in the NFL,
for sure, but there is not that almost maniacal fan
base or part of the country when it comes to
NFL football. And you know, the league in and of

(11:16):
itself and the commissioner and the parameters and the way
that it's been built. It is a very buttoned up,
structured league that has set rules. And I think the
biggest issue in the National Football League right now is
I think two things. Number One, I think they're trying
too hard to be an international sport. I don't think
that's necessary. And number two, officiating is a complete mess.

(11:39):
And I think Roger Goodell views officiating as more of
a pr problem more than a competition and a football problem.
But that's another topic for another day. Those are the
two biggest issues with the NFL right now. Other than
that the way it's run, the rules, the owners, all
of it. For the most part, makes a lot of sense.
You got to vote on rule changes to get certain

(12:01):
stuff approved. Stuff gets denied. There's calendars, there's tampering, there's
you know, discipline that happens. There's somebody that is governing
the league. You don't have that in college football. Nobody
does it. The only time we hear about the NCAA
is when they are investigating someone and maybe they'll take
away some wins, or they'll take away some scholarships or

(12:23):
something like that. They don't really do anything. There is
a major issue with the structure of college football. And
while I don't look at the Lane Kiffin situation and
view Lane Kiffen as a victim, I do understand and
acknowledge that he is in a way a victim of

(12:44):
the calendar itself because there's no rules against LSU for
pursuing him as hard as they are, and there's really
no rules for jumping and leaving your job no matter what.
And because of this long drawn out playoff, and because
of different schedules and different TV partners in different months

(13:05):
of the year that certain teams play this and it's
just a complete chaotic mess and there's nothing to really
go by. But I think that's what people love about
college football. I think that's what the TV networks love
about college football. If the product is what it is,

(13:29):
which I don't think it's a better product from a
football standpoint than the NFL, but it is a good product.
It is an entertaining product. It is filled with drama
at seemingly every turn for a good chunk of the country,
not all of it, but for a good chunk of
the country. And it is filled with this drama and

(13:52):
these coaching decisions and these firings and tracking planes and
snapchat accounts and burner accounts and all these different things
that you're going through as a fan of a college
football program. Is the chaos, not what fans like. Is
the TV partner that is in bed with college football

(14:14):
really thinking, ah, we got to change this calendar, or
are they thinking, man, Lane Kiffin. That's great for our numbers,
that's gonna be great for the college football playoff, that's
gonna be great for our television deal. That's gonna be
great for our social media. That's gonna be great for
our advertisers. It means more money. So because of that,

(14:36):
when there's really nobody who's in charge other than quite frankly,
the TV networks themselves, they pay the bills, they kind
of get to decide what happens in each conference. And
because you've got these egotistical, power hungry conference commissioners and
the Big Ten and the SEC and across the country,
no one's willing to relent. No one's going to give

(14:59):
up power. No one's going to look out for other conferences.
They're only going to look out for themselves. And so
this repeated behavior over and over and over again over
the last several years, as college football has continued to
explode nationally, has only led to that growth. And for

(15:21):
a long time, the product with the NFL was if
it's if it's not broke, don't fix it. And that's
kind of where the NFL is at right now, which
I think is kind of the issue with going to international.
But for the last twenty years, really since the last
thirty years, it's been sensational the growth of the NFL,

(15:42):
the popularity of the NFL, the explosion of the NFL,
and it's across TVs and social media and everywhere imaginable.
In the United States, college football is experiencing that same growth,
but they're doing it in an entirely different, unstructured, maniacal, chaotic,
messy way. So if you're them, if you're the people

(16:06):
that are benefiting from this, if you're the TV networks,
if you're the conferences, why would you change what you're doing?
And by conferences, I really mean the biggest conferences, the
Big Ten and the SEC. Why would you change what
you're doing? Why would you want there to be a
change to the calendar? Because the SEC doesn't care about

(16:27):
a level playing field, the Big Ten doesn't care about
a level playing field. The unfortunate reality is people like
UC fans and schools like Big twelve schools and ACC schools,
they're the ones who get caught in the crossfire here
and don't benefit because all the rules are basically centered
around what those two conferences do. And I see that

(16:52):
as unhealthy for college football. But if everybody's getting paid,
and if everybody's getting their money college colleges, players, coaches, everybody,
is anything actually going to change? And if your popularity
and your growth has been exponentially expanded based upon this chaotic,

(17:17):
messy mess that we're all in with no governing body
and people only looking out for themselves, is there ever
actually going to be changed because it's not about student athletes.
It's never been about student athletes. Don't let anyone tell
you that lie. It's about dollars and cents. It makes
no sense for a student athlete to go on the

(17:40):
current college football schedule. The transfer portal makes no sense,
The early signing days make no sense. Coaches leaving without
any sort of discipline or ramifications makes no sense. None
of that is good for the actual football. None of
that is good for the actual game. But it's good

(18:01):
for the clicks, and it's good for the advertising dollars,
and it's good for the eyeballs, and it's good for
the conversations and the discourse. And it just makes me wonder,
is that potential, like NFL model that has been floated
out for the last five or six years, is the
direction that college football is going. Is that actually possible?

(18:23):
Is that actually going to happen? I can't see a
world that it does. There's too much ego and too
much money. And while the Lane Kiffen thing is the
greatest example of the dysfunction within college football, I think
it's also the greatest example as to why people can't
get enough of it. Especially in the South, they sink

(18:47):
their teeth into this everywhere you look. The absurdity of
Lane Kiffin, whether it's Nick saban and Kirk kerb Street
carrying his water and oh, by the way, the fact
that that's even a headline goes into my point that
this is all this big connected mess that saban In,
herb Street and Kiffen all have the same agent. That

(19:10):
means they're all connected in some way, shape or form,
and they're connected by the television network in which those
games are broadcasted on the mess the chaos of college football.
Is it ever actually going to change? And do we
want it to? Do we accept it for what it is,

(19:33):
this broken, messed up, illogical, chaotic sport that just provides
headline after headline after headline and you know, ah, it's
just college football. Or do we care about the people
that are involved in it, the game itself actually being

(19:53):
played on the field, the developmental aspect for it going
to the pros? Or do we just care about the
entertainment value and all the drama that comes with it.
I think there are people that would be legitimately split
on that. I don't know the answer, but it really,

(20:14):
really seems like to me that nothing's going to change
because of the people that are in charge really have
nothing to do with academics or football anymore. So that's
my rant about college football again. You'll hear from Texas
Tech head coach Joey Maguire later his thoughts on how
you could actually fix it if there were people to
actually fix it. Phone lines open five, one, three, seven, four, nine,

(20:38):
fifteen thirty will also talk some Bengals, what Zach Taylor
had to say about Trey Hendrickson, t Higgins, Joe Burrow,
and Moore Got football in the Natty? Coming up next?
This is Tony Pike's since he three p sixty on
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Hey Alexa, Who's gonna win it?

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Football in the Natty?

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Brought to you by Postman Law on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Welcome back in ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore. This
is football in the Natty. Not a lot of football
happening at pay Court Stadium yesterday, just a typical light
walk through on a Monday to get everybody back in
the building following a Thursday game. The Bengals are gonna
try to nip that trend in the bud, which is

(21:26):
they're not very good after many buys. You might remember
earlier this year they lost following the mini bye. On
that Thursday game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they lost to
the New York Jets, so hoping to end that trend.
On Sunday, there were a couple of injury updates from

(21:47):
head coach Zach Taylor. I'm gonna play some clips from
Zach for you in just a little bit, but the
most notable Trey Hendrickson still doubtful. T Higgins, he was
in uniform for walkthrough, but he's in concussion protocol and
as is TOAJ Brooks. Meanwhile, for the Buffalo Bills, they
just played last week without their all pro left tackle

(22:09):
Dion Dawkins. He also remains in concussion protocol. Linebacker Terrell Bernard,
right tackle Spencer Brown, and wide receiver Joshua Palmer, alongside
tight end Dalton Kincaid are quote all improving end quote.
According to Bill's head coach Sean McDermott said, we'll see
where it leads this week. Joey Bosa aggravated his hamstring

(22:32):
in Pittsburgh quote. We'll see where that goes. So not
a lot being said from either head coach Zach Taylor
or Sean McDermott when it comes to the injury report
for those two teams. I'm gonna play in the next

(22:52):
segment the first thirty seconds of Zach Taylor's press conference
from yesterday when he was being asked to about Trey
Hendrickson and the Trey Hendrickson situation to me is very,
very weird and there's got to be something that we
don't know about Trey. You know what, Let's actually let's

(23:14):
play it now. I am fascinated by this exchange between
the reporters and Zach Taylor. Again. This is the first
thirty eight seconds of Zach Taylor talking with the media
yesterday at pay Course Stadium.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
He's great, He's still in protocol, so him and Tage
we'll keep working through that probably in the week, so
we'll see.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Where it is up Trey in the next This week
is backful? This week?

Speaker 6 (23:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (23:42):
Is this?

Speaker 3 (23:43):
I think this will be a Tree's fourth game? Is
there any consideration to put them a high arch?

Speaker 4 (23:47):
Now?

Speaker 3 (23:47):
We'll just keep taking a week tweek.

Speaker 8 (23:50):
He's still doing all the normal meetings and behind the scenes.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
That mostly rehabs.

Speaker 7 (23:55):
So with the trainers, you just by getting them back
at all of this season.

Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, we'll just keep taking a week tweek.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
So there's a pause there at the end, and this
is where everybody is typing out and tweeting and posting
that Zach says Trey is doubtful. You go back to
that first question. He cut the guy off before he
could even finish asking the question. He's doubtful. Cut him
off to the point where I think it was Kelsey
had to follow up and said, you said doubtful, right, Yes,

(24:29):
is he going through all the typical stuff, mostly behind
the scenes stuff with trainers. Huh? And then Zach has
this look on his face while he waits for everybody
to send their post, basically of this smirk of like,
here we go, yeah, tired of this? Isn't this weird?

(24:54):
Am I crazy for thinking this is weird? Thirty seven
days now, I think since the Jets game, he hasn't played.
He has been ruled out almost immediately at the beginning
of every week. He has not spoken to the media
since the trade deadline. He has not traveled with the

(25:14):
team anywhere he apparently, according to Zach here is not
involved in team meetings or practices in any way, shape
or form and is just doing mostly rehab stuff with
the trainers. What are we missing about Trey Henderson? And oh,
by the way, in his absence over the last three games,

(25:36):
Miles Murphy and Joseph Osai have flourished. Could those two
things be related? Could those two things be connected? I
don't know, but you have a guy that you fought
with all off season and a guy who led the
National Football League in sacks last year, and a dude

(25:59):
who pounded the table to come back to Cincinnati and
made a big circus and show out of himself during
OTAs and tried to air out Zach Taylor and talked
about how much he loves Cincinna, threw a fit and
put his little stuff on Instagram. All this nonsense that
has been nothing but our sports talk during the offseason
following Trey Hendrickson, and now all of a sudden, Mum's

(26:22):
the word. Nobody says anything. If the Bengals thought that
Trey Hendrickson was going to be out for five or
six games, you know what they would have done. They
would have put him on injured reserve. That's the move.
They did that with Shamar Stewart, they did that with

(26:44):
Joe Burrow. That's what NFL teams do to open up
a roster spot. When a player is down for sure,
four to five, six games, whatever it might be, you
designate him to return. The Bengals have none. That isn't
that weird to you? For an injury that has had

(27:05):
like three or four different names. There's been a hip,
there's been a pelvis, there's been a core injury. There's
been a sports hernia. Number one, which is it? There's
no clarification on that. Number two. Why isn't the guy
on IR if he's this unhealthy, and if this is
a team captain and a guy who has pounded the
table for wanting to be a team captain, why on

(27:27):
God's green earth is he not in the meeting? Why
is he not doing all the stuff he would normally do,
especially if he was even remotely close to being able
to play a game. The question I'm asking is what
are we missing here? I think there's a couple of options.
Number One, I think Trey Henderson could quit on the team,

(27:49):
which is basically I got my money I need to
heal up. I turned thirty one. I think he turns
thirty one Friday, by the way, Happy birthday, Trey. I'm
gonna heal up and get ready for next season now.
I don't want to be franchised tack here again. So
if I don't play, they'll let me go. Okay, that's possible.
Just kind of pack it up. Season's over. In his mind,
I'm done. Other option is he's legitimately hurt to the

(28:13):
point that he can't walk. We know that's not true.
He was walking around the sidelines last weekend and his
pain just won't go away, and it's a difficult injury
that is, you know, really difficult to come back from. Well,
if that was the case, wouldn't they have put him
on IR like they did with Shamar Stewart, like they
did with Joe Burrow, like they've done with others. Or

(28:35):
the other option here is the Bengals gave Trey the
same treatment that they gave Logan Wilson and the other veterans,
which is, you're done. We got to figure out what
we have in Miles. We got to figure out at
the time what we have in Shamar. We got to
figure out if we want to reinvest in Joseph Osai,

(28:56):
you don't want to play, We're not gonna play you.
See you later. You've been nothing but a pain in
the ass over the last twelve months, so you know what,
it's no big deal. See you later now. I would
hope that's not the case, right, Like, surely a player
of his talent has not just given up, And surely

(29:18):
the Bengals have not looked around and acted the way
they've acted, and with the playoff path still there, just
wash their hands of Trey. Those two things can't possibly
be true, right, That would be foolish for both him
and for them. But again, it feels like we're struggling
to find the middle ground here. Those two things can't

(29:43):
possibly be true, But there really isn't any other indication
as to what could be going on, And so most
people around the team feel like they've seen the last
of Trey Hendrickson. Bengals fans feel like they've seen the
last of Trey in a Bengals uniform. And I don't

(30:07):
know if this is Trey's way of, you know, winning
the stare down with ownership, winning the stair down with
the front office, finally getting his win. I don't know.
I guess that's possible. But for a team that has
stood behind Joe Burrow and talk so much about how

(30:30):
much they like Joe and how the energy changes when
Joe is around, and how much they needed him back
and how much they miss him and how much they
love him, and how much it means to them that
Joe has come back and worked his butt off to
try to find his way back on the field. You
ever hear teammates talk about Trey Hendrickson. You ever hear

(30:52):
Joseph Osaya say, damn man, we gotta have Trey back.
Hope he's feeling better. Do you ever hear Miles Murphy
say that? Does that come out of the mouth to
Jerry Montgomery? As Al Golden said that at any point?
Zach Taylor said barely anything. I'm just curious. This doesn't

(31:15):
seem to feel like there's that same energy around Trey
Hendrickson as there are for other great players. I just
find that interesting, and there's clearly something we don't know.
Maybe I'm over complicating things, but this just doesn't feel right.
And I don't know where we go from here or

(31:37):
what this looks like. But it's a shame that this
is a conversation that has to be had in the
middle of whether you believe it to be legitimate or not.
It is a playoff race, and what do we have
more Trey hendrickson Drama, Whoaho Your phone Calls? Next ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thirty, You've been listening to football in on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Your front row
seat to the fiercest debates in sports. Mo Egger Today
at three pm on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Fris the Bengals.

