10/29/25 - Bengals Game Plan

Dan Hoard & Dave Lapham get you set for the Bengals week 9 matchup vs the Chicago Bears. Special Guest: Barrett Carter

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And away we go a very pleasant, good evening, everybody.
Greetings from Scoreboard Sports Bar thirty seven eighty three Shady
Lane is the address in North Bend that you are
listening to the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light,
Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy Here on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(00:46):
I'm Dan Hord along with Ring of Honor inductee Dave Lapham.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thank you very much, much appreciated folks.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
We are going to be here for the next two
hours tonight getting he's set for a Sunday's home game
between the Bengals and the Chicago Bears. We will be
joined momentarily by rookie linebacker Barrett Carter out of Clemson,
who has already moved into the Bengals starting lineup two
rookies starting at linebacker with Barrett Carter and Demetrious Knight.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
The future is now, I guess at the linebacker position
and Al Golden, you made that call. He feels confident
in both of these young players that they understand what
he is trying to teach. They understand the techniques from
fundamentals that he's trying to teach, as well as the
assignments where to be, when to be there, how to
get there, everything that goes along with it out in

(01:39):
the football field, and he feels like these young athletic
linebackers will make his defensive football team faster, more athletic,
and a bigger challenge for posing teams to block.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
The Bengals looking to bounce back on Sunday from a
bitterly disappointing loss last Sunday to the New York Jets.
The Bengals led by tenant the end of the first quarter,
eleven at the end of the second quarter, fifteen at
the end of the third quarter. The lead kept getting
bigger and then unfortunately at the end of the game
it slipped through their fingers and they lost by a

(02:12):
point to a team that now has one win.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was frustrating. I mean, you know, grind your teeth,
grit your teeth kind of football game. Ozho and seven
football team, like you said, you know, they've been in games.
It's not like they were blown out seven times. They've
been in football games. They're not a terrible football team.
They're a solid football team. But they just had not

(02:37):
figured out a way to close games out and get
games in the victory column. But they did at pay Corps.
They got in the victory column for the first time.
And I think it was more of what the Bengals
didn't do, you know, to finish the football game. Like
you said, Dan, you have a fifteen point in the fourth,
fifteen point lead in the fourth quarter. You got to
win that football game. You got to close that thing out.

(02:59):
I mean, you got to make make a play, a
final some kind of a play that will put the
knife and the dagger in the back of the opponent,
you know, and and just quiet them. But hey, you know,
you get to credit the New York Jets. They did
what it took to to win a football game. They
felt like they had to. I mean, their season talk

(03:19):
about season on the brink, as that old show says,
that's what was going on with the New York Jets,
and they felt a definite sense of urgency, a definite
sense of you know, one and done, we got to
get this done. They approached it, I would think probably
like a playoff game. You know, during the course of
the week, the installation part of it, and then travel

(03:44):
and take care of yourself before the game, get plenty
of rest, get up and give it the best of
it you can give on Sunday and try to come
home with a victory.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Other than the last two minutes of the game. How
is your Ring of Honor Week spectacular?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
It was really good. It was tremendous, so much fun,
and you know, the ones that I wanted to try
to get to enjoy it as much as they possibly could,
with the grandchildren, you know, because there they'll never forget that,
They'll never forget coming to Cincinnati and spending time with everybody.
A lot of people that they don't see. People came

(04:20):
in from California, Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, fromont Connecticut, Maine.
I mean, it was a quite a gathering. So they
saw people that they hadn't seen for a while. And
then they saw other people they had never seen before,
so it was good to expose them to that, and

(04:43):
they all had a grand time. There's no doubt.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Now, if I won the Masters, Yeah, and I had
that green jacket, I'd be wearing it everywhere. I'd be
showing up at McDonald's in my Master's jacket. Where is
your ring of honor jacket?

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, it's uh, it's tucked away in my closet, safe
and sound. It really is. It's such an honor to
get that jacket. A lot of work went into that
bad boy, no doubt. When I take a look at it,
it's like a lot of blood, sweat and tears, you know.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Uh, We're.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Poured out to get that jacket. So it is definitely
definitely an honor, you know, to have my teammates and
my family celebrated with me. Was be on words.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
All right, let's welcome our special guest tonight. We really
have to thank them. Yes, kind of a crummy raw night,
pretty long drive from pay Court Stadium, but it was.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
One big guy and he was willing to do it
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Let's welcome in number forty nine Bengals linebacker Barrett Carter, Sir.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
All right.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
I guess I have to get this out of the
way right off the bat. Last week's game is obviously disappointing.
How do you personally put a game like that behind you?

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah, I mean, just being truthfully honest, even if we
won that game, it would have been behind me already.
So you gotta treat wins and losses the same. Now,
I'm such a competitor and I'm not even gonna like
I'm hurt by that game. But you know, as a
leader on this team, a growing leader on this team,
like the guys are gonna look to me to see
how I respond, So I can't show up negative. I

(06:30):
gotta flush that. Obviously correct the mistakes, but gotta flush
that and move on to the Chicago and just you know,
try to get to Sunday and walk out with a w.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I guess the one question. I know I've been hit
on social media, podcast and all that sort of thing
a lot of the fans. How what is with tackling?
What's going on? Why is the team having difficulty tackling,
making sure tackles in the open field, in space and
getting people on the ground. What do you say to that, Barrett?

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, I mean it's the little things. It's I promise
y'all it's not a knock on our athleticism or our ability. Right.
We have all the talent and all the athleticism in
the world. It's just it's the little things. It's taking
better angles, it's finishing up as being the second man
in helping your brother finish that tackle. So it's just
a little things like that. But you know we have

(07:21):
what we need that building to correct the mistakes and
you know, move on from these mistakes.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Sure, the guys on defense head a players only meeting
on Monday. I wouldn't expect you to share any secrets
or anything personal that came out of that meeting, But
what what was the gist?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
What can you share? Just that like, we know we're
much better than you know what we're putting on film,
and like we're we have we so we hold ourselves
to such a high standard and you know we all
can see that we haven't you know, like reached that
standard in game yet. So it was just a just
a meaning just to get us together and just hey,
like we're all we got, we're all we got in

(07:56):
this room where we were all we we all we
need so that was just a message and just you know,
just keep working every single day, day in and day out,
get one percent better. You know, come Sunday, you know
it's time to dominate. Go have fun. And that's been
the message, just like this is the this is our
childhood dreams that we're living, that we're you know, getting
to you know, do every single day and just you know,
just go out there and have fun and play this

(08:17):
game like like it's like it's your dream, which it is.
So that's all it was.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, player only meetings. I've experienced those back in the
playing days, and I think whenever we had them, it
was because everybody cared, you know, and cared big time.
Didn't want the season to you know, unfold in the
wrong way. And you know, if we go off to

(08:42):
a slow start, okay, let's let's let's meet. Let's talk
this over. What do we need to do? How do
we uh, how do we get it on track? How
do we how do we get the you know, the
train rolling again on track and get it going and
see if we can salvage you know, a good season
out of this, uh, out of this slow start? Was
what was the was the mindset similar to.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
That absolutely, Like like I said, like, we know what
we've been putting on tape is not our identity, Like
our standard is Santa Clair. And at the end of
the year, we hope that we're gonna, you know, look
up and you know we're gonna be under the confetti
when when the time runs out, and now we know
what what we've worked so hard every single day towards
and we realize that we haven't accomplished that, but we're

(09:24):
working towards that every single day. So just like you said,
that was the message, and you know, we're just trying
to just keep stacking days and you get better and
just show up on Sunday, just walk out with a
w every Sunday.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
You are eight games into your rookie season, basically halfway
through the regular season of your rookie year. You're already
starting started the last three games at linebacker. Did that
starting role come quicker than you anticipated? I mean, honestly,
you did. I didn't.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
My My my thing is like even when I wasn't
the starter, I showed up every single day like I
was a starter. So when I when I was told
that I was being you know, thrust it into that position,
like it didn't change anything for me, Like it didn't
change my preparation or anything like that. So I don't
I don't really know the answer to your quot. I
guess I would say, yes, it did happen earlier than expected.

(10:17):
But it's just a blessing that I get to live
my dream every single day and play in the NFL
like I could be. I couldn't even touch a few,
and I was still have a smile on my face
just knowing that the little version of myself is no
proud so but I'm just trying to just go out
there and just you know, do my part, do my
one to eleven and you know, bring a w for
for our fan base and for this team, and just

(10:38):
just do my job every time.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Al Golden is a is a brilliant defensive mind. I mean,
the guy has got extras and those dancing in his
head all day long and all night long before. I
think the only time where he shots that football brain
down is when he goes to bed at night and
tries to catch forty winks. But he really has done
it great job. He's had some great defensive football teams

(11:02):
over the years. Most recently is most recial accomplishment taking
Notre Dame to the national championship with that defense that
he had, that played so extraordinarily. Well, what does Al
Golden teach? What are his principles, what's his defensive mindset?
What does he want his defense to do? It all cost?

Speaker 4 (11:23):
First of all, fly around to the football and get
the ball out. You know, our our message the whole
season is plus two and just get the two turnover,
at least two turnovers. Get the ball back to our offense.
You know, say, so they can go do what they do.
But I actually can't say like my favorite Al Golden
quote because it has a little bit of language. Ay.

