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Speaker 1: Well, it's time for Robert Weintraub. I hope my email to him went through. Email's not working around the globe.
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Speaker 2: It's been fantastic. I've enjoyed it.
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Speaker 1: Robert Weintraub writes about the Cincinnati Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. You could read his column about the Steelers. Steelers pay back for what happened to the Bengals when they went to Pittsburgh. It's up and running now at CincinnatiMagazine.com. And Robert's here. Hi.
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Speaker 3: Hey, I'm just enjoying my recently gotten autograph from Joe Bureau. We have a place of prominence now.
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Speaker 2: Up on the wall.
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Speaker 3: Very excited.
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Speaker 2: Thank you for that. It's it's it's Steelers payback.
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Speaker 1: You know, in Pittsburgh, they're big mad because they they didn't add to their team at the deadline. They didn't add a wide receiver here. Well, the Bengals tried to add to their defense, but but did not. And you are, as one might say, nonplussed by this. We have folks who are dangling on the ledge. So talk them off of it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Come down off that ledge. Or remember back in, after the two game losing streak, I came on your air and I told everybody to R E L A X. We haven't lost since. So, you know, take it from me, stay confident, stay level-headed. I know your fans, it's impossible, but it is, it is worthy. You know, it's a two prong thing in this case, because not only did they not add to the team, but they kind of got humiliated with the Ebikidi thing. And, you know, it's not much really defense for that per se. It's, I give him a little bit of grace just because it's that often hardly ever looked at interregnum between, you know, the trade gets announced and leaked on social media, but it's not official. And, you know, then you see it's official and nobody ever really thinks twice about it, but you know, there are things that happen like day on Henley traded to the Broncos yesterday. And then they found out today. Now we don't want to really do that for the physical reason, or maybe they just got cold feet.
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Speaker 2: Who knows?
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Speaker 3: That was a guy. I actually thought the Bengals should try and target. So, you know, I mean, It's a tough situation sometimes. I don't think Duke Tobin looked very good sending out Zach Taylor to take all.
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Speaker 2: The bullets for him.
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Speaker 3: That was kind of a Roger Goodell move there, just, you know, as the owners hide behind his shield. But in general, you know, big picture, I wanted to add a smaller depth piece. I think everybody would have agreed that, you know, even a player like Evachetti, who at least gives you a professional player as depth, can only help. But overall, these midseason trades, I just don't think they work. The juice is not always worth the squeeze, especially for the.
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Speaker 2: Amount they're talked about.
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Speaker 3: And they made their big move in the offseason. They were never going to trade any real premium picks again, let's face it. They like where the team is right now. They've won four in a row, as we said. Why mess with chemistry as you're just really turning it on? And I also think that we tend to underrate the idea that these players, they're not, you know, they're not football cars. They're not avatars. They go from one team to another in midstream. They're asked to pick up a whole new system sometimes and learn the guy's names, you know, leave their family behind in a lot of cases.
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Speaker 2: It's not easy.
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Speaker 3: And that's why a lot of mid-season trades just, you know, don't really.
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Speaker 2: Work out half the time. So I don't know.
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Speaker 3: I just felt like I would have liked to have seen a player, but I just, I didn't get crazy about it. And I understand, uh, Sports talk radio is meant for craziness. I'm out of step with the rest of the fan base, but if they beat the Steelers on Sunday night, it'll be completely forgotten about by Monday.
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Speaker 1: Here's a piece of analysis and you could steal this if you want.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: So the Bengals played the Steelers the first time and they made some critical special teams mistakes. Since then, the special teams has been really good. So that's been cleaned up. Also back then, you know, they were going through a little bit of an identity crisis. They were trying to run Joe burrow under center. The running game hadn't really taken off. And now they're kind of back to being who they have been. And they run the ball, you know, effectively enough P Ryan and Brown combined for a hundred yards on 20 carries against Atlanta.
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Speaker 2: That'll work. I think.
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Speaker 1: And so they know who they are and they're not screwing up on special teams. So they're going to win on Sunday night.
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Speaker 2: Your comments. It's just that easy. Yes.
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Speaker 3: Don't even have to play the simple.
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Speaker 2: That's right. Yep. Book it, baby.