Speaker 9 (32:22):
Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Kenny.

Speaker 10 (32:29):
Sent to pick now kirk Resa penetrating into the paint.

Speaker 11 (32:32):
How are you tug?

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Tob By Baba Della del Friesa turning the corner, recognized
two came out to him, throwing it up for the
life of Bottle Miller, for the Big Time Slam baseline.

Speaker 12 (32:42):
He races it across the time line inside the three
point Archie Spenzanies as the ball taken away, tried to
sport a double shots block.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Blah blah blah, what a defensive play ran.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Down the shooter had knocked that off the backboard.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Meanwhile, three on the way on the right side. No good,
those kind of play, So that mere PanAm dismayed.

Speaker 13 (33:01):
There was a breakaway layup he could have very easily conceded,
but he chased it down and just punched it off
the glass.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
How about some Uc and Xavier for our wind Schuler's
Call of the Night Dan Horde, uh on the call there,
and of course Joe and Byron as well for Xavier
and that Call to Night brought to you by Win Shulers.
Fantastic cheese spreads. Elevate your taste game. Maybe get some

(33:29):
wind shoulders if you're gathering to watch the Crossdown shootout
coming up on Friday. More on that later on in
the show. But now let's get to your phone calls.
Five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen point thirty is
the phone number. We start in Mount Healthy and uh,
well no we don't. Johnny just hung up. Let's go
to Darryl in Batavia. What's up?

Speaker 12 (33:51):
Darryl? All right, I'm not satdye. How's it going?

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Not too bad? What's on your mind?

Speaker 12 (33:57):
It's the whole and it's not even just Trail.

Speaker 14 (34:00):
All the players that are under contract and say well,
I need more money or I'm not playing and.

Speaker 10 (34:04):
Calls and all the drama.

Speaker 14 (34:06):
These guys are very well paid for what they do,
whether they're you know, the best or the medal of
the lane. If you're under contract, go play the game,
make your money that way, what calls in drama.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
And you do your job.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, I agree with you, I think, especially like once
we get into the season, I really don't want that
cropping up now to well, you should always be negotiating
for for a fair deal and what's do.

Speaker 14 (34:32):
It behind the scenes, don't go so I don't make
it public.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, And that's what I'm saying. Like for Trey, since
he got that deal, he really hasn't said much. And
that's the thing about right now, nobody's saying anything, which
is what makes it weird from what we're used to.

Speaker 14 (34:47):
But how much how much has he actually played and
done well this year?

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Right?

Speaker 3 (34:51):
Very little? But do we know that that's contract related?
I don't know. That's what I'm saying, Like we don't
seem to know anything.

Speaker 14 (34:58):
But but that's not I mean, he could have played
on the same contract and had another record setting season.
You know, do you remember the movie the remake of
mister deeds.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
No, but go ahead, I'm.

Speaker 14 (35:12):
Saying with the quarterback saying, well, I thought if I
played well, i'd renegotiate my contract.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
Okay, And he's like, well, what happens?

Speaker 12 (35:19):
You played bad?

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Are you going to.

Speaker 14 (35:20):
Renegotiate and let us pay you less?

Speaker 4 (35:22):
He's like, no, I'm not right.

Speaker 7 (35:24):
It's just go do your job and earn your money
that way.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Well, so that's exactly what happened. He went and got
he did his job, he got a raise, and now
he's performing poorly. Thank you Darryl for the phone call.
And he's not performing at all, and he's gotten hurt.
And it's been a tough situation for Trey. But all
I'm saying is like, clearly something's not adding up, and
I don't quite understand it because it's different from what
we're used to. Let's go to Florence. Let's talk to Mark.

(35:49):
What's up?

Speaker 12 (35:49):
Mark?

Speaker 15 (35:51):
Hey, how're you going? Some of the callers alluded to
this yesterday, but I think I'm looking at the d
unless my eyes aligned to me. When they included Kenley
Jackson into the rotation, and you know, Shamar Stewart got
hurt and Cam Taylor Brick got hurt. You know, them

(36:14):
two moves look like addition by subtraction, and they could
let the two ends play on every down instead of
rotating them in and out. I think that has a
lot to do with the defense improving. And you know,
they they're not completely stopping the run, but they look
like it's slowing it down. Teams are not running on

(36:35):
them like they were prior to them elevating with Kenley
Jackson and letting him get into the rotation and are
you seeing the same thing.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah, I think that's a I think that's a good
point mark because you know, overall they've tackled a lot better.
Is that directly because of those guys? I don't know,
But I mean I know the way that Jalen Davis
played against Baltimore, it was like, why hasn't he gotten
a chance all year? He's been stored on the practice squad.
But yeah, I think the more that that those guys

(37:04):
get reps, the better that they're going to perform. We
saw this happen with Osai last year. It wasn't until
the end of the year where he really kicked it
into gear. Now Murphy is playing really well. I think
consistent reps has voted well for both levels, really all
three levels of that defense. When you think to DJ
Turner to the linebackers performing better and those edge rushers.

Speaker 15 (37:26):
Yeah yeah, And as far as the offense goes, you know,
now that Burrow's back, I mean that that pretty much
saves Zack Taylor's job if the season plays out on
a positive note, because you know, when he's out there,
you know, all Zach has to do his call plays.

(37:47):
You don't have to do a lot of coaching because
Burrow can he can do what he can do, you know,
on offense. But I still have a problem in the
red zone. They they've always struggled the red zone, and
I think it's because they don't use the tight end up.
So I hope somewhere down the line he figures that
out to use the tight end to stop going empty backfield, because.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
I the field is.

Speaker 15 (38:13):
Condensed when you get down there. I just think I
like that play action corner of the end zone of
no offense like we saw in the first game of
the season. You know, I think we ought to see
that again. So I'll get off and listen to the show.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, Mark, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate it. Yeah,
I mean, go back to last year, if my memory
serves correct, the Bengals were a top five offense in
the NFL in red zone percentage, So I know that
they've historically been really good inside the red zone. They

(38:49):
were top ten and twenty twenty three, they were top
five and twenty twenty four, so they've they've been good
in the red zone. They clearly were not good in
the red zone against Baltimore, and I'm hoping that's just
Oh by the way, twenty twenty two, they were number
seven in red zone offense. So they've historically been really
good inside the red zone offensively. But I was confused
a little bit by some of the play calling. Didn't

(39:10):
love some of the play calling inside the red zone.
They I just think run game has to be more
effective and short yardage down there. And also if you
get down there and you spread them out, you have
the weapons, you have Chase, you have Higgins, you have
those tight ends, you're gonna get a mismatch somewhere. So

(39:31):
I don't really have a lot of beef with the
way that they've performed in the red zone. Obviously, they
didn't play well against Baltimore. That to me was more
of an outlier than anything else. Let's go to Boston.
Talk to John. What's up John?

Speaker 16 (39:43):
Hey, Audie, how you doing this afternoon?

Speaker 3 (39:44):
I'm good man. What's on your mind?

Speaker 16 (39:47):
Always doing a great job, especially when you're hosting along
for three hours. Never easy at all.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
Great job, my friend.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Thank you?

Speaker 4 (39:53):
Yeah you.

Speaker 16 (39:54):
First of all, you talk about lack of leadership with
Trey Hendrickson, I mean not attending meetings, constantly complaining. And
then he turned around and see the quarterback has his
toe operated on Friday and his back at the meetings
on Monday, planning next week's same plan. He's on the
sideline and all. He couldn't travel for the first few
games because they woudn't allow him to fly, but he
was all in to be part of the team, and
that's what true leadership is. So I think he can

(40:16):
see the difference there. If we touched on it yesterday,
how the defense has been better without Shamar Stewart and
to some degree with Trey Hendrickson. The last three games
that Shamar Stewart played in, the Bengals gave up thirty
one to Pittsburgh, thirty nine to the Jets and forty
seven to the Bears t one hundred and seventeen points
as a thirty nine point average. In the three ensuing

(40:37):
games without him, they gave up twenty to the Steelers,
nineteen to the Patriots, and fourteen to the Ravens. That's
fifty three points. That's seventeen point seven points per game.
So I reached out a couple of friends of mine
who are coaches at high school college level, and sometimes
they're the best people to talk to because they really
get inside what's going on on the field. And their
feeling has been that they now got more reps for

(40:59):
Osa and Murphy, but also the fact that they believe
Golden has kind of simplified the defense. And they both
told me that Cincinnati Bengals have a lot of really
good athletes up there. Let's them just go play. Let's
not make it too complicated. And you see the difference
in especially Golden maybe dialing up some pressures. It's worked
a lot better. And maybe these two young guys just

(41:20):
need to get reps and more reps.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, I think it could be that simple. I think
obviously the growing pains and the patients that we had
to go through to get to this point are could
be what ended up keeping them out of the playoffs.
But I do think also situationally, Golden has done a
good job of kind of forcing the offense's hand. If
they're going to line up in a shotgun and you're
going to crowd the line of scrimmage, you're going to

(41:43):
kind of force them to set their protection, maybe take
a guy out of the route, maybe dial up a
hot especially on a third and long, and then you've
got to be able to rally and tackle. So I
think situationally, al Golden has improved a little bit and
been a little bit more fearless with those different looks
at the line of scrimmage. And I think the confusion
of the offense has been a has benefited the defense

(42:06):
and those guys' ability to kind of to tackle a
little bit better and to know what's coming. So overall,
I think it's it's been better for the play caller
and for the players themselves, and reps have a big
part to do with that, and maybe knowing what the
offense is going to do as a part of that
as well.

Speaker 16 (42:22):
Yeah, without question, and then you also look at the
fact that this is going to be a tough challenge
this week against Buffalo.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
I mean, the Bills ran the ball like.

Speaker 16 (42:29):
The Nebraska Cornhuskers Circle nineteen ninety four last Sunday against
the Pittsburgh Feelers. And he's got Josh Allen. But now
you look at Osai and some other guys up front,
especially Miles Murphy. These are athletes that are as big
as Josh Allen and as mobile as Josh Allen. Those
are good guys to combat him and try to contain him.

(42:50):
If they can contain that running game, I think they
can certainly win in Buffalo because we know that Burrow
is owned Josh Allen at the head, so why not
continue that narrative going forward. So I'm optimistic about all
of this, and I think the defense being turned around
is just by making it simpler and getting those young
guys sure reps. It's like anything else. I mean, if

(43:10):
they only play three plays and then sit out for
a half hours then have to come back in, they
can't get into a rhythm.

Speaker 12 (43:15):
And that's any sport you play, it's all about being
in rhythms.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yeah, John, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate it,
and yeah, you're one hundred percent correct. And you know
it's going to be a challenge, and I think to
March's point, McKinley Jackson is going to be tested, you know, TJ.
Slayton is going to be tested in the interior of
that run game. Chris Jenkins is going to have to
be a part of that. And then those two guys
outside set in the edge. They did a great job

(43:39):
against Baltimore. They've done and had some flash moments in
the past. Can they be that consistent? Moving forward? Another
short break, we'll be back. This is Tony Pike since
he three to sixty on ESPN fifteen to thirty from
the Any Weather Heating and Darokom. Back Tony Pike since
he three sixty. Just a couple of minutes here before
we get to Joe Daniman from Fox nineteen. So we've

(44:01):
got time for Charles calling from Minneapolis. Charles, you're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. What's on your mind?

Speaker 4 (44:08):
Hey? Own you.

Speaker 13 (44:09):
I wanted to appreciate real quickly that information you gave
a sort of assessments, you know, state of the college
football address you gave if you will, very interesting, Kay,
haven't really thought of it that way, but actually I agree.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
With you, but haven't thought of that way.