(11:43):
He basically just says like, you know, we're smart guys,
but be problem solvers. Like if something is messed up,
unmess it up. And that's the you know, PC version
of the but he says. What I love about him
is how calm he is on game days, Like he
he truly allows us to play so free and just
so clear minded, just knowing that, you know, if they

(12:04):
do make a big player, if they do score, whatever,
we're gonna We're gonna come back to the sideline. We're
not gonna freak out. We're just gonna solve the problem
so it doesn't happen again. So it's great that I
get to play for a coach like that, and a
coach truly cares about us. So we just got to
you know, return the favor and you know, bring back
a W for him.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I know other expressions for messed up that you can't
say on the radio. It's probably a good idea.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
For several years, Barrett, the Bengals had a really good
linebacker pair in Jermaine Pratt and Logan Wilson. And now
I feel like that's developing again with you and Demetrius Knight.
Describe your relationship with Demetrius and how the two of
you are building a bond at linebacker.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
I was so iffy about d Night because if y'all
didn't know, I went to Clemson and he went to
South Carolina there go to to rival school, So I
was a little hesitant at first. But he's grown to
be my brother for life. Truthfully, he's gotten me although
he's gotten me better at football and just learning from him,
he's gotten me closer in my faith, like with God,

(13:06):
and you know that's that's that's already a brother. But
you know, we bring each other along. Like I told him,
like the day I got here, like we're gonna be
two greats here. Like we're gonna like there was obviously
greats already here like Logan and Vonte's Berfect, Jermaine Prout,
there was grace that came before us. But like I
told him, like, we're gonna be the next two greats.
And that's like, that's our that's our goal every single day,

(13:27):
like just get one percent better and we're gonna look
up by the end of our careers and we're gonna
hopefully bring a lot of Super Bowls back, a lot
of championships, and you know, a lot of hard we're
back to Cincinnati, but you know we we wear that badge
with pride. We're gonna be leaders and we're just gonna
keep just you know, sacrificing everything we can to you know,
bring bring a bring championships back to this city.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Sounds good to me, how about that? Yes, Sarah, So
you've got a U. You got a very very high
football IQ. I mean you're a smart anywhere you have
an old overall football foot, you have an overall IQ.
But you have a very very high football IQ and
Al Golden has mentioned that to me in conversations, like, yeah, man,

(14:10):
Ark gets he gets football at an extremely high level.
You know, I don't. I don't have to worry about
feeling like I've lost him. He's he's right with me, man,
He's he's right on top of things. Where did that
come from? What coach? At what level? Is the guy
that introduced you to the game of football and got
you so excited to learn the game of football like
he learned it.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Yeah, I mean I would say at first to hear
him say that is crazy because how I felt every
day during like OTAs, like during May April May, I
would go home just like wanting to pound my head
against the wall. I was just so stressed out and
I just felt like I was what's the term, like
drinking out of a fire hose. Oh yeah, I was
just stressed, overwhelmed, overwhelm everything. Yeah, I would say, is

(14:55):
my at first, as my high school coach, Bill Stewart,
he just he I thought football is just about running
and hitting people, Like I didn't know there was so
much that went into it. And you know, being coached
by him, he really just taught me like football is
so much. There's so much into it, Like you got
to know the ins and outs as to why offenses
do what they do and just things like that. So

(15:17):
I would say Bill Stewart and then going to Clemson
and playing for coach Venables for a year and then
West good Win my DC, like they just taught me
so much about ball. And just like I said, I
thought it was just about running and hitting people, but
it's so much more than that, and there's such a
big mental side of it. So I'll say those three
us for sure.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
All right, we are going to take a time out
when we come back. We will hear from a Bengals
scout on tonight's special guest linebacker Barrett Carter. We are
live tonight at Scoreboards Sports Bar. He addressed thirty seven
eighty three Shady Lane in North bed. You are listening
to the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light
on ESPN fifteen thirty. You are listening to soon the

(16:03):
Bengals Game Plan Show presented by by Light, Easy to Drink,
Easy to Enjoy. Here on ESPN fifteen thirty. We are
broadcasting live from the Scoreboard Sports Bar tonight. The address
if you want to plug it into your GPS. Thirty
seven eighty three Shady Lane in North Bend. This place
looks like it would be awesome to watch a Bengals game,

(16:25):
particularly a Bengals road game, if you can't make it
out to pay Corpse Stadium, huge bar, lots of seating,
flat screen TVs all over the place. And then it
is the scoreboard sports bar thirty seven eighty three Shady Lane.
Our guest tonight is Bengals linebacker Barrett Carter. Barrett's with
us until seven o'clock tonight and then Lap and I
will take you the rest of the way until eight o'clock.

(16:47):
Barrett was drafted this year out of Clemson in the
fourth round. Here is Bengals scout Andrew Johnson and why
the Bengals were so high on Barrett Carter.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
He's probably the best cover linebacker in the draft. He's
super athletic. He can run, he can change direction, he
can flip his hips, he can play sam linebacker, will linebacker.
He was highly productive on special teams. He's a great kid.
He's a leader. But the biggest thing he's gonna help
us with day one is covering on third down. He's

(17:19):
a phenomenal cover linebacker.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Andrew Johnson clearly a fan. Yes, and you're doing a
lot more than just covering people on third down. You're
out there on almost every down along with your fellow
rookie Dmitrius Knight. You talked about kind of feeling like
you're drinking out of a fire hose during OTAs in
training camp. When did that change? When did you start
to feel like, Okay, this is the stuff I've been

(17:44):
doing my whole life.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
I would say probably midway through fall camp. Okay, Like
I have great veterans like Logan ob Joe, Shaka Muma
was here, Like they just poured into so much and
they made the transition so easy, so like, although I
was struggling, like they just made the struggles so much better,

(18:08):
like so much easier. So I would say, like like
fall camp, that's when it started to slow down a
little bit, and then I feel like I have a
great grasp of it.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Now you do and you understand multiple positions. The versatility
that you provide al goals that I'm sure is extremely
appreciative of. And like Johnson was talking about, you can
play and Mike backer in the middle, you can play
Sam over the tight end, strong side outside linebacker, will
weak side outside linebacker away from the strength of the formation,

(18:39):
away from the tight end, and you can play them
all equally. Well, that's very rare. You don't find many
many linebackers in the National Football League that you can
play anywhere up and down the formation defensively. How prideful
are you of that?

Speaker 4 (18:53):
Extremely? I feel like that's something that I've taken pride,
taking pride in since high school. Like being a guy
where you know, if they need me to go play
offensive line, I probably couldn't play it as good as
our guys. Just being a guy that that can just
do whatever to help the team, whatever the team needs.
And you know, if the team needs me to go

(19:14):
down and cover a tight end or do whatever, like right,
I want to be the guy who can be put
in that position just to help us win. So I've
worn that, brought with that, I've won that badge with
pride for a long time, and I'm gonna I'm going
to continue to do so.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
It's all kind of amusing because back in your high
school days, when they moved you from running back to linebacker,
you were ready to quit the game.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
Absolutely, Yeah, it was a it was a sad day
in the Carter household. I was. I came home. I
can't remember if I cried or not, but I probably
I was like Mom of Dad, like I cannot do this.
I'm done playing football. They're like, no, you're not. You're
not done playing football. Like you're gonna that's that's where
your coach moved. You're gonna play it, and and I

(20:00):
was like, oh. Then fast forward the next day, literally
the next day, I got my first starship offers, and
I was like, Wow, okay, maybe maybe I'll stick to
linebacker and playing defense. But that just that just shows
you like the lower works mysterious ways. And you know,
I really didn't, you know, believe that and see that
until that happened to me. So now I've grown to

(20:21):
love defense. I've grown a love linebacker, and I think
I found my position.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
What year was was that when you were asked to
make the transition from my running back to linebacker? And
how good running back were you? My man?

Speaker 4 (20:35):
That was my freshman year of high school. And I mean,
if you were to tell me, or if you were
to ask me, I wouldn't say I was. I was
pretty good at running yeah, that's I was a running
back and receiver. But I guess my deep my coach
saw something. He saw something m linebacker, and I guess
he was right. So shout out to Bill Stewart because
he saw the vision. I did not see the vision
at all.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
I hear you at Clemson, they let you play running
back for one play and you scored a touchdown.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
So your track record is good. It's just it's always
in me, like if we have great backs, we got
you know, Chase, Samase Taj. But I mean, hey, I
mean if I can be that emergency running back A
I'm here, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
You're ready to ready to provide services always always, So
a two part question when you played college football, who
is the best football player? Who is the best athlete
slash football player on your team? And who is the
best athlete slash football player you played against on my team?

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Who? Okay, I would say on my team. His name
is Nate Wiggins. He's currently a corner for the Ravens.
And you know Nate has changed a lot since his
college days. But you watched Nate in college. He ate horrible.
He did not work out, he didn't do anything like that.
You're supposed to do. I do that. What's the big deal? Hey,

(22:02):
I men, Nate goes to the combine and runs a
four to two. He blows out the combine and he
can natural. He's a natural. He wastes up and it's
out of his sleep and can guard anybody. But so
I would say on my team, Nate Wiggins. But that
I played against, oh Man, that's tough. I played against
some some really some really good players. I'll say Leonora

(22:28):
Sellers from South Carolina is really good. Carson Beck was
really good. I'll say those two off the top of
my head. They are really good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
So NFL players love to do jersey swaps after games.
Will you try to do that with Clemson guys or linebackers?
Have you prioritized who you would like to swap with?

