00:00:00
Speaker 1: The Bengals and Dolphins meet up in Miami for a South Beach showdown. Speaking of the beach, my swimsuit of choice is a Speedo, European style. I don't like those pesky tan lines. The Bengals duel the Dolphins. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Stream for free on the new edition of Improved iHeartRadio app. Or on ESPN 1530. The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, I'm Moe Edgar. This is ESPN 1530. Thank you for listening today. Hopefully you're having an awesome Tuesday. It is gorgeous outside. We are, this is a good setup. I like a setup where you can do a show on a couch. I feel like I'm at the therapist's office, which as a Bengals fan, I feel like I need therapy. We're at the Transet, the Transet, which is right across the street from Washington Park, right in OTR. An absolutely awesome venue for any kind of party you would want to have. wedding, whatever it is, this is a great venue. Was lucky enough to get a tour of it earlier this summer. Run by the folks at Delightmore. By the way, Delightmore this weekend, the place to be for Blank. If you're coming downtown for Blank, don't forget, they've got the Charlie Harper live exhibit at the Mercantile Immersive during Blank. You can get tickets. They're free. It's open to the public. Tickets are limited, but they are available at delightmore.com. This is one of four event venues around the city. Soon, not too far from where we are downtown, the legendary Phoenix on Ray Street will be reopened. The transept is awesome here. Parties, if you think ahead a few months, holiday parties, corporate gatherings, social occasions, whatever it is, learn more at delightmore.com. Our friend Paul Daner Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast will be hosting his next live show on Thursday at 50 West on Worcester Pike. He is here, and we have a lot to discuss. How's it going?
00:02:12
Speaker 3: I'm doing great. There is a lot to discuss.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: There is. Week five.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: This is actually, no, this is truthfully one of my favorite times. Yeah. Because once the first month is in the books, you can really start making the judgments and casting out the sinners.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker 3: Everything before this still feels a little small sample size-y. But now I feel like this is always a time of year where you can really start.
00:02:41
Speaker 2: To see, okay, who's at fault? So I feel similar because I feel like the Bengals, the 2026 Bengals, we had this long honeymoon. And then we moved in with each other week one.
00:02:51
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:02:52
Speaker 2: And now it's like, you kind of leave your stuff around and you pass gas at the dinner table. And I still love you, but I'm starting to see the warts. And now it's like, okay, we're really in this for the long haul together. And I'm going to have to find ways to tolerate what I don't like about you because I like most of what there is about you. But now the warts are here. And that's how I feel about the Bengals.
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pittsburgh was a little bit of passing gas at the dinner table, wasn't it?
00:03:19
Speaker 2: It was like that first, like, oh, hey! Where was that during the courtship process? Yeah, I was not expecting that. Yeah, these are the problems, right? So this is the beauty this time of year.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: We've now seen here are the problems, and the teams that separate themselves, the good teams.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: are the ones.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: That can problem solve, are the ones that can take whatever this year's issues are and work them out the quickest. Previous editions, recent editions of the Cincinnati Bengals have been poor at working out the problems at this time of year, at this stage of the season. We've seen them snowball. We've seen them get worse.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: We've seen them be historically bad.
00:04:06
Speaker 3: And so I think this is kind of an interesting juxtaposition for this particular group that fancies itself nimble at being able, at being built to handle the problems and adjust and win different ways and all of these things that we've heard about over the course.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: Of the offseason, and now we'll see if they can go prove it. You're a little younger than me, so I don't know if you remember New Coke.
00:04:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember New Coke.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: New Coke. I mean, a little bit.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: I wasn't into Coca-Cola at that point.
00:04:35
Speaker 2: So as like a seven-year-old, they have this huge, massive, multimillion-dollar marketing campaign. It's going to be sweeter. It's going to be better. It's going to be awesome. And then after like 10 weeks, Coke's like, yeah, we're getting rid of that. I feel like that's the Bengals under center. Yeah, New Coke. Yeah, New Coke. I'm calling it the New Coke offense. Yeah, we're just– forget we even mentioned it, okay? That's the New Coke offense. Yeah. I think– You can write that on one of your little articles.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: One of my little articles, yeah.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: I'll get on that.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's– similarly to New Coke, I think there were a lot of people that predicted the downfall of New Coke before it happened.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: Sure.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: Here's what's going to happen, okay? Oh, this is going to suck. They're going to try this, and then we're going to be right back to Old Coke. Everybody knows– this is where this is going to end. And I think there was a lot of doubters of whether it was going to actually take, we'll see. I think that there is, there's obviously still proponents in the building for it. I think there's still.
00:05:37
Speaker 2: New Coke had its, had its proponents still. And I, yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: Yeah. And maybe they're still sitting there right now saying, you know, we should really try new Coke.
00:05:45
Speaker 2: It would have worked. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:47
Speaker 3: And maybe, maybe, maybe this will get going here. There was clearly a lot of frustration in the building yesterday. I talked to Drew Sample, and we talked to Ted Karras, and Dan Pitcher, and then Zach.
00:06:02
Speaker 2: Taylor was on the podium.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: The tone was the same with all of them. The offensive line in particular, the run game stuff, protection, all of it was worse than we thought it was. The fact is, if they would have won that game, it actually would have clouded the fact that this all needs to be addressed. And like a really, a much harsher tone than I anticipated and that I've heard all season long in terms of it. So I, it does seem like, I don't know that the change is necessarily a new Coke.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: See you later. I don't know that that's it. I do know that there's frustration with the way things were executed, particularly in upfront, I think from all involved, And it was certainly a wake-up call.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: We'll see. I can't say.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I don't think we know for sure what direction they're going to go next other than it sounds like there's going to be some kind of an alteration to what they're doing.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Well, the quarterback says just throw it more. Right. So that's good.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, that feels.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, of course, you can always say... I actually.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: I don't disagree with him in a one-game situation like... No, I don't have an issue. I don't have an issue with what they did Sunday. Outside of you don't want to see Joe take that many hits. I mean, that was not ideal.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: No, they adjusted to how the game was being played.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: What are you going to do? You clearly can't run the ball at all. You're getting nothing in there. There is a path to victory, and that was the path to victory. And so I don't know, but it is, as Dan Pitcher said, it is not... sustainable long-term. And I think they're trying to find a way they're not, don't feel forced into that ever again.
00:07:52
Speaker 2: I had other comparisons. Please. Would you like to hear them?
00:07:56
Speaker 3: Of course I would.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: Al Capone's vaults. So there was this hype in 1986, they were going to broadcast like them breaking into his vaults and they found basically nothing, some old bottles, I think a roadmap or two. And so like a lot of hype for Al Capone's vaults, Geraldo egg on his face, similar to Zach Taylor vaults. Who's had eight months to work on this project and gets an F there's the Y2K bug. Remember that? Oh yeah. And it was like, I think we were disappointed that it wasn't catastrophic. I remember that new year's Eve, like, Oh, we're still here. Like eight, eight months of, of hype for that big dud. There's the Seinfeld finale, right? Which even still, when I watch it, it's like, yeah, I wish they could go back and redo that. There's a more recently the fire festival. Remember that was going to be a big thing. Oh, well. Hey, Ja Rule. This was not the Firefest. The Bengals' offense was not the Firefest. Promoted on social media by top-tier models and influencers as a luxury music festival on a private Bahamian island. Have you seen the documentary? Have you seen the Firefest documentary? I have. It reminded me a lot of being at the Bengals game on Sunday. That's why I put it on the list. Also, Quibi. Backed by nearly $ 1. 75 billion in venture capital and industry heavyweights, this short-term streaming app was hyped as the revolution of mobile entertainment. It failed to find an audience and shut down completely just six months after launching. So should we call this the New Coke offense, the Al Capone's Vault offense, the Y2K bug offense, the Seinfeld finale offense, the Fyre Festival offense, or the Quibi offense?
00:09:25
Speaker 3: So do I get a chance to guess your chat GPT query that you put in there?
00:09:30
Speaker 2: First time I've ever used Google AI. That's what I thought. That's what it sounds like. So I typed in... Over-hype events in American culture. Yeah, that feels right. And there they were. And there they were. And the one that I put in bold, the one that I liked the most, was New Coke. I like New Coke.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: I think it also properly dates you.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember that.
00:09:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, right. But I appreciate you trying to reach out to a young audience with New Coke, though. Y2K, I think, touches just about everybody. Everybody heard about Y2K. Everybody knew about it. I think that would be the one that I would... It just kind of happened and we were all just left looking at each other and that was it. Right now, I feel like I look around and we're all sort of like, well, When is it happening?
00:10:18
Speaker 2: Did it even happen yet? Like, we're still waiting on it.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: I mean, we're still staring at them 32nd in the league under center. yards per play.
00:10:26
Speaker 2: There are people who don't follow the Bengals closely who could tell you that they spent the last eight months talking about their stupid under center offense. That's how much this became a thing.
