Tony Pike's Cincy 360 Hour 1 -- 11/12/25

Tony and Austin talk Bengals, college hoops, and more on ESPN 1530!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pike.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part
by Skyline Chili. Stop by Skyline Chili for a three
way or cheese cony today. Feeling good, It's Skyline Time.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
All right, good afternoon, Happy Wednesday. Welcome into the latest
edition of Cincy three sixty. You are listening on the
Home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
We're a service here and now number one of our
good friends at Skyline Chili. Anytime you're feeling good and
hungry at Skyline Time. I know for a lot it's
still too early to think about this, but get out

(00:40):
ahead of the holiday planning this year and get some
Skyline Chili gift cards. It really is that simple. And
then while you're there you can kind of knock out
your lunch or your dinner or breakfast. In some locations,
it is always Skyline Time, especially around the holidays. Thanks
for joining in today. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Our phone lines are on. Our phone lines

(01:01):
are working. We'd love to hear from you today, but
they might not be working. Okay, we hope they're working,
but give us a call regardless, and we'd love to
talk to you. We have talkbacks this afternoon. We have
a lot going on throughout the show today. The Great,
and I mean the Great, the Hall of Famer, the

(01:23):
Voice of the Bearcats, the Voice of the Bengals, Dan
Horde is gonna join us Austin in our number three today.
He's gonna kick off our number three at two o'clock
with us. That should I mean, I don't even know
what else you want in a show. We've got the
Great Dan Horde at two o'clock. Zach Taylor is scheduled

(01:43):
to meet with the media. Is that happening at one
o'clock in its normal timeslot as far as I know, Yes,
So we've got Zach Taylor, We've got Dan Horde, and
in our number three as well, we've got a gentleman
by the name of Brooks Downing. Brooks Downing is one
of the folks responsible for bringing the Hoops Classic to

(02:05):
the Heritage Bank Center next Friday night Louisville. You see,
we'll face off next Friday night as part of the
Hoops Classic, and Brooks will join us to break all
of that down in our number three, of course, Moeger
with quick hits along the way and your phone calls

(02:26):
mixed in. Speaking of the college basketball world, how about
last night? Now, we will spend time right off the
bat here. Today we'll spend time in the next segment
talking about u SE basketball. You see was victorious last night.
You'll hear what Wes Miller had to say after the win.
We'll get to that in just segment number two today.

(02:47):
But they did beat the Dayton Flyers, and they did
so somehow, some way, despite turning the ball over last
night twenty four times, twenty four turnovers for the Cincinnati Bearcats,
and somehow found a way to win seventy four to

(03:07):
sixty two over the Dayton Flyers. Now, Dayton did not
help themselves. They shot thirty two percent from the field.
And how about this line Austin two for twenty six
from three percentage wise? Do you have any guess what
that breaks down to. I think it translates to not
good seven point seven percent from three. Both teams shot

(03:29):
a ton of free throws, thirty seven for u See,
twenty seven for Dayton. U See just shot at sixty
two percent from the foul line. Dayton shot at seventy
four percent. But in a game where you turn the
ball over twenty four times, which leads to twenty five
points off turnover for Dayton Flyers to win that game
by twelve, albeit sloppy, was an impressive win for the
Cincinnati Bearcats. We'll talk about that win in segment number

(03:51):
two today. The other impressive win last night happened in Louisville, Kentucky,
and that was the Cardinals taking it to the Kentucky
wild Catch pretty much from the start to the finish. Now,
Kentucky went on a run late in the first half
to make it a seven point game at the half.
Louisville opened up a twenty point lead, I believe in
the second half before Kentucky did get it down to

(04:12):
four with just three minutes to play. But eventually Louisville
pools away. They win that one, ninety six, ninety six
to eighty eight.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
MIKEL.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Brown, Junior All American candidate, is a freshman last night
for Louisville, poured in twenty nine points in thirty three minutes.
That's a good Louisville team. I still think that's a
good Kentucky team, but that early in the year. That's
a lot of star power on the court on a
Tuesday night. Michigan last night was winners over Wake Forest

(04:44):
in overtime, eighty five to eighty four BYU The number
seven ranked team in the country trailed Delaware thirty seven
to thirty fourth to half before point away in the
second half. Eleventh rank Texas Tech fell at number fourteen
ranked Illinois by four, and the Gonzaga Bulldogs beat up
on twenty third rank Creighton ninety to sixty three last night.

(05:07):
To cap off a big night of college basketball. We
have Bengals Steelers that we will get to today. I
was doing this earlier Austin, and I want to ask
for your help. I need you to explain something to me.