Speaker 4 (22:50):
So? I actually did my first jersey swap this past
game because we had a Clemson guy on the Jets
payton page. So that was my first jersey swap. I
didn't know what costs money, so I was not happy
about that. But yeah, that did my first jersey slade.
But I got my first jersey from Jordan Love after
the Packers game, so it was cool. Just to I
just went up and ask for the jersey. I didn't

(23:12):
think he would say yes, but he said yes. And
you know that's whenever I get a house, that's that's
going in in the man cave in the basement. That's
a good one. I'm trying to just I'm gonna start
just trying to build a collection now and just ask
for jerseys and they say no. They say no, but
that's that's the worst thing they can say.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
So on draft day, how excited were you, How nervous
were you? What was your family feeling, and what was
the day like when you when you woke up in
one of the biggest days in anybody's life. Obviously if
you're going, if you decide to decide to play football,
what was it like for you? And when the Cincinnati
Bengals did draft you, what was that like.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
It's funny because I went at the combine a had
a meeting with the Bengals and I walked out of
that meeting when it ended, and I'm like, I am
not going to the Bengals, Like I just felt like
I I don't I don't know if I did bad
in the meeting, but obviously not I'm here, but right
I just I just did not feel good, feel good
about it. And then you know, the moment's leading up
to the draft day was fine, like, but on actual

(24:12):
draft day, most nervous I've ever been in my life.
And like, I don't ever get nervous like before games.
I'm never nervous, Like I'm just super super relaxed, bright
day of the draft, so nervous, like pacing back and forth,
everything cannot sit still. And then I see the five
and three area code and I'm like, it's at Cincinnati

(24:32):
below it Now I was just like wow, like I
just did not think I was coming here. But and
after I got that call, just all the it felt
like the like the weight off my shoulders was just
lifted immediately. Just it's such a stressful process, so so unknown,
you just you don't know anything about it. And then
I got the call and it was the best feeling

(24:52):
in the world.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
So who was on the other rine? Was it Duke Tobin,
was it Zach Taylor? Was it Al Golden? Was it
all of them? Did they all? You know? Give you
a quick clow and congratulations? How does that work out?

Speaker 4 (25:03):
So? Is that called? Then soon after Hodges called the
linebacker coach, and then soon after that Al Golden called.
So it was just like a little domino effect, just
got like three three calls in a row. And then
the first person who actually texted me is Logan Wilson.
So that's why I like, after after everything, like Logan

(25:25):
is such an important important person me solely because of that, Like, yeah,
aside from the guy he is, like, he was the
first person on the most important day of my life
who texted me after I got so he's he'll he'll
always have a have a special place in my heart
for sure.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, all right, that's great.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
We are going to take a time out when we
come back.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
We won't listen to a highlight and find out if
Barrett saved the ball.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
After this highlight.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
You are listening to the Bengals Game Plan Show presented
by bud Light. We are live at Scoreboards Sports Bar
in North ben tonight, Laugh and I are here until eight.
Parrett Carter's here until seven. On ESPN fifteen thirty, Dan Orton,

(26:13):
Dave Lapham back on the Bengals Game Plan Show presented
by but Fighting, along with our special guest. In the
first hour tonight, Cookie linebacker Parrett Carter, number forty nine
out of the Clemson Sir Barrett had a phenomenal career
for the Tigers, three interceptions twenty one pass breakups while
he was there, and we saw his past coverage skills

(26:36):
in the Bengals second preseason game. Let's listen back, Mike,
I think Barrett's having trouble looks all right, Barrett's having
troubled hearing check one two? Can you hear that anything yet?
I can speak really loudly. Yeah, we gotta work. It's back, okay,

(27:02):
all right, that'll be a backdraft. You had three interceptions
twenty one pass breakups at Clemson. We saw evidence of
your past coverage skills in the Bengals second preseason game.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
Let's go back and listen.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Twenty eight seconds remaining in the half. Washington has a
couple of timeouts. Hartman throws a little intercepted. Let me
get back as Barrett Carter, he's at the twenty and
he gets tackled after intercepting Hartman with twenty seconds left
in the half.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Man, how about that?

Speaker 4 (27:39):
All right, So it's a preseason game.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
It doesn't go down in the all time record book,
but I'm thinking if I'm a player and that's my
second time in an NFL preseason game, that's a big.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
Deal to me. Was it to you? And did you
save the ball? Absolutely? I saved the ball. It's the
ball is actually sitting in the back of my truck
right now, so I probaly sure to have handled it
with more and more care. But that ball is gonna go.
Like I said in my man cave, whenever I get
a house, and that was a special, special day, special moment.
So now I got to get my first one in

(28:10):
game in the regular season. But that ball forever be saved.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, there's no question. Gotta save that bad boy. You're
such a great athlete. How many sports did you play
in high school? I mean football obviously, did you play basketball?
Did you play baseball? Did you play soccer? Did you
play lacrosse? What kind of sports were you into?

Speaker 4 (28:30):
I played basketball. I stopped playing my sophomore year because
I had I had a talk with my trainer and
he was like, let's be realistic. You're six foot six
to one on a good day. You're starting to get
looked at for football and you know you're not that
good at basketball. So, like he was like, what are
we doing here? So after that conversation, you know, hung

(28:51):
up my basketball jersey and just just focused fully on football.
So I think I think it was the right decision.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I think right, and I think absolutely correct.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
How young were you you started working with a trainer?
And were you one of these kids that was, you know,
six in the morning you were working out.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
Before you went to school, that kind of thing. I
started with my trainer in the eighth grade, and no,
I like it was up to the eighth grade. I
was just wake up whenever, not really do anything. And
you know, did I answer the question, but I forgot
about it. Yeah, yeah, you started working with a trainer
in the eighth eighth grade? And yeah, but you weren't

(29:26):
a crack up done for school? No, no, no, definitely not.
I was more of a seven six seven pm, six
seven pm. How're so you?

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Obviously you mentioned that you have a relationship with your mother.
You know, you were emotional after the draft and everything
with your mom. How about the rest of your filming?
How about your dad? How about do you have brothers
and sisters?

Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:48):
I have older sist. Do you have an older sister?

Speaker 6 (29:51):
So?

Speaker 3 (29:51):
What what were you guys? Like did you guys are
you close? Did how many years apart are you?

Speaker 4 (29:57):
So I'm twenty three seats, so it was six years apart.
True party, And those my mom, my dad, my sister.
That those are my best friends. They're they are truly
like my my rock, my foundation. Like why I do
what I do, like just it's just to make them
proud and like, those are my best friends. Like they're

(30:18):
probably looking at my location right now wondering what I'm doing.
I'll probably call them after this and you know, fill
them in. But you know, we we talk about everything.
We face Sime and our group face Sime every single day,
just catching each other up on our days and whatnot.
But those are those those three are my those are
my that's my foundation.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
The Pangos face to pairs this week. Your family had
Chicago roots, correctly, Yes, we do a lot.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Like that's I was born in Chicago, lived there for
seven years, both parents from Chicago, sisters from Chicago. Like really,
I would say seventy five percent of my whole family's
from Chicago and still lives in Chicago. So I'm gonna
have a lot of people at the game. It's gonna
be really cool just to you know, play in front
of the or play against the team that you know,

(31:08):
I grew up rooting for. I know, I hate to
say that, but I grew up rooting for, grew up watching,
and you know, I'll get to play against them and
you know, showcase what I can do. But it's gonna
be a special, surreal moment just having so much family
there to support me and just watch me live on
my dream. So I'm just looking forward to it. So
we just got to walk out there with a dug man.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
So all the family that's coming down from Chicago to
Cincinnati watch your play. Did you have to buy tickets
or they buy in their own tickets? That was when
I was a rookie. It was like, oh man, yea.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, so I told I got I got some of
them tickets. But the rest, I don't think they're going
to be at like in the stadium, Like there's gonna
be like tailgating outside. That's cool, Thankfully, I only have
to get like five or six tickets, but and the
rest will be outside of the stadium. So I have
a lot of people there, but only like five or
six in there. In the state that's cool, all right,
we need to take another time out.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
When we come back, we'll hear from head coach Zach
Taylor on why Barrett Carter moved into the Bengals starting lineup.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
This is the Bengals Game Plan Show.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
We are presented by bud Light Live from Scoreboards Sports
Bar on.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Welcome back to the Bengals Game Plan Show, presented.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
By bud Light. Easy to drink, it's easy to enjoy.
We are live.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
It's Scoreboard Sports Bar. He addressed thirty seven eighty three
Shady Lane in North Bend, not too far from the
Indiana state line.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
I'm delighted to.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Have Barrett Carter with us as our special guest for
another fifteen minutes or so, and then Lap and I
will be here until eight o'clock tonight.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Thank you to all the Bengals fans I'm sure with
us this evening.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Greatly appreciate that special shout out to Nita, who is
out Gunner so the official K three Chew of the
Bengals radio network, one of one. I have gained ten
pounds already tonight.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
Thank you so much. Need all right.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
A few weeks ago, the Bengals changed their starting lineup
on defense, inserting Barrett Carter and moving Logan Wilson to
a more situational role here as head coach Zach Taylor
on making that decision.