Speaker 13 (44:24):
Here's what I call about is what I call about.

Speaker 15 (44:27):
I am done.

Speaker 13 (44:29):
I love everything about the Bengals. Always been a Bengals
fan my entire life. My first game was Bingles against
the Browns, and I took the Bengals and never left
him as a ten year old guy. Very okay, Trey
Henderson done, Henderson Steven done, completely done. I think what
you said the extremes are probable. Actually, I think they're

(44:51):
more probable than what you are even suggested. I do
think that they one or both have decided. This is
where we all were done.

Speaker 12 (45:00):
Move on. Every other team.

Speaker 13 (45:02):
Everybody laughed at you know, Jerry Jones on the big
swing with the Michael Parsons. Are they still laughing now
that team is turning around. We need to take big swings.
Be done with Drey Hendrickson at the end of the year.
However we do that tag. I don't know about all
that stuff. I'm not well versed on that. Be done, Trey,

(45:24):
get rid of him, be done, get big swing. Secondly,
and very briefly, the offense is what it is. Zach Taylor.
I've always said since the beginning of Joe Burrow Zach
Taylor wanted to be the big guy at an offensive
groog and he kind of rolle his.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
Thing that way.

Speaker 13 (45:38):
What I think we should do look at our draft completely,
and everybody knows how we draft Malachi Starts, who was
available at the time we took Shamar Stewart was not drafted.
He is now leading the rookies and the interceptions at tackles,
performing very well. Now I will say he's playing alongside

(45:59):
of the number one safety in the NFL, but at
the same time that brings more traffic to him. We
need to just draft better, period. Yeah, thank you very
much for your time. I always love the shows.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
Charles, Thank you so much for the phone call. I
appreciate it and appreciate the kind words. And yeah, I
think there's a lot of people that feel that way
done when it comes to Trey Hendrickson. And if this
team ever wants to get back to where they want
to go, drafting better is a prerequisite, no doubt about it.
Good take from Charles, good call, good first hour, good
guest coming up next, It's Joe Daniman. This is ESPN

(46:33):
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
This is Tony Pike, Sincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in part by Cimcy Shirts Cincy Shirts All Sincy
all Day. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Yes, indeed it is Hi, Hello and welcome in our
number two of Tony Pikes Sincy three to sixty. No
tone today, the big Fella on the Big One later
this evening six to nine. I'm in for Lance McAllister,
So it's just you and me until three. Will turn
it over to Mo then. But right now, our typical
Tuesday guest, our guy Joe Daniman, joins me to talk

(47:11):
a little bit of everything, because there's a lot to
talk about. First, Joe, how was your Thanksgiving? Did you
go on the run in the morning? Did you get
all the you know, the calories burnt?

Speaker 7 (47:21):
So?

Speaker 3 (47:21):
How did it go?

Speaker 7 (47:24):
It went great, Austin, and I have to thank you
for the inspiration to go through with it, because I
trained for several months for the ten k Thanksgiving Day
ten k right there at Tqlcadium, running through downtown. And
then I saw the forecasts a week of and I
saw temperatures in the twenty gusty wind, and I said,

(47:45):
is it worth it? Is it really worth it. I
can run a ten d by myself and do my
own time trot. But I said, you know what, Austin
challenged me. He said, you can't go through life scared. Yeah,
it's like Joe Burrow said, and I went not. And
quite honestly, the weather was fine. It was cold, but
you know, when you're on you wore them up pretty quickly.

(48:05):
The win wasn't a problem and I met my goal,
so I was really excited. Yeah, it was a great thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Well, congratulations to you for that. Most Bengals fans would
say it was a great thanksgiving for the way that
Joe Burrow performed and getting a win in Baltimore. When
you think of that game, what stood out to you
the most? Because I know you weren't obviously in Baltimore,
a little bit of a different view for you. What
stood out about that game in Baltimore?

Speaker 7 (48:31):
What stood out to me is twofold. First being that
Zach Taylor had no problem letting Joe Burrow be himself,
and that's throwing thirty two passes in the first half.
That's letting him quarterback sneak. And I talked to Zach
about this yesterday. I said, did you have any apprehension
at all of Joe doing something like that of pushing

(48:54):
off on the tow when there's a quarterback sneak And
he shook his head and said, no. We knew he
was ready and Joe was his normal self. So there
were no training wheels right at the start. In fact,
Zach said they wanted to get him on the move early,
to get him back in the field of playing like
himself and being comfortable running outside of the pocket and

(49:15):
throwing on the move. So that was one. The second
was it felt like it elevated the entire team. And
I think if you look back at the end of
the season of what's going to be one of the
great moments of the Bengals season and if this team
does go on a run and does something special here
in the month of December, what you saw around the
NBC Thanksgiving table after the game what.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Was really cool.

Speaker 7 (49:41):
You don't see that often in the NFL. If you
watch a lot of NBA, it's a new thing. When
one player is being interviewed, the entire team will get
around him. Oklahoma City made it really popular when they
went on the run to win the NBA Championship.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Last year.

Speaker 7 (49:55):
But to see what felt like twenty or thirty different
players around that table enjoying themselves, having fun, feeling empowered
and elevated by their quarterback, that to me was the
image of what Joe Burrow is, what he brings. Because
when we all had this debate should Joe Burrow come

(50:15):
back and what feels like a lost season, a team
that has eight losses and it's not even December, why
risk it? Why come back so quickly? It felt like
from the outside, well, you just saw what it does
for a team. Yeah, he doesn't play defense, but he
weaponizes confidence, and he elevates teams and he empowers teammates,

(50:37):
and it just felt like we all saw that. The
way it played out in the game and the way
it played out in the post game with a team
rallying around their quarterback, I thought it was a really
cool moment and what I think might be the image
of the season for the Bengals at the end of
the year.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
And I think too, you saw while he's standing there
talking to Melissa Stark. You saw it in the post
game video of Zach Taylor giving him a game ball,
You saw it in the press conference. There was a
motion from Joe Burrow, which we don't always see that,
and I think that maybe speaks to the volume of
that moment, not just for the team, but for him

(51:11):
personally as well.

Speaker 7 (51:13):
Yeah, and I talked to DJ Turner about that yesterday.
I said, did you guys realize that Joe was kind
of pouring his heart out where you guys are grabbing
turkey legs and talking about crabs? And they said, yeah,
we got it, And that was cool for Joe. But
what DJ said to me is when a guy worked
as hard as Joe did, when a guy put in

(51:34):
as much work as Joe did, and when he has
the status of what Joe had, he says, how can
you not give your all for a teammate like that?
And again that goes back to my original point of
what Joe and his presence does, And I think that's
the word is Burrough's presence is such a difference maker

(51:54):
for this organization on so many different levels, but especially
on the micro level of where it is inside that
locker room and what it does for the team. For
DJ to say, how could you not give your all
for a teammate like that? I think speaks to the
power of what Joe did. I thought it was cool

(52:14):
that Joe was willing to share how emotional it was
for him, and I thought it was really neat too,
to see all the players kind of acknowledge that, even
though they were too busy being turkeys around the turkey.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Trey Hendrickson once
again pretty quickly ruled out by Zach Taylor yesterday. Is
there any information about you know what this is? And
am I crazy for feeling like we're missing something here?

Speaker 7 (52:44):
No, that's that's the problem that we're all having with
what's going on with Trey Hendrickson, and there's just not
a lot of information, almost to the point where do
we even know exactly what the injury is right because
we've heard it be multiple things, and we don't see
Trey much inside Bengals open locker room. And I think

(53:05):
yesterday what you saw from Zach Taylor was the body
language speaking for him and understanding that there's a lot
more going onto this than he's going to let on it,
and that's that's his prerogative. I just feel like it
feels vindictive from the outside that that someone is playing

(53:26):
a game here, whether it's Trey Henderson trying to angle
himself out of favor in the organization so he doesn't
get tagged or he is injured, and the Bengals just
for some reason are not putting him on IR, which
is confusing in itself. It's just it's a bad look
for everybody. And the problem is without a lot of information,

(53:48):
all we can do is guess and speculate, and that
that's not good for the team, that that's not good
for Trey, and it just kind of feels right now
it's vindictive, and I don't know which side is being
vindictive and at the end of the day, and it
ends up being a really bad look for everybody. So
where this ends up. I mean, you asked me several

(54:09):
weeks ago, do you think Trey Henderson is going to
play another snap for the Bengals? And that was a
few weeks ago. We said we didn't know. And this
is only getting deeper and darker as it goes on,
and there just isn't a lot of information that either
side is willing to share. So when there isn't that
sharing of information, people start to speculate. And when people

(54:30):
start to speculate, it becomes a bad look for everybody involved,
and that's where we are.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
But the defensive unit that has been on the field
while Trey has been out at least over the three
last three weeks, has gotten better. What do you think
has been the biggest reason for their turnaround?

Speaker 12 (54:48):
So this was my.

Speaker 7 (54:50):
Charge yesterday was to go inside the locker room and
a fine guests for our live Bengal show on Wednesday night,
which we'll get into later, and then two to ask
many different players on the defense to walk me through
it like I'm a third grader on why the defense
right now seems to be playing better because they went

(55:12):
from historically bad to somewhat functional against Pittsburgh, too very
functional against New England to playing winning football against Lamar
Jackson and Derek Henry. Now the caveat is Lamar Jackson
looks like the moon Stars stole his talent on space
jam who does not look like himself. I don't know
what that performance was on Thanksgiving night. And yes, the

(55:35):
Bengals did get some breaks with Isaiah likely fumbling at
the one yard line and the OPI call on Dave
Flowers that can be debatable. So there were moments that
the Ravens probably should have capitalized on and even despite
playing poorly on offense, probably still should have scored a
lot more points than they did. But the question I

(55:56):
took to so many players on defense, and I talked
to Barrett Carter and Geno Stone and DJ Turner and
Demetrius Knight, everybody has a different answer on why the
defense is playing better. Zach Taylor says, it's twelve weeks
of continuity. There's confidence when guys yell together. Eric Carter says,
we're working our butts off, being intentional with everything we do.

(56:18):
Geno Stone says it's intention to detail on the run game.
DJ Turner says it's a group that just stayed together
and started to figure out. But if you look more
at what's on the field, unless what the guys are saying,
you're seeing right now is a willingness of a defensive
coordinator and a defense to disguise and simulate pressures and

(56:42):
feel comfortable in doing so. If you go back and
listen to Al Golden talk throughout the year, you kept
hearing him use this turn of trying to simplify it
so guys could play faster. Well, now that these rookies
and these young players in this unit as a whole
has had twelve weeks to play together. You're seeing Al
Golden be more willing to put in more complicated looks

(57:08):
too offenses. And if you go back to the play
where Lamar Jackson was sacked inside the five yard line
by Joseph Osai and Cedric Johnson recovered on the three
yard line, to go back and look at that play,
you're going to see seven guys on the line of
scrimmage right before the ball is snapped, and then right
before the ball is snapped, boom. Geno Stone drops back, Boom.

(57:30):
Barrett Carter drops back and takes away Lamar Jackson's first read,
so he has to hold the ball just a little
bit longer, and that gives time for Joseph Osai and
Biles Murphy to create some kind of havoc on the
right side of his offensive line and boom, the play
is made. So to me, it's that it's a young
group that took a long time to feel comfortable to

(57:52):
start to reach deeper into Al Golden's playbook. You're seeing
more willingness to disguise, more willingness somewhat to blitz, but
overall a willingness to be just a little bit more
complicated here and give quarterbacks an offense is a harder
look and it's paying off so far the last couple

(58:13):
of weeks. As the Bangles get deeper in the.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Season, we want to switch gears quickly and talk to
you about UC for a moment. Over the weekend, Tony
Pike described the loss to Eastern Michigan as the worst
Bearcats basketball loss of his lifetime. Obviously, the football team
got trounced at TCU as well. What do you make
of the state of both You see football and basketball

(58:38):
right now, and what's the way out? Is there a
way out?

Speaker 15 (58:43):
Huh?

Speaker 7 (58:44):
Yeah, it's not great. And you look at what you
see football did in the first half of the season.
And the hardest thing to do, especially when you see
football and you think about the hierarchy of Cincinnati sports,
is to make yourself relevant in a town that the

(59:05):
Bengals exist, the Reds exist, And we can go down
the line as c Cincinnati was playing deep into the
MLS playoffs, and they made themselves relevant in the first
half of the season, but they continue to fall apart
and self destruct in Novembers. And is that warranted for

(59:27):
a change of leadership. I don't know, because I thought
about halfway through the season, and even further halfway into
the season, is that Scott Suderfield had done enough to
calm the waters to deactivate the hot seat in Clifton.
And then November happens, and you see how this team
fades down the stretch in another November, And how can

(59:49):
that not be a discussion going forward, because that's what
happens in Collwood's football is changes happen, and we're seeing
it all over college football right now. And if you're
not in this first wave, then you might be too late.
And it's kind of feels right now that U see
is going to stick with where they are. And then

(01:00:10):
that leads to the discussion of basketball and where they
are with basketball, and it's interesting depending on who you
follow and the narrative that surrounds that team is there
are people. And you know, I laughed a little bit
with Trags about this yesterday at the stadium because Drags
put out a tweet after the Intern Michigan game that
Wes Miller will be coaching for his job in the

(01:00:32):
Crosstown shootout, and I know he's being a bit facetious,
in a bit exaggeratory, if that's a word with what
he's tweeting on that he's not coaching for his job
in the Crosstown shootout, but it's another data point, another
bullet point to what his resume will be at the
end of the season for a guy that needs to
make the NCAA tournament. Because yeah, he can go out

(01:00:54):
and lose the shootout on Friday night, but he goes
ahead and Ryan Dave's this thing, loses to his rival
and puts together a great end of the year and
makes the NC Double A tournament. It kind of feels
like that Stin is forgotten somewhat. So what west Miller has.
The pressure's on west Miller. There's no doubt there is
pressure on west Miller starting this Friday night in the

(01:01:16):
Crosstown Shootout. But it's bigger than that game. It's bigger
than beating Xavier. It's what he does and conference play,
it's what he does in March to where we're going
to judge this because it's time and it's time for
this program to be back in the NC Double A tournament.

