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Speaker 1: You found Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
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Speaker 2: This is.
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Speaker 3: ESPN 1530.
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Speaker 4: I'm just.
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Speaker 1: Sitting here.
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Speaker 5: BSing with my guy, Paul Daynor Jr. We are broadcasting from the transect. Downtown, part of the Delightmore group. Delightmore runs a handful of really awesome event venues all throughout the greater Cincinnati area. They're going to reopen the Phoenix just down the street from here starting early in 2027. You can learn more about the Transept, Mercantile Immersive, the Carnegie Hall, all at delightmore.com. The View in Mount Adams, which is an unbelievable establishment. So check them out, delightmore.com. At Mercantile Immersive, there will be a watch party for the Bengals-Ravens game. It is a ticketed event, but it's not just watching the game on a television. It's like being immersed by Bengals-Ravens, which can you think of a better game to be immersed by?
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Speaker 4: I cannot.
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Speaker 5: So learn about that at delightmore.com. We have a lot of ground to cover. Show preview is available on Twitter at MoEgger. Thanks to ShareFax Credit Union. Go to sharefax.org to learn about the benefits of membership. Paul is here, and now we can have our conversation on the air. What's going on?
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Speaker 6: I'm doing great. We were just talking about the tea factor in Miami.
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 6: In that you can always tell how many Bengals fans by the level of the tea are on the road. Because in Miami, you've got the orange, you're wearing orange, how much of that is Miami orange versus, and then you hear the tea, and you're like, oh, that's Bengals orange. Because it was extremely loud. There were a ton of Bengals fans in Miami.
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Speaker 3: That's been the case. Houston was very similar.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 5: Team fans are traveling. We talked about this last week, like avoiding Armageddon.
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 5: Did you download the Armageddon movie poster to post just in case they lost?
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Speaker 3: I had thoughts.
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Speaker 6: I thought I was just going to go with the Aerosmith song, straight YouTube.
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Speaker 4: Okay.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, I was just going to go with the song and just no context was what I was thinking, so I didn't go full poster.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 5: Luckily, I didn't need I had the poster, and I also had, like, an image of the astronauts, like, ready to go.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 5: And I wasn't sure which I was going to use. Fortunately, didn't need either.
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Speaker 3: I didn't know.
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Speaker 6: I feel like, you know how we're always just being tracked and, like, then getting.
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Speaker 3: Targeted in our algorithm by whatever we've been talking about? Yes.
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Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
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Speaker 3: It weirds me out. Yeah.
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Speaker 6: I was getting targeted by all kinds of weird Armageddon stuff. I got targeted with a Ben Affleck... Like, it was him doing deleted scenes for Armageddon, and somehow it came back into the funnel. I'm like, how did this end up in my algorithm, other than the fact that we've been using.
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Speaker 3: The word Armageddon more than normal?
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Speaker 6: Yes.
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Speaker 3: There it was for me, which is just really concerning.
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Speaker 4: Weird game, because I never felt like it was in doubt. At no point.
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Speaker 5: Even when Miami's lining up to try an onside kick, I'm like, Malik Willis isn't going to.
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Speaker 4: Two-pat Malik is not going to take the ball down the field. That's the word.
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Speaker 5: I never felt, yeah, I never felt like the game was in doubt. I was also pretty underwhelmed by the overall performance. And that doesn't mean, like, everybody played poorly. In fact, a lot of guys played, Joe Burrow played well, the most important guy on the team, played well.
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Speaker 4: There was some good in that game.
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Speaker 5: You wrote about sort of the post-game vibe, which I, it was a combination of exhaustion because of the heat and disappointment with the overall level of play. I, um.
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Speaker 4: I don't know.
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Speaker 5: To me, that was a simple, like, get the W, get to the bye week, and get going. At least that's how I felt coming in. Coming out, I kind of shrugged my shoulders.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Coming out of it, you realize, maybe I did want a little more. Yeah.
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Speaker 6: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 6: Well, and I think it would have felt like that if they would have finished the game the way that they started it. I mean, if at 28-10 in the fourth quarter, they do tack on a touchdown and get a stop, and it's 35 to 10 or 42 to 16 or something like that, you come out of it and it feels different, but instead you, you had an all too familiar feeling of watching mistakes, let a team keep around, like the Tampa, Tampa game ducks, right?