Speaker 7 (33:20):
Yeah, I think he's a physical player. I think he's
really good in coverage. I think he's got leadership traits. Again,
these are not things that are reflection, a poor reflection
somebody else's. Is just what I see as his high
end trades, and so I think all that matters and
just continue to get an opportunity for that to flourish.
But again, I just think the more opportunity he's going
to get, the quicker he's going to reach his potential.

(33:43):
And so instead of sitting around and waiting, I was
just throwing the fire and get going.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
You have publicly expressed your admiration for how Logan.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Wilson has handled this. Yeah, he's He's a true definition
of a pro. Like our relationship has not changed, you know.
He told me, he told me from the jump, like
I'm still here for you, like regardless of you know
what the situation is, Like, I'm still here for you, like,
still lean on me and still ask me questions because

(34:14):
you know, our ultimate goal is to try to get
wins for this team. And so he's really he's just
been so helpful. Like he I say it all the time,
like my the veterans that I had. I heard a
whole bunch of like horror stories about veterans, and I'm
just like, it's a complete opposite for me. Just I
have the best I have the best veterans I could
have ever asked for. So he just has always poured

(34:34):
into me. He still pours into me, and I'm still
gonna lean on him, you know, heavily just being a
rookie and being a young guy just trying to figure
my way out. But he's been so so essential and
crucial for UH, for towards my development.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
I would say the uh let's get back to the
upcoming game for a little bit against the Chicago Bears.
We talked about them some and but let's focus in
on Caleb Williams the quarterback. Big, good sized quarterback, long arm,
powerful arm, can put the ball on the money, very accurate,

(35:12):
and it thrills it with great velocity, a lot of RPMs.
He's got a wide receiver corps that is significant. I mean,
they've got a lot of talent. That wide receiver corps.
He's got tight ends. You can throw the football too.
They have running backs that run the football effectively. How
big a challenge is this Chicago Bear defense for you
guys offense.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Yeah, you know, it's a big challenge. You know, they
have literally playmakers at every single position and that that
can hurt you if you're you know, not on your
p's and q. So it's gonna be a great matchup
for us, you know, and it starts with Caleb like
he he's one of the he's one of the best
in the business. And he's already he's we're the same
age and he's super young. So he's a dynamic athlete.

(35:53):
You know, he can hurt you with his legs and
he has a very explosive arm. So we gotta you know,
we got to just make sure that we're on our
p's and q with him, and we just got a
rally to the football, you know, show him different looks
and disguise coverages and you know, heat him up when
we get the chance. But they if we're not on
our p's and q's, they have playmakers, I have heard us.
So just gotta be uh everyone just has to do

(36:14):
their one eleven and just just rally to the football.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
They also have a very creative coach and play caller
in Ben Johnson. He was the hot available coach last
year when he was the offensive coordinated with the Lions
and get a lot of trick plays and stuff like
that in Detroit. How challenging is the stuff that you're
seeing them do from a schematics standpoint, Yeah, they definitely
question or they make you question your eyes for sure,

(36:40):
because if they're not in the right spot, then you know,
all the I candy is gonna is gonna you know,
it's gonna get you going in the wrong direction. So
for us, just have to trust what you see, folks
on doing your job and you know the plays will come.
But you know, they do a great job over there
of you know, disguising their looks and trying to make
everything look the same and you know, giving you a
whole bunch of eye can so they can, you know,

(37:00):
run at the opposite way.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
So just got to play with great eyes, great technique
and just rally to the football.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
What about the Arc North, Let's talk about the division
a little bit, A very physical division. You're used to
physicality used to physical football. You played it in high
school and college and very physical nature, very physical way.
You've already had division games under your belt. You know
what it's like. You've got to buckle that chin strap, man,

(37:27):
double chin strap, and buckle it up tight. What do
you think about the AFC North? Has it lived up
to its billing?

Speaker 4 (37:36):
I would say for sure? And me personally as a player,
like i take pride in being physical. And you know,
I've been told since a young kid, like be the
hammer not the nail. That's still like the same mindset now.
So just having a couple of asy North games already,
like you can definitely tell that like physicality is a
is a common theme between all four teams. So I

(37:59):
was I was actually hoping that I got drafted to
an AFC nor team just because I love playing physical.
I love you know, getting my nose dirty, whatever the
term is, right, I take part in playing physical and
you know, being the hammer not the nail. So I'm
glad that I'm here, and I'm glad that I get to,
you know, face great opponents every week who embrace that
same challenge.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
All Right, we need to take our final break when
we come back, we will play America's favorite game show.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
We call it Know Your School. You go five questions about.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Friends, and you need to get at least three rights
three out of five to be declared a winner. We'll
see yeah, all right, back to Parrott in just a moment.
This is the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light,
Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy on ESPN fifteen thirty

(38:53):
Welcome back to the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by
bud Light. We are live tonight at Scoreboard Sports Bar
at thirty seven eighty three Shady Lane in North Bend.
Barrett Carter's with us for just a few more minutes
than that means it is time to play America's favorite
game show.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
We call it Know Your School.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I've come up with five questions about Clemson University. You
must get at least three rights to be declared a winner.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Are you ready? That's wordy as I'll ever be.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
An honest answer Question number one, one of the most
famous trophies in sports, is named for a former Clemson
coach who led the Tigers to an undefeated season in
nineteen hundred.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
What is the last name of that coach?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
One of the most famous trophies in sports, the Blank
Trophy nineteen hundreds, named for a former Clemson coach nineteen hundred. Okay, oh,
think famous person's last name college football.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
College football. I was about to say Lombardi.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
All right, so the college hint helps, college hint helps.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
It really doesn't help. But I don't I don't know.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
I do not know John Barty, John W.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Heisman. Okay, that was a warm up. Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Question number two, Clemson's head coach is a two time
national championship winner. Your coach Dabos Sweeney the goat? What
is Dabbo's real first name?

Speaker 4 (40:40):
William Boom?

Speaker 3 (40:41):
There you go, killed that one man. That took a
tenth of a second.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Question number three, This one might be tough. The most
famous building on campus is a three story brick building
with a clock tower over Tilman Hall.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Boom, about it? All right, you redeemed yourself.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
It could even get to the question finished. I mean
bonus points here now it's Tilman Hall.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
That is correct.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Question number four, what is the name of the main
library on the Clemson campus?

Speaker 4 (41:18):
Cooper?

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Oh, yeah, we have a student athlete, not just ath
your student athlete.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I never went there. That's fine, never and you should
know that. I think so far this year, only Ivy
leaguer andre Yosi Bosh got that question right.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
So now about it.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
You're a great intellectual company graduate, four time academical acc.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
I remember some four OHPA kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
Four oh gpa.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
All right, one more question, just to see if you
can go four for five. Name the former Clemson defensive
tackle nicknamed for a kitchen appliance. Who is the hungry,
the heaviest, heaviest player ever to score a touchdown in
a Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
I know, I know. William the refrigerator.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yeah, baby, William the refrigerated story.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
All right, you know your school and you will never
forget that. John Heisman, yeah, coach Clemson in the early
nineteen hundred.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Hey, four for five. That's not too bad.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Ford, both both the peries. Didn't he have a brother?
I think that played at Clemson as well. I think
he did. I think he had a brother who played
there too. That was one big dude man.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Listed at three point thirty, he had to be fifty
pounds heavier than that.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
Our defensive players, you know, in the Super Bowl, when
you gotta be three eighty if he's a pound man.
He's gotta be three eighty. Unbelievable. What a horse, big guy,
athletic though athletic for guys, show big quick feet, quick feet.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
A team that was built by Duke Tobin's dad.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Yeah, Bill to Tobin.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeh, all right, Barrett Carter, we can't thank you enough
for making the track out here to a scoreboard sports bar.
We greatly appreciate it all. Thanks for having that a
great game on Sunday with friends and family and attendance
and kick your childhood team's rear end.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Yes sir, yes, sir. All right, let's hear it for
Barrett Carter and we go all right. We still have
plenty to come on the show. We're going to.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Let Barrett take off, but we've got about an hour left.
When we come back, we'll be talking about the Joe
Flaco situation. He's been awesome since being picked up by
the Bengals, but will he be able to play this
Sunday against the Bears. He's dealing with a shoulder issue,
so we'll talk about that next. This is the Bengals
Game Plan Show presented by Bud Light on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Thirty Bengals game Plan presented by bud Light on the
first Starlets Bengals Radio Network, Brought to you by bud Light,
bud Light, Easy to Bring, Easy to Enjoy, pay Corps.
Paycorp is croud to be the official HR software provider
of US Cincinnati Bengals. Kettering Hill Best Care for the
Best Fans, Kettering Hill, Official healthcare provider of the Cincinnati Bengals.

(44:19):
This is Cincinnati's ESDN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Dave Lapham back on the Bengals Game Plan Show presented
by bud Light. We are live at Scoreboards Sports Bar.
The address is thirty seven eighty three Shady Lane here
in North Bend as we get you set for Sunday's
game at pay Corp Stadium between the Bengals and the
Chicago Bears. Thanks to our engineer Mike Mills for setting
everything up tonight. Thanks to Tarren Bland back in the studio.