(05:28):
I was doing a school visit for our oldest for
Wilder today and we were in the hallway with a
bunch of like these fourth and fifth graders, and one
of the kids asked me how tall I was, and
I said all around sixty six sixty seven, And I
made the mistake of saying six to seven around a
bunch of kids, and like in Unison, thirty kids at

(05:49):
once did the whole six seven type thing. Where did
this come from should I be worried if my kids
do the six to seventh thing? Does it mean anything bad?

Speaker 3 (05:59):
What is this?

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Well, first of all, I can't imagine that it's going
to be a thing for much longer. Yeah, I feel
like we're kind of at the end of it. I'll
be honest, I don't know that much about it because
I am too old for this type of stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
And what does I feel like when you get to
that moment in your life?

Speaker 1 (06:16):
For you? Because I'm too old for a ton of things,
you're just now entering that stage. What's it feel to
be too old for something? I just I search for understanding. Really,
I don't incorporate six seven into my life. I never will,
but I would just simply like to understand what it
means or how we got And so it has taken

(06:37):
me some time to do that. But luckily, some of
my closest friends are school teachers. Oh and they teach
really young kids, and so they have their finger on
the pulse, God bless them. So I will often ask them, Hey,
what does this mean? And so the explanation that I
was given for six seven was that there was one

(06:58):
of these streamers, one of these people like streams their
everyday life. Was at a food place and was trying
different foods and rating them, and he raided or she,
I don't know rated this food. He said, I don't
know six seven and kind of did this motion with
his hands that was then clipped and put into a song,

(07:22):
and then that song went super mega dummy hammer viral
on TikTok dummy hammer viral. Yeah, And so that has
then turned into what it is. And I think I
want to give actually a lot of credit to parents.
On Halloween, I saw hundreds of parents dressed up as

(07:44):
six seven, and how do you immediately make something not
cool anymore? And so I do think, and admittedly I
don't have a ton of young kids in my life
that I am around, but I do think that the
parents kind of leaning into the six seventh thing, and
even the teachers dressing up as it, leaning into it

(08:04):
has kind of stifled the six seven switch. Good but
maybe based off your report today, it's still alive and
well in some of these schools. But that's my understanding
of what it means. Shout out to Saint Mike's. It's
alive at Saint Mike's. Okay, I'll tell you that right now.
Last night NBA Action Nicks mos Nicks win to go
to seven and three. How about the Thunder Austin. They're

(08:25):
eleven and one. That's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Thunder are on fire. They dominated the Warriors.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
The Bulls are back in their rightful place, which is
in the play in tournament. Bulls played Detroit in a
row tomorrow night over under forty two shot attempts for
Kate Cunningham. That's not real, is it. I'm just asking, Oh,
it's gonna be under We're gonna shut him down. The
Pistons by the way of one seven in row. How
about the Jazz last night? The Pacers after going to

(08:51):
the finals last year and I get Tyrese Halliburton is out.
The Jazz put one fifty two on the Pacers last
night and they're one to ten on this early season.
We've got a change at quarterback in the National Football League.
The Giants are not going to start Russell Wilson against
the Green Bay Packers. They're going to start Jamis Winston

(09:14):
against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Mike Kafka is
the new interim coach for the New York Giants, and
in the immediate aftermath of the Jackson Dart injury and
trying to protect him and maybe he won't play that
much this year based off of that and the season
basically being over. But immediately instead of Russell Wilson turns

(09:38):
to Jameis Winston, which makes me wonder if there was
for some reason Brian Dabole didn't want Jameis Winston to play.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I don't get it. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
It is interesting to follow along and will be interested
to follow along with as we continue to go. I
just feel like teammates rally around Jamis more than Russell
Wilson at this point.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
I mean that's obviously how I view it. If you
remember a couple of months ago, you were up here
pounding the table for Drussell Wilson, saying he's going to
be the guy that can fix everything. Yes, no, I
also said Jamis. You did say Jamis, but we haven't
seen Jamis play. I also said about three other names,
just anybody we've seen Russell Wilson play. That dude stinks

(10:24):
and he's not respected by his teammates. The opposite of
one Joseph Flacco.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
How about that? How about that? So just another.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
You know, just more proof that Duke Tobin and Zach
Taylor no more than you, Jess not Checkers, you know
a lot more than you do. We are entering Tomorrow
night already week eleven of the NFL season. Jets Patriots
Tomorrow night. But if you look to Sunday Buccaneers Bills,
that feels like an interesting one in old high Mark Stadium.
I think Buffalo's a little uneasy right now with how

(10:56):
they've been playing. We mentioned Jamis getting to start DUTs
against the Packers'll talk more about the Bengals Steelers today
and for the rest of the week. But how about
four h five on Sunday Austin Seahawks Rams Maybe one
of the best games of the slate this year, both
those teams seven and two. I believe the Rams are
gonna be wearing their Nike Rivalry Edition Black Rams uniforms.