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Speaker 3: Like some of the stuff like that.
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Speaker 6: And, and I think that's a big part of where the post game feeling came from was look, they're, taking the idea of finishing games seriously, whether it's against a team that's 0-4 and you're up 18 and it's 198 degrees outside, or it's Baltimore on New Year's Eve and you're up 5. It needs to feel the same. This needs to be something to take in seriously and to not have the types of errors that you saw down the stretch or and not playing the cleanest brand of football to close out games. That is something that is going to be emphasized. I think it was emphasized in the post game. And that is why the tone was what it was after the game, because this, that is the difference, like not having that focus, that ability to go to the end to finish games for a team that didn't finish games the way you want to the last two weeks in the last three years. Um, that's something that they're going to try to figure out. And I think that's a, that's a part of the reason why. And, It just clouds an otherwise positive day.
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 6: It's just sort of been the consistent theme with this team, certainly through their losses and through a lot of the last couple of seasons.
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Speaker 5: I've been around college basketball coaches that in November when their team beats a team, wins a bye game, but they don't play great.
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Speaker 4: They're kind of happy.
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Speaker 5: And they'll pretend to be madder than they are, but they like the fact that like, hey, we won the game. We don't have to worry about losing it. But I got some stuff that I could use in practice. Do you think there's a part of Zach Taylor at all that's like, I'm glad we didn't win this one 56-7 going into a bye. And now I've got something that I can, I know this is maybe sort of cliche, but I've got some teachable stuff.
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Speaker 4: I've got some stuff.
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Speaker 5: I've got a reason to sort of, I don't know, corral my team's attention as we get set for a massive game against Baltimore.
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Speaker 3: A part of, yes.
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Speaker 6: I think he'd also love to go out there and actually have a clean game. Like actually have a game where you're not seeing these mistakes, where you're not giving up 200-plus yards rushing to the Dolphins and have some of those problems that feel like they're bigger than just one game. I mean, this is now a continuation of some of the stuff that we've seen that feels like, okay, is this who this defense is? Because what we have seen now as the league is starting to adjust and understand the Bengals' personnel is, is a defense that looks like last year's defense with a really good defensive line. It looks like throw up, add a pass rush onto the problems that you had last year, and you can cover some of it. That's how you go from 31st to 16th or whatever they're at right now. But they're not, as much as everyone says just get to average, that's not how they view it, nor should they, for what.
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Speaker 3: This defense needs to be.
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Speaker 6: And I think when you see some of those problems creep up, when you see some of the things like lack of focus on fumbles and what have you, like, those are real issues. And, yes, it's nice to be able to keep pushing your team and point out that they haven't done, they're not where they need to be yet, and use that.
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Speaker 3: Sure. I also think how tired of it you must be.
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Speaker 4: Yes.
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Speaker 3: You know that you can't. that part can't get fixed. You just play cleaner, be in the right gap, do the things that you know you're supposed to do.
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Speaker 5: I wanted 42-3. I wanted Flacco taking snaps in the fourth quarter. I wanted, like, you know, some decisive, just like, FBS versus FCS shellacking. That's what I was looking for. So, I walked away from it mildly disappointed. It's disappointing finding out about Tanner Hudson torn pec.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Which, you know.
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Speaker 5: okay, they have a lot of tight ends, and Tanner spent some time on the practice squad, but also, if you watch the game on Sunday, you saw the things he could do.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 6: I mean, the Tanner Hudson drive, where he converts the third and seven, finds the space, powers through, extends to understand the situation where he needed to be, executes it, right? And then they run a play, which is really a fun play, where they come out in six offensive linemen and three tight ends, with the design being than to go to spread when the other team brings in all their big guys and just pick whoever has a linebacker on them, whether it's Chase Brown or Tanner Hudson or whatever. It ends up being Tanner, and Joe Burrow immediately knows.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'm just going to go to him.
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Speaker 6: He's going to win, and he does, and he makes a diving catch for you. He just does. He'll make those plays. He'll be in the right spot, what we just talked about.
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Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 6: Guys being in the right, doing the right thing, understanding what they need to do. And now, Grant, this is the guy that the opener in 2024 didn't do the right thing.