00:10:35
Speaker 3: That's how much also that the NFL offseason is just, we just have to fill time. It again continues to boost my theory that I have had ever since the Jamar Chase preseason. and training camp that I should stop working in August. It's not necessary. All the things that we talk about end up being silly. I should have showed up, done one Dante Myers feature, and gone on vacation.
00:11:00
Speaker 2: I'm going to have them scrub all the training camp shows from the website so you can't go back and listen to Tony and I groaning on about the under center offense. Is there one reason that stands out more than the others as to why it hasn't worked? Um.
00:11:18
Speaker 3: I wonder how built for it they are. I wonder how much a line that is... I think they're more nimble with the interior.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: Guys that they have brought in. I think Reisner, Fairchild, Karras. But the giant.
00:11:39
Speaker 3: often tackles like Orlando Brown, like, or are they, are they built to run this properly or is it better or are they just better built to be downhill gun run team? Like, is that maybe that that was where they've had success. We haven't really had to see them do as much of, of this type of stuff.
00:12:01
Speaker 2: So perhaps that's what it's, that's what it is.
00:12:04
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's something to the fact that they didn't, They didn't build this line with under center and this type of a run scheme in mind. That said, it feels like something they should be able to execute. It doesn't feel like it's something that's a problem, but clearly it is. Clearly it's been a problem for them.
00:12:22
Speaker 2: There's like a round peg in a square hole or whatever that thing is. So, I mean, you kind of answered my question, which was going to be like, well, we're still trying to figure out what they can do, and yet continuity was the buzzword beyond running. under center of the offseason.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think we know one thing they can do, and they've done that consistently through four games.
00:12:44
Speaker 2: They've thrown the ball through four games. Sometimes to the other team.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: Sometimes to the other team. We can talk about that. But I think the things they have, we've known, the continuity shows... that they've done well, I think they've done well. I think they've been fine. I mean, they've been who they are. I mean, Jamar and T have been great. Gasicki, like, all the members of the Los Angeles throwing session this summer have all been great.
00:13:12
Speaker 2: Like, honestly. Yeah. And so the continuity, I think, shows itself. The problem is.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: The stuff that isn't– that is the new stuff and trying to figure out what works. I think that stuff works itself out. I think– a big deal has been made of this because of the trends of the league and that the Bengals should be part of it.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: And I think it's true.
00:13:33
Speaker 3: I think their ceiling is partially dependent on this becoming a way that they can get more explosive and beat teams in different ways. But if they can't do it, I still think they can be the same level of offense that they have been in the past, which is really good. Yes, sure. They've never been top three. They've never been number one. And I think being able to do a little bit of everything probably does require them getting better at that. We'll see if they give it a full chance.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I've been thinking a lot about the history of the NFL. Peter King's going to be on my show. There you go. And we're having him at 4 o'clock. And he's written a book about what it was like to have a front row seat for the evolution of the National Football League. I'm pretty sure back when he started covering the league, teams were going under center. Yes. We talk about this offense like it's, boy, you put the quarterback right under, have his hands right underneath the center's posterior. This is some revolutionary stuff. Like, why ain't Tittle ran that offense? Maybe they need why ain't Tittle. Maybe that's the problem. Someone touched him off. The frustrating thing for me is this. I've spent the majority of my life watching games where the quarterback has mostly been under center. And so for decades, we've had teams that have figured out a way to do this, and yet for the Bengals, it's hieroglyphics. Yeah.
00:14:51
Speaker 3: Well, maybe if you can find a hotel room, you bring Boomer back.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Okay. And the greatest at the play action.
00:14:59
Speaker 3: Yes. The greatest play action fake we've ever seen. And get him to just do a couple of days.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: That should be it, right?
00:15:06
Speaker 3: Yeah. And just go talk about how it worked in the 80s in New Coke. We can do both of these things at the same time. We can cover all of this stuff all at once. I do think, though, it's not about where you're lined up. Obviously, it's about the movement. It's about the side-to-side. It's about the longer developing plays. It's about turning your back to the play versus being able to just stand there and manipulate players with your eyes and process what's in front of you. I think one of them is... it seems pretty obvious that Burrow views one of those more as his strength. There has never been any indication that he hasn't been on board with trying to make this happen. Never once from anybody I've ever talked to, he has been on board with whatever they need to do to win games, as far as I've ever heard, on or off the record. And so I don't think he's standing up in the room saying this stinks. I think he wants to do stuff that works and win games. And that if he feels like right now, that's him moving this guy with his eyes rather than trying to move everything with a whole scheme and having it blow up in his face.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: I understand that there's frustration with that. All right, it's 20 minutes after 3 o'clock. Paul Daner, Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast. Live show Thursday night.
00:16:23
Speaker 3: Yes, live show Thursday night. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're pumped about it.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: 50 West.
00:16:27
Speaker 3: 50 West on Worcester Pike. We start at 7 o'clock. We'll lead right up until the Thursday night football game. We'll be hanging out in the beer garden all night.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: Very good. That's Thursday night. Paul's here at Toll 4. I'm here at Toll 6, broadcasting from the transept downtown. I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:16:46
Speaker 4: WCKY Cincinnati, an iHeartRadio station.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: Guaranteed human. ESPN 1530.
00:16:53
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio.
00:16:57
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. traffic from the.
00:17:02
Speaker 6: Uc hill free no one covers the bingles like espn 1530 cincinnati sports station.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Five minutes after three o'clock this is espn 1530 bo egger broadcasting from the transept downtown an absolutely beautiful uh venue for any sort of event you want to have if you're getting married just get married here and have the party here at the transept and invite me too because i'm I'm a lot of fun at weddings. Paul Diener Jr. is here from the Athletic and the Growler podcast. You're not a dancer, right? I'm not really a dancer.
00:17:38
Speaker 3: At a wedding?
00:17:39
Speaker 2: Depends.
00:17:41
Speaker 3: You're in the circle, right? Not in the middle of the circle, but join the circle. If everyone's out there, you're not going to be still sitting or standing on the side. Or would you just duck outside and smoke a cigar with a couple people?
00:17:54
Speaker 2: That's always a good exit strategy. My wife's not a dancer. So she'd rather hang out outside while I smoke a cigar and talk to the people who aren't dancing.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: But if she were a dancer, yes, I would.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: I was pre pre back surgery. I was a let the anticipation build and then boom, hit the dance floor like hard, like right at the, at a, at a, at a big moment. And then that builds wedding to when you were in wedding younger and in wedding season that builds from wedding to wedding. I actually, at one point, Ended up in, which I'm sure your listeners are excited to hear about this. At one point, I was.
00:18:28
Speaker 2: You want to hear me make new Coke references?
00:18:32
Speaker 3: Maybe Y2K again. At one point, I ended up in a lot of dance-offs at weddings.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: Really?
00:18:38
Speaker 3: They happen, right? It's just kind of a thing. People want that. And my record was 14, 2, and 1 career.
00:18:44
Speaker 2: That many? Yeah.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Incredible. Those weren't all at weddings. That was just where my career record was. Maybe a few that I won, you'd call them undercards that I shouldn't have had issue with in certain spots. But yeah, I had a bit of a reputation, and then my knees all fell apart.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Age has caught up to you. Age has caught up to my game.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: I'm the retired lineman or running back or whatever.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: Lots of comparisons we can make there, too.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: I'm like the Joe Mixon of dance-offs.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: I guess it didn't work out for old Joe in Seattle. I guess not.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: Sounds like an injury issue there, which I'm disappointed on because I really wanted to have reporters ask him what happened.
00:19:28
Speaker 2: Yes. Still want to know. Still really interested to know.
00:19:32
Speaker 3: I mean, I would love to know what is going on.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: Speaking of injuries, do you have a gut feeling about Jamar and Tee for Sunday?
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we've seen enough concussions to know that it's a coin flip and that it's like a 30% to 40%.
00:19:46
Speaker 2: That he would play. That he would play.
00:19:50
Speaker 3: Not play.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: That he would not play.
00:19:51
Speaker 3: It feels like he's not going to play is what I'm trying to say. But again, we've seen some concussions where the guy plays the next week, but it feels like most of them they don't. But if he clears, he'll play and he'll be fine. It's just a matter of you know, it's a, it's a murky process and you never, I believe the word Marvin Lewis used to use about the concussion protocol was nebulous, uh, to us when we would ask about it.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: So it's hard to know for sure.
00:20:20
Speaker 3: But it's T is the one where I think you look at and say, okay, maybe it's best to look at the big picture here on an, you know, an adductor, your, your chance of aggravation of injury of making it worse. Can you go beat Miami? And then have with the bye right after.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: That's where my head would be if Jamar were healthy.
00:20:44
Speaker 3: Yes. If you're missing both of them, you're okay.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: And Yoshibas.