(11:20):
But yeah, I'm fired up for that one. That's gonna
be a good red zone game to have on the
late slate is awesome. I think Niners Cardinals not so much.
But that Seahawks Rams, Chiefs Broncos is in the late window.
And then Sunday Night Football you get Lions Eagles. That
should be awesome, awesome, awesome slate from the NFL College

(11:42):
you get Max tonight Miami Toledo. How about the RedHawks
at Yager Stadium taking on Toledo in a game It
feels like because Miami trip was tripped up against OU,
Miami's got to get themselves back on track. Here in
the map right now, Miami still at a tie for first,

(12:03):
Western Michigan, Buffalo, and Miami all with four one loss
in the league. Ohio Central, Michigan, Toledo, and ball State
have two losses. So this is a huge one tonight
for Miami to stay in that win column at the
top of the MAC and for Toledo to try to
gain ground in the MAC with just having those two
losses as well. The big game for the Bearcats that's

(12:28):
Saturday at noon. U See, by the way, comes in
at twenty five in the latest college football playoff rankings.
Outside of that, Clemson Louisville is Friday Night Minnesota, Oregon,
a pair of top twenty five teams in action. On
Friday Night. Indiana hosts the red hot Wisconsin Badgers upset
alert in Bloomington. If Luke Fickle does not wear the

(12:51):
vest I mean you have to you have to consider that.
I mean, the biggest things in college football right now
is not the buyouts, not the college Football playoff rankings.
It's what's Luke Fickle wearing and what type of headgear
to Scott Saderfield?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Really what it comes down to.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Eleven Oklahoma, number four Alabama. That's a three point thirty
start Iowa USC is a top twenty five matchup. Florida
goes on the road at Old Miss Utah. Baylor could
be an interesting one, and we mentioned this yesterday. Twelfth
rek BYU huge game next weekend against the Bearcats. A
tough one at home at ten fifteen against TCU. It's

(13:30):
only a four and a half point spread, So that's
one to keep an eye on. You also get a
top ten match up with number ten Texas at number
five Georgia and the number one team in the country.
Ohio State welcomes uc LA into Ohio Stadium on Saturday
night night game. Saturday night game, Yeah, big deal in Columbus. Sure,

(13:51):
all right, uh, let's break, let's come back college basketball
to start. We'll talk you see. You'll hear from Wes
Miller in his post game we'll move on from that
to some of your phone calls five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty and more on the Bengals Steelers, all leading
up to Zach Taylor speaking to the media at one
o'clock this on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station thanks

(14:11):
to Skyline Chile miss.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Fears to stadium roars, He's got it all Moeger Today
at three pm on ESPN fifteen thirty. This is Football
in the NATI, brought to you by Postman Law on
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of US Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
That tried. It's Football in the NATI. So why would
we talk about college basketball? We wait until the next
segment to talk about college basketball. Of course, my mistake
with Football in the NATI. Let's spend a little time
on the Bengals and the Steelers and really Austin. It's
the main question I have going into Sunday's game about

(14:55):
the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's a weird Pittsburgh team because if
you just look at how they've played this year, they
obviously have the huge win against one of the better
teams in the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts, they beat the
Colts twenty seven to twenty, but at their last four
that's been the only game they've won. If you take
the Bengals loss, the Packers loss, and the Chargers loss,

(15:17):
it's a team now clinging above five hundred and five
and four. But the bigger question to me is the
money that Pittsburgh spent on defense. Do you view Austin
Pittsburgh's defense as just going through a patch where they're struggling,
or do you view players like Cam Hayward, TJ. Watt

(15:40):
even at this point, Jalen Ramsey and others on this team,
do you just view them as just getting older? And
that's why the production has dropped. I mean, TJ. Watts
production is way down. And on the other side of that,
we've talked how good Jack Sawyers. Ben Alex Highsmith is
still a talented player. Cam Hayward doesn't seem as dominant
as we've seen in years past. We know the age

(16:02):
with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Is this a defense that
can still get better or is this a defense that
just cost a lot of money and they're just at
the end of the day getting older. Well, I think
the part that is most of the money has been
tied up to is upfront, and they're still second in
the NFL and sacks now they're behind Denver by a
large margin, but everybody is. I mean Pittsburgh has thirty

(16:25):
two sacks. Denver is up into the forties just with
that pass rush. But you know, I think you're still
getting production up front, maybe not at the level you
expected it to. TJ Watt, I just he has moments,
but he is not consistently the same player he was
yeah years ago. He gets double teamed a lot, and

(16:46):
that's part of it. And the other part of it
is when he's getting double teamed, there's less wins from
the interior, and so I think that in and of itself,
it's just not maybe what it used to be. Still effective,
still impactful, but not what it used to be. And
then their back end has just been discombobulated. I mean,
Jalen Ramsey has been playing safety, they let Juan Thornhill go.