(01:01:36):
So while I don't think he's coaching for his job,
on Friday night in the Crosstown shootout. It certainly would
be another data point for a coach that has to
prove he is the right person for the job in Clifton.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Not the only thing going on Friday night. We've got
the state finals coming up and a couple of Cincinnati
teams in action. I'm sure you guys will be covering it.
What do you got coming up when it comes to
the state football championship?

Speaker 7 (01:02:04):
So I'm going to test your knowledge here. Okay, it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
Good, but you can test it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
No, no, what.

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
I'm going to test your Cincinnati knowledge. If I said, Austen,
what does Cincinnati do really really well? We would both
agree that we do ice cream great?

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:02:21):
What else does Cincinnati do well? We do chili well.
We take a lot of pride in our Chilean Cincinnati,
and we believe we do high school football really really well.
And it's been four years since a Cincinnati area team
has won a state championship in football in Ohio. I

(01:02:43):
think that would shock people to find that out. It's
been from twenty twenty one. It's been from twenty twenty
a Division one team has won an Ohio state state championship,
and now we have Anderson in Division two, we have
Saint X in Division one. On Thursday and Friday. It
is time for one or both of these teams to

(01:03:05):
end Cincinnati's drought at the state championship. Yes, we will
be there Thursday, we will be there Friday. Division two,
Division one, Anderson's a rematch of a game they lost
last year in the snow against Avon, same teams, right
back at it, same spot. Can Anderson finish it this year?
Sane X plays Owen Tangy Orange, who shut out Saint

(01:03:27):
Ed's twenty eight to nothing in the state semi finals.
They get them in the Division one state final on
Friday night. Can sine X be the team to end
the drought? Or can it be Anderson one of these
two teams, If not both, Austin have to do it
for the city of Cincinnati to end this drought because
we believe so much in the high school football we

(01:03:48):
play in this city.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
You mentioned a show coming up tomorrow night. You were
recruiting Bengals to come on the show. What do you
got coming up?

Speaker 7 (01:03:58):
As you can imagine when a team goes on a
losing street and they get to three and eight. It
becomes very difficult to get guys to want to do
public appearances.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
We get that right.

Speaker 12 (01:04:11):
Imagine it was you.

Speaker 7 (01:04:11):
It's tough to go out there in front of the
public when you're not playing well. So we had a
lot of guys who said, come ask me when we win.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
So when the.

Speaker 7 (01:04:21):
Bengals one on Thursday night, we got out a cliffboard
and we said we're going across this room and we
are locking guys in. No kiddings, but we have Ted
Karris and Dalton Reisner tomorrow night live at Newport on
the Levee. Hey man, look up those PFF grades on
the Bengals offensive line and what he did Thursday night.

(01:04:42):
We can talk about a defense, we can talk about
Joe Burrow, we can talk about this massive game coming
up Sunday in Buffalo. But the offensive line did their
job on Thursday night.

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
They will be.

Speaker 7 (01:04:53):
Rewarded six o'clock in front of Bengals fans. Live free
event for everybody listening this to get to Newport on
the Levee tomorrow night at six.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
Ted Carris's performance this year is one of the things
that I will have to eat some crow about by
the end of the season, and I'm happy to do
so because of the way that he has performed. Unfortunately,
I don't have enough time to ask you about Lane
Kiffin and the college football world being turned on its head,
but maybe we'll get to that next week. Joe, thanks

(01:05:24):
so much for your.

Speaker 7 (01:05:25):
Time anytime, Austin, and keep playing Bone Thugs and Harmony
as your bumper music. I listened the first of the
month no less than fifteen times yesterday because oh.

Speaker 4 (01:05:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
That's awesome. Thank you, You're very welcome, and thank you
and yeat. That's Joe Daniman from Fox nineteen. He's the best.
All right, we'll take a break. Your talkbacks are coming
up next. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 10 (01:05:56):
Press the microphone and record your message.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
You are Austin and.

Speaker 10 (01:06:01):
Tone please keep it clean and don't be mean at
a sprinkle sprinkle drip drips.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
It's that kind of talkbacks.

Speaker 10 (01:06:10):
It's our favorite parter Sincy three sixty.

Speaker 11 (01:06:15):
So Austin, buddy, yeah, play those on your screen and
please try out to sabotage.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Welcome back in. Since he three sixty Tony Pikes, since
he three sixty, No Tony Today, I'm Austin and you
can leave a talkback on the iHeartRadio app. Just tap
that little microphone next to the play button when you
search ESPN fifteen thirty. You leave us a message, we
play it on the air. Let's get to them now.

Speaker 10 (01:06:41):
Hello, this is longtime talkbacker and first time listener Ronald.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Hi.

Speaker 10 (01:06:46):
Ron and Will I had some time this morning on
the Google and found a couple of interesting facts to
pass along. Did you know that our tenth president, John
Tyler had a grandson who just died earlier this year. Oh,
and Willie Mays is the only player to hit at
least one home run in innings one through sixteen during
his career.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
I actually knew.

Speaker 10 (01:07:07):
Well, now we've got to go find that blasted duck
of mine.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
I actually knew those fun facts. I remember reading about
the John Tyler grandson not that long ago. And Willie Mays, Yes, legend.

Speaker 17 (01:07:25):
Hi, this is the Lord. I just took some hopium
on the Bengals winning out the rest of their games
this year. I'm also giving out free hopium to talk
that nation, So please give me a call.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
Glad to hear that the Lord has still got time.
After consulting deeply with Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 18 (01:07:44):
Tony, this message is for you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
He's not here.

Speaker 18 (01:07:46):
An had asked their voters to rank the sixty eight
Power four teams to do their broadcast grade. I saw this, Howard,
and they've decided to give the voters the chance, and
they get the voters Cincinnati sixth place out of sixty

(01:08:09):
eight among all broadcasters.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
Way to go.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Yeah, I saw this. This is pretty cool. It's awful announcing.
And they do their college football broadcasts duos and they
rank them and they have people vote and do all
the whole nine yards, and as he mentions, out of
sixty eight of those broadcasts, Cincinnati, Dan Hord and Tony
Pike ranked number six. And I would make the argument

(01:08:35):
that that's probably a little too low. They should be
a little bit higher. But yeah, that was really cool,
especially for two guys that have, you know, really been
in the booth together only a handful of times. Not
a surprise though, because if anybody who listens to them knows,
they're spectacular.

Speaker 9 (01:08:52):
Yeah, rep in the city out here in sunny hot Zona.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
What up, Tony?

Speaker 19 (01:08:55):
What up?

Speaker 15 (01:08:55):
Buddy?

Speaker 9 (01:08:55):
No, I'm not a happy UC fan. What I watched
last night was not good. This team looks flat. I
looked at Zaber last night. They looked a little bit
better than I thought. Yo, Wes, if you don't beat Zaber,
we got major problems.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
We don't get in this tournament. Major problems.

Speaker 9 (01:09:08):
Your coach sat Man that see this dumb fire hot
yo Man.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Two straight seasons in the season with losing streaks.

Speaker 9 (01:09:16):
We get that crappy dot com nobody cares bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Get them about it here. I'm done with coach sat Game,
the crappy dot com, nobody cares ball. Listen.

Speaker 9 (01:09:27):
I'm just a frustrated Bearcats fan. I watched both sides
of the ball, football and basketball, and when it comes
to big games, our coaches get our coach, our players
look like they've never seen the big stage before. I mean,
it's embarrassing as a Bearcats fan, man, I mean, you
can't win big games on either side of the ball.
Just look flat out embarrassing. You want to call yourself
a power for school, look like a major school.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Are we still in the AAC or something?

Speaker 9 (01:09:51):
You tell me, get somebody in here who can coach
this program and get it in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
I think a lot of bear Cats fans would agree
with Ronnie ron out there in sunny, hot.

Speaker 15 (01:10:04):
Zona, Audi Elmore in a big chair on the All
Pike Everything Nation Station.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
If they're ads and Bengals can excel at one thing,
it's always given us just a little bit of hope.

Speaker 20 (01:10:14):
And when we think things are done now, they got
to go get it done.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
It's down on business in Buffalo. Go up, Aaron, dine
on them. Buffalo means all right, man, isn't it? Isn't
that a good thing? Though? Wouldn't you rather now? I listen,
I know we've all had our hearts broken many many
times by the Bengals, by the Reds, by Cincinnati sports
in general, But wouldn't you rather have some hope than

(01:10:40):
no hope at all? Is some hope better than none
at all? I would think?

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
So?

Speaker 19 (01:10:47):
Hey, Austin, it's Greg.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
You know.

Speaker 17 (01:10:49):
I just think satur Day's game being inside in Indianapolis.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Yeah, I'll take all the weather elements out of it.
I just think it's it's going to be great, a
great day for our buck. Guys. How do you feel
about that?

Speaker 16 (01:11:05):
And Austin, as usual, you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
A great job well, Greg, thank you so much. Yeah,
I don't know what to make of this game. I
think Kurt Signetti is a really good coach. I think
he's a really sharp offensive mind. I think that Fernando
Mendoza is just perfectly operating that offense the way that
they want it to and they've got a good opportunistic defense.
So I wonder if this game from both sides to

(01:11:34):
an extent, will be treated like a preseason game because
they're likely both going to get the first round by
and there's a chance that they see each other again
in the playoffs. I just wonder how much both coaches
are willing to empty the clip, especially Signetti, and I

(01:11:56):
don't know that if that's the way they're thinking at all.
But you know, I Matt Patricia's defense really truly has
not been tested. When they went down six nothing to
Michigan last week, that was their biggest deficit of the
entire season in Ohio States, credit they came back. Now,
six points is basically nothing. It's one possession. It's basically

(01:12:17):
less than one possession. So I don't know what to
expect of this game. I've told my friends and my
Buckeye fans, and I've said it on here, the only
team that I really worry about is Indiana, just because
of their explosiveness, their consistency. They haven't faltered, they haven't
messed up. They're just a good team and a good
offensive mind. And I just wonder when the test is

(01:12:39):
going to come for Matt Patricia. Everybody's talking about him
like he's the greatest coach in the history of football,
and I get it, that defense is unbelievable. I just wonder,
you know, stylistically, what this game looks like between those
two sides, because yes, it matters, but ultimately, how much

(01:13:00):
does it matter? We talked in the past that having
the number one seed isn't always the best thing in
the college football playoffs, And if both teams are going
to get a buye and if they basically flip flop positions,
you know, I don't know. I really don't know what
to expect. But how could I not have faith in
what the Buckeyes have done?

Speaker 21 (01:13:20):
Hey, Audie, can you tell me why is Jermaine Burton
still on the Bengals squad? Why haven't they cut him?
In Henderson, There's no way that they tag or resign him.
He's just out right unless when it comes to college football,
there are just too many damn bowl games outside of
the college football playoffs. There should be a few for
the teams that were on the outside looking in didn't

(01:13:42):
make it because of strength, to schedule or whatever. I
don't care, and I don't know anyone that cares about
Buffa's base.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Shut Bowl YEP. I agree with you one thousand percent.
Way too many bowl games oversaturated. Once again, that's a
television problem as far as I understand it. As Roddie
Ron called it, the crappy dot com nobody cares Bowl.
There's a lot of those. There's about fifty of those
every year. It seems like Jermaine Burton, no idea why
he's still here. He's taking up a roster spot. I

(01:14:11):
was talking about this over the weekend. Isaiah Williams has
had an excellent season with the New York Jets as
a kick and punk returner and a little bit as
a wide receiver. How is he like? It still blows
my mind that the Bengals chose Jermaine Burton over him.
It's just it's ridiculous. I don't know why he's still
on the team.

Speaker 19 (01:14:29):
What's up, Boston, JILLN Baltimore?

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
What up?

Speaker 19 (01:14:33):
Super excited about Kentucky's higher will Stein greatly for the program.
I think he's gonna do great things. Man, I'm over
Trey Hendrickson. He's done a lot of great things for
the Bengals. But I'm ready for us to move on.
Kentucky against North Carolina tonight, big game, hopefully you take,
can probably win win.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
A big one, that's right, big one between Kentucky and
North Carolina, which just the battle of the blue Bloods.
Is that all on campus anywhere? Or is that one
of those games that's being played, you know, in some
NBA arena in New York. No, it's that rough. Okay, wonderful.
Can't wait for that nine to thirty pm tip off

(01:15:13):
right now. Kentucky favored by six and a half in
that game. That's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 22 (01:15:19):
Hey there, Tony, the Bengal Tiger Tuesday in Austin. Don't
got much for you guys today, but do God, I'm
stop bench and cut all right of things. You don't
care about your coworkers talking about what the fantasy teams, two,
the parlais that missed by one leg, and three, the

(01:15:43):
food that they're going to eat over the holidays season, goodbye.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
I would start their parlays. I would bench their fantasy teams.
I would cut the food that they're gonna eat over
the holiday season. And that's something I experienced almost every day.