00:20:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: And Colby Young. Right. Dante Myers and Mitch Tinsley.
00:20:53
Speaker 5: Right.
00:20:53
Speaker 3: And Gesicki playing receiver. And I guess maybe Noah Thomas. I still think that's more than enough to go beat Miami.
00:21:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:21:04
Speaker 3: But Miami, it's not a pushover. Like, if you've watched.
00:21:07
Speaker 2: Defensively, they're. Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker 3: Defensively, they can present problems. I mean, they have pushed a perfect Kansas City team. They were right there with Minnesota. Both of those teams are foreign. I mean, they've had a gauntlet in their own respect that they've had to play. But, yeah, I think there's a real chance that you're going down there without Tee and Jamar. You know, just I never have a good read on concussions. You just never know.
00:21:34
Speaker 2: Should there be suspensions resulting from that hit? I mean, in this era, player safety, and maybe this shouldn't matter, but player safety where the central figure is a star. Yeah. I mean, that was, there were two different things that happened there. I can't believe the helmet to helmet hit wasn't flagged. You have an egregious face mask and then you have what followed. That was like two guys on a tag team on one guy. It, That was quintessential defenseless. Yeah. Well, yes.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: It feels a little, like, fine. It feels like a fine to me.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: I'd be floored if there was no fine, but.
00:22:16
Speaker 3: I wouldn't. I mean, on 51, I think I could see them coming away and saying that, look, he was just. When Jamar went down, he went into his level. He was accelerating through a tackle. I could. I'm just saying I've been surprised at some of the things that have not been fined this year.
00:22:34
Speaker 2: I think he will be fined. Well, you get fined when you stick your arm out. You get fined when you pretend you're chugging a beer. Yeah, well, they don't care about that. We got a dude trying to decapitate Jamar Chase, and we're not going to do anything to him?
00:22:49
Speaker 3: I think there will be a fine. I think he should be a fine. I could hear there not being a fine, though. I think there's a better chance of there not being a fine. than there is of anybody being suspended. That's not happening. I think that you'll see a final. I'll be curious how much it is.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: They can't run under center, but then they don't have their top four receivers. They obviously have good pass catchers. Chase Brown caught 11 of them on Sunday. Mike Kosicki's obviously been productive, but what do they do at wide receiver specifically if those two guys were to miss this week?
00:23:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think Dante and Mitch, and I think Noah Thomas.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker 3: Or maybe Keyshawn. I didn't even get mentioned yesterday when they were talking about him. I think Noah Thomas would have a possibility. He's more of an outside guy.
00:23:46
Speaker 2: In a normal year, he's maybe the Mo Eggershow award winner. Maybe, yeah, exactly.
00:23:50
Speaker 3: I mean, he showed up in some camp and some preseason games for sure at a touchdown, so... I think you could get Noah Thomas ready to go out there and run some of the T type of stuff, some of the outside receiver stuff, and then Dante not have to do a little bit of everything.
00:24:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's just where it is.
00:24:11
Speaker 3: And I think Gesicki is basically transitioning his receiver. You're going to get probably Gesicki more time running the T routes this week. rather than drawing it up on the sideline before he has to go out there and do it with the game on the line. And that can go– I mean, that's– people forget– I mean, when T has gotten hurt in the past, the primary replacement and the person that's had huge games has been Mike G. Like, he has been T insurance since he's been here, really. And so I could see them really leaning harder into that when they have a full week to kind of properly prepare for that a little bit more, and you can run him and then still have all and sample. I mean, they're still fully healthy at tight end. I think at some point you have to lean into that.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: I think the marketing budget for Crystal Pepsi actually exceeded. So maybe it's the Crystal Pepsi offense. Yes, yes.
00:25:09
Speaker 3: Sure. Why not?
00:25:10
Speaker 2: Crystal Pepsi's not bad. In the early 90s, they decided to make a version of Pepsi that looked like water.
00:25:15
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: And it didn't take.
00:25:18
Speaker 3: SNL did one that was like a gravy.
00:25:20
Speaker 2: It was like a clear gravy. If I remember correctly. I remember that more than I remember Crystal Pepsi. 26 away from 4 o'clock. Paul Daynor Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast with his live show on Thursday night at 50 West on Worcester Pike. Sports headlines and more with Paul after this from the Transcep downtown. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:25:43
Speaker 4: Not just talk. This is sports with soul, sweat, and swagger. Tony Pike Cincy 360. Tomorrow at 12 noon on ESPN 1530.
00:25:56
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
00:26:00
Speaker 2: From the UC Health traffic.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: Bengals like ESPN 1530. Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection, a guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life, KelseyChev.com. Bengals players off today. Coaches hard at work trying to unlock the secrets to having the quarterback take the snap from directly under center and be productive. Bengals and Dolphins Sunday at 1, live on ESPN 1530. Joe Mixon apparently is not going to sign with the Seattle Seahawks, so sorry, Joe. Is that my car? Is that yours?
00:26:39
Speaker 3: Hope it's not me.
00:26:40
Speaker 2: We're at the Trance up downtown. Baseball, National League Division Series game three at six. Atlanta hosting L.A. Chris Sale and Yoshi Yamamoto on the hill. Later tonight, Milwaukee's at San Diego. Brewers up two games tonight in that series with Dustin May opposing Nick Pavetta. And the Cincinnati Cyclones have started training camp today. Paul Diener Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler podcast. I thought for a second I was getting a ticket. I parked right outside the door. I'm a free throw away from my car. Parked on the street. But I'm trying to beat the man. And I didn't go on the app and fill the thing out. I'm trying to save six bucks. I have been.
00:27:20
Speaker 3: eagerly anticipating getting to do play-by-play of you trying to get out of a ticket this entire time. So I've never been rooting for anything more than to see somebody come up and start writing.
00:27:30
Speaker 2: That gentleman's got two cameras. Is he taking pictures of my car and then going to, like, ticket me? Like, what's going on? He doesn't look very official.
00:27:38
Speaker 3: He does not look official enough, I'm willing to say. Perhaps he's just a sightseer in our beautiful downtown next to Washington Park.
00:27:45
Speaker 2: Maybe. We were talking before about Mike Kosicki.
00:27:49
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker 2: Was I wrong about Eric Hall? No.
00:27:53
Speaker 3: I don't think so. He's like the marketing executive who came up with New Coke, I guess, maybe. He's at the center of this. He's supposed to be the perfect type of player to take advantage of what they want to do.
00:28:13
Speaker 2: And the fact that it's not working, I think, is... is partially a part of the fact that his role was falling a little bit by the way.
00:28:20
Speaker 3: So I think there's ways to involve him more, but yeah, I think that's been, I mean, that's been surprising that they haven't been able to kind of truly unlock him, even in a blocking way. Like, it's not like we've seen the consistency of those just crushing blocks that he makes. And in fact, I feel like I've, when you watch the tape, you see more of it feeling like, did Eric mess that up? Like, yeah, something comes through a hole or he just goes, runs past it or can't quite finish.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: You're kind of wondering what's going on there.
00:28:55
Speaker 3: I just think that whole thing, he's in the mix of all that trying to get it figured out. That would be a big give it time for me before we start writing off Eric Hall. I just think it's taking a little more time than we may be anticipating.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: You had me on the growler this morning and we talked for about 35 minutes about Joe Burrow. I don't know if that episode is up.
00:29:17
Speaker 3: It is up, yes.
00:29:18
Speaker 2: It is up. So I'll just leave it at this. Is Joe Burrow a choke artist? That's what's supposed to be across the thumbnail, right?
00:29:28
Speaker 3: And then it's you and I both just angrily staring and pictures next to us.
00:29:34
Speaker 2: And looking aghast at each other for takes. Gator, Burrow chokes again.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: Burrow chokes again. I do not think Joe Burrow is a choke artist. I think that the thing that has been the case in the past is that these types of issues that we've now seen three times in the first four games later in these games.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: have happened, but they've been more rare. They've felt more rare.
00:30:03
Speaker 3: You can look at his turnover-worthy plays over the course of an entire season and just see them sporadically mixed in. Or there's been an unluckiness to some of them. That is not what the first month has felt like. The first month has had consistent bad decisions in very untimely spots.
00:30:25
Speaker 2: So that accentuates.
00:30:27
Speaker 3: I think some of these things that we've seen throughout his career without going 1-34 and.
00:30:32
Speaker 2: All that stuff. It's 1-35 now.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.
00:30:36
Speaker 2: You're right.