(17:09):
They just signed to Sante Samuel a couple of days ago.
I'm not sure if he's gonna be able to play.
So they're looking for answers everywhere because their cornerbacks haven't
been great. Their safeties haven't been great, and that that
final level of their defense has just kind of been discombobulated,
not productive. And you know, I do think a little bit,
a little bit of it goes on Terrell Austin, the

(17:30):
defensive coordinator. I think a little bit goes a little
bit of it goes on Mike Tomlin as well. But
I think they're slowly getting better. They're not atrocious. I mean,
if the Bengals had their defense, I'd be thrilled. Bengals
would probably be five and four right now. Yeah, But
so I think they can continue to get better. To
answer your question, yes, I especially if Ramsey kind of

(17:54):
falls into a role there that works for him, and
if a Sante Samuel can be you know, better than
what they've had.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah. Yeah, that's my lead question.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
And I'm not questioning Pittsburgh's offense because I know they've
had their struggles, but I saw what they did against
the Bengals, so not in any place to question what
they can do. But I do wonder one of the
biggest surprises that I had in that first go round
between Bengals and Steelers was the I guess hard headed
nature of Terrell Austin to say we're going to play

(18:26):
manda man and that's that we're not getting out of man.
Man is who we are, and they essentially went down
with that ship. Jamar Chase that was the game. He
had twenty three targets and sixteen catches. T Higgins had
ten targets and six catches. But I wonder with how

(18:47):
bad it was and how easy it was for Joe
Flacco to move the ball on this Pittsburgh defense. Don't
forget with that man to man defense. Chase Brown ran
it for nine point eight yards of carrying that go
around against the Steelers eleven carries for one to oh eight.
Do you expect Sunday? I think probably biggest question going

(19:11):
into the game. Do you envision Pittsburgh saying it's who
we are, We're back to man to man or do
you envision Pittsburgh saying we tried man. We can't go
man against this team. We're gonna swallow our pride and
we're gonna play more zone defense. It's impossible to know
what they feel like might be the best way to

(19:32):
go about that. I would assume you'll see a little
bit more zone just because of those numbers that you
just talked about just to try to throw something different
at Joe Flacco. So yeah, I guess I don't know
that I would say they're gonna commit to that zone
the way that they did against the Bengals the first
time with their man coverage, maybe it'll be close to

(19:53):
a fifty to fifty split. What I'm most interested in
is do they commit to stopping the run first? Do
they say we're gonna make Joe Flacco beat us? Or
do they say we are gonna go zone. We're not
gonna let Jamar Chase beat us, and we're willing to
live with the results on the ground because again talking

(20:15):
about about the weather and the surface of the playing
the field, like who knows what it's gonna look like
and how that could affect the pass game. Sure, but
Pittsburgh's giving up over one hundred and five yards per
game on the ground as well, and you just mentioned it.
Chase Brown had a lot of success on that previously.
So what do they you know, where do they put
most of their eggs? Which basket do they put him in?

(20:37):
Is it Jamar Chase and T Higgins? Is it speeding
up Joe Flacco? Is it taking away the run? That
I think is a really important part of this game
for Pittsburgh's defense. I think on both sides if you
just sit back, because even the success Pittsburgh did have
in that first go round, Aaron Rodgers do for four touchdowns,
I was shocked at the amount of time Aaron Rodgers

(20:58):
had in the pocket. And I'm sure if you're sitting
as a Pittsburgh fan wondering the same thing about Joe
Flacco and just the inability, I wonder if these teams
do try to dial up more pressure early load the
box to not only, as you mentioned, slow down the run,
but at the same time try to provide more pressure
on both of these quarterbacks who at their age in

(21:18):
this point of their career, they don't want to scramble,
they don't want to move around. Both quarterbacks I thought
got too comfortable in the last game. I'm interested to
see that back and forth. Anytime you play a team twice,
how different does it look the second time compared to
the first time? M H And where do you go
and how do you grow from that? I think we'll
be fascinating to see Bengals are going to be coming

(21:40):
out of the by last time they were out of
the by in Pittsburgh they won a couple of years ago.
Pittsburgh has lost two straight games to the Bengals. Now,
believe it or not, kind of hard to believe. And overall,
I mean, and I just I'm also curious. We haven't

(22:00):
talked enough about Joe Flacco's shoulder. Yeah, he didn't throw
the other day.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
Now.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
I understand it's a Monday after a bye week, and
who knows, but you guys talked about it. I think
on the Tony and Most show, like getting shot up
with Tor Doll or whatever it might have been, and
to come down from that, and even just at his
advanced age, how it might take things a little bit
longer to heal. I'm curious to see what Flacco looks

(22:26):
like after the bye week. I will say this, the
come down from the towar Doll is one of the
worst things I've experienced. Yeah, because you said it's not
like a gradual it just stopped. Yeah, it just and
toward Doll. It's great individually because it essentially blocks the
pain that you would be receiving. But what you don't
realize in the moment is not only like for me.