(44:49):
Thank you to Nikky from the Bengals. It's been handling
the giveaways.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
Another chef tonight.

Speaker 6 (44:57):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Thank you to the ben Gals who are here tonight.
Thank you to the butt Light girls. We've got the
full staff. Helping us out with the Bengals game plan
show tonight. So over the last few weeks, Joe Flacco
has become one of the most popular guys in town,
and for good reason. He's played brilliantly so far for
Cincinnati seven touchdown passes, no picks, passer rating over one hundred.

(45:24):
He was only sacked once last week in the loss
to the New York Jets, but unfortunately, on that one sack,
he landed on his shoulder and it resulted in an
ac joint sprain. That is an injury to the ligaments
that connect the coller bone to the shoulder blade. So
his status for Sunday is a little bit up in

(45:45):
the air. He did not practice today. Let's hear from
head coach Zach Taylor.

Speaker 7 (45:52):
He wants to play in the game, and so kudos him. Man,
he's been here three weeks. He wants to play. He's
to conformed. But he's told me we'll have to work
through the week to see if that's that's able to
do that. It's a throwing shoulder. It's painful, but I mean,
call a guy who wants to do that, wants to
get out there and play with something like that credit

(46:13):
to him. So we'll go through the week and see
what it ends up and have Jake ready to go
to and just see how it plays out for him
to come in. And it would be easy to make
a decision that there's no way I'm playing, you know,
I just I've got an AC joint. We got a
bye week next week. Let's just let this think. Heel
up and that has not been the communication he's given
to me at all. Now, ultimately he may not be
able to play. We may make that decision, but for

(46:34):
him just to want to put it out there for
our team himself, like he said before, he's just a
football player.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
That's what he does. That certainly goes.

Speaker 6 (46:42):
Along with me.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Lap.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
You had that injury during your playing career. How hard
would it be for a quarterback to play with an
AC joints?

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Brand? Yeah, I mean the AC joint. It's no joke.
It's we're you're clavigal, you know, meets your shoulder blade
as such. And for a quarterback. Now, I don't know
how bad his separations. I had a separated shoulder landed
on my elbow in a goal line sequence against the
Chargers and jammed it up and separated, you know, kind

(47:15):
of the clavicle pulled, pulled away from the shoulder blade
a little bit, and there was a gap there you
could put your finger throw. I could put my finger
into the gap and go all the way down in there,
which was stupid to do, but I was doing. I
don't know why I did it, curiosity, I guess.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
But he.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Hopefully his isn't that wide open. Hopefully his clavicle is
pretty intact and he's got more of a bruise, you know,
going on. If that's the case, I think he plays,
I would not be It would not shock me whatsoever
if Joe Flacco's out there throwing the football, so how

(47:54):
much will it hinder his accuracy? Because that that's what
he has been so amazing, getting the ball out of
his hands so quickly, and the accuracy with which he's
done it, and of velocity throwing the football. His arm
strength is still unbelievable and unbelievably amazing. He's got an
incredible arm. It would be, you know, a thing to

(48:18):
remember in Bengals history. Joe Flacco here, like Willis Reed,
you know, comes out of the locker room. Joe Flacco
comes out of the tunnel and the last one introduced,
and the offense is out there on the football field
ready to, you know, greet him with open arms. And
he goes out and plays very very well and wins

(48:39):
a football game in a game that they've got to
win against the Chicago Bears.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
In the three games that he's played for the Bengals,
his time to throw is right up there near the
top in the NFL. If he can't play this week,
Jake Browning has watched him for three weeks. Do you
think that's one of the things that Jake would try
to do better than he had done in the three
games he started.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Yeah, you know, Jake, I think that Joe for whatever reason,
it's it's a little bit later in the season, they've
played more reps together. Uh, they've kind of bonded a
little bit. The offensive line's pass protected fairly decently for Joe,
and he said it, he's given the offensive line a
lot of kudos, a lot of bouquets, verbal bouquets, and uh,

(49:22):
and it's well earned and well deserved. They've they've done
a pretty good job of keeping Joe Flacco upright and
haven't really taken that many hits but unfortunately on one
of the few hits that he did take, it was
a significant one and caused injury. But if they can
protect Jake Browning like they protect protected Joe Flacco, he

(49:42):
may he may do pretty well. I mean he may.
He may. I think execute the Bengals offense fairly, uh,
fairly decently.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
He knows what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
He's a very smart guy, very bright quarterback. He's got
really good football IQ. He can throw the football, he
can do, he can do a lot of things. His
teammates like him. They respond to him. It's not like, huh, jeez,
we've got Jake Browning, Oh my god, we're in trouble.
It's not. It's not anything like that. So I hope

(50:15):
that if Joe's out for an extended period of time,
Jake Browning lights it up. I hope he goes out
and puts together a big winning streak and make it
right back on the hunt.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
How much his Flacco helped the line between how quickly
he throws the ball and knowing where he's going to
be because he's not running around back there. He's dropping
back into the pocket, maybe inching up if need be,
but typically not running around from sideline to sideline.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
Good point, Dan, I mean he is. He's not a statue,
but he's not what you consider an upperly mobile quarterback either.
But you mentioned something that he does very well. He
will climb the pocket and he's got a little escapability
in the pocket. He's got a little lateral movement, he's
got his feet are still fairly quick. So uh, I

(51:01):
think I think the offensive line likes blocking for Joe Flacko.
Some of the guys that I've talked to have mentioned
that very thing that you know, he's really easy to
block for. Because the biggest reason is the other thing
you said, you know your football is they know where
he's going to be. It's not like, Jeez, can I
if he takes an outside rush, do I have to
turn him back inside? Can I take him to the outside?

(51:23):
Where's the quarterback setting up? Where's he going to be?
They know, So, you know, with that question out of
the equation, I think it's a much easier dynamic to
block for Joe.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
All right, let's move to another topic. And you alluded
to this early in the show. Something you've been hearing
with your work in podcasting, social media, et cetera. The mistackles. Yeah,
it was glaring last week. For the season, the Bengals
have more than eighty no tea. No other team in
the league has more than sixty five, So it's been
an issue. Let's hear from linebacker Dimitrius Knight on that topic,

(52:00):
trying to improve in the area of getting people on
the ground. Here's Demetrius, and.

Speaker 8 (52:06):
This is the NFL. It's not just your cake walk.
This isn't you know, backyard football. This isn't rec league football.
Those guys in the opposite side are also paid, just
like we're paid. We're paid to get them on the ground.
They're paid to make us miss. And some of those
times you may be in bad position, you may have
your feet tangled up, you may slip on the turf
and whatnot or grass. But at the end of the day,

(52:28):
it just comes down to relying on your technique, the basics.
Talked about it this morning that you know, Michael Jordan
and Kobe Bryant relied on the basics, mastering the basics,
and when you get away from those, like it's easy
to you find fault in those, But once you master those,
you begin to take it strides.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
That you know you can make.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Master our madd rather as he just described mastering the basicsink.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
It is I think, I mean, eighty tackles is a lot.
I mean ten a game. That's that's just waiting way
too many, way too many h and it's it's killing.
It's killing the football team. I think that is the biggest,
single reason reason that the Bengals are where they are

(53:20):
record wise. I think it's a compound of or compounding
nature of two things. Not stopping the run. Why aren't
you stopping the run? Well more so than not hitting
the right gaps and being where you're supposed to be
when you're supposed to be there. That aspect of it
is not great, but it's good enough. But the tackling

(53:42):
finishing players, it's just not there. So they need to
go back to fundamentals, go back to techniques that Al
Golden has been teaching. Rep them, rep them till they're
blue in the face, rep them n til they don't
want to rep them anymore, and then rep them again.
I mean, that's what it boils down to. They have

(54:03):
to hit rap and take them to the ground. It's
a three tackling. Good tackling is a three component scenario,
and they're not doing it. They're just not getting it done.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
The Bengals are playing a lot of young guys on defense.
I want to ask you a question that I asked
Al Golden earlier this week. How long does it take
to know if a guy can really play in the NFL?
A year, a couple of years.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Do you know right away?

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I mean typically how long does it take?

Speaker 3 (54:36):
That's a great question. Again, Dan, you know your football,
you know, and it's like when I played played with
teammates that you know right away. Oh, this dude's a player.
I mean, he knows exactly what he's doing, why he's
doing it, where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed
to be there, why he's supposed to be doing what

(54:57):
he's doing. I mean, this guy is a football all
savant man. This guy's you know, football Menza, His football
intelligence is off the charts. He's got everything you need
physically to be a dominant football player. Hey, this guy,
this guy is a natural. I mean, he's gonna be
playing right away and making an impact right away. Those
are easy. But then you have guys that you know

(55:19):
it will take a year sometimes two. Now you get
into a third year, and it's like, when's this guy
gonna get it? When's you gonna come along? When's the
like going to go on?

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Man? You know?