00:30:36
Speaker 3: The number has changed. But I do think what has happened here has accentuated some of the stuff that has been an issue throughout his career. The number that I've been talking about this week, and I think I had it in the podcast today, In the first three quarters of games the last four years, he is number one in the NFL in best in turnover percentage. Like, he's just tops of the top, right? But when you look at the fourth quarter and when games are within two scores, he's 34th out of 38 top qualifiers. You've seen this. It just brings that back up. A lot of times it hasn't been as devastating as it's felt like. They've just been so critical here. I... I don't think he's a choke artist. I think they're not in any of these games without him. But I do think that there's a real discussion of what's happening differently in these fourth quarters, whether it's play calling, his approach to it, execution, whatever that is. I think there's got to be a real conversation about what is different about these spots compared to the first three quarters of the game where he so consistently tends to play almost flawless brands of football.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: I think it's this. This would go in the chyron. Fourth quarter, doesn't have that dog in him. No dog. Yeah. Dogless Joe, is that what you're, I mean. Sure. Yeah, sure.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's a good one.
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Why is Jordan Battle not good? I think, I think he's who he is. I think he's partially hurt. Was on the report last week.
00:32:25
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I think he's playing through stuff right now. I mean, I think last week you had in the list of injuries and severity, you had Duggar, you had Cook, and then right below them you had Battle. And I think it was probably a smaller gap than you would think.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Somebody had to play. So get off his back because he tried to cut it out. No. Okay.
00:32:50
Speaker 3: If you're out there, you're out there, right? But I don't see– I felt like he was– the first two weeks before he got hurt in Pittsburgh a little better.
00:32:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker 3: He's not traditionally been, he's never been a great, hasn't been a great tackler, but he's not been a terrible tackler. And he's made some big plays to make up for it where you, I feel like you see him like pop in, whether it's running downhill to get somebody in the backfield or whatever, but like, you know, the one where I think James had it, where it looks like he's pulling his flag.
00:33:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:33:21
Speaker 3: Like, and a couple of the ones from like, where it's just, that ability to strain and really get after it doesn't seem like he has that gear right now yeah i'm not making an excuse for him i'm saying he looks like a guy who's playing but playing hurt right now and and jordan he's been a roller coaster man his whole career has been ups and downs where you feel like you have a month and a half where he looks like the worst player on the planet And then he'll have another month's stretch where you're like, here it is, the arrival. He figured it out.
00:33:53
Speaker 2: It's just who he's been.
00:33:54
Speaker 3: It just seems like it's always up.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: And down and up and down with him. So this is probably part of that. Yeah. Maybe Geno Stone being in the backfield with him was masking a lot of the Jordan Battle warts.
00:34:06
Speaker 3: Yeah. You were always directing it towards the other guy rather than the fact that maybe some of these deserve to go to both safeties.
00:34:14
Speaker 2: Are the Cleveland Browns good?
00:34:19
Speaker 3: Maybe.
00:34:20
Speaker 2: Good maybe is a strong word. I think they'll be okay. Pesky. Yeah, pesky.
00:34:26
Speaker 3: Pesky, plucky. I think that the Cleveland Browns have maybe answered the most important question. I think they got a head coach.
00:34:38
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:34:39
Speaker 3: I like Todd Monken.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Feels like it.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: I think he was what they needed.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:34:42
Speaker 3: They needed a no-nonsense dude to come in and just be like, I'm not tolerating any of the junk. And this is not a Kevin Stefanski tweet, right?
00:34:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. I watched Kevin Stefanski's team last night. Pretty good.
00:34:56
Speaker 3: This is about Cleveland organization needed somebody who's going to come in there and just be a Todd Monken type guy. And I think that has helped them play a cleaner brand of football and have the energy that you see them playing with. And I thought the thing about Cleveland that we said the whole time was like, God, you love their collection of players. They just had any semblance of a quarterback. And I think what Watson has been to this point, love him or hate him, has been any semblance of a quarterback. He's been okay enough the way he has played that it can allow the rest of the players– to be enough to win some games. It's certainly going to be a lot tougher game on the schedule. I'm not willing to go give it they're going to be good or they're going to be above 500 or they're a real contender. But I think that they certainly have been brought to a level of serviceability by Munkin and the rest of them.
00:35:55
Speaker 2: Will, I have to have all my notifications on for breaking news on Monday if the Bengals lose to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. No.
00:36:05
Speaker 3: I mean, you might want to just turn all your notifications off and go get in line to the therapist.
00:36:15
Speaker 2: Because everyone's going to be on the edge. This is not.
00:36:21
Speaker 3: This is a fireable offense game.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Yeah. I hear you. Yes.
00:36:25
Speaker 3: That's not what's going to happen.
00:36:27
Speaker 2: But it's fireable offense losing to the Dolphins after you've lost the previous two, going into a bye with the season still salvageable and the overriding theme of the last eight months aside from new Coke offense being we got to win now, urgency, let's go. And so I think when you combine all those things in, I certainly don't believe Zach Taylor is going to get bounced if they lose to the Dolphins. But in a lot of cities, like that's, That's where it's ripe to wonder if the coach is going to get picked off during the season.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:56
Speaker 3: In a lot of cities, that is the case.
00:36:57
Speaker 2: Not so much here.
00:36:58
Speaker 3: I don't think you need to have your notifications on.
00:37:00
Speaker 2: No?
00:37:01
Speaker 4: No.
00:37:02
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:37:02
Speaker 3: But, I mean, yeah, this is one of those that.
00:37:07
Speaker 2: You can't lose. You just can't lose situationally. I believe this opponent they're playing is not a pushover. I also know they haven't scored more than 13 points in a game. I also know that if we went within a, I don't know, 300-foot radius of where we are right now, we wouldn't find anybody who can aim a Miami Dolphins wide receiver. If you're 3-1 and you lose to the Dolphins, bad, but you kind of shrug your shoulders and go, that's the NFL. If you're 4-0 and you go to Miami and lose, it's, all right, maybe they overlooked them, regroup, come back, beat Baltimore after the bye. Lose three straight, Baltimore looming. I don't know, man. I know what the conversation is going to sound like on the outside. No doubt.
00:37:50
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be. No, I would like if Joe stood up to the podium and said, well, this is Armageddon. I know before it wasn't. Before there was no Liv Tyler.
00:38:02
Speaker 2: We weren't doing the song.
00:38:04
Speaker 3: We weren't doing the song.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: He just shows up and he just starts singing. Yeah, he should just start singing. Yeah, don't do it. Do it.
00:38:12
Speaker 3: That would be great.
00:38:14
Speaker 2: Now I know what my tweet's going to be at 4 o'clock on Sunday. It's Armageddon. Yes, it's going to be that song. It might be the movie poster. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one, I think so. Along with a can of New Coke superimposed.
00:38:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Liv Tyler holding a can of New Coke.
00:38:32
Speaker 2: One more thing. It's still the shovel pass at the top of my biggest pet peeves, but midfield, try to get the other team to jump, is closing the gap. You hate it. I despise it.
00:38:49
Speaker 3: I think tactically I'm okay with it. Like, if you're just going to keep, if you have the time out to burn, if you're in a situation where you might as well try it, what's the difference? The yard doesn't mean anything. Like, Rico, you just want the space anyway, right? Or whatever it is. But if you're just, rather than just go out there and punt, Might as well go out there and see if you can get the yards knowing that you're just going to punt anyway.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: Counterpoint, run an offensive play.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Now, that wasn't what you were talking about.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: No, I hate the, and I have seen it work, and I understand, but it doesn't work enough. Well, you know what? though?
00:39:30
Speaker 3: It does set you up for when you do want to go out there, and I don't know why more teams, when they are going to go for it, don't do like, 20 seconds of shifts and everything, and then all of a sudden go do it when they're not ready for it.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: That is what you should be setting up for. Put a lot of eye candy out there.
00:39:51
Speaker 3: Everyone on the other side is all celebrating, thinking they didn't jump, and then you hit them with it. That's what this is perfectly setting up for. Maybe that's what will happen. Maybe it'll be a huge fourth down spot, and they'll do it, and they'll point up to your spot. Up to be 346.
00:40:05
Speaker 2: 346 up there. That's for you. I do not. use profanity at professional sporting events. But at the end of the first drive of the game, I was operating on like 90 minutes sleep. You were cranky. I was cranky. They do that. The game unfolded the way it did. All right. Thursday night, 50 West. Thursday night.
00:40:26
Speaker 3: 50 West, Spangles special guests, all our crew. It's going to be a big time down there. We're going to have a lot of fun. 7 p.m.? Yep, giveaways, all that stuff.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: All right, make sure you read Paul Daner's work in The Athletic. Go to theathletic.com and check out the Growler podcast. We talked about Joe Burrow for 30 minutes. It was great, actually.
00:40:43
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it.
00:40:44
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:40:45
Speaker 3: I always appreciate those conversations.
00:40:47
Speaker 2: A little cathartic, yeah. Six away from 4 o'clock, the great Peter King will join us coming up after the top of the hour. We're broadcasting today from the transept downtown. Learn more about this place at delightmore.com. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:41:03
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:41:05
Speaker 3: Traffic.
Speaker 1: The Bengals and Dolphins meet up in Miami for a South Beach showdown. Speaking of the beach, my swimsuit of choice is a Speedo, European style. I don't like those pesky tan lines. The Bengals duel the Dolphins. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Stream for free on the new edition of Improved iHeartRadio app. Or on ESPN 1530. The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, I'm Moe Edgar. This is ESPN 1530. Thank you for listening today. Hopefully you're having an awesome Tuesday. It is gorgeous outside. We are, this is a good setup. I like a setup where you can do a show on a couch. I feel like I'm at the therapist's office, which as a Bengals fan, I feel like I need therapy. We're at the Transet, the Transet, which is right across the street from Washington Park, right in OTR. An absolutely awesome venue for any kind of party you would want to have. wedding, whatever it is, this is a great venue. Was lucky enough to get a tour of it earlier this summer. Run by the folks at Delightmore. By the way, Delightmore this weekend, the place to be for Blank. If you're coming downtown for Blank, don't forget, they've got the Charlie Harper live exhibit at the Mercantile Immersive during Blank. You can get tickets. They're free. It's open to the public. Tickets are limited, but they are available at delightmore.com. This is one of four event venues around the city. Soon, not too far from where we are downtown, the legendary Phoenix on Ray Street will be reopened. The transept is awesome here. Parties, if you think ahead a few months, holiday parties, corporate gatherings, social occasions, whatever it is, learn more at delightmore.com. Our friend Paul Daner Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast will be hosting his next live show on Thursday at 50 West on Worcester Pike. He is here, and we have a lot to discuss. How's it going?
00:02:12
Speaker 3: I'm doing great. There is a lot to discuss.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: There is. Week five.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: This is actually, no, this is truthfully one of my favorite times. Yeah. Because once the first month is in the books, you can really start making the judgments and casting out the sinners.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker 3: Everything before this still feels a little small sample size-y. But now I feel like this is always a time of year where you can really start.
00:02:41
Speaker 2: To see, okay, who's at fault? So I feel similar because I feel like the Bengals, the 2026 Bengals, we had this long honeymoon. And then we moved in with each other week one.
00:02:51
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:02:52
Speaker 2: And now it's like, you kind of leave your stuff around and you pass gas at the dinner table. And I still love you, but I'm starting to see the warts. And now it's like, okay, we're really in this for the long haul together. And I'm going to have to find ways to tolerate what I don't like about you because I like most of what there is about you. But now the warts are here. And that's how I feel about the Bengals.
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pittsburgh was a little bit of passing gas at the dinner table, wasn't it?
00:03:19
Speaker 2: It was like that first, like, oh, hey! Where was that during the courtship process? Yeah, I was not expecting that. Yeah, these are the problems, right? So this is the beauty this time of year.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: We've now seen here are the problems, and the teams that separate themselves, the good teams.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: are the ones.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: That can problem solve, are the ones that can take whatever this year's issues are and work them out the quickest. Previous editions, recent editions of the Cincinnati Bengals have been poor at working out the problems at this time of year, at this stage of the season. We've seen them snowball. We've seen them get worse.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: We've seen them be historically bad.
00:04:06
Speaker 3: And so I think this is kind of an interesting juxtaposition for this particular group that fancies itself nimble at being able, at being built to handle the problems and adjust and win different ways and all of these things that we've heard about over the course.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: Of the offseason, and now we'll see if they can go prove it. You're a little younger than me, so I don't know if you remember New Coke.
00:04:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember New Coke.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: New Coke. I mean, a little bit.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: I wasn't into Coca-Cola at that point.
00:04:35
Speaker 2: So as like a seven-year-old, they have this huge, massive, multimillion-dollar marketing campaign. It's going to be sweeter. It's going to be better. It's going to be awesome. And then after like 10 weeks, Coke's like, yeah, we're getting rid of that. I feel like that's the Bengals under center. Yeah, New Coke. Yeah, New Coke. I'm calling it the New Coke offense. Yeah, we're just– forget we even mentioned it, okay? That's the New Coke offense. Yeah. I think– You can write that on one of your little articles.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: One of my little articles, yeah.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: I'll get on that.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's– similarly to New Coke, I think there were a lot of people that predicted the downfall of New Coke before it happened.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: Sure.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: Here's what's going to happen, okay? Oh, this is going to suck. They're going to try this, and then we're going to be right back to Old Coke. Everybody knows– this is where this is going to end. And I think there was a lot of doubters of whether it was going to actually take, we'll see. I think that there is, there's obviously still proponents in the building for it. I think there's still.
00:05:37
Speaker 2: New Coke had its, had its proponents still. And I, yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: Yeah. And maybe they're still sitting there right now saying, you know, we should really try new Coke.
00:05:45
Speaker 2: It would have worked. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:47
Speaker 3: And maybe, maybe, maybe this will get going here. There was clearly a lot of frustration in the building yesterday. I talked to Drew Sample, and we talked to Ted Karras, and Dan Pitcher, and then Zach.
00:06:02
Speaker 2: Taylor was on the podium.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: The tone was the same with all of them. The offensive line in particular, the run game stuff, protection, all of it was worse than we thought it was. The fact is, if they would have won that game, it actually would have clouded the fact that this all needs to be addressed. And like a really, a much harsher tone than I anticipated and that I've heard all season long in terms of it. So I, it does seem like, I don't know that the change is necessarily a new Coke.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: See you later. I don't know that that's it. I do know that there's frustration with the way things were executed, particularly in upfront, I think from all involved, And it was certainly a wake-up call.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: We'll see. I can't say.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I don't think we know for sure what direction they're going to go next other than it sounds like there's going to be some kind of an alteration to what they're doing.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Well, the quarterback says just throw it more. Right. So that's good.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, that feels.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, of course, you can always say... I actually.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: I don't disagree with him in a one-game situation like... No, I don't have an issue. I don't have an issue with what they did Sunday. Outside of you don't want to see Joe take that many hits. I mean, that was not ideal.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: No, they adjusted to how the game was being played.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: What are you going to do? You clearly can't run the ball at all. You're getting nothing in there. There is a path to victory, and that was the path to victory. And so I don't know, but it is, as Dan Pitcher said, it is not... sustainable long-term. And I think they're trying to find a way they're not, don't feel forced into that ever again.
00:07:52
Speaker 2: I had other comparisons. Please. Would you like to hear them?
00:07:56
Speaker 3: Of course I would.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: Al Capone's vaults. So there was this hype in 1986, they were going to broadcast like them breaking into his vaults and they found basically nothing, some old bottles, I think a roadmap or two. And so like a lot of hype for Al Capone's vaults, Geraldo egg on his face, similar to Zach Taylor vaults. Who's had eight months to work on this project and gets an F there's the Y2K bug. Remember that? Oh yeah. And it was like, I think we were disappointed that it wasn't catastrophic. I remember that new year's Eve, like, Oh, we're still here. Like eight, eight months of, of hype for that big dud. There's the Seinfeld finale, right? Which even still, when I watch it, it's like, yeah, I wish they could go back and redo that. There's a more recently the fire festival. Remember that was going to be a big thing. Oh, well. Hey, Ja Rule. This was not the Firefest. The Bengals' offense was not the Firefest. Promoted on social media by top-tier models and influencers as a luxury music festival on a private Bahamian island. Have you seen the documentary? Have you seen the Firefest documentary? I have. It reminded me a lot of being at the Bengals game on Sunday. That's why I put it on the list. Also, Quibi. Backed by nearly $ 1. 75 billion in venture capital and industry heavyweights, this short-term streaming app was hyped as the revolution of mobile entertainment. It failed to find an audience and shut down completely just six months after launching. So should we call this the New Coke offense, the Al Capone's Vault offense, the Y2K bug offense, the Seinfeld finale offense, the Fyre Festival offense, or the Quibi offense?
00:09:25
Speaker 3: So do I get a chance to guess your chat GPT query that you put in there?
00:09:30
Speaker 2: First time I've ever used Google AI. That's what I thought. That's what it sounds like. So I typed in... Over-hype events in American culture. Yeah, that feels right. And there they were. And there they were. And the one that I put in bold, the one that I liked the most, was New Coke. I like New Coke.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: I think it also properly dates you.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember that.
00:09:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, right. But I appreciate you trying to reach out to a young audience with New Coke, though. Y2K, I think, touches just about everybody. Everybody heard about Y2K. Everybody knew about it. I think that would be the one that I would... It just kind of happened and we were all just left looking at each other and that was it. Right now, I feel like I look around and we're all sort of like, well, When is it happening?
00:10:18
Speaker 2: Did it even happen yet? Like, we're still waiting on it.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: I mean, we're still staring at them 32nd in the league under center. yards per play.
00:10:26
Speaker 2: There are people who don't follow the Bengals closely who could tell you that they spent the last eight months talking about their stupid under center offense. That's how much this became a thing.