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Speaker 3: Uh, Yeah, well, I think both things are. The real question is, you mentioned the running game. You know, Pittsburgh's run defense has been outstanding this year. Their first in defensive adjusted line yards by our numbers. They really have put a premium on stopping the run so far this year. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, how much the Bengals slam their heads against the wall in trying to prove a point or, you know, keep that run pass balance, you know, somewhat in order. or they just say the heck with it in this case and lean into their strength as they've been, you know, want to do a lot of times, not necessarily to their benefit, but that'll be a fascinating subplot. Obviously game script will have a lot to do with it. You mentioned the special teams, you know, Chris Boswell has always been a great kicker for Pittsburgh, but he's
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not having a great year so far this year. It's not been a disaster as it has been in Kansas city and here in Atlanta and in other precincts, but he hasn't been great. And Evan McPherson has been, so that's, you know, I know, Boswell made the game winning kick in Pittsburgh in that game. But you'd like to think there'd be a little bit of a reversal as you mentioned. And you know, the other key, I think it comes down to a little bit of red zone play. The Bengals have been excellent in stopping teams from scoring touchdowns and forcing those field goals. Aaron Rogers, the quarterback at Pittsburgh has been only a 50% passer in the red zone this year, as opposed to Joe Burrow, 75%. And again, you know, we mentioned the Pittsburgh running game. I mean, a big part of their success, Pittsburgh's Rogers has been really poor throwing against too high safety looks this year, last in the league or near the last in the league, but he only faces it last in the league. They don't do it a lot. Teams are afraid to play too high because they get gashed at run game. And that'll really be sort of a critical game within the game. Can the Bengals stop the runner, at least slow the run without committing the safeties down constantly and getting Rogers more Cleaner looks and things that he can still do, you know, shorter and intermediate passing. He doesn't have the arm strength to drive the ball to the perimeter. And he's not Joe Burrow in terms of, you know, slicing up teams anymore, even when they play too high safety. So if the Bengals can manage to get into situations where they can play both safeties high, they'll have the advantage, you know, and only in a couple of situations may just come down to a couple of drafts. should do that it should be a tight.
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Speaker 1: Game yeah we're in this weird place robert weintraub writes a weekly bangles column for cincinnati magazine read it at cincinnati magazine.com we're at this place where aaron rogers who's made i think in my life more like holy crap i can't believe he just did that throws than anybody else now he's just looks like a game manager is that is that sustainable even beyond sunday is that sustainable in pittsburgh Yeah.
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Speaker 2: It's tough.
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Speaker 3: You know, I mean, beyond the old man and the cold weather thing, he's definitely playing smart. He's throwing the ball away more than anybody, but a couple of players and quarterbacks in the league, he's avoiding turnovers. He's not actively losing games for his team, but he's not playing well either. He's 24th in DVOA. He's 27th in EPA per drop back numbers, numbers, numbers. You pick any one of them and these, you know, the analytics don't look great for him. So, you know, I guess the question is like you say, what is he able to do? What can the Bengals make them do? You know, can they get the pressure on them there? They've had an excellent season pressure and quarterbacks. They took Michael Pennix completely out of his rhythm last week. And, you know, in a lot of ways, Pennix wants to do what Rogers wants to do. It's kind of make the smart play and not make mistakes, get into a rhythm and, You know, I think you've also seen Rogers helped a lot by yards after catch this year. The Steelers are second in yards after catch only to Kansas city Bengals are.
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Speaker 2: 10th, by the way, with a bullet. Yes.
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Speaker 3: Jamar chase is back to doing what always does after a slow start, but you know, we always talk about it.
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Speaker 2: It's tackling.
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Speaker 3: Can they get the guy.
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Speaker 1: To the ground?
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Speaker 3: And that's always been a problem, especially lately against the Steelers. You know, Rogers is not able to find a lot of, you know, deep downfield throws to wide receivers and, So he takes the easy throw and his receivers underneath are making them look good by turning those into bigger plays than they should be. Have to get those guys on the ground. That's going to be a huge key of the game.
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Speaker 1: Is it as cut and dry as the winner on Sunday takes the AFC North?
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Speaker 3: I remember you asked me this about the Ravens game.
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Speaker 2: A couple weeks ago. Might ask it again before the Browns game. It's possible.
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Speaker 3: It is possible. Although, you know, you're really, you're hard pressed to think of a game with this kind of ramifications happening. two weeks basically before Thanksgiving.
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Speaker 2: It's pretty unusual.
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Speaker 3: And yet it's kind of true.
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Speaker 2: I mean, as it is, the.
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Speaker 3: Bengals are 70% by our numbers to win the AFC North, 97% to make the playoffs. And what does that tell you? The schedule ahead has a lot of perceived W's on it, and they should win those games. Steeler's schedule is not crazy hard, but they do have a few tougher games left with Jacksonville and Denver particularly ahead. So, yeah, I mean, if you can obviously– be a game up rather than a game and a half, you know, or two, depending on how you want to say it, having been swept by Pittsburgh. You never want to be the chaser. You'd much rather play from ahead, just like in a real game. And yeah, there's any game with the Steelers is always fraught as we know, and especially with, with, you know, something real on the line. So it's not like they can't win the division. If they lose, they certainly can, but boy, they'd be putting themselves in the proverbial catbird seat. If they take the game on Sunday night.
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Speaker 2: No question. We'll talk next week. Thank you, as always.
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Speaker 3: Just remember, Mo, we're the big dogs, and it's going to stay that way.
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Speaker 2: I like it. Yeah, I'm going to say that often between now and Sunday night.
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Speaker 3: Hopefully after.
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Speaker 1: Yes, most definitely after, no question. Robert Weintraub's weekly Bengals column is available. See him at CincinnatiMagazine.com.