Speaker 3 (55:30):
So yeah, uh, that that's that's why the draft and
evaluating play it's an inexact science. You know, there's no
there's no formula that you can you can utilize on
guys on a on an individual by individual basis that
will give you a computer printout sheet and tell you
exactly what you can anticipate from a guy, uh, from

(55:52):
a career standpoint.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
The Bengals and Bears this Sunday coming up next, we
all had two Chicago for an inside look at this
week's opponent. You're listening to the Bengals Game Plan Show
presented by bud Light, live from.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
The Scoreboards Sports Bar on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Dan Holden, Dave Lap I'm back in the Bengals Game
Plan Show presented by bud Light. We are live tonight
at Scoreboards Sports Bar here in North Bend. We appreciate
the Bengals fans who are with us on location and
to all of you listening on the radio, It's the
Bengals and Bears this Sunday at pay corpse Stadium, and
it's time for this week's no the Faux segment. Time
to get the lowdown on this week's opponent. And to

(56:34):
do that, we welcome in the great radio voice of
the Bears, in his twenty fifth year calling their games,
our friend, Jeff Joniac. Jeff, welcome to the Bengals Radio Network.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
How are you, my man?

Speaker 6 (56:46):
I'm doing great, gentlemen, how are we feeling it? If
I did the math correct and maybe Dave can fix
this for me, eight hundred and nine Bengals games in
the booth and on the field.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
That's actually a little low. Last did his one thousandth
game earlier this year between playing and broadcast.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Yeah, between you you might have quick check. Yeah you might.
You might have missed some of the playing games or whatever,
or playoff games as broadcast. But yeah, it's over a thousand,
which is mind boggling. Jeff, I don't know. I can't
I can't believe it.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
I don't know where all the time went. Thousand games.
That's scary.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
In fairness to you, Jeff.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
That math was done by our friend and colleague Jay Morrison,
who covers the Bengals and I think he may have
included preseason games. I think so, yeah, yeah, okay, okay,
if you were just during the regular season, that would
account for the difference.

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Yeah, regardless, tip of the caps, you and congratulations down
the Ring of Honor. I've had many times to visit
with you, and that is that's some kind of performance
right there, and that's the love of the game. So
I respect that. I talked to your old roommate today, Kenny,
and we had him on our podcast and it was

(58:03):
an awesome, awesome conversation.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
He's just terrible, isn't He might be the worst guest
I've ever had in my life. He's unbelieved, he is.
He is phenomenal. I mean, I roomed with the guy
for ten years and I don't think I've ever known
a better human being, a better football player, or a
better human being than Kenny Anderson.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
The guy is.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
He's a gem man. He's one of a kind. And
appreciate your kind work.

Speaker 6 (58:27):
Jeff, you got it, You earned it, my friend.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
All right, let's talk about your team, the Chicago Bears.
Jaden Daniels was so good last year and Drake May
has been so good this year that some people at
least have questioned whether the Bears got the right guy
when they picked Caleb Williams number one overall last year.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
How good has Caleb been this year?

Speaker 6 (58:53):
Well, he's definitely making progress. And you know, I can
look at statistics many different ways as we all can.
And Ron Rivera, my good friend and former Bears linebacker
and former head coach, in a couple of spots that
figures lie in Liar's figure. But I'm going to go
with the positives and Caleb when you look at key
situational football, whether it be first down performance, what he

(59:17):
does on third down, what's he done in the fourth
quarter of games. You know, his quarterback ratings here have
been up over one hundred, So you know that's just
one simple breadcrumb leading to a bigger picture. But despite
the loss last week, and it was a tough one
to take, no question about it, Ben Johnson said he

(59:38):
made major progress last week. And as long as we
keep paring major progress for a young quarterback, that's music
to my years.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
I hear that.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
What about the Chicago Bears in general, you know, it
seems like they've had their moments where they're playing pretty
darn dude, football. I think it's a solid football team,
and then they've had all the moments where you know,
it's been a struggle, and I guess I don't know.
I don't know exactly what the anticipation was organizationally for

(01:00:09):
the season for the Chicago Bears. I don't know if
they're living up to it or whether they're not, or
you know, just right right in the middle of all
of those expectations in terms of how they performed. What
is it about the Chicago Bears why? I guess consistency
or inconsistency might be the best way to put it.
What's the reason for the inconsistency do you think, Jeff?

Speaker 6 (01:00:33):
You know, and a lot of self inflicted wounds. I mean,
that would really sum up some of their losses here
Detroit was the exception that was just a steam rolling
walked into a hornet's nest there. But you know, penalties,
you know, they're one of the highest penalized teams in
the NFL. The false starts they've got the most in
the NFL. Those pre snapped things will drive any any

(01:00:53):
coach crazy, particularly an offensive coordinator. Who is the head
coach in this case, Ben Johnson so he's challenged, much
like Zach Taylor's challenge the defensive leaders of the football
team there in your neck of the woods, he's challenged
the offensive leaders in the Bears to clean it up
and make sure that they stop hurting themselves because it

(01:01:13):
has happened at critical moments. And there could be other
penalties too, including special teams that affected the balance of
the field, that put the team where they would back
somebody up, or you know, now it's a big penalty
that wipes it out and now you get the football
thirty yards up down the field. So many of those
types of things, I think, you know, the first part

(01:01:34):
of the season, especially with the first time head coach
and a new staff, there's growing pains that come with
learning new schemes and particularly a very challenging and dynamic
offensive concepts that Ben Johnson puts down the table.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
The Boys, the Bears. Jeff Joniecki is our guest. The
Bears have sixteen takeaways. They are number more in the
NFL in turnover ratio. How are they doing it? How
are they getting that many takeaways?

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
On defense?

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
Well, they they're rallying to the ball, and you know,
it's a feeding frenzy when it starts to happen. They
did not have one last week, and that that was
a to teal reason for the defeat. They were living
on that and they were turning those into points. I
think they have fifty points off takeaways. You know, I
made a mistake. I was talking with the former All

(01:02:25):
Pro cornerback and Bears defensive back coach and passing game
coordinator Al Harris about, Hey, the ball is finding certain
players and it had been the case all throughout training
camp Pellace. I mean guys like Tremaine Edmonds, guys like
Kevin Byern, and it spilled over into the regular season.
And I said, you know, why is the ball finding
these players? Is Is it just because of the And

(01:02:47):
he kept shaking his head, Am I on the round
run track. He goes, it's mindset, he corrected me, And
I kept trying to push that envelope. Nope, it's about mindset.
And I do believe this team plays with that mindset
and that fire and if they're able to cut it
loose and play physical and violent, that's what That's what
every coach wants. But that's been stated as one of

(01:03:09):
the key components of what they want the identity of
this team to be in all three phases. You know,
the ball is gonna come out hard hits or ricochets,
or you know, making teams feel uncomfortable when that ball
is in the air, or if they're running at you
and you're getting raked every time you touch the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
Yeah, you're you're hitting on the physicality that in my mind.
I mean when I think Chicago Bears, I think Dick Butkis.
I think, you know, just stoning people. I think, you know,
Walter Payton running people over and uh, you know, deep
putting cleek marks up their chest and their face mask

(01:03:47):
as he runs them over. You know, I just think
about Top Bears, the Chicago Bears, I mean monsters are
the Midway. Have they got that mentality? Does this group
have that type of mental because historically the Bears have
been all about that. They've been one of the most
physical teams in the National Football League. Is this group

(01:04:08):
of guys are they.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Up to the task?

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
Yeah, I mean they want to be. And I you know,
it's funny you brought that up because I've been banging
that drum for years. I don't know, call me a meathead.
I don't know what you want to call me, but
I guess I'm romanticizing the same thing of but just
peering over a guy on the ground after blasting him
and Mike Singletary in his eyes in that eighty five
defense in the sixty three Championship team, those teams from

(01:04:33):
the forties. You know, I always feel that you should
reflect the city that you play in. And now, this
is the city of broad shoulders. This is you know,
rough and tumble Chicago, the meat yards back in the day.
You know, just that kind of mentality, and I think
Bears fans expect it, they love it when it happens,

(01:04:55):
and I do too. And I think when you close
your eyes, especially in the AFC North, in the NFC North,
the Old Black and Blue Division, in the NFC Central,
the AFC Central, and I'm very familiar with both of
those divisions where I have grown up in my life,

(01:05:15):
and you can close your eyes and know what a
Steeler looks like, what a Raven looks like, what a
Cleveland Brown and in Cincinnati Bengal looked like throughout the
history of their franchise. And you can say the same
thing about the four teams in the NFC North.

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
Totally agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Jeff Ben Johnson was the coach that every team with
a vacancy last year wanted to hire. How did the
Bears come out on top in that derby to come
away with Ben Johnson?

Speaker 6 (01:05:49):
In his first introduction, he simply said I want this job,
and it was over get it. As soon as he
said I want this job, he got that job. And
he made it clear that I even uttered a single
question in the interview, I want this job, and that
passion connected and it didn't hurt that he's very well

(01:06:10):
paid in addition, but he was going to get that
no matter where you go. But the Bears dipped into
their vault and they paid what they believe was the
best candidate for the job in this hiring cycle. And
I you know, listen, man, I think this is my
eighth head coach in my twenty nine years associated with
a team, and twenty five is play by play. I've

(01:06:34):
met some amazing coaches, all kinds of coaches, different personalities.
This guy has me waking up every day excited about
what I'm going to see next and certainly on game day,
what plan is going to be put together offensively? And
I feel the same way frankly about Dennis Allen right now,
I'm just excited to see what they bring to the

(01:06:56):
table because they are making new game plans a single
week for their opponent and then that's just relying on,
you know, a bunch of plays thrown together. That they
have a they have a plan, and I do appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Yeah, I mean Ben Johnson, Dennis I would think.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
I agree.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
I mean, they got to have some kind of a plan.
What what are you expecting? What is the media expecting?
What do you think you're gonna see out of the
Chicago Bears all season long? What's gonna be their staple?
What's gonna be the thing they hang their hat on?
No matter what, the Chicago Bears.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
Will be this.