(22:48):
Let's say Let's say for Flacco, it's the shoulder, so
it blocks that shoulder pain. But any hit you take
it also blocks that pain, so it wears off. So
now guess what, not only do my shoulders hurt? Now
my life? You know I took a shot on the thigh.
Now my thigh's throbbing, and I don't know why. You
know I took a shot to the ribs, now my ribs.
It's just it. It's it's the double edge story because

(23:13):
on one side it helps and on the other side
when it wears off. Man, it's it's brutal to get
back around to it. And it's not something you can
obviously take before every practice, nor do you want to.
So then it's back to managing the pain and how
things go about that way. So it is a very
good storyline to watch as well for the health of
Joe Flacco. Let's grab a phone call before we get
a break.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
What's up, John, Good afternoon, fellas, How are you good?
How are you We're doing okay?

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Six?

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Seven? For the most part I thought was the PFF
grades for Sjamar Stewart and Miles Murphy combined, But I
guess they're not.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
For Austin for clearing that up. And if you guys
are old, look, Austin, you're what thirty?

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, just turned thirty?

Speaker 4 (23:54):
All right, I've got shoes older than you, and Tony,
I don't think you've reached four yet.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Right yet?

Speaker 4 (24:01):
All right, so please don't say you're all up sixty two.
I'm sixty two, but I have the spirit of a
fourteen year old. So that's why I love what saying
to you, guys. Absolutely, I know. When I last talk
to you on Friday, we talked a little bit about
Joe Burrow's return, and I mentioned that Albert Breer, the
senior content created for Sunday Morning Quarterback, was on the
morning show at the ninety five the Sports Hub, and

(24:24):
he talked about that, you know, if the Bengals get
to nine and eight, Borrow's back, who wants to play
them in the first round? And then I just kept
digging a little bit deeper. I have a sneaking suspicion
that Borrow's playing against the Patriots on the twenty third.
And I've been saying that for a while now because
I think, knowing how he's wired that loss of the
Patriots in Week one, a year ago still bothers him.
They win that game, they make the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
There was probably his.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
Only bad performance in twenty twenty four. And also, you
know how these quarterbacks work, Tony your quarterback, the guys
in their prime, whether it's Burrow and Mahomes or Alan
or Lamar Jackson. Now they're looking at Drake may As like, okay,
he's the flavor of the month, he's the favorite to
an MVP. I think Borrow wants to get out there
on the twenty third and say, hey, don't forget about me.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, and there is something too. At this point of
the year, you're not doing it. It's harder to do
in the NFL. New England is no longer sneaking up
on anybody. You know, you can do that if teams
be okay, they're still a year away. Now you got
the bulls eye on your chest. That changes the preparation.
It changes the focus. You have to answer a different

(25:23):
bell each and every opportunity you get. I think it
does help the Patriots that they are going to get
the mini by ahead of the Bengals game. You know
they play the Jets tomorrow night, so that'll be an
interesting one to watch. But yeah, I do think it
is different. I know there is something about Burrow that
would want to say, listen. I know everyone's talking about
Drake May, but let's not forget where I am and

(25:45):
the hierarchy of things in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, without question, it still makes you bang your head.
How they lost the Jets and Bears back to back weeks.
I mean, look at the Jets offense the last four weeks.
They had eighty two yards against Tenver. You have two
hundred and twenty yards against Carolina, one hundred and sixty
nine yards against Cleveland. We their offensive pathetic. It's five
hundred and two yards against the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Incredible.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
That's just historically bad. So I'm hoping that if thinking
he got a win against Pittsburgh on Sunday, get to
four or six, I would not be surprised if borrows
well in the shotgun. I'd like to see more on
the center, but in the shotgun when the Bengals take
on the Patriots on the twenty third, I did a
great story.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yeah, John, thank you anytime.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Fellows, Yes, sir, yeah, I mean, if we've gotten to
this point, why wouldn't he listen? There's there's nothing to
me that's going to say why I doubt Burrow would
do that anymore?

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, we we all thought like the best case scenario
was the Miami game. So I'm not I'm not going
to question or doubt his capability of getting back quicker.
I also think there's a couple of different things here.
Number One, we see what it looks like after a
week of practice, because he's going to practice again today
and I'm sure going to be a part of the
whole thing. And does how does something happened to Joe flakosh?