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Speaker 3: Right. But I would argue since then.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Reliable.
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Speaker 6: Very reliable to do all those little things correctly. A veteran that understands it has great chemistry in the offense. You lose something without him. And he can fill in multiple roles. If you lose one guy, he's out there basically playing receiver for a game.
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Speaker 3: The next game he's doing receiver.
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Speaker 6: Stuff more in line even, which isn't necessarily his wheelhouse, but he's in there doing it. And uh he's just there's only so many guys that you have that you can say that about so yeah there's a loss there.
00:10:02
Speaker 5: Yeah you you lose solid reliable players and and well the good news is.
00:10:07
Speaker 6: That you get some help like colby young yes getting healthy at the same time takes some of this thing off because i think they're He was doing a lot of Colby Young stuff. They're very similar players in the way that they're using this offense. I think the hope is that Colby Young can take some of that stuff on.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: It's not great.
00:10:28
Speaker 4: Can we go with two Pat Willis? I like two Pat. I like two Pat.
00:10:31
Speaker 3: Or one Pat.
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Speaker 6: I like two Pat Willis. I prefer that there was more alliteration in there.
00:10:35
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:10:42
Speaker 3: But there's really no– I was.
00:10:45
Speaker 4: Trying to play off Tupac.
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Speaker 3: Okay.
00:10:47
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know how he'd do it.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: He is awful.
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Speaker 4: I mean, I just call it what it is objectively.
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Speaker 3: Tank commander? Yeah.
00:10:56
Speaker 4: You know, like Matt.
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Speaker 5: LaFleur is the greatest quarterback's coach in the world because he actually got something out of Malik Willis and helped get him paid.
00:11:03
Speaker 6: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I mean, imagine sitting there looking at that contract. Oh, yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker 6: Doing other than trying to get the number one overall pick at this point, which is there's real competition for.
00:11:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's bad.
00:11:15
Speaker 6: And the thing is, you really appreciate the way their team plays.
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Speaker 3: They play hard.
00:11:20
Speaker 4: They do, yes.
00:11:23
Speaker 6: And that's why I think there was nervousness because Kansas City and Minnesota experienced that. It was funny that if you look at, we were talking about this in the game preview pod last week, that The stories being written post-game in Kansas City and in Minnesota the previous two weeks were kind of a sloppy win that you wish would have been better. Are we okay with this? Because I think they do that. They play hard, they make it harder, and a team gets up on them and they don't quit.
00:11:56
Speaker 3: It's kind of similar to what ended up happening in this one.
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Speaker 6: Kind of similar storylines coming out of this one, but they're just setting the culture of playing hard right now.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: They're not setting the culture of Having a good quarterback.
00:12:05
Speaker 5: Or a lot of good players. It's 16 minutes after 3 o'clock. Paul Daner Jr. covering the Bengals for TheAthletic.com as well as the Growler podcast. Follow him at Paul Daner Jr. He and I have a lot to get to between now and 4 o'clock. I'm here until 6. Thank you so much for listening. Today's 17 after 3. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
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Speaker 2: From the UC Health.
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Speaker 5: After 3 o'clock, this is ESPN 1530. Mo Egger, we are broadcasting from the Transept, an amazing event venue downtown Cincinnati, right across the street from Washington Park. On a gorgeous, though hot, day outside, Paul Daner Jr. from the Athletic and the Growler podcast is with me.
00:12:55
Speaker 4: You wrote about the running game. Samaj P. Ryan.
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Speaker 5: Distribution of touches on Sunday, 16 each. What's wrong with Chase Brown?
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Speaker 3: I don't think anything's wrong with Chase Brown. I mean, I.
00:13:11
Speaker 6: Think that I don't look at him play and think he looks like somebody who has lost bursts, lost.
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Speaker 3: The steps, doesn't know how to do it. Like he's in great.
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Speaker 6: Shape when you watch him catch the ball in space. Like it's still he looks like.
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Speaker 5: The same guy and all those training camp practices tony and i like gushed over how good.
00:13:34
Speaker 6: He looked it was hard not to yeah i mean he looks exactly like the guy he's been uh the last couple of years and i just think the stuff that they.
00:13:47
Speaker 3: Have been trying to do is.
00:13:50
Speaker 6: Not meshing it's just this I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone.
00:13:57
Speaker 3: We're just on repeat.
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Speaker 6: This is the same thing that happens every single year where the thing from the last year and the carryover and getting this stuff to work in the running game is struggles early and then figure something out and they change it and go, and it's just, we're just doing it again. I just feel like it's happening again. And, And I don't know if that's just the under center stuff or there's just not a connection between what's happening in the run blocking or he's not.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Seeing this as well as he saw the old system.
00:14:30
Speaker 6: It's really hard to pinpoint. I don't think it's him as a player. I really don't. He's not hitting the wall. We're not seeing a guy start to wear down. I just don't think that's the case. I just think it's a matter of Confidence and the system fitting what he can do and just getting a few of those explosives going where they give him the full lanes to get out there and go.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: I know. I've seen them run blocking. There's a metric for everything.
00:15:06
Speaker 5: I did a lot of metric work here that I'm going to bring up to you.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. I don't know, man. I don't see. There are a few plays.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: Where you can see he could have made more.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:15:19
Speaker 6: I don't see some, like, just string of examples of he's just missing all this great open space when.
00:15:27
Speaker 3: You look at the carries.
00:15:28
Speaker 6: And talking to people on the staff in many different ways, that is not.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: The way anybody else views it either. No? No.
00:15:38
Speaker 6: I think that, obviously, the shotgun, downhill, gun run stuff.
00:15:46
Speaker 3: where you.
00:15:47
Speaker 6: Hit contact at two and three yards and need to get four or five fits five, 11, 240 pounds.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: Samaj AP, right?
00:15:56
Speaker 6: Like, obviously I think chase can do fine at some of that stuff too, but obviously that fits his style a little bit more. So yes, I understand him being in there.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: I really don't think that this is the sign.
00:16:10
Speaker 6: Of some awful season though, coming from chase Brown. I, I, I would be willing to, I would be willing to bet that the Chase Brown breakout, some explosives, are going to come and going to come very soon, and I think.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: That this will be a footnote. That's my guess.
00:16:28
Speaker 6: Now, give me a couple more weeks of this to see, because eventually they're not going to keep beating their head over against a wall on this, but I still just don't... I don't think they see it that way, and I don't see it that way either.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: What do I do? I was asked yesterday, what do you... most pleased.
00:16:46
Speaker 5: By through five games, and I said that I feel like this offensive line is pretty good.
00:16:51
Speaker 4: Joe Burrow is healthy. He's upright.
00:16:53
Speaker 5: I know he banged his thumb on Sunday, but I'm not seeing the quarterback get killed. You and I talked on the growler this morning about he's on pace for 31 sacks, which over the course of a full season would be really, really good compared to some of the totals.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: We have seen. We get into some of these metrics.
00:17:11
Speaker 5: As has often been cited over the last week, the Bengals' offensive line is number one, even through the fifth game, number one in run-block win rate. They're number 24 in pass-block win rate. Now, I see a good run-blocking offensive line. I see a decent, at least decent, pass-blocking offensive line. The metrics don't suggest as much. I see times pressured per dropback, 22.5%, which is slightly above league average.
00:17:40
Speaker 4: So it's okay.
00:17:42
Speaker 5: I see he's taken 26 hits. It's tied for most in the NFL. Yet the sack rate is career best. What does all this mean? They have a good offensive line, I think. I look at all this stuff and I don't know.
00:17:59
Speaker 6: It means there's too many numbers, right? And I don't mean that like, you know, I love analytics.
00:18:05
Speaker 3: I love numbers. I love the impact of the game. I'm a believer in them.
00:18:09
Speaker 6: I think that there is so much out there now that it is really hard to truthfully pinpoint the nuance when you get into so many individual, very tiny compartmentalized statistics.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:18:26
Speaker 6: To truly grab the nuance from 32 different teams, 32 different situations, 32 different teams where they had one bad game or one, you know what I mean, or fixed a problem or changed a scheme or whatever, and it doesn't take all of that into, I think you and I have watched every snap, And we see an offensive line that's pretty good.
00:18:50
Speaker 4: I'm pleased with its overall performance.