Speaker 5 (01:16:03):
This is David reminding everybody it's Crosstown shootout week and
it's been eight seven hundred, oh no, fifty four days?

Speaker 4 (01:16:12):
Bearcats?

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
Oh no, Oh my gosh. Wow. So what was it?
Almost three thousand days since Ohio State had beaten Michigan
and we're almost nine thousand since you see is one
at sentas. So maybe we can join forces for good here,
if you're a Buckeye and a Bearcat fan and we

(01:16:33):
can break streaks together.

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
Hey, y Aunie back with double Ed. I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
There's a lot of things in college football.

Speaker 15 (01:16:39):
It's quite a mess, and maybe I'm a lone list,
but I think a commissioner will go a long.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
Way to square some things away. Take care. I agree
with you one hundred percent, Kevin. But how do we
get that guy? How do we get that man or
that woman? And how are we going to get the
conferences to agree on that person and to agree to
answer to that person. I don't know if we will.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
Hi Energy, how we all?

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
I think it's almost time to get al Golan back
his D almost it ain't there yet.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
Show me something against.

Speaker 5 (01:17:16):
Buffalo, Show up in Buffalo, missed that Golan and get
that D back in your name.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
You know what. I'm gonna write this down right now
because you have to talk to Moegar about this stuff.
He's the guy who's in charge of the way names
are spelled. Ouk Tobin, al Golan, neither one have the D.
Because the Bengals defense they played pretty good. I'm gonna
have to ask Mo today during quick hits if we

(01:17:43):
can put the D back in Al Golden's name. Addie,
what's going on? It's maso.

Speaker 20 (01:17:49):
So my opinion on college football and college athletics in
general is that it's completely broken. Yes, everybody's selfish and
looking out for their own interests. And I get players
and coaches going and making money and getting the bag.

Speaker 3 (01:18:05):
I get that, But.

Speaker 20 (01:18:06):
How can we not come to an agreement that it
should happen after the season is over.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Why is that so hard to implement? Yeah? I agree,
and that's what I want to talk about with the
Texas Tech head coach, and he kind of explains, like
the academic side of it and the portal and all
this other stuff like there is just no structure and
that everyone is so out for themselves that it doesn't
really matter how you affect other people so long as

(01:18:34):
you take care of your program. Or however, like with
the Lang Kiffin things, specifically, if anybody who is has
a job, if you are doing a job really well
and a similar company offers you a lot more money
to do basically the same thing, and they give you
a lot more resources to do it at a higher level,

(01:18:57):
most people are going to jump to that company if
the others aren't going to be able to offer you
those resources. I don't blame Lane Kiffin for doing that.
I will never blame somebody for leaving to get more money.
But the problem is that the system has allowed for
there to be a path of destruction, a wake of

(01:19:19):
destruction behind him on the way out the door. And
that's an issue. Sorry for the double dip you, I'm
fired up today.

Speaker 20 (01:19:26):
But my next point was going to be I think
the SEC in Big ten they should just break off
and do their own thing, kind of have like an
NFL model and be kind of like a minor league
to the NFL, and then the rest of the league's
acc big twelve, whatever the PAC twelve or whatever the
hell that is. Yeah, then they would just kind of

(01:19:48):
be like your lower tier FCS, like what FCS is now.

Speaker 3 (01:19:52):
Now. I think that's like actually kind of a possibility.
I wouldn't be surprised if eventually something like that happens.
I do wonder though, if the SEC and Big ten
can even get along. Maybe if they're seeing enough green
they will.

Speaker 6 (01:20:04):
Hey, guy, it's Brad in the BA boy, but a.

Speaker 4 (01:20:10):
Eight.

Speaker 6 (01:20:10):
What just had a curiosity? What's your favorite restaurant? Mine is,
of course, Blue Ass Chili. What's your favorite pizza? I'm
a trophy guy over there in Even Dale Evan loves
it too, I hear.

Speaker 3 (01:20:29):
Anyway, let me know, Beyah, my favorite restaurant and my
favorite pizza are any company that is willing to pay
me to endorse them and say that they are my favorite.
That's just, you know, my personal favorite.

Speaker 23 (01:20:42):
Awesome, it's good. Well, I am singing tired of the
Jermaine Burton saga. I'm over it. Let's get rid of
this guy, maybe right out the rest of the season,
but get what you can for him after that. We
haven't seen enough from him in the league to warrant
him taking up a roster spot. I know he was
a higher draft pick, but his time is done. And
how about that field goal attempt last night?

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
That was cuckoo.

Speaker 23 (01:21:03):
Last time I've seen a field goal go haywire like
that was the grammatica field goal where.

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
He tours ea. Yeah afterwards, just embarrassing. Yeah, that was wild.
I don't know that I would even call Jermaine Burton
asaga as much as it's just like a disappointment that
this guy and the team have gotten to this point.
He's not worth anything. You won't get anything for him.
Wide receiver, I think is on that list of things

(01:21:29):
they're gonna have to address in the offseason to begin
with number one, Just a guy that can win more
consistency at that three spot, more consistently at that number
three spot where Joshaboss has been has been and you
know the depth at that position, there's a lot of unknowns. Tensley, Jones, Burton,
obviously they need to work on that spot. All right,

(01:21:51):
we'll take a break, we'll come back when we do
football in the Natty. This is ESPN fifteen thirty SHAREFF Facts.
Credit Union is proud to offer a savings car.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
This is Football in the NATI, brought to you by
Bud Light on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
Home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:22:12):
Welcome back in It is Football and the NATI. Here
in hour number two on ESPN fifteen thirty. I want
to put a bow on the college football conversation and
the direction that it's obviously going. And I talked earlier
about Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire. He was asked
in his availability prior to the Big twelve Championship game

(01:22:35):
about what needs to be done to the college football
calendar in the wake of Lane Kiffin and the coaching
carousel and all the stuff going on. This is two
minutes of Joey McGuire providing what he thinks are viable
solutions that make sense for college football. Take a listen
to the Red Raiders head coach.

Speaker 24 (01:22:55):
I want to know what my team is in January
so I could create my team and what we did
this last year and the chemistry and everything, and so
you're just putting a band aid over the problem until
we address the calendar. So in my opinion, we all
should have played August twenty third, So instead of week zero,
we play that's week one. That would mean, with the

(01:23:19):
buys and everything, the conference championship would have been played
over Thanksgiving. So you get that out of the way.
So now we know who's in the playoffs. So if
you were saying the first round was gonna be played Saturday,
and then the quarterfinals seven days after that, semifinals seven
days after that, you actually could play the National Championship

(01:23:41):
on January first, and then the portal would open on
January second, so the season would actually be over. So
until you do that, we're still gonna have this. If
we're gonna be like the NFL to everybody's saying that.
In the NFL, there's a tampering for coaches also, and
there's a penalty, and so hey, if you're gonna leave

(01:24:04):
your team that's in the playoffs, maybe your team that
you're going to is not eligible for the playoffs the
next year.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
Maybe that changes some of the things.

Speaker 24 (01:24:13):
Or hey, you're gonna leave your team for the playoffs,
nobody from your past team or your team that you're
coaching at can go to the team that you're going to.
You know that they're not eligible. They ain't getting the
transfer portal, but they've got to go somewhere else. They
can't follow you until there's some penalties in that we're
gonna get the same thing over and over. I do

(01:24:33):
think the biggest thing that we have to address, and
TV's got to get behind this because they've already got
this mapped out with the quarterfinals and all this stuff.
We've got to push the calendar up and we've got
to get football out of the second semester. We're not
supposed to be playing college football on January nineteenth. That
should be over at the very worst of where it

(01:24:57):
has been in the past. I still think that's too late,
and the calendar can change that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
I love that perspective again from Joey McGuire, the Texas
Tech head coach. I mean, that makes a ton of
sense to me. If school in the portal is what
gets in the way of this and causes so many
different issues, well then maybe it makes a lot of
sense to just move everything up and so that you

(01:25:23):
get you know, football out of that second semester, which
seems to be the biggest issue with guys you know,
go in different directions in different schools and the portal
and all this other stuff either way, even if there's
not a commissioner or not a governing body or whatever
it might be. I feel like most people in college sports,
and especially in college football, specifically in college football in

(01:25:46):
this case, would be in favor of something that gets
everybody on the same page. Would they not? And if so,
what really are we doing here? Take a break, we'll
come back. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:25:59):
You've been listening football in the NATI on ESPN fifteen thirty.
The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals, continues on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:26:16):
One of the other many reasons we need a governing body,
we need some sort of regulation, We need somebody, some
group of people managing college football is for stuff like
what happened at the Big House on Saturday when the
headsets for the Ohio State sideline, all power to the

(01:26:37):
Sideline really went out and took quite some time to
get booted back up. Take a listen to what Ohio
State head coach Ryan Day had to say about that.

Speaker 25 (01:26:48):
Yeah, we lost communication there in the second half. But
the good news was was that earlier that week I
thought there may be an inkling that may happen.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
So we have a plan for it.

Speaker 4 (01:27:00):
We had a.

Speaker 25 (01:27:01):
Wristband plan, and then we had we would bring Julian
over and I was, you know, just getting us through
it until we get the headsets back back up and running,
which took a little while to get done. But yeah,
just by chance, you know, we we had planned for it,
and so we were ready to go when it happened.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
Inkling, Why did you have that?

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
Inkling?

Speaker 3 (01:27:20):
Oh, we're just ready for everything.

Speaker 25 (01:27:22):
You just got to be ready for for anything. And
you know, when you go into any big game, you're
always trying to put continuency plans in place for anything
that could possibly happen. And so yeah, we were just
I was in here on Friday, and I think some
of the guys in the staff were looking at me sideways, like,
why would you think that would happen? I said, I just,
I just I don't know. We just got to be
ready and be ready for anything. That's funny how your

(01:27:42):
mind works.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
He finished that answer with a wink to the reporter. Now,
in the NFL, all this stuff is managed by the
National Football League, not necessarily the case always in college football.
There's just a lot going on in that sport that
I can't I struggle to keep track of. It's truly

(01:28:05):
unbelievable college football schedule. This weekend conference championships gets underway.
The American is going to be Friday night, that's at
eight o'clock. That's number twenty four to two Lane up
against North Texas. Then on Saturday, Big twelve Championship BYU
and Texas Tech is at noon. The MAC Championship also

(01:28:25):
at noon, that's Miami and Western Michigan from Ford Field
in Detroit. Georgia and Alabama from Mercedes Benz Stadium in
Atlanta is at four o'clock. Ohio State in Indiana from
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis at eight, and the ACC
title game Duke in Virginia also at eight from Bank
of America Stadium in Charlotte. So that puts a bow

(01:28:48):
on the college football conversation. Let's go back to the
pro football conversation when we come back. Joe Goodberry, long
time Bengals analyst and host of Bengals on the Brain,
friend of the show and uh a great football mind.
I have questions about the Bengals defense. We'll talk to
Joe next on ESPN.

Speaker 1 (01:29:06):
This is Tony Pike Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in hard by Penn Station East Coast Subs. Hand
crepped it, I grilled subs, fresh cut fries in lemonade.
It's all about good taste. Penn Station East Coast Subs
order on mine today. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati

(01:29:31):
Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
Hi, Hello and welcome into the final hour of Tony
Pike Sincy three to sixty here on ESPN fifteen thirty.
No Tony Today. Tony in for Lance down the Haul
on WLW tonight. You can listen to him after you
listen to Moe from three to six this afternoon. Mo
forty minutes from right now joins me for quick hits.
But right now we talk to Joe daniman earlier. We

(01:29:55):
now go to Joe Goodberry on this Joe Filled Tuesday
on fifteen thirty. Long time for unto the show. Host
of Bengals on the Brain, Joe Goodbarry joins me. Now, Hi, Joe,
how are you.

Speaker 4 (01:30:07):
I'm doing great, excited to be on here, excited for
the week.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
Yeah, Well, thank you for being here. Let me start
with the defense. The Bengals defense, what specifically has has
led to this Bengals defensive turnaround over the last three weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:30:22):
Oh, there's a lot of layers to that. Because they
were so bad, right, they're historically bad. They're on a
pace that well, you don't want to be on. And
the last three weeks, I think they've figured a few
things out. Number one, their blitz rate has gone up
a lot more. Nol Golden has said that that's because
the young guys are now able to do these things.
They're able to expand some of these calls and give
some different looks, and they understand the defense better so

(01:30:43):
he can expand the playbook. I believe some of that.
The other part is I think Al Golden figured they're
gonna be better against the run if they do more
three to four looks on these base downs and early downs.
And they've been doing that, and I think it has
helped getting bigger bodies at defensive tackle, using Demetrius Knight
to do like a quasi three four defense and bring

(01:31:04):
him down to the edge play outside linebacker. I don't
think that ever made sense. They would sometimes kick in
a d end and then have Night at outside linebacker. Instead,
they've been going with three defensive tackles. McKinley Jackson's getting
more run. I think he's been a plus player when
he's been in for his fifteen snats or so, and
then you're getting Josephsai and Miles Murphy kicked out at
least one more tech, one more gap and giving them

(01:31:26):
more advantageous situations on the edge, giving you five defensive
linemen on the front, and I think that helps you
defend the run for sure. I think the other part
is underrated, one that probably nationally no one would bring
up or even be aware of, is altivating Jalen Davis
to the slot corner, rolling kicking Dax Sail out to
the boundary. At first, they hurt Dax. I mean that
first game he got beat deep by the Patriots, Kishon

(01:31:48):
Boodie had those couple of one pass interference that didn't
look good for him. But I think Dax need to
get his legs under him. We know he can do it.
He did it last year. But Chanlan Davis has been
a plus player in terms of blitzaying run, defense, tackling,
and I think that's been good for them overall to
get some three guys they can trust at those positions.

Speaker 3 (01:32:07):
Why do you think it took so long to get
Jalen Davis an opportunity.

Speaker 4 (01:32:11):
I think they really still wanted Cam Taylor Britt to
be that guy on the boundary right, Like we've seen
enough flashes throughout his four years before, you know, going
on IR this year that I think made people believe
and I always felt it too, like, man, if they
could just straighten him out, if he could just apply himself,
if he could just go on a heater, that he
would look really good and that would make your cornerback
room better. Like, let's be honest, even with Jalen Davis

(01:32:34):
playing well right now in the corner room looks really
good DJ turners at an all pro level. If Cam
Taylor Britt was who we've seen flashes of and he
was that high end guy orderlined cornerback one looking in
a lot of these flashes, your corner room would be
really really good with Dex in the slot. So I
think ideally you always wanted that to happen, and sometimes

(01:32:56):
sometimes the decisions made for you. Cam is out for
the foot injury, and you say, you know what, what's
our best path forward? It's kicking decks out to the
boundary and elevating Jallen Davis. That thinks makes sense.

Speaker 3 (01:33:06):
So those few things that you outlined that in your
mind have have been the keys to them playing better
over the last three weeks. Is that sustainable in your
mind over the last five weeks?

Speaker 4 (01:33:19):
I think it is because they are playing a lot
of young guys. So if All's right and Al Golden's
correct and saying, you know, we really couldn't do this
stuff with the playbook because they couldn't handle it. While
that was sad to hear, you know what I mean,
like that maybe we don't have the right guys on
the defensive side of the Bengals. If it's slowly growing
and you can now do more things and you can
trust guys to do their jobs and you can trust

(01:33:40):
that you can make this call and guys can make
adjustments based on it on the field, well then yeah,
that's sustainable. Everyone should grow into their role. You're not
supposed to play rookie linebackers around the league unless they're
like hit the ground running, they're really good. You know,
there's two guys this year, but Carson Swessinger and John Campbell,
and even Campbell's lost the starting job in Philadelphia. He's
only beginning about ten year fifteen stats per game as well,

(01:34:01):
So you're not supposed to play these guys because it
limits your defense. And so the college linebacker position is
much different than the NFL linebacker position. So I think
when the Bengals did this and made this commitment, they
really had to peel back what they were asking this
entire defense to do, and they hurt them because if
you're not going to be overly talented, then you better
be confusing, you better be fundamentally sound, you better be

(01:34:23):
physically you better be great tacklers. And they were none
of that stuff for a long time this year. So
as the linebackers slowly get better, and I think they have,
it allows your defense to slowly get better. And as
they all get playing time from the front to the
back half to the linebackers, that allows the defense to
mix it up more and more. So I do think
that's sustainable.

Speaker 3 (01:34:41):
I think one of the bride spots this year has
been DJ Turner. You mentioned him a moment ago. Why
do you think it has clicked for him? And what
has been you know the reason he's been so successful
so far this season?

Speaker 4 (01:34:54):
Well, let's go back to when he was a prospect. Right,
we've got a smaller guy. He's about one eighty, super fast,
four to two six, it was and forty, very good
in man coverage and good ball tracking, ball skills, but
he had short arms. He wasn't the most physical guy,
so a lot of times at the catch point you
would get out muscled, or he just couldn't affect the
play enough. And I called him more of like a

(01:35:17):
he's a humberd around these receivers in his rookie year,
or he was tight on their hits, but he couldn't
really affect the play. And as the years have gone
now he's gotten better and better at finding a way
to just knock the ball down when the receiver's pulling
it in, or being a little more physical, or getting
stronger as being a third year NFL player. Now, I
think all of these things have started to click for

(01:35:38):
him slowly. And then you bring out Golden then, who's
a heavy man defense guy, and now he's playing more
man than he ever had in his career. It's going
to make him look good. You're putting him in his
element in order to get the best version of himself.
So I think all of those things combined is putting
him on a trajectory this year where I think he
should be considered probably second team All Pro. He should
get a Pro Bowl, not if enough people the country

(01:36:00):
recognize it. And I've been trying to put the data
out there and like, you know, here's PFF numbers. DJ
Turner is excellent. I've done film reviews on DJ Turner.
Look how good he looks. I do think he looks
real good. And we're gonna be talking about when we
get the spring in summer of potentially an extension in Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
Do you think that the light bulb has finally turned
on for Miles Murphy.

Speaker 4 (01:36:22):
I don't know that it's turned on. I would say
it's definitely flickering more often than it was I thought
his rookie year. And I went back and watched this
recently because I wanted to see what he looked like
year one, year or two, and I just watched the
Bills Bengals games from twenty twenty three. He got a
decent amount of snaps in that game as well. But
I wanted to go back and look and say, Okay,
what was the difference because some of the data even
says that Miles was winning at a similar rate as

(01:36:44):
a pass rusher to what he's winning at now when
he was a rookie. So I said, okay, I don't
remember it that way, so let me go back and look.
And I thought he was but the so the big
thing I saw that was different now is he's much
more aware of how offenses are attacking him, how blockings work,
and how they're going to try and trick him or
get him to go inside and then they're going to

(01:37:04):
steal him off. I'm much more aware of where the
ball is going, where the playflow is going, so it
allows him to make more plays. We know he's long,
he's very athletic, and he's got a great get offs.
He's always had a good get off since spending the league.
Where he's lacked was I think the awareness. He didn't
have the snats right, he never was consistently playing. So
I think experience and awareness are tied together for a
lot of players, and you can see that starting to

(01:37:26):
snowball and really grow. The other part is your hand
usage and your moves and your counter moves. He was
elementary at maybe his best, and now I think it's
starting to progress a little bit more than that. I'm
not going to say he's good yet. He doesn't look
like a guy that's a ten sec guy yet, But
those flashes are starting to be a little bit more
consistent because we've had games in moments like this from

(01:37:48):
Miles in the past. But good players do it three
out of four games, right, So he needs this to
continue for the final five games. If it does, you
might get his fiftieer option picked up, which is like
thirteen point six million. So I'm sure he's I had
a lot of reasons to play for that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:01):
Talking to Joe Goodbarry, host of Bengals on the Brain
also on X at Joe Goodberry, let's go to the
offensive side of the ball, it felt like to me,
Joe that it was basically the same old Bengals offense
with Joe Burrow back at the Helm against Baltimore on Thursday.
What did you make of his performance and overall, how

(01:38:21):
do you evaluate the offense after Buffalo?

Speaker 4 (01:38:26):
Yeah, so Burrow, I thought it was a little rusty
at first. They kind of put him through a crash
course of Hey, forty two throws in the first half.
We're going a treaty like Forrest gump with his braces,
They're just going to run right out of him, right,
And it worked because in the second half he would
look like Joe Burrow completely. He was moving around, which
is great to see, right. I mean, that was the
one thing, like, all right, it's going to be like
coming back from the calf injury where they got it.

(01:38:48):
Just going to keep him in shotgun and he's not
going to move at all. He's just going to get
the ball out in two point two seconds. It wasn't
that Honestly, if you didn't know he was injured, especially
in the second half after the Russ was off, you
would have no idea that it was his first time
coming back in nine games or ten weeks, whatever it was.
And I thought he looked like his normal self and
he was feeling it and he was excited. I think

(01:39:08):
the entire offense felt it. Maybe the defense and special
teams are feeling it too. I don't see why there's
no reason to believe these guys won't be better when
they feel like their franchise quarterback is going to lead
the offense down the field. That you see it around
the league. It always does happen. I just can't explain
it other than you know, if you during that locker
room or not, they might all but just be seeing
Joe Burrow out there and being like, you know what,
we can do it. But the offense as a whole,

(01:39:30):
the run game has been really good for the most
of this year. Efficiency wise, EPA wise, success rate wise,
this is the best running game of the Zach Taylor era.
In terms of efficiency. They may miss some of the
power speed combo that Joe Mixon had, but in terms
of explosiveness and consistency and pass protection, they were in
a great shape for the running back position. And on

(01:39:51):
top of that, their pass protection and especially that Thursday
night Thanksgiving game was the best pass protection we've seen
in a long time. It's the highest past blocking great
PFF has given them since I believe twenty sixteen. And
when you think about that, that's been a long ten
years of watching and talking offensive line. Now we're talking
about it in a positive way. They're not allowing saxis

(01:40:12):
this year. It's the lowest rate since twenty fourteen. We're
talking about elite offensive lines in front of Andy Dalton
those two years. It's good. We're in good shape and
I hope this continues. I hope t Higgins gets back
and they can find their elite level over the final
five games, because if they can, I don't think anyone
wants to play them when they're at their peak gun offense.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
That's my favorite thing to say about the Bengals at
the end of every season. Nobody wants to play them
at home, right, Yeah, especially when the other thing to
you you mentioned the run game being so good. Is
it as simple as the offensive lineman are just performing
better or do you think it's a scheme tweak that
has led to that being a more explosive and dependable

(01:40:51):
part of their offense.

Speaker 4 (01:40:53):
I think it is a lot of a scheme tweak.
I think Chase Brown is running really well, but we've
also seen smatgp Ryan have more explosives than he's ever
had in his career. Maybe not this last Thursday night
where it seemed like, come on, give the ball to
Chase Brown, love and finish this game, but the offensive
line has blocked a lot better. And when I talk
in the scheme, I think it's the marrying of the
run in the past and when we used to use
that phrase in the pass and we've talked about that

(01:41:14):
for a how many offseasons. At this point I was
doing right, like, they got to figure out how to
marry the run in the pass game. Usually I was
thinking of it from the perspective of to make the
passing offense better, Right, let's get the run game going
so the pass offense can look better. They actually did
it in reverse, and it made me think differently this season.
Is their passing offense is good and everyone around the
league knows it, and they give the Bengals the lightest

(01:41:35):
boxes in the league. So what are the Bengals do
to get the run game going with that? Is they
make everything still look like a pass and they run
out of it, and they will have screens built on
one side and they'll run the ball the other way,
and it really takes even more defenders out of the box.
And they are there for the first time, really toying
with defenses in terms of instead of letting the defense

(01:41:56):
dictate when they're going to run the ball, they're almost
dictating to the defense. Or the first time I think
him the Neck Taylor era of hey, we know we're
going to show this. We know we're gonna throw the
ball sixty times a game. If you let us. But
if you don't bring that other safety in that box,
we will run the ball and we'll actually get explosive
runs out of it. And it's it's it's been great
and I think it's a good way of keeping the

(01:42:17):
game off of Joe Burrows shoulders. Now, I know I'm
saying this after the game where he just threw the
ball forty two times in the first half, but they're
going to get in these games. It's gonna it's December now,
these games are going to be a grosser, right. The
field's not going to be perfect condition, it's going to
be colder. You're gonna have to lean on Chase Brown
and some maidged p Ran and I think they are
in position to do that if they have to.

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
What do you make of the split between Brown and
p Ryan. It feels like a little bit two fifty
to fifty to me. What do you make of that?

Speaker 4 (01:42:45):
Yeah? I agree, maybe this Thursday was because they just
rode Chase Brown so heavily the last few weeks while
some madjet p Ryan was out. That's kind of how
I you know, justified it in my head. Maybe give
Brown a fiew snaps off, but he's been too good
to take off the field right now on a he's
been their second best offensive weapon. It's Jamar Chase and
then to me it's Chase Brown. Right now. Teagans is great,

(01:43:05):
but like you know, you look at the amount of
usage you're putting on a running back. The guy's gonna
touch the ball way more than the number two receiver.
He's gonna have fourteen He's on page fourteen hundred and
nine yards I believe it is, which would way out
pace the number two receiver. That's just how the game goes.
And he's been really good, six s great games of
one hundred plus yards because I got to look at
the receiving production because it's an extension of the run

(01:43:26):
game for the Bengals, especially when it comes to Chase Brown,
and he's got the second most catches on the team.
So I would like to see him on the field more.
I kind of get it, though. They got to give
him a little bit of a break, and I think
Samaj is so reliable usually other than the fumble on
Thanksgiving in past protection, he's so reliable that they would
like to get him out there for at least that
if you can give Chase Brown a mental break from

(01:43:47):
past protection, maybe a physical break in past protection, because
he's fine there. He's got one hundred percent past block
efficiency over the last six weeks as well, so you
can use these guys interchangeably. But I do agree I'm
looking for like a seventy thirty split right than more
of a fifty to fifty like we saw on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:44:02):
Last thing before I let you go. Does the Trey
Hendrickson situation seem odd to you?

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
It does, for sure, and I think it's because we've
been talking about Tray for so long. We've heard so
many like you know, the Bengals just being frustrated with
Trey being unhappy every year, wanting a new contract every year.
It's been drama every year for a long time. And
he's a great player, no doubt about it, and he
makes the defense better. I would love to have Trey
Hendrickson back for this stretch run, for this defense, to

(01:44:30):
try and take it to another level. But the last
we heard, you know, they went from being a back
issue to a hip area issue, maybe a sports hernia,
which it may take time, and I wonder if there
is frustrated frustration, like, hey, this should take a month
or so to heal. And Trey Hendrickson's looking at it like, listen,

(01:44:51):
I'm not committed to for multiple years. You guys gave
me a one year contract again. I don't have guarantee
money pass this year. I have to worry about myself
in free agency in the offseason, going to make sure
I'm healthy when that time comes. I will play when
I'm ready to play. I already tried to come back
early and got hurt and it didn't work out for me.
He can't have that happen again. So if he's just
waiting until he's healthy and he's going to take his time,

(01:45:13):
I can't blame the guy because they haven't committed to
him in the long term. But on the other hand,
the Bengals, Katie Blackburn's rightly looking at this like this
is exactly why we didn't commit to Trey andricks in
long term. So you know what, I just as a fan,
as someone who enjoys watching the team, I just want
to see him back so it can help them out.
And I hope he's healthy and I hope he can
end You're on a high note so he can get
the money he deserves in the off season.

Speaker 3 (01:45:32):
Yeah, You've pointed this out on your social media in
the past before, and I do think it's important to
note that that sometimes football can be as simple as
you just want to watch the best players play for
your team. I think sometimes we forget about that as fans.

Speaker 4 (01:45:45):
Yeah, that's exactly right, and that's why I always wanted
them to trade for Joe Flacka when it happened. I
wanted them to get a quarterback in here because I
wanted to see t against jamar Chees do their thing.
And I wanted Burrow to return because I like watching
Joe Burrow play, and on the defensive side, I want
to watch tre Hendrickson playing. It's the last year he's
in Cincinnati, and what a great five years. It's been
four and a half years. I would like to see

(01:46:06):
him one more time before it's over.

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
No doubt about it. Joe Goodberry Bengals on the Brain.
What are you working on? What do you got coming up?
How can people follow along with everything you're you got
going on?

Speaker 4 (01:46:17):
Yeah, tonight at seven o'clock, we got a Bengals on
the Brain presented by First Star Logistics. Film review of
Joe Burrow's return versus Baltimore. Look for that on the
First Media YouTube channel seven o'clock tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:46:28):
Awesome stuff. Joe, thanks so much, man, really appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:46:31):
Thank you, Austin.

Speaker 3 (01:46:32):
It is Joe Goodberry at Joe Goodberry on x Dude
knows this stuff. He watches the film, he consults the
data as you heard him reference a couple of different
times there, and awesome when we get a chance to
talk to him and have him on the show. One
of my favorite guests, one of my favorite people to
follow on Twitter that I've I think I've been following

(01:46:52):
him for almost fifteen sixteen years now, which is kind
of crazy just to go all around good dude. So
go check him out if you haven't already. We'll take
a break. Phone lines back open five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen to thirty. Anything you want to talk about. Plus
hear what Richard Patino said after his Xavier Team one
last night, Here what Wes Miller said after his bear

(01:47:15):
Cat Team one last night, and each Coach's final tune
up ahead of the Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout. All that
plus Moegar about half an hour from right now. It's
all next. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
From locker room whispers to stadium roars. He's got it all.
Moegar today at three pm on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:47:40):
Rolling right along Tony Pike since e three sixty ESPN
fifteen thirty, about half an hour or so to go.
You're wondering where Tony is. He'll be on WLW tonight
seven hundred, that is six to nine. He's got sports
talk in for Lance Mo between us from three to
six at Oakley Greens. We'll sell to him twenty minutes

(01:48:01):
from right now. College basketball conversation coming up in just
a second. But first let's go to the phones five one, three, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty. If you want to call in and be
a part of the show, Let's go to Mike in
Los Angeles right now. What's up, Mike?

Speaker 12 (01:48:15):
Hey, thanks, Pal, appreciate it. Hey. I really I'm going
to get right into the football thing. But I really
do think that Richard Patino Junior ultimately is going to
be a better coach than West Miller. I just think
the pedigree is there. You look at his dad. He's
been learning from arguably the best college coach head coach

(01:48:37):
ever in college basketball to win championships at two different
schools in the same state, by the way, and with
that kind of pedigree and that kind of learning that
he's just been groomed with since he was probably five
or six years old, I just think he is going
to be a superior co is a superior coach to

(01:48:58):
West Miller.

Speaker 3 (01:48:58):
Yeah, I think that's a I think it's a fair take.
I mean, we're still waiting on it for Wes Miller, right, Like,
we've heard a lot, and we've been told a lot,
but we haven't really seen a lot. And obviously the
expectations are a little bit different with Patino at this
point in the game. But you can tell there is,
you know, legitimate progress being made. Even if the opponents

(01:49:20):
maybe are not the best that they're going up against,
you can at least see, okay, this thing's heading in
the right direction.

Speaker 12 (01:49:25):
With Richard Patino, Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent.
And anybody that argues that, I don't know what the
basis or the substance of their argument would be. But
you know, I love this Goodbary guy, Austin. I loved him.
He's like the Bengals micro micro management analyst of Greg Cosel,

(01:49:46):
who does you know everything? You know?

Speaker 19 (01:49:48):
How?

Speaker 3 (01:49:49):
Yeah, it's a great comparison.

Speaker 12 (01:49:51):
Yeah, this guy is every time you now, especially today,
this guy, I mean, my god man, he open my
eyes up about a bunch of stuff. And I appreciate
you having him wrong because he really is. You can,
like you just said, you can tell he does his homework.
This guy's no joke.

Speaker 3 (01:50:11):
Yeah, And he mentioned does a film break down a
show that he posts on the YouTube page. It's it's
really insightful stuff and makes it easy for people who
maybe don't watch the film or don't know that much
of some of the terminology. Makes it really easy to understand.
So yeah, he's the best.

Speaker 12 (01:50:29):
Yeah, and even for me, I kind of understand it.
But he's still, you know, spends more time on it
than than most of us does. So that's and like
you said, he explains it very well to a layman.
But I don't know if that's the right term. But
I heard an interest. Did you hear Patrick this morning?

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
I heard a chunk of it, not all of it, though.
What happened?

Speaker 12 (01:50:54):
Do you hear the interview with Steve Young? He loves
Steve Young?

Speaker 3 (01:50:57):
No, I didn't hear Steve Young.

Speaker 12 (01:51:00):
And Steve Young is whattly a smart guy. You know,
he went on from football and guy he's a lawyer.
And the guy is just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant mind, and
he's a fun guy. But he was so Dan asked him,
why do you think Stafford's doing so well with other than.

Speaker 4 (01:51:19):
This debacle the other day?

Speaker 12 (01:51:21):
And he said, I'll tell you why, because you look
at the guys who are pure pocket passers, like Breeze,
like Peyton, like Brady, and now the only ones that
are left are Rogers and Stafford. And these guys are
playing quarterback of a higher intellect than the rollout passers.

(01:51:46):
And the guys who can run the ball, they can
pick a defensive part much more succinctly than than than
these guys in the current day style of quarterback. And
I wanted to get her a pack. I thought it
was a stute, but I wanted to get your opinions.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
Yeah, I think that's that's kind of part of the
years of like the spread offense and the seven on
seven style of offense that's come up through the high
school and college ranks. And Tony would be able to understand,
maybe explain this better than I could. But those guys
have seen every possible defense and combination of defense and
understand the different ways to beat it. Whereas a lot

(01:52:24):
of the days, a lot of times now, quarterbacks come
up through the system and this is what we're running,
and this is how we're gonna do it, and here's
your read, and if it's not there, take off and
use your legs and use your athleticism to go get
the first down. There's less going through the progression and
operating the offense and taking advantage of the defense as
much as it's one read and go and take off

(01:52:45):
with your feet. At least that's my perception of it.
And the more that you play and the more that
you see those defenses, the more that you understand. Okay,
And like a guy like Stafford or even like Burrow
for an example, it may not have the athletic ability
to do that. So they have to be able to
learn how to process it, have to be able to
learn how to get from one read to the other,

(01:53:05):
or when to check it down and stuff like that.

Speaker 12 (01:53:09):
That's what he was basically saying is these guys are
much more cerebral and and and their ability to to
just quickly dissect it. But like you said, they I
mean they didn't. They hadn't seen everything when they were
young guys, but they came up in that environment and
Uh and Rogers and Stafford are still around. So there.

(01:53:29):
I he made a sound like this, and now I
know you got to go. He said, Stafford. He laughed.
He said, Stafford is actually laughing at this stuff, and
so simple for him. He didn't know what happened the
other day. He said, it doesn't matter. We all have
a bad games. But anyway, thank you, Austin.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
I appreciate you, Mike, thanks for the call. I appreciate it.
Didn't Yeah, I mean I think Stafford too. Just ridiculous
arm talent and just a perfect marriage between UH quarter
back and coach and obviously the weapons Adams Nakua, their
run game. I mean, the Rams are the best team
in the NFC as far as I'm concerned, at least
right now. Time for another Let's go to Hyde Park.

(01:54:10):
Let's talk to Matt. What's up, Matt? Hey, awesome? How
you going, man? I'm good man. What's on your mind?

Speaker 12 (01:54:17):
Well, I'm I was calling in about the buck guys.

Speaker 8 (01:54:20):
I I was gonna see is there anybody Is there
anybody in the field, like on the playoff field that
scares you?

Speaker 4 (01:54:27):
Is there one team?

Speaker 3 (01:54:31):
I would say Indiana and Georgia. My friends say I'm
crazy for being scared of Indiana, but I mean, you
don't go twelve and zero on accident, and Signetti wins
everywhere he goes, so that in Georgia, just I feel
like has slowly been increasing in slowly getting better over
the course of the season. So I would say.

Speaker 8 (01:54:52):
Them, Yeah, I honestly I agree that there's really aside
from Bama, Georgia and Indian I don't I don't know
anybody that actually, I don't know anybody who can score
on us. I feel I feel great.

Speaker 25 (01:55:06):
I don't.

Speaker 8 (01:55:06):
I don't know, I feel good.

Speaker 3 (01:55:07):
It really comes to me though, it comes to those two.
Those two quarterbacks Mendoza and Gunner Stockton are experienced. They
operate the offense really well, and when you have quarterbacks
like that, you at least stand the chance against a defense.
It may not be, you know, a huge chance, but
when you have those, you know, experienced passers, I think
it means a lot.

Speaker 8 (01:55:29):
Yeah, And then I guess the other thing I left
to talk back the other day. I'm pretty passionate about this.
But with the Notre Dame in Miami, do you have
a do you have an opinion on that?

Speaker 3 (01:55:38):
I don't honestly, who would you who would you put in?
Who won head to head Miami?

Speaker 8 (01:55:44):
Right, yeah, well yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, But but
who would you put in?

Speaker 3 (01:55:48):
I don't know. I honestly, God, I've been not really
focused on that at all, but I would I would
probably put Notre Dame in.

Speaker 8 (01:55:58):
So yeah, I mean Notre Dame. They look they have,
they look so much better. But it's like, I mean,
Miami beat them. It's uh, it's true of High State.
Whenever whenever Ohio State got in, whenever we won the
national title in twenty fourteen, it was because of Baylor
and TCU. Uh, TCU had this amazing uh you know,
I guess resume. But but Baylor beat him head to head,

(01:56:20):
and that's and and but but Baylor didn't look great.
So they just said, well, we can't put we can't
put Baylor in ahead of TCU because like they just
have it looked great.

Speaker 12 (01:56:28):
So they just threw a.

Speaker 4 (01:56:29):
High State in.

Speaker 3 (01:56:30):
Yeah, and that's what that's what that was like, that's
what got us in. Yeah, you're exactly right. I mean,
I I wouldn't have a problem with either one of them.
I guess I would lean Notre Dame. But I don't
know that I really have a good reason for that
other than I don't trust Miami and I don't trust
Carson Beck. But yeah, I mean, this is this is
what I love about college football is that we get

(01:56:50):
to have this debate every single year. No matter what,
there's always this situation scenario.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
It is.

Speaker 8 (01:56:58):
It's gonna be like, there's gonna be probably three four
to five teams are all pretty much have the same argument.
They're all gonna look pretty close.

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, Balin or aka Matt.
Thanks for the phone call.

Speaker 8 (01:57:12):
Yeah, yeah, sir, have it going on.