00:10:35
Speaker 3: That's how much also that the NFL offseason is just, we just have to fill time. It again continues to boost my theory that I have had ever since the Jamar Chase preseason. and training camp that I should stop working in August. It's not necessary. All the things that we talk about end up being silly. I should have showed up, done one Dante Myers feature, and gone on vacation.
00:11:00
Speaker 2: I'm going to have them scrub all the training camp shows from the website so you can't go back and listen to Tony and I groaning on about the under center offense. Is there one reason that stands out more than the others as to why it hasn't worked? Um.
00:11:18
Speaker 3: I wonder how built for it they are. I wonder how much a line that is... I think they're more nimble with the interior.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: Guys that they have brought in. I think Reisner, Fairchild, Karras. But the giant.
00:11:39
Speaker 3: often tackles like Orlando Brown, like, or are they, are they built to run this properly or is it better or are they just better built to be downhill gun run team? Like, is that maybe that that was where they've had success. We haven't really had to see them do as much of, of this type of stuff.
00:12:01
Speaker 2: So perhaps that's what it's, that's what it is.
00:12:04
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's something to the fact that they didn't, They didn't build this line with under center and this type of a run scheme in mind. That said, it feels like something they should be able to execute. It doesn't feel like it's something that's a problem, but clearly it is. Clearly it's been a problem for them.
00:12:22
Speaker 2: There's like a round peg in a square hole or whatever that thing is. So, I mean, you kind of answered my question, which was going to be like, well, we're still trying to figure out what they can do, and yet continuity was the buzzword beyond running. under center of the offseason.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think we know one thing they can do, and they've done that consistently through four games.
00:12:44
Speaker 2: They've thrown the ball through four games. Sometimes to the other team.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: Sometimes to the other team. We can talk about that. But I think the things they have, we've known, the continuity shows... that they've done well, I think they've done well. I think they've been fine. I mean, they've been who they are. I mean, Jamar and T have been great. Gasicki, like, all the members of the Los Angeles throwing session this summer have all been great.
00:13:12
Speaker 2: Like, honestly. Yeah. And so the continuity, I think, shows itself. The problem is.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: The stuff that isn't– that is the new stuff and trying to figure out what works. I think that stuff works itself out. I think– a big deal has been made of this because of the trends of the league and that the Bengals should be part of it.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: And I think it's true.
00:13:33
Speaker 3: I think their ceiling is partially dependent on this becoming a way that they can get more explosive and beat teams in different ways. But if they can't do it, I still think they can be the same level of offense that they have been in the past, which is really good. Yes, sure. They've never been top three. They've never been number one. And I think being able to do a little bit of everything probably does require them getting better at that. We'll see if they give it a full chance.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I've been thinking a lot about the history of the NFL. Peter King's going to be on my show. There you go. And we're having him at 4 o'clock. And he's written a book about what it was like to have a front row seat for the evolution of the National Football League. I'm pretty sure back when he started covering the league, teams were going under center. Yes. We talk about this offense like it's, boy, you put the quarterback right under, have his hands right underneath the center's posterior. This is some revolutionary stuff. Like, why ain't Tittle ran that offense? Maybe they need why ain't Tittle. Maybe that's the problem. Someone touched him off. The frustrating thing for me is this. I've spent the majority of my life watching games where the quarterback has mostly been under center. And so for decades, we've had teams that have figured out a way to do this, and yet for the Bengals, it's hieroglyphics. Yeah.
00:14:51
Speaker 3: Well, maybe if you can find a hotel room, you bring Boomer back.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Okay. And the greatest at the play action.
00:14:59
Speaker 3: Yes. The greatest play action fake we've ever seen. And get him to just do a couple of days.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: That should be it, right?
00:15:06
Speaker 3: Yeah. And just go talk about how it worked in the 80s in New Coke. We can do both of these things at the same time. We can cover all of this stuff all at once. I do think, though, it's not about where you're lined up. Obviously, it's about the movement. It's about the side-to-side. It's about the longer developing plays. It's about turning your back to the play versus being able to just stand there and manipulate players with your eyes and process what's in front of you. I think one of them is... it seems pretty obvious that Burrow views one of those more as his strength. There has never been any indication that he hasn't been on board with trying to make this happen. Never once from anybody I've ever talked to, he has been on board with whatever they need to do to win games, as far as I've ever heard, on or off the record. And so I don't think he's standing up in the room saying this stinks. I think he wants to do stuff that works and win games. And that if he feels like right now, that's him moving this guy with his eyes rather than trying to move everything with a whole scheme and having it blow up in his face.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: I understand that there's frustration with that. All right, it's 20 minutes after 3 o'clock. Paul Daner, Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast. Live show Thursday night.
00:16:23
Speaker 3: Yes, live show Thursday night. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're pumped about it.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: 50 West.
00:16:27
Speaker 3: 50 West on Worcester Pike. We start at 7 o'clock. We'll lead right up until the Thursday night football game. We'll be hanging out in the beer garden all night.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: Very good. That's Thursday night. Paul's here at Toll 4. I'm here at Toll 6, broadcasting from the transept downtown. I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:16:46
Speaker 4: WCKY Cincinnati, an iHeartRadio station.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: Guaranteed human. ESPN 1530.
00:16:53
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio.
00:16:57
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. traffic from the.
00:17:02
Speaker 6: Uc hill free no one covers the bingles like espn 1530 cincinnati sports station.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Five minutes after three o'clock this is espn 1530 bo egger broadcasting from the transept downtown an absolutely beautiful uh venue for any sort of event you want to have if you're getting married just get married here and have the party here at the transept and invite me too because i'm I'm a lot of fun at weddings. Paul Diener Jr. is here from the Athletic and the Growler podcast. You're not a dancer, right? I'm not really a dancer.
00:17:38
Speaker 3: At a wedding?
00:17:39
Speaker 2: Depends.
00:17:41
Speaker 3: You're in the circle, right? Not in the middle of the circle, but join the circle. If everyone's out there, you're not going to be still sitting or standing on the side. Or would you just duck outside and smoke a cigar with a couple people?
00:17:54
Speaker 2: That's always a good exit strategy. My wife's not a dancer. So she'd rather hang out outside while I smoke a cigar and talk to the people who aren't dancing.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: But if she were a dancer, yes, I would.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: I was pre pre back surgery. I was a let the anticipation build and then boom, hit the dance floor like hard, like right at the, at a, at a, at a big moment. And then that builds wedding to when you were in wedding younger and in wedding season that builds from wedding to wedding. I actually, at one point, Ended up in, which I'm sure your listeners are excited to hear about this. At one point, I was.
00:18:28
Speaker 2: You want to hear me make new Coke references?
00:18:32
Speaker 3: Maybe Y2K again. At one point, I ended up in a lot of dance-offs at weddings.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: Really?
00:18:38
Speaker 3: They happen, right? It's just kind of a thing. People want that. And my record was 14, 2, and 1 career.
00:18:44
Speaker 2: That many? Yeah.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Incredible. Those weren't all at weddings. That was just where my career record was. Maybe a few that I won, you'd call them undercards that I shouldn't have had issue with in certain spots. But yeah, I had a bit of a reputation, and then my knees all fell apart.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Age has caught up to you. Age has caught up to my game.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: I'm the retired lineman or running back or whatever.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: Lots of comparisons we can make there, too.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: I'm like the Joe Mixon of dance-offs.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: I guess it didn't work out for old Joe in Seattle. I guess not.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: Sounds like an injury issue there, which I'm disappointed on because I really wanted to have reporters ask him what happened.
00:19:28
Speaker 2: Yes. Still want to know. Still really interested to know.
00:19:32
Speaker 3: I mean, I would love to know what is going on.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: Speaking of injuries, do you have a gut feeling about Jamar and Tee for Sunday?
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we've seen enough concussions to know that it's a coin flip and that it's like a 30% to 40%.
00:19:46
Speaker 2: That he would play. That he would play.
00:19:50
Speaker 3: Not play.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: That he would not play.
00:19:51
Speaker 3: It feels like he's not going to play is what I'm trying to say. But again, we've seen some concussions where the guy plays the next week, but it feels like most of them they don't. But if he clears, he'll play and he'll be fine. It's just a matter of you know, it's a, it's a murky process and you never, I believe the word Marvin Lewis used to use about the concussion protocol was nebulous, uh, to us when we would ask about it.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: So it's hard to know for sure.
00:20:20
Speaker 3: But it's T is the one where I think you look at and say, okay, maybe it's best to look at the big picture here on an, you know, an adductor, your, your chance of aggravation of injury of making it worse. Can you go beat Miami? And then have with the bye right after.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: That's where my head would be if Jamar were healthy.
00:20:44
Speaker 3: Yes. If you're missing both of them, you're okay.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: And Yoshibas.