00:18:52
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:53
Speaker 6: And I think that that's fair no matter what.
00:18:55
Speaker 4: And that includes, by the way, Orlando Brown.
00:18:57
Speaker 3: Right.
00:18:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker 6: Especially against Miami, who had a really good game. So I just think you're talking about, did we just get served cake?
00:19:09
Speaker 4: The glance we just experienced. I don't know.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: We just got served cake.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: Cake in front of us. All right. I'm not going to.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: Say no, but anti-cake.
00:19:20
Speaker 6: That's sort of my opinion on it, though, is that I think the eye test says they're pass-protecting well, and I think there's still a lot to be done in the run game. I just think that's the case. And the offensive linemen have said as much. The offensive linemen pointed out against Jacksonville, they didn't play great. All of them. That was really the takeaway from it. I don't I don't see it as a Chase Brown thing. I do see it as a systemic thing.
00:19:50
Speaker 3: To use more Samaj P.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: Ryan.
00:19:51
Speaker 5: I just, for me, with the running game and the pass protection, I go back to, like, over the last seven games of the season last year, without even looking at numbers, I just, I remember getting to a point where I'm like, I think these guys are doing a good job. And I'm not an expert on anything, much less offensive line play, but like, I do think I know what it looks like when an offensive line is good.
00:20:13
Speaker 4: I think this offensive line's decent.
00:20:17
Speaker 6: And I think that when you looked at certainly the second half of last season, you saw an offensive line that looked great, and then maybe some of the numbers told you that they weren't.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Yeah. To me, I just go by the eye test.
00:20:32
Speaker 6: I think that, sure, they have their moments, and Orlando had a couple of bad games in there. But as a whole, I mean, they're able to confidently drop back and take their shots when they need to. Joe sits back there against some good pass rushers and has time to just throw what he wants to throw. I feel like they're in a pretty good place there. And Amarius is maybe the best right tackle in football. Like, I don't think they're in a bad place there. I do think they're still figuring things out in the run game.
00:21:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:21:08
Speaker 4: Paul Tanner Jr. is with us. I want to talk about Yak.
00:21:11
Speaker 5: We have to talk about Jordan Battle, Eric All, and should coaches start working seven and a half hour days? My favorite trope. We're going to get to it here between now and four o'clock. Sports headlines coming up. We're at the transept. We're about to eat some cake. Life is good. 29 from four. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: Not just talk. This is sports with soul, sweat, and swagger. Tony Pike Cincy 360. Tomorrow at 12 noon on ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: From the UCHealth Traffic Center, life's busy enough. Let UCHealth Pharmacy deliver your prescriptions right to your door at no extra cost. Sign up at uchealth.com slash pharmacy.
00:22:06
Speaker 5: Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain, protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life.
00:22:15
Speaker 4: KelseyChev.com.
00:22:18
Speaker 5: Tanner Hudson, unfortunately, a torn pectoral injury that'll have him out for the season. Bad news for Tanner, who caught a touchdown pass on Sunday against the Dolphins, Bengals, and Ravens a week from Sunday live on ESPN.
00:22:32
Speaker 2: 15-30.
00:22:32
Speaker 4: Baseball tonight.
00:22:35
Speaker 5: American League Championship Series Game 2, Guardians at Rays. Cleveland came from behind last night, behind Nathaniel Lowe. Reds legend Nathaniel Lowe. It's a big two-run, tie-breaking hit. Give the Guardians lead. They have a 1-0 lead in the series. Evander good to go for a second consecutive day as FC Cincinnati gets set to take on New England tomorrow night. And NHL Hockey, the official team of our show, the Nashville Predators, take on Las Vegas tonight.
00:23:04
Speaker 4: Buck drops at 7.05. You're a Nashville guy?
00:23:07
Speaker 3: Nashville's a good team sport.
00:23:09
Speaker 5: I broke up with the Blue Jackets because they broke up with radio. And so I needed a new team. And then I was going to go Toronto. And then this guy came up to me at the UC basketball tip-off dinner. And he made a very, very compelling, not just argument, but presentation as to why I should pick the Nashville Predators.
00:23:29
Speaker 4: So they're off to a 2-1-2 start. Nashville's close.
00:23:33
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:23:33
Speaker 5: It's a great town. The thing is, it is in the Western Conference. So a lot of West Coast games.
00:23:39
Speaker 4: Which is fine. I stay up late.
00:23:41
Speaker 3: Reds used to be in the West.
00:23:42
Speaker 4: They did. Back in the day.
00:23:43
Speaker 3: Yes. It's like a little flashback for you. I like it. I like Nashville. How could you not want to like Nashville? I'm in. Yeah. Let's go.
00:23:49
Speaker 4: Let's do it.
00:23:51
Speaker 5: A few things here. Tony Pike and I have talked about this. Bengals want to be more explosive. One way to do that is to pile up a lot of yards after the catch. Only three teams have fewer yards after the catch than the Bengals. They're averaging 3.9 yards after the catch. Where is the yak and how do they get more yak?
00:24:12
Speaker 3: Keep throwing to Jamar. Eventually he'll get it. I think Chase Brown eventually.
00:24:18
Speaker 5: Teams that get a lot of yak have a lot of running backs.
00:24:23
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think they've had a lot of checkdowns to the tight ends.
00:24:29
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. And that's not going to be as yacky maybe.
00:24:33
Speaker 6: As some of the others are. I mean, traditionally, so much of the Bengals' yak is just Jamar.
00:24:42
Speaker 3: Getting the ball on the run.
00:24:43
Speaker 6: I think you want to get him into space more often when we look at some of his numbers.
00:24:49
Speaker 3: We were talking about this earlier on my podcast.
00:24:51
Speaker 6: But his numbers are not as spectacular as he's been.
00:24:56
Speaker 3: Right.
00:24:57
Speaker 6: Some of the stuff that's been missing has been the catch and run that's allowed him to be more explosive. I mean, his yards per reception is like 10 and change right now. So I think that's one of those where you get him to catch the.
00:25:10
Speaker 3: Ball with a little bit more running room.
00:25:12
Speaker 6: More often, particularly in that middle of the field. I think that's when you can start to see the yak kick up for the team and for Jamar, and that can get a lot of things going.
00:25:24
Speaker 5: Zach Taylor was yelling at Eric Ault. on Sunday, and you could understand why. Eric Hall still got a lot of snaps on Sunday, relative to the way we've talked, and maybe with Tanner Hudson's absence, Eric's going to get even more. I asked you last week, this is the guy that I want to cling to. This is the guy that's supposed to be the tight end of my dreams.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: It ain't happening yet.
00:25:48
Speaker 6: It's not, and this was a particularly rough day for him.
00:25:53
Speaker 3: Obviously, with the fumble, he got saved by an inch. and then the bad personal foul.
00:26:00
Speaker 6: I just, you know, that is, I understand where the frustration is coming from from Zach Taylor at that point.
00:26:08
Speaker 3: I mean, goodness. This is the stuff. This is the stuff that's holding this team back when you're going to do things like that. And so.
00:26:17
Speaker 6: There can't really be any excuses there. But, yeah, Eric was, you know, he's been the X factor. And I don't, he is never going to say, my injury. I'm thinking about it. It takes time to get back. Just out of human nature, you've got to imagine it.
00:26:35
Speaker 3: He's not built or wired like most.
00:26:39
Speaker 6: You've got to imagine there's something maybe to that and reintegrating back into football after not playing for such a long time.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: I'm willing to go down that road. They really haven't. It's sort of like under center. It hasn't really meshed.
00:26:54
Speaker 6: The way you thought, you thought under center and Eric all, and here comes the weapon and you're just going to see it over and over again. And that hasn't quite developed. It doesn't mean it can't, it doesn't mean there isn't still time for it, but yeah, I think that's a, one of the disappointments of this year so far is that you haven't, I think you felt like he was immediately going to be a huge game changer for this offense. And, and he's just kind of, he's just kind of been another guy out there in some respects, but I'm willing to, buy into the fact that he needs more time to just kind of get back into the flow of things.
00:27:29
Speaker 5: Jordan Battle offering the public a glimpse into the Malik Willis scouting report.
00:27:33
Speaker 3: I loved it. I didn't mind it.
00:27:35
Speaker 4: I loved it. I'm also not one of his coaches.
00:27:39
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I understand.
00:27:40
Speaker