Speaker 3 (01:57:14):
You too, man, that is a Ballin ain't easy, as
he's affectionately known to so many. While we were having
that conversation, the Bengals made a roster move. The Bengals
today signed cornerback Jalen Kimber to the practice squad. He
is a six foot one hundred and ninety pound rookie
out of Penn State. He was a college free agent

(01:57:35):
signee of the Titans. In May, was waived by the
Titans on final cuts and spent the four games earlier
this season four games earlier this season on Buffalo's practice squad.
He was released from the Bills on October fourteenth, so
earlier today. The Bengals signed Jalen Davis to the active roster,

(01:57:56):
and now they've signed Jalen Kimber to the practice squad.
That is the latest when it comes to the Bengals.
We'll take a break, We'll come back. College basketball Crosstown
Shootout coming up this weekend. Hear what both coaches had
to say after wins last night on ESPN fifteen to

(01:58:17):
thirty Welcome back Tony Pike, Sincy three to sixty On
ESPN fifteen thirty on Austin Elmore talked about the fact
that college basketball the world centers around Cincinnati on Friday
with the Crosstown or the Skyline Chile Crosstown Shootout. Well,
last night both teams victorious Xavier and Cincinnati, and their

(01:58:39):
final tune ups ahead of the shootout. Cincinnati won seventy
eight to fifty six over Tarleton State. Xavier won ninety
six seventy four over Saint Francis. Here is Xavier head
coach Richard Patino following his team's win.

Speaker 26 (01:58:56):
Well, certainly did some good things, did some bad things
as well. We're up twenty seven with five point thirty
to go, and you know, let them cut that lead
to twenty two. That was frustrating, but second half was
certainly good. We continue to not to turn the ball over,
which has been terrific. You know, twenty three assists, eight turnovers,

(01:59:17):
really good. Roddy provided a phenomenal spark off the bench,
So it was a great win. You know, we got
to learn some things, get a little bit tougher on
the ball defensively, but we're doing some good things and
now we certainly got to get back.

Speaker 3 (01:59:32):
To work tomorrow. Richard Patino in that victorious press conference
last night, he was pretty reserved, just thirty seconds or
so of an opening statement. Not quite as reserved was
Wes Miller following his team's win over Tarleton State. Here's
the Bearcats head coach.

Speaker 27 (01:59:50):
First off, We've been really trying to work on some
things offensively the last couple of days, and I could
see some of those things take in shape. I thought
we did a good job with our movement. You could
see the movement early. I thought we got the ball
to the inside with the dribble and with the pass early.
And I thought we generated really good shots early in

(02:00:12):
the first half. We didn't sustain it, but you could
see some of the stuff that we were doing in
the last couple of days of practice taking shape offensively.
I thought that the turnovers were careless. Now, Bob I
had seven of them in the first half, and you know,
he hadn't played basketball for eight days or whatever the
heck it's been, so you know, I know I said

(02:00:33):
this on the radio, but I'll say it now. I mean,
he ain't one hundred percent and he got hit. He
got hit, in my opinion, not a real good play
that he got hit on in the Louisville game. That
took him out, and he ain't one hundred percent, and
he sucked it up and played, And that, to me
is more important than seven turnovers. That, to me, is

(02:00:53):
what Cincinnati basketball's about. Everybody told him to sit out
for another week or so. He didn't want to sit out.
He wanted to play. Nobody made him play, nobody told
him to play. He said, I will play with my
teammates and help Cincinnati. So yeah, he had seven turnovers,
but I'll take the guy that wants to fight through
it when they're not one hundred percent all day, every day.
So I was pleased with that. But the turnovers not

(02:01:14):
just his, but we're careless. Three times we're jumping out
of bounds or falling out of bounds throwing the ball
to the other team. We made nice defensive plays. That
was frustrating, so we got some things we got to
clean up again.

Speaker 3 (02:01:26):
In the second half.

Speaker 27 (02:01:27):
I thought we did a better job of getting the
ball inside in the post, and I don't like moves
line in a game like that where he has such
a size advantage, we have to take advantage of that more.
And he had a couple of silly fouls and some
things not go his way. But I did think we
got it inside there. I liked that we run the
rebounding war again. The turnovers were frustrated, and some of
the defensive airs were frustrating, but there was some really

(02:01:49):
good defensive possessions too.

Speaker 3 (02:01:51):
That is you see head coach Wes Miller after the
win over Tarleton State. The Crosstown shoot Out. The Skyline
Chile Crosstown Shootout is Friday at seven thirty pm. You
will be able to hear it right here on all
of our networks in iHeartMedia Cincinnati, both the Xavier broadcast
and the Cincinnati broadcast. Good Night of College Basketball coming

(02:02:16):
up tonight mentioned earlier. Number eighteen Kentucky hosting number sixteen
North Carolina in the acc SEC Men's Challenge, a game
being played obviously at Rupp Arena. You'll hear it right
here on ESPN fifteen thirty. The Wildcats six and a
half point favorites in that game over North Carolina. Before

(02:02:37):
them in the acc SEC Men's Challenge is number four
Duke hosting number fifteen Florida at Cameron Indoors Stadium. That's
a seven thirty pm tip off and Duke favored by
eight and a half in that game. There's also a
top twenty five matchup between Yukon and Kansas, Number five
Yukon at number twenty one Kansas, Connecticut one and a

(02:02:59):
half half point favorites on the road at Allen Field
Hall at Fieldhouse. The number one team in the country, Perdue,
is in action. They are at Rutgers, Number twenty four.
Usc is at Oregon, number thirteen Tennessee at Syracuse Iowa
is at number seven. Michigan State as well. Those are
your top twenty five matchups in college basketball tonight in

(02:03:22):
KU back in action tomorrow night in the beginning of
Horizon League play for the Norse KU, by the way,
first place in the Horizon League right now. They get
started tomorrow night at Truest Arena with Cleveland State coming
to town. NKU six and two on the season, tied
for first in the Horizon League with Cleveland State coming

(02:03:46):
to town tomorrow seven pm in Highland Heights. So if
you're not watching that, you know what else comes back
on tonight For the first time in a long time.
It's been way too as far as I'm concerned. Let's
see if I have the music here ready to go.
That's right. Hard Knocks in season comes back on tonight

(02:04:10):
as well. You remember this was a big deal last
year when the Bengals were on it. It was the
AFC North. This year it's the NFC East. He might
be thinking, oh gosh, the Eagles and Cowboys. I don't
know that there's been a division in football with more
drama or more compelling storylines than the NFC East. Obviously,

(02:04:32):
think about the Giants. You got Jackson Dart and Camp
Scataboo and Russell Wilson and Brian Daball gets fired and
he's going into the blue medical tent. You've got the
Eagles and their nonsense with their offense and Kevin Petulo's house,
their offensive coordinator was just egged the other night by
Eagles fans. The AJ brown saga going on. You've got
Washington who had these major high expectations but haven't been

(02:04:53):
able to get off the ground. Jaden Daniels playing in
a game when he shouldn't have and got injured. Terry
mclaurin's injury all season long. They're also trying to get
a stadium built in DC. And then the Cowboys are
a soap opera every day. They obviously have the tragedy
of Marshawn Neeland passing away earlier this year, the trade
deadline and going after Quinn Williams and Logan Wilson and

(02:05:17):
all the different stuff that happened. I'm very excited to
check out Hard Knocks tonight in the NFC East and
for that season as well. We'll take a break, we'll
come back when we do. We'll talk to Moegar. He's
at Oakley Greens. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 26 (02:05:31):
Dewear it's time for Sincy three sixty quick hits on
ESBN fifteenth.

Speaker 8 (02:05:36):
There looking for more.

Speaker 3 (02:05:37):
Yes, indeed, it is time for quick hits. And this
is typically when we are joined by our friend Moegger. Mo,
of course on Tuesdays, does his show live from Oakley Greens.
And if I'm not mistaken, I believe we have Mo. Now,
Moe are you there?

Speaker 19 (02:05:53):
Mo?

Speaker 3 (02:05:54):
Not quite ready to go? That's all right? And uh,
Moe's show coming up this afternoon. I'm starting to see
levels now I don't know if Moe's there. Moe are
you there?

Speaker 12 (02:06:03):
Now?

Speaker 3 (02:06:04):
I am very much here? Hi man, how are you?

Speaker 11 (02:06:09):
I'm good man? How about yourself?

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
I'm wonderful the beauties of live radio when you produce
your own show. Uh, you got a show coming up
this afternoon. What's going to be on it?

Speaker 11 (02:06:17):
We're at Oakley Greens. Yes, we're at Oakley Greens. It's exciting.
It's warm in here. By the way, come to Oakley
Greens because the roads are fine. The roads are some
of the drivers aren't. The roads completely and totally fine.
So we're here at Oakley Greens. Paul Danner Junior is
gonna join us. I like that the Bengals. The Bengals

(02:06:37):
are back. I'm hearing some are saying the Bengals are back.
Paul has a couple of good pieces that we're gonna
talk about. He wrote about Joe Burrow in the aftermath
of the game on Thursday night. He also wrote about
the continued weirdness of the Trey Hendrickson situation, which we're
going to spend some time on. There's lots of different
Bengals issues to discuss with our guy, Paul Danner junr.

(02:06:58):
Sean sayed, stats and scheme news. Our guy who kind
of dives into x's and o's with us, is going
to talk about the improved Bengals defense. We'll get to
the Bills as well, since the Bengals play them. Jeff
Pikoro will be on the show. Kentucky is a new
football coach. Pick is going to join us to talk
about him. I got a few things we're gonna do,
an early take on the Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout. We

(02:07:20):
have multiple uc football truths, and I am looking for
the non financial reason why the Red should not sign
Kyle Schwarber, and I will compare Kyle Schwarber to a
ticket I bought to a game not that long ago.

Speaker 3 (02:07:34):
My biggest You were talking about drivers in the roads
and everything. Do you think Cincinnati has good drivers? I
think drivers are the same everywhere. I disagree with that.
I think since I has excellent drivers.

Speaker 11 (02:07:46):
I'm a good driver.

Speaker 3 (02:07:47):
Yeah, me too, you know, I mean I was in
Columbus the other weekend. It was miserable, awful.

Speaker 7 (02:07:53):
Really.

Speaker 3 (02:07:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (02:07:53):
See, you drive enough, you find bad drivers. But like,
this is what annoys me. We get a modern amount
of snow, right, Usually it's like we get like two
big snow days and that's it. I don't know if
today qualifies, but every time you do, you're gonna hear
from somebody who's like from upstate New York, like, god, yeah,
you folks don't know how to drive in the snow.
And invariably I'll go to like Syracuse dot com and

(02:08:16):
they will be on the front page twenty five car
pile up.

Speaker 3 (02:08:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (02:08:19):
Well, clearly you guys in the snow don't know how
to drive either. So I think that's one of the
most overrated tropes. People here don't know how to drive
in the snow. Now, if we were in Bloxy, Mississippi
and suddenly it snowed right in this place where they
never get snow, I'm guessing people would have no idea
what they're doing behind the wheel. I think as a
general rule, we have good drivers. I will tell you

(02:08:39):
this though, that in this era of like everybody shooting
each other, the one thing that I hate that has
gone away is like a real good give someone the
bird on the interstate who drives poorly. That used to
be a great amount of satisfaction that one would get
when someone committed a highway faux pas, and you would

(02:09:00):
just let him know how you felt by just sticking
them the gun, sticking them the bird. Right, I've been
on the receiver. Now you don't know right now you
have you have no idea. You throw someone in the bird,
they may pull out a clock. That is among the
many things I don't like about this era where our
national pastime is shooting everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:09:18):
You're not you can't really throw someone you double barrel.
You can't do it anymore. And I got scared. I
was like, I probably shouldn't have done that, even though
I laid on the horn. But yeah, no, it's you're
exactly right. Well, can I tell you something that happened
to me at this station? So this was just over
the weekend. Is it the Kroger on Harrison? Sure?

Speaker 11 (02:09:40):
Because I use my Kroger points to get cheaper, cheaper.

Speaker 3 (02:09:43):
Gas, smart people do.

Speaker 11 (02:09:44):
And I'm filling my tank and as I do, I'm
cleaning some stuff out of my car, this woman pulls up.
The first thing that happens is she nearly hits me
more my sort of negligence than hers. She pulls up
at the pump right in front of me, and I
just noticed like she never gets out of the car,
Like she pulls up to the pump and never gets

(02:10:05):
out of the car. Now, I remember what it was
like back in the day. My dad would drive you
pull up, guy would walk to the window. Can I
fill your tank? Can I clean your windshield? That sort
of We don't do that anymore. This woman just pulls
up and so I was kind of finishing up my
gas all that sort of stuff, and I like pull
up like next to her to pull out of the

(02:10:27):
gas station, and I see she has her window rolled
down in an obvious attempt to communicate with somebody, and
I thought, because she nearly hit me, she wanted to
say something to me. So I rolled down my passenger
window and I go, hey, everything all right, and she's like, yes,
I was hoping there would be a gentleman here who
would pump my gas for.

Speaker 2 (02:10:43):
Me, did you?

Speaker 11 (02:10:46):
Yes, nice woman. We're not talking about like a ninety
two year old lady. Woman was probably a little bit
older than me. I really appreciated that, right. She thought
chivalry was not dead, and you proved it well, clinging
to this like age when like men probably did that
for women. And I'm like, yeah, man, I'll do that

(02:11:07):
for you, no problem. Got out pumped the gas kind
of thought she tipped me or something that didn't happen
that happened on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (02:11:14):
Okay, Well, you've got some good karma out there that
hopefully will come back your way. Thanks, no problem. Moegar
is next for the Moegger Radio Show at Oakley Greens.
Thanks mo. He's a I love what he tells a
story and I have no idea where it's going. It's
my absolute favorite. Tony is back tomorrow high noon for

(02:11:38):
Tony Pikes since e three sixty. Thanks so much for listening.
Moeggar is next on the home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty

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