00:20:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: And Colby Young. Right. Dante Myers and Mitch Tinsley.
00:20:53
Speaker 5: Right.
00:20:53
Speaker 3: And Gesicki playing receiver. And I guess maybe Noah Thomas. I still think that's more than enough to go beat Miami.
00:21:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:21:04
Speaker 3: But Miami, it's not a pushover. Like, if you've watched.
00:21:07
Speaker 2: Defensively, they're. Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker 3: Defensively, they can present problems. I mean, they have pushed a perfect Kansas City team. They were right there with Minnesota. Both of those teams are foreign. I mean, they've had a gauntlet in their own respect that they've had to play. But, yeah, I think there's a real chance that you're going down there without Tee and Jamar. You know, just I never have a good read on concussions. You just never know.
00:21:34
Speaker 2: Should there be suspensions resulting from that hit? I mean, in this era, player safety, and maybe this shouldn't matter, but player safety where the central figure is a star. Yeah. I mean, that was, there were two different things that happened there. I can't believe the helmet to helmet hit wasn't flagged. You have an egregious face mask and then you have what followed. That was like two guys on a tag team on one guy. It, That was quintessential defenseless. Yeah. Well, yes.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: It feels a little, like, fine. It feels like a fine to me.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: I'd be floored if there was no fine, but.
00:22:16
Speaker 3: I wouldn't. I mean, on 51, I think I could see them coming away and saying that, look, he was just. When Jamar went down, he went into his level. He was accelerating through a tackle. I could. I'm just saying I've been surprised at some of the things that have not been fined this year.
00:22:34
Speaker 2: I think he will be fined. Well, you get fined when you stick your arm out. You get fined when you pretend you're chugging a beer. Yeah, well, they don't care about that. We got a dude trying to decapitate Jamar Chase, and we're not going to do anything to him?
00:22:49
Speaker 3: I think there will be a fine. I think he should be a fine. I could hear there not being a fine, though. I think there's a better chance of there not being a fine. than there is of anybody being suspended. That's not happening. I think that you'll see a final. I'll be curious how much it is.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: They can't run under center, but then they don't have their top four receivers. They obviously have good pass catchers. Chase Brown caught 11 of them on Sunday. Mike Kosicki's obviously been productive, but what do they do at wide receiver specifically if those two guys were to miss this week?
00:23:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think Dante and Mitch, and I think Noah Thomas.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker 3: Or maybe Keyshawn. I didn't even get mentioned yesterday when they were talking about him. I think Noah Thomas would have a possibility. He's more of an outside guy.
00:23:46
Speaker 2: In a normal year, he's maybe the Mo Eggershow award winner. Maybe, yeah, exactly.
00:23:50
Speaker 3: I mean, he showed up in some camp and some preseason games for sure at a touchdown, so... I think you could get Noah Thomas ready to go out there and run some of the T type of stuff, some of the outside receiver stuff, and then Dante not have to do a little bit of everything.
00:24:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's just where it is.
00:24:11
Speaker 3: And I think Gesicki is basically transitioning his receiver. You're going to get probably Gesicki more time running the T routes this week. rather than drawing it up on the sideline before he has to go out there and do it with the game on the line. And that can go– I mean, that's– people forget– I mean, when T has gotten hurt in the past, the primary replacement and the person that's had huge games has been Mike G. Like, he has been T insurance since he's been here, really. And so I could see them really leaning harder into that when they have a full week to kind of properly prepare for that a little bit more, and you can run him and then still have all and sample. I mean, they're still fully healthy at tight end. I think at some point you have to lean into that.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: I think the marketing budget for Crystal Pepsi actually exceeded. So maybe it's the Crystal Pepsi offense. Yes, yes.
00:25:09
Speaker 3: Sure. Why not?
00:25:10
Speaker 2: Crystal Pepsi's not bad. In the early 90s, they decided to make a version of Pepsi that looked like water.
00:25:15
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: And it didn't take.
00:25:18
Speaker 3: SNL did one that was like a gravy.
00:25:20
Speaker 2: It was like a clear gravy. If I remember correctly. I remember that more than I remember Crystal Pepsi. 26 away from 4 o'clock. Paul Daynor Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast with his live show on Thursday night at 50 West on Worcester Pike. Sports headlines and more with Paul after this from the Transcep downtown. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:25:43
Speaker 4: Not just talk. This is sports with soul, sweat, and swagger. Tony Pike Cincy 360. Tomorrow at 12 noon on ESPN 1530.
00:25:56
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
00:26:00
Speaker 2: From the UC Health traffic.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: Bengals like ESPN 1530. Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection, a guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life, KelseyChev.com. Bengals players off today. Coaches hard at work trying to unlock the secrets to having the quarterback take the snap from directly under center and be productive. Bengals and Dolphins Sunday at 1, live on ESPN 1530. Joe Mixon apparently is not going to sign with the Seattle Seahawks, so sorry, Joe. Is that my car? Is that yours?
00:26:39
Speaker 3: Hope it's not me.
00:26:40
Speaker 2: We're at the Trance up downtown. Baseball, National League Division Series game three at six. Atlanta hosting L.A. Chris Sale and Yoshi Yamamoto on the hill. Later tonight, Milwaukee's at San Diego. Brewers up two games tonight in that series with Dustin May opposing Nick Pavetta. And the Cincinnati Cyclones have started training camp today. Paul Diener Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler podcast. I thought for a second I was getting a ticket. I parked right outside the door. I'm a free throw away from my car. Parked on the street. But I'm trying to beat the man. And I didn't go on the app and fill the thing out. I'm trying to save six bucks. I have been.
00:27:20
Speaker 3: eagerly anticipating getting to do play-by-play of you trying to get out of a ticket this entire time. So I've never been rooting for anything more than to see somebody come up and start writing.
00:27:30
Speaker 2: That gentleman's got two cameras. Is he taking pictures of my car and then going to, like, ticket me? Like, what's going on? He doesn't look very official.
00:27:38
Speaker 3: He does not look official enough, I'm willing to say. Perhaps he's just a sightseer in our beautiful downtown next to Washington Park.
00:27:45
Speaker 2: Maybe. We were talking before about Mike Kosicki.
00:27:49
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker 2: Was I wrong about Eric Hall? No.
00:27:53
Speaker 3: I don't think so. He's like the marketing executive who came up with New Coke, I guess, maybe. He's at the center of this. He's supposed to be the perfect type of player to take advantage of what they want to do.
00:28:13
Speaker 2: And the fact that it's not working, I think, is... is partially a part of the fact that his role was falling a little bit by the way.
00:28:20
Speaker 3: So I think there's ways to involve him more, but yeah, I think that's been, I mean, that's been surprising that they haven't been able to kind of truly unlock him, even in a blocking way. Like, it's not like we've seen the consistency of those just crushing blocks that he makes. And in fact, I feel like I've, when you watch the tape, you see more of it feeling like, did Eric mess that up? Like, yeah, something comes through a hole or he just goes, runs past it or can't quite finish.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: You're kind of wondering what's going on there.
00:28:55
Speaker 3: I just think that whole thing, he's in the mix of all that trying to get it figured out. That would be a big give it time for me before we start writing off Eric Hall. I just think it's taking a little more time than we may be anticipating.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: You had me on the growler this morning and we talked for about 35 minutes about Joe Burrow. I don't know if that episode is up.
00:29:17
Speaker 3: It is up, yes.
00:29:18
Speaker 2: It is up. So I'll just leave it at this. Is Joe Burrow a choke artist? That's what's supposed to be across the thumbnail, right?
00:29:28
Speaker 3: And then it's you and I both just angrily staring and pictures next to us.
00:29:34
Speaker 2: And looking aghast at each other for takes. Gator, Burrow chokes again.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: Burrow chokes again. I do not think Joe Burrow is a choke artist. I think that the thing that has been the case in the past is that these types of issues that we've now seen three times in the first four games later in these games.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: have happened, but they've been more rare. They've felt more rare.
00:30:03
Speaker 3: You can look at his turnover-worthy plays over the course of an entire season and just see them sporadically mixed in. Or there's been an unluckiness to some of them. That is not what the first month has felt like. The first month has had consistent bad decisions in very untimely spots.
00:30:25
Speaker 2: So that accentuates.
00:30:27
Speaker 3: I think some of these things that we've seen throughout his career without going 1-34 and.
00:30:32
Speaker 2: All that stuff. It's 1-35 now.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.
00:30:36
Speaker 2: You're right.
00:30:36
Speaker 3: The number has changed. But I do think what has happened here has accentuated some of the stuff that has been an issue throughout his career. The number that I've been talking about this week, and I think I had it in the podcast today, In the first three quarters of games the last four years, he is number one in the NFL in best in turnover percentage. Like, he's just tops of the top, right? But when you look at the fourth quarter and when games are within two scores, he's 34th out of 38 top qualifiers. You've seen this. It just brings that back up. A lot of times it hasn't been as devastating as it's felt like. They've just been so critical here. I... I don't think he's a choke artist. I think they're not in any of these games without him. But I do think that there's a real discussion of what's happening differently in these fourth quarters, whether it's play calling, his approach to it, execution, whatever that is. I think there's got to be a real conversation about what is different about these spots compared to the first three quarters of the game where he so consistently tends to play almost flawless brands of football.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: I think it's this. This would go in the chyron. Fourth quarter, doesn't have that dog in him. No dog. Yeah. Dogless Joe, is that what you're, I mean. Sure. Yeah, sure.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's a good one.
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Why is Jordan Battle not good? I think, I think he's who he is. I think he's partially hurt. Was on the report last week.
00:32:25
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I think he's playing through stuff right now. I mean, I think last week you had in the list of injuries and severity, you had Duggar, you had Cook, and then right below them you had Battle. And I think it was probably a smaller gap than you would think.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Somebody had to play. So get off his back because he tried to cut it out. No. Okay.
00:32:50
Speaker 3: If you're out there, you're out there, right? But I don't see– I felt like he was– the first two weeks before he got hurt in Pittsburgh a little better.
00:32:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker 3: He's not traditionally been, he's never been a great, hasn't been a great tackler, but he's not been a terrible tackler. And he's made some big plays to make up for it where you, I feel like you see him like pop in, whether it's running downhill to get somebody in the backfield or whatever, but like, you know, the one where I think James had it, where it looks like he's pulling his flag.
00:33:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:33:21
Speaker 3: Like, and a couple of the ones from like, where it's just, that ability to strain and really get after it doesn't seem like he has that gear right now yeah i'm not making an excuse for him i'm saying he looks like a guy who's playing but playing hurt right now and and jordan he's been a roller coaster man his whole career has been ups and downs where you feel like you have a month and a half where he looks like the worst player on the planet And then he'll have another month's stretch where you're like, here it is, the arrival. He figured it out.
00:33:53
Speaker 2: It's just who he's been.
00:33:54
Speaker 3: It just seems like it's always up.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: And down and up and down with him. So this is probably part of that. Yeah. Maybe Geno Stone being in the backfield with him was masking a lot of the Jordan Battle warts.
00:34:06
Speaker 3: Yeah. You were always directing it towards the other guy rather than the fact that maybe some of these deserve to go to both safeties.
00:34:14
Speaker 2: Are the Cleveland Browns good?
00:34:19
Speaker 3: Maybe.
00:34:20
Speaker 2: Good maybe is a strong word. I think they'll be okay. Pesky. Yeah, pesky.
00:34:26
Speaker 3: Pesky, plucky. I think that the Cleveland Browns have maybe answered the most important question. I think they got a head coach.
00:34:38
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:34:39
Speaker 3: I like Todd Monken.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Feels like it.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: I think he was what they needed.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:34:42
Speaker 3: They needed a no-nonsense dude to come in and just be like, I'm not tolerating any of the junk. And this is not a Kevin Stefanski tweet, right?
00:34:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. I watched Kevin Stefanski's team last night. Pretty good.
00:34:56
Speaker 3: This is about Cleveland organization needed somebody who's going to come in there and just be a Todd Monken type guy. And I think that has helped them play a cleaner brand of football and have the energy that you see them playing with. And I thought the thing about Cleveland that we said the whole time was like, God, you love their collection of players. They just had any semblance of a quarterback. And I think what Watson has been to this point, love him or hate him, has been any semblance of a quarterback. He's been okay enough the way he has played that it can allow the rest of the players– to be enough to win some games. It's certainly going to be a lot tougher game on the schedule. I'm not willing to go give it they're going to be good or they're going to be above 500 or they're a real contender. But I think that they certainly have been brought to a level of serviceability by Munkin and the rest of them.
00:35:55
Speaker 2: Will, I have to have all my notifications on for breaking news on Monday if the Bengals lose to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. No.
00:36:05
Speaker 3: I mean, you might want to just turn all your notifications off and go get in line to the therapist.
00:36:15
Speaker 2: Because everyone's going to be on the edge. This is not.
00:36:21
Speaker 3: This is a fireable offense game.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Yeah. I hear you. Yes.
00:36:25
Speaker 3: That's not what's going to happen.
00:36:27
Speaker 2: But it's fireable offense losing to the Dolphins after you've lost the previous two, going into a bye with the season still salvageable and the overriding theme of the last eight months aside from new Coke offense being we got to win now, urgency, let's go. And so I think when you combine all those things in, I certainly don't believe Zach Taylor is going to get bounced if they lose to the Dolphins. But in a lot of cities, like that's, That's where it's ripe to wonder if the coach is going to get picked off during the season.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:56
Speaker 3: In a lot of cities, that is the case.
00:36:57
Speaker 2: Not so much here.
00:36:58
Speaker 3: I don't think you need to have your notifications on.
00:37:00
Speaker 2: No?
00:37:01
Speaker 4: No.
00:37:02
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:37:02
Speaker 3: But, I mean, yeah, this is one of those that.
00:37:07
Speaker 2: You can't lose. You just can't lose situationally. I believe this opponent they're playing is not a pushover. I also know they haven't scored more than 13 points in a game. I also know that if we went within a, I don't know, 300-foot radius of where we are right now, we wouldn't find anybody who can aim a Miami Dolphins wide receiver. If you're 3-1 and you lose to the Dolphins, bad, but you kind of shrug your shoulders and go, that's the NFL. If you're 4-0 and you go to Miami and lose, it's, all right, maybe they overlooked them, regroup, come back, beat Baltimore after the bye. Lose three straight, Baltimore looming. I don't know, man. I know what the conversation is going to sound like on the outside. No doubt.
00:37:50
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be. No, I would like if Joe stood up to the podium and said, well, this is Armageddon. I know before it wasn't. Before there was no Liv Tyler.
00:38:02
Speaker 2: We weren't doing the song.
00:38:04
Speaker 3: We weren't doing the song.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: He just shows up and he just starts singing. Yeah, he should just start singing. Yeah, don't do it. Do it.
00:38:12
Speaker 3: That would be great.
00:38:14
Speaker 2: Now I know what my tweet's going to be at 4 o'clock on Sunday. It's Armageddon. Yes, it's going to be that song. It might be the movie poster. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one, I think so. Along with a can of New Coke superimposed.
00:38:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Liv Tyler holding a can of New Coke.
00:38:32
Speaker 2: One more thing. It's still the shovel pass at the top of my biggest pet peeves, but midfield, try to get the other team to jump, is closing the gap. You hate it. I despise it.
00:38:49
Speaker 3: I think tactically I'm okay with it. Like, if you're just going to keep, if you have the time out to burn, if you're in a situation where you might as well try it, what's the difference? The yard doesn't mean anything. Like, Rico, you just want the space anyway, right? Or whatever it is. But if you're just, rather than just go out there and punt, Might as well go out there and see if you can get the yards knowing that you're just going to punt anyway.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: Counterpoint, run an offensive play.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Now, that wasn't what you were talking about.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: No, I hate the, and I have seen it work, and I understand, but it doesn't work enough. Well, you know what? though?
00:39:30
Speaker 3: It does set you up for when you do want to go out there, and I don't know why more teams, when they are going to go for it, don't do like, 20 seconds of shifts and everything, and then all of a sudden go do it when they're not ready for it.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: That is what you should be setting up for. Put a lot of eye candy out there.
00:39:51
Speaker 3: Everyone on the other side is all celebrating, thinking they didn't jump, and then you hit them with it. That's what this is perfectly setting up for. Maybe that's what will happen. Maybe it'll be a huge fourth down spot, and they'll do it, and they'll point up to your spot. Up to be 346.
00:40:05
Speaker 2: 346 up there. That's for you. I do not. use profanity at professional sporting events. But at the end of the first drive of the game, I was operating on like 90 minutes sleep. You were cranky. I was cranky. They do that. The game unfolded the way it did. All right. Thursday night, 50 West. Thursday night.
00:40:26
Speaker 3: 50 West, Spangles special guests, all our crew. It's going to be a big time down there. We're going to have a lot of fun. 7 p.m.? Yep, giveaways, all that stuff.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: All right, make sure you read Paul Daner's work in The Athletic. Go to theathletic.com and check out the Growler podcast. We talked about Joe Burrow for 30 minutes. It was great, actually.
00:40:43
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it.
00:40:44
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:40:45
Speaker 3: I always appreciate those conversations.
00:40:47
Speaker 2: A little cathartic, yeah. Six away from 4 o'clock, the great Peter King will join us coming up after the top of the hour. We're broadcasting today from the transept downtown. Learn more about this place at delightmore.com. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:41:03
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:41:05
Speaker 3: Traffic.