Speaker 6 (01:07:33):
Physical and violent, that's what they want to be. They
want to if you're if you're gonna get into a fight,
you know, and you're gonna win that fight and you're
gonna leave Chicago, or they're gonna you're gonna feel that
game and you want to feel them when you watch
and turn on the tape and you know that you're
gonna be in for a long six mens, no matter
what the outcome. I think that's kind of the notion

(01:07:56):
and all three phases, not just uh, not just defense
at offense and special teams. And I'm sure every coach
in the league want that right, but you've got to
speak it into existence and make it a thing and
then believing because this has been a franchise, obviously, it
has had a roller coaster ride, and they have to

(01:08:16):
feel and understand what it takes to win, that every
play counts, that every play matters, and learn how to
do it. And they started that process during that four
game winning streak, and they want to make sure that
that feeling does not vacate the facility after one setback
last week.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Jeff can't thank you enough for joining us tonight. It's
always great to chat with you, and we look forward
to seeing you in Cincinnati on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (01:08:45):
All right, appreciate it. We'll be looking forward to seeing
you guys. Take care of a good night, good show.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
Safe travels, Safe travels, my man.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
That is our friend, Jeff Joniyat, the great voice up
the Chicago Bears. We're going to take a time out
coming up next. What happened in the player's only defensive
meeting the Bengals held on Monday, we'll discuss that next.
This is the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud
Light on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
I think someone needs to step up and lead the group.
That's what I'm waiting to see.

Speaker 7 (01:09:18):
Someone step up and lead the group and take some
accountability over there and get this thing go on the
right way.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
For the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light.
That was an exasperated Zach Taylor immediately after last week's
loss to the Jets, where the defense gave up three
straight touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati lost the
game thirty nine to thirty eight. The guys on defense
got the message. The veteran leaders on defense, guys like

(01:09:44):
bj Hill, Logan Wilson, Trey Hendrickson, called for a player's
only defensive meeting on Monday. Here's rookie Dimitrius Knight talking
about that meeting.

Speaker 8 (01:09:57):
Of course, they take it to heart, and it was
hard for them to sleep and whatnot, but they came in,
they challenged us, and they take accountability for everything, just
as we all take accountability for everything that we put
on film.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
So it's it's a group effort.

Speaker 8 (01:10:12):
There's gonna be no blame game, no pointing fingers.

Speaker 4 (01:10:15):
That's the right. But we do have leaders on this details.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Remember any players only meetings back in the day Latin.

Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
I do, Yeah, had was involved in a couple three
of them, and you know, the the good thing is
when you do have players conduct players only meeting, it
shows that they care. You know, It's like they're not
happy with what's going on. It's not like, hey, you know,
water rolling off my back. I don't care. I'm getting

(01:10:44):
my paycheck. I'm just gonna go home and you know,
work through things, make sure I don't try not to
get injured, get through a season, get another vested season
in retirement, you know, get a year under your belt.
You're one of a four year contract.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
They're not.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
It's not like that with this group. They're they're they
want to be good, they want to have a good season,
and they're trying to make sure that they don't waste
any time in turning it around, you know, redirect the
bus as such and get it, get it moving in
the right direction, and win some football games. Don't want

(01:11:27):
to waste any more opportunities to win games. The season's
not that long. You're you're halfway through it. You don't
have any games to waste right now. It can't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Had the Bengals won a game they scored thirty eight
points in against the team that did not have a
victory heading into the game, they would be even in
the win column in the AFC North for first place.

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
Crazy. Crazy it is because they're not playing. They're playing
like crap. You know, they're not playing well, and they
know they're not playing well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
And that's you know, defensively.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Yeah, and that's and that's uber frustrating. I mean, you know,
people think that professional athletes are spoiled brats and they
don't care. It's not true. It's not true. Most of
most of the guys that I played with, they they
truly cared about the effort that they were putting forth

(01:12:24):
and the plays that they were showing up on tape.
You know, they wanted to make sure that they were
playing at a high level. They wanted to make sure
that they were playing proficiently. They were doing everything they
possibly could to help their team win win football games.
Be where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to
be there, have pride in what you're doing, Play with energy, emotion,

(01:12:49):
play with great detail. All those things are vitally important
and you have to have all of them and be
able to do all of them well to succeed win games.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Steelers play the Colts this week. Colts have the best
record in the AFC at seven and one. The Ravens
expect to have Lamar Jackson back. They play tomorrow night
at Miami. Miami is not very good, but Thursday night
road games almost by definition, are really hard for the
road team, and they are the road team. So again,

(01:13:23):
if the Bengals can beat the Bears at home this Sunday,
it's a very good chance they're going to be even
in the win column with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the
first place.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Yeah, I mean, they could definitely get it done. It
is not easy to play on Thursday night, and Tua
has the ability to play well. He's not playing very
well right now, but he has lit it up in
games in his career in the National Football League. The
guy can put together big numbers. He can he can

(01:13:58):
score points, throw the football when he's right, when he's
seeing the field, when he's reading the progression properly, getting
the ball out of his hand quickly. Who is good
who it can get it done. So hopefully that tour
shows up, you know, against Baltimore. I mean, you're right,
the Bengals. It's not like, man, hang your head, the

(01:14:19):
season's over, far from it, and they know that. I've
been in situations that were more dire than what the
Bengals are facing right now and turn it around and
did make the playoffs, and other seasons turn it around,
didn't quite make the playoffs. They're capable of doing the
same thing. I mean, this football team has plenty of

(01:14:41):
good football players.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
It really does better beat the Bears.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
Gotta beat the Bears. Definitely.

Speaker 4 (01:14:49):
All right, we're gonna take a time out.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Coming up next, the Bears, of course have a new
head coach and Ben Jonson and Zach Taylor knows him
extremely well.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
That story is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Coming up next, he says. The Bengals Game Plan Show
presented by bud Light, Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy,
Live from Scoreboards Sports Bar, thirty seven eighty three Shady
Lane in North Bend on ESPN fifteen thirty Welcome back
to the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light,

(01:15:20):
Easy to Drink, Easy to In July here on ESPN
fifteen thirty. We appreciate the Bengals fans came out to
join us tonight here at Scoreboard Sports Bar, and we
invite you to join Lap and Wayne box Miller this
Friday afternoon from three to six for the Bengals pep
Rally show that is held every Friday afternoon at the

(01:15:40):
on the Rhine eatery that is the food Haul on
the second floor above the downtown Kroger at Court and Walnut.
Their special guest on Friday afternoon in the final hour
of that show will be Bengals defensive lineman Chris Jenkins.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
Yes, he will join us from five to six to
show us from three to six.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
All right, the Bengals and Bears this Sunday at pay
Corps Stadium. Bears have a new head coach and Ben Johnson.
Last year he was the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions,
and last year he had a play called stumblebum where
their quarterback Jared Goff intentionally fell down. Running back Jabir

(01:16:19):
Gibbs dove on to the ground as if he was
recovering the fumble. Ben Goff hopped to his feet and
threw a touchdown pass. That's the type of stuff that
Ben Johnson did with the Lions, it certainly made him
the most sought after coaching candidate in the job market.
This past offseason, the Bears hired him. They're reportedly paying
him thirteen million dollars a year. And this all comes

(01:16:42):
as no surprise to Bengals head coach Zach Taylor, who
worked with Ben Johnson for four years in Miami. Let's
hear from Zach on the Bear's new head coach.

Speaker 7 (01:16:53):
Incredibly smart. I mean, this is no surprise where he's
at his career, the job he's doing. Can anyone who's
ever interacted with him and worked with him would.

Speaker 4 (01:17:03):
See this coming.

Speaker 7 (01:17:03):
You know, one of the easily one of the smartest
people I've ever been around, great outside the box thinker.
He's worked his way up the hard way. You know,
when he got to Detroit, he had to work up
even though he was way overqualified for where he started.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
That's just where you do.

Speaker 7 (01:17:20):
And he just kept turning the trust of people and
working all his way all the way up through the ranks,
did it all the hard way, did a great job
at every level. He's been at tight end coach to
coordinator or to now the head coach, and so I'm
not surprised at all the job that Ben has done.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
So last year in Detroit, Ben Johnson's offense, he was
again the offensive coordinator, led the NFL in scoring more
than thirty two points a game, led the NFL in
total yards more than four hundred per game. Crazy, the
Lions aren't there yet, they're middle of the pack. They're
fifteenth in the NFL in scoring twenty four points a game.
But what has impressed you over the years with what

(01:17:57):
he's done in Detroit and what he's doing so far?
And shit, God, go about Ben Johnson.

Speaker 3 (01:18:01):
Yeah, I think like Zach is talking about and now
there's a reference about him. His creativity. He's not afraid
to try anything. You know that what he does with
did with Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions is a
great example. He knows that you have to have great
players to do it, and and great players in terms

(01:18:22):
of mentally and physically being able to comprehend and understand
why you're doing what you're doing, how you're doing it,
what the what the reason is uh and and what
your part is in the in the success of the play.
And he's been fortunate. I think in his career in

(01:18:46):
that he has had very, very bright football players with
high football I Q. It's not to say that he's
not a great coach.