(27:00):
Does he maybe regress? Does he have a bad game?
Does somebody else get hurt where it's like, okay, we
got to go to Joe here. Whether they win or
lose the game, I don't know. I mean, if they lose,
I have a hard time believing it. But if they win,
even if they were let's just say they sweep the
AFC North, they still need at least another win from

(27:26):
New England Buffalo, Miami, Arizona. So yep, I love talking
about this. It'd be fun to talk about Joe Burrow
doesn't play defense. Yeah, can Flacco probably if he gets
the tordle. I can't imagine he's worse than what I've

(27:48):
watched this year.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
It's just a good point.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Like Shamar Stewart, by the way, Happy birthday, Shamar Stewart,
Happy birthday. Chamar probably picking himself up off the ground
right now because he's always on the.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Good Flaco stay upright. Great question.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
All right, a little on UC basketball win from last night.
When we return ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Thanks
to Skyline Chili.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
You've been listening to football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Please here ESPN fifteen thirty, Welcome.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Back since e three to sixty thanks to Skyline Chili.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
Talkbacks in their normal spot in our number two. Today
your phone calls welcome five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty will take some calls here still in our
number one. Zach Taylor kicks off our number two. Dan
Horde kicks off hour number three and so much more.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
For now, let's focus a little bit on what happened
last night. I mentioned the Cincinnati Bearcats got to win
over the Dayton Flyers last night. It was a I
don't want to say tough moment, Austin, but I took
Wilder to the game last night and went to the
concession stand. Brendan Sorosby's out there in the lobby and

(29:21):
Wilder says or I introduced. I said, oh, it's you know, Wilder,
This is Brendan, and Wilder says, oh, that's my favorite
UC quarterback.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Oh no.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
And there's just a moment there, yeah, where you kind
of think, what do you mean your favorite quarterback, your
favorite current quarterback on this roster, or your favorite quarterback
in general. Sorsby was nice enough to talk to him
for a few minutes, took a picture with him. Wilder
got a kick out of it. But it's one of those,
uh perhaps changing to the guard moments last night. Yeah,

(29:51):
I listen, man, I know it's like to feel like
choppl Liver, I really do, and to feel like you're
forgotten about. So that's tough for you, especially with it
being your own, your own son and my blood. He
just got a Tony Pike jersey, if I'm not mistaken,
just a couple of days ago. Shout out to James
or peenep he's already passed it. Sorry, man, it's already done.

(30:12):
Things were different. Let me know when Sworsby wins something.
Oh man, you gotta win one Saturday with the utmost respect.
I gotta win one Saturday. I mean, it's not like
you ever won a bowl game. But thank you got
to him. I was on a couple of bowling teams.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
You.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Uh, these guys win a conference or something. Yeah, a
couple of conference titles. Yeah, back to back you in
the sheriff anything.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Last night.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
I mentioned this before, and you'll hear this in West
Miller's uh stayment here in just a few minutes, twenty
four turnovers in a game last night. Kerk Crisa and
Dayde Thomas combined for eight of those twenty four. Those
are fifth and six year guys. You're not going to
do anything. You're not going to make any new any

(30:56):
noise throughout a big twelve slate if you're going to
turn the ball over at that clip, especially if you're
doing it at the guard position. Now, everyone everyone played
a hand. Boba Miller had four, Daya had three, Shanna
Bive had three, Kerk Crisa had five, Jordi Rodriguez had two,

(31:17):
Keshan Tillery had two, Sincere Harris had two, Jalen Selustein
had won. Everyone turned the ball over last night. But
is there silver lining in winning a game by double
digits against parentally a good Dayton team when you turn
the ball over twenty four times? Now it helps that

(31:37):
the bear catch shot forty six percent from the field,
forty seven percent from three. Still struggling at the foul
line just twenty three of thirty seven. That has to
get better. How long have we talked? How many years,
Austin have we talked about UC free throw shooting the
whole time we've been doing this show together. It's insane,

(31:58):
It's absolutely.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I've never understood it.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
I don't get level of basketball doesn't matter if it's
JV girls, high school, doesn't matter, if it's Wilder's team,
it's incredible. Doesn't free throws that they have free in
the name? Yep, figure it out now for you see,
they have one more chance to figure it out. They

(32:22):
play the Mount Saint Mary's Mountaineers on Sunday at fifth
Third Arena. Mount Saint Mary's has a loss against West
Virginia and Buck. Now they did beat Saint Francis. But
that is the last tune up for the Cincinnati Bearcats
before they will head to the Heritage Bank Center and
take on currently the twelfth rank Louisville Cardinals. That's going

(32:44):
to be a top ten Louisville team based on their
win last night over the Kentucky Wildcats. Louisville plays owe
you on Saturday. That is their final tune up before
they play the Cincinnati Bearcats. By the way, Louisville coach
Pat Kelcey injured his finger last night celebrating to win.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
I saw that.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
So an injury to Pat Kelsey something to watch ahead
of next Friday night, see how he responds. But the Bearcats, again,
I'll give them credit in the sense that they turned
the ball over twenty four times, shot sixty two percent
from the foul line, and still won a game by twelve.
You're not going to win many games going forward by
turning the ball over that many times. This is what

(33:26):
Wes Miller had to say last night after the Bearcats.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Went I told the guys in the locker room that'll
go in the book one day, turn it over twenty
four times and win and so. And this may sound crazy,
but those are the best wins. Sometimes the best wins
are when you can't make a shot and can't throw
it in the ocean and you still find a way.
One time, years and years ago, we coaching a team,

(33:51):
we gave up twenty I think it was twenty four
made threes, sixteen made threes in the first half, and
we still won the game. And I think when you
can overcome something like that, the character piece is the
parts you're most proud of, and those are the ones
you remember the most. But I'm really really pleased that
we won. I have so much respect for for Anthony

(34:12):
and for the Dayton staff. I've gotten to know those
guys being in the area here. I respect them as people,
I respect them as coaches, and I respect their program
a lot. I don't think of them as an Atlantic
ten team.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
I think of them as a power for team.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
So we found a way to win a game against
a big time program and a big time team at home,
and that part I'm really pleased with. I thought the
running game had its good moments and bad moments, but
when we were able to kind of crack them and
transition there late in the second half, I think that's
why you do it. It's a collective effect. It's not always

(34:46):
going to happen early. But I thought it had some
signs that you could you could see it could be
really good. We got a lot of work to do defensively,
we have a lot of work to do on the glass.
We have a lot of work to do with our
half court offense. And we played against different kinds of defenses.
They were switching everything tonight and we got a little stagnant.
And we'll I'll tell you what. It's a lot more

(35:08):
fun to learn when you're winning. And and but we
better take it as serious as we get back into
the tape and get back to work with the players
as if we wouldn't have won the game, because we do.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Have quite a bit to do.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
But please, with please that we found a way to
win in spite of not playing our best basketball.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
All right, So that is Wes Miller after the win
last night. So again there's parts I agree with you.

Speaker 5 (35:30):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
It's it's much better to correct things and work on
things when you win a game as opposed to losing
a game. There was also a statement made last night
Austin by Kerr Crisa. He goes by Kerr now on
the back of his jersey, which again I think I'm
a fan of.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
But Kerr after the win last night, was talking about
Dayde Thomas and essentially mentioned, you know, Kerr got to
the locker room about two hours before tip yesterday and
saw day Day Thomas coming into the locker room like
in a full blown sweat, like had just put in

(36:07):
a full workout. And Kerk creesa looks to dayDay Thomas
and courage explaining this in his postgame press conference. But
he looked at dayDay Thomas and he said, man, you
look like you're getting ready to go for thirty tonight,
you know, getting some work in full body sweat. And
day Day Thomas looked at Kirk Creese and said, no,
I'm going to make sure Javon Bennett doesn't do anything tonight.

(36:28):
And Bennett is the best player for the Dayton Flyers.
And last night Bennett went three for fifteen from the field,
twelve points and turned the ball over twice. Javon Bennett
is the guard for Dayton that really makes them go.
So I like that mindset, Austin. I like the idea
of man, I'm getting into the locker room and here
comes day Ay Thomas. He looks like he's ready to

(36:50):
go for thirty and day Day's response is, no, I'm
going to shut down Javon Bennett tonight. That that's the
mindset you have to have to be successful, especially on
a team like U. See who's gonna try to get
out and run. That I think is going to prove
very key, as this team is unique in a sense

(37:10):
that it's got veterans, it's got guys that have been
in the program and some young talent all kind of
blending in together. Bob A Miller eight points and ten
boards last night. He led the team in rebounds. Mustapha
Chom five points and seven boards on the night day
Dave Thomas was the leader last night, twenty points he
poured in. Shawnabive had fourteen. If Shanabiv can figure out

(37:33):
how to shoot free throws, he's going to be a
much better player. He was just fifty percent from the
foul line last night. Kerkresa had nine points and off
the bench, Tyler McKinley added four, Sincere Harris headed eight
and Jaylenzelestine added six. That's how the Bearcats got to
seventy four again. They'll play Mount Saint Mary's on Sunday,
and then they will play next Friday night at Heritage

(37:58):
Bank Center against Pat Kelsey Louisville Cardinals. Plenty more on
that as we go. For now, we'll open up the
phone lines again five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen
thirty your calls and a wrap up to our number
one next on the Home of the Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
He's Taylor Versus Tomlin, the.

Speaker 6 (38:17):
Official home of the Cincinnati Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Welcome back since e three to sixty.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Shout out to our friends at Skyline Chiley anytime you're
feeling good and hungry at Skyline time. Thanks for listening,
thanks for being a part of the show. Your talkback
has come up an hour number two, Zach Taylor's weekly
press conference will kick things off in just a few moments.
To kick off the second hour of the show. We
have we've spent time on the Bengals, and we will

(38:57):
again as the show moves on. We have talked the
college sports landscape. We have not spent a lot of
time on the Reds and I get it to the
offseason and free agency has been kind of quiet. No
major deals have really been turned in yet. You asked
me something though, yesterday, Austin, that I thought at least
appropriate to circle back to for just a moment. The

(39:19):
Cincinnati Reds are going to be without a few key
players going into next year, players who became free agents
after this season ended. Those players include Nick Martinez, Zach Lttel,
Wade Miley, Miguel and Juhar, Emelio Pagan, Austin Hayes, Scott Barlow.

(39:44):
Out of the players that right now the Reds have
lost this offseason already, Austin, who is the most valuable
or who is the hardest that this team will have
an issue replacing. I would have to say it's the bullpen,
just because there's so many people in there. I don't

(40:07):
know that I would say Emilio Pagan specifically, because I
do think he was fine this year, but he wasn't,
you know, spectacular, He wasn't absurd. I wasn't the biggest
Pegan fan. But it's like the trickle down effect of
his absence and Scott Barlow's absence too. I think Scott
Barlow ended up pitching in two hundred and forty games

(40:28):
for the Reds last year, can you have I know
Charlie wrote about this today or late last night. A
left handed reliever and a high leverage reliever, and who
is the guy who's gonna take control of the closer position.
I'm assuming Tony Santian gets the first crack at it

(40:48):
going into spring training, and he's deserved that that chance.
But there's just a lot of guys to replace in
the bullpens. So for that reason, it's more than just
one guy. I mean, I would love to have somebody
as productive as Miguele Andahrr was after the trade deadline.
I don't know if it was he the best move
they made. Yeah, probably, I don't know that. You know,

(41:13):
Zach Lytel was okay, Yeah, yeah, I would say Migueleandhrer
I don't think it.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
There wasn't a ton that that obviously this team did.
But it's just it just awesome to me. It feels
like such a weird spot for this organization because they
are losing. I think you would refer to many of
them as role players. But when you lose that many
role players and you don't have that many top end
stars that have been consistent enough for this team. It

(41:41):
just feels like this organization is in a very unique
situation right now going to the offseason. It feels like
there's a ton of holes and a ton of questions
that have to be answered.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
I mean, I think that, and I don't even know.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
It might not even be questions at this point, because
we already pretty much know that Elli daily Cruz is
not going to move to the outfield. Yeah, that was
confirmed yesterday, and I know Charlie reported that as well.
I don't know that I would say it's really a
unique situation. They need pitching depth. Every team in baseball
needs it. Every team in baseball is looking for relievers.

(42:17):
And I'm curious based off of how the trade deadline
went last year, the price for relievers was ridiculous, and
I'm curious if that's going to be the case again
this year in the offseason, just because of the way
that pitchers are used in today's day and age, teams
and players going five innings and max velocity, and then

(42:38):
you turn over to the bullpen and you saw just
how important a bullpen that's formidable was over the course
of the playoffs. So they're in the boat, the same
boat as a lot of teams, which is they need
help in their bullpen, and I don't know if they
have what they feel like is the money to do
that while also adding depth to the roster right outside

(43:01):
of the bullpen itself. How does Spencer Steer fit into
the equation? Because he was excellent at gold gold glove
level first basement defensively, offensively, we started to see who
he was in the second half when he was fully healthy.
Can he be like Chris Bryant in twenty sixteen with

(43:21):
the Chicago Cubs. He played third base, he played second,
he played first, he played outfield. Spencer Love's moving around
to different positions. Can he be the jack of all
trades this year and consistently perform offensively and allow some
flexibility for the rest of that roster? That might determine. Okay,
here's where Gavin lux is gonna be, Here's where South
Stewart is going to be, and so on. What also, like,

(43:44):
what is the what's the bounce back if like Matt
McClain is at essentially a similar level next year?

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, you gotta move on.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
How quick are you ready to pull the plug? You
should because this year there weren't willing to do it.
They can't go an entire summer with him performing that
poorly and just give him a chance to figure it out.
If you're serious about winning, that's the thing, then you
gotta say, Okay, Matt, we're gonna send you down to
Triple A, We're gonna send you back to the Complex
League or whatever it is and figure this out. If

(44:16):
you're on as you refer too many times, on an
aggressive pursuit of a championship, he's not just handed anything
going forward. Yeah, I mean, the big thing with this
Reds team, it's gonna basically be the same team, and
how they spend that twenty million dollars to add depth

(44:37):
and to fill out the bullpen is going to determine
how successful they are in twenty twenty six and do
they have players on the current roster ready to take
a bigger step to contribute to this team. South Stewart
somebody like that, Yeah, I mean, what if there's mate.
There's one thing I've learned, I don't trust anybody to
take a step. Zach Taylor has a big step to

(44:59):
take this week, he speaks to the media. We'll carry
that next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

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