Speaker 4 (01:18:54):
He is.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
I think that that he takes football to the next level.
I look at him as almost a young Bill Walsh.
Bill Walsh was like this when we had Bill Walsh
early on in our days with the Cincinnati Bengals on
that on Paul Brown's staff. He was willing to try anything,
and he'd tested in practice against Chuck Studley and our

(01:19:17):
defensive players and see, you know, if it had any merit,
and if it did, he would tweak it and fine
tune it and get it ready and polish it and
dust it and all that sort of thing. I see
Ben Johnson having the same type of coaching career as
Bill Walsh, because, like like Zach said, he's very bright,

(01:19:38):
he's extremely intelligent. He you know, he's been in a
position an assistant coach, position, coach, coordinator. He's going to
be a head coach. That's what Bill waltah. That's the
same progression Bill Walsh took with Paul Brown. And I
could see I could see him having as good a
career as Bill Walsh has for as long as Bill

(01:19:58):
Walsh did so.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
As we said earlier, we don't know at this point
if Joe Flacko will be the starting quarterback on Sunday.
If it's not him, it would be Jake Browning. Sean
Clifford from Saint Xavier High School would become the backup
if Joe Flacco can't play and Jake Browning starts the game,
regardless of who the quarterback.

Speaker 9 (01:20:16):
Is.

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
One thing that I am hopeful of and makes me
think that the Bengals would have a chance to pull
it out even if Jake Browning is in there is
how well they've run the ball the last two weeks.
One hundred and forty two yards against Pittsburgh, won eighty
one against the Jets. They've averaged seven yards per run
in their last two games, and the Bears are giving
up more than one hundred and forty rushing yards per

(01:20:38):
game so far this season. Can they have another big
game on the ground, Maybe not one eighty one again,
but you know, one twenty plus something that would give
them some balance, which they obviously did not have for
the first six games.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
You know your football, Dan, I mean balance is the key.
I mean and the Bengals are starting to run the
ball better, starting to run the ball more effectively. I
think Samaj p Ryan ran hard. My god, did he
run hard.

Speaker 4 (01:21:06):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
He took advantage of every opportunity, every carry that he
was given. He finished it. And man, he was high
knee action running through people, broke a lot of tackles.
I think Chase Brown is a gifted running back. I
think he can do everything. He can run the football,
he can change direction, people bounce off him with broken

(01:21:27):
tackles as well, and he can make a miss a
little dipsy do as well. They can run it, they
can catch it out of the backfield, they run good
routes as running backs. Out of the backfield. They can
line up in wide receiver spots in the formation and
run routes and give the Bengals some versatility and flexibility

(01:21:47):
there and potential mismatches there if you get you know,
a big safety or a linebacker out there and coverage
on them. So yeah, I mean, I think I like
what I see out of this Bengals offense. And the
key is running the football well. And once you do that,
you can play action pass and get some things going

(01:22:10):
in that regard. And then on the flip side of it,
if the defense can control the opponent's running game and
make them one dimensional, it really takes a lot of
the passing attack out of the equation. And that's exactly
what you want to do defense with The.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
Bengals have a new offensive line coaching Scott Peters. His
techniques are very different from the norm. I imagine it
probably took some time for that to start, the muscle
memory to kick in, for this stuff to start to
feel natural. How much do you think their growth under
him is fueling the improved play up front?

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Another good call, Dan, you know what you're looking at.
I mean, I think it's every I think it's everything.
I think that I don't think they ever like. I
don't believe in this guy. I don't like anything he's doing.
But until you can go out and test it and
try it under the you know, the lights as such,

(01:23:07):
full go and and then you can make an evaluation
on this, have any merit or not, you know. And
and I think that they did see that what he's
talking about makes sense, and he's so passionate about teaching it.
My god, it's it's it's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:23:24):
He he is.

Speaker 3 (01:23:26):
He does have some some interesting fundamentals and techniques. They're
they're a little bit different than the norm. He's kind
of a you know, a path a trend center. Yeah,
going down his own path coaching in the National Football League,
and I think Ted Carris is a guy that really
believes in what he's teaching. And as a result, Ted

(01:23:48):
Carriss the leader of that offensive line, and the rest
of the guys will follow suit.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
All right, we need to take our final time out
coming up. When we come back, when the offense is
good and the defense is bad or vice versa, how
do you keep a team from pointing fingers? We'll discuss
that next. This is the Bengals Game Plan Show presented
by bud Light on ESPN.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
Fifteen thirty am.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
To the Bengals Game Plan Show presented by bud Light.
Thanks so much for tuning in. We want to thank
our engineer, Mike Mills. Thank you Mike coming out and
setting everything up.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
Ke Magic.

Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
Thanks to Tarren Bland back in the studio. Thanks to
the ben Gals, we appreciate them. Thanks to the but
Light girls as well. She just loved moments ago, but
maybe she's listening in the car. Thank you to Nita, Yes,
who went above and be She always does.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
She's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
But the bake goods are crazy tonight. I don't know
if I'm strong enough to carry what she has given us.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
It's a few pounds.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
It's gonna put on a few pounds, that's for sure, right.
And most of all, thank you to the Bengals fans
for being here. We greatly ap siate you each and
every week.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
You guys make the show, no question.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
So last Sunday was rough.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
The Bengals scored thirty eight points and did not win.
After the game, Jamar Chase was interviewed by a bunch
of reporters, myself included. He didn't say anything negative about
the defense, but sometimes it's what you don't say. Yeah, right,
And you could feel it. You could feel his frustration. Yea,
not only for this game, but that several times that

(01:25:27):
had happened last year. Sure, the offense performed really well
and the defense just had a hard time keeping the
opponent off the scoreboards. So how do you prevent offense
and defense from finger pointing? It is human nature, It's
hard to do. I asked that question earlier today to
offensive line coach Scott Peters.

Speaker 4 (01:25:46):
Here's what he had to say.

Speaker 9 (01:25:49):
I reminded our guys, you know, it wasn't too long
ago when we were the ones that weren't playing up
to our standard, and we got to be there to
support our team because it's a team game, so it
can't do it without everybody. And as frustrating as it
might be, and it was very frustrating to lose the game,
it's a team effort and where you know, and it's
always gonna be the case in football, so we just

(01:26:09):
need some group to step up if somebody's not playing
well or not it didn't have a good performance like days.

Speaker 4 (01:26:15):
It's a team that makes this happen.

Speaker 9 (01:26:16):
So our guys are fully embraced of the defense and
the players on that side of the ball because it's
gonna take all of us.

Speaker 4 (01:26:23):
To do it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
It's the ultimate team game. But it's hard when one
side is doing well and the other side is doing poorly.

Speaker 3 (01:26:30):
It really is, you know, and you sometimes frustrations can
boil over, and that's that's what happens from time to time.
And you know, I can remember situations where offensively for us,
everything is click and it's like, oh man, This is
almost too easy. What's going what's going on here? And
the defense is a stiff man. They just can't they
can't stop anything. And you know it's like at halftime,

(01:26:53):
you're come on, man, well you get we get off
the field on third down once where you make them
punt the football once. Come on, let's go. And you
know you can.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
The team.

Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
The team can fall apart, the team can become splintered, divided,
and I think Zach Taylor and his coaching staff's acutely
aware of that. And I'm not gonna let it happen.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
I'm glad that Scott Peters pointed out to his guys
and this is true. Just remember earlier this year. Yeah,
I mean go back to Week one. Wasn't pretty, offense
wasn't good. The defense won.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
The game exactly period. And that's it's a team game.
Like you said earlier, Dan, it's the ultimate team sport.
You have twenty two moving parts every single play. That's
a lot, that's a lot of things going on at
the same time that if any one of them breaks
down or goes wrong, it can be a problem that
affects the whole system.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
All Right, I will not be with you on Friday afternoon.
I am off to Salt Lake City. Yes, sir, I
see if the mighty Bearcats can win their eighth in
a row.

Speaker 3 (01:27:59):
About it can.

Speaker 4 (01:28:01):
Ye, No, bear Cats currently.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
Seventeenth in the country and at two hi for first
place in the Big twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
And when I see you on Sunday in the press
box in our booth, I might be a little sleepy.

Speaker 3 (01:28:16):
Just so you know, I'll bring a pillow. I bet so.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
Just bring a lot of coffee or allow it. I
allow me to have a massive mug of coffee because
I might need it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:24):
I bet. I bet you know what nobody calls a
game better than that.

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):
No, nobody does. Forget it, nobody does.

Speaker 3 (01:28:32):
Thank you. And the city of Cincinnati is so fortunate
to have you calling games to them at the collegiate
and professional level. And I am so fortunate to have
your report.

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
Thank you, my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
I'm gonna sound really good this weekend when the Bearcats
and Bengals both win.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
Yes, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
Let's do it all right, let's do it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:51):
That's gonna do it for our show tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Thanks again to everybody listening and to everybody here at
Scoreboard Sports Bar. You've been listening to the Bengal game
Plan show presented by bud Light on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
This was Bengals game Plan presented by bud Light on
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(01:29:27):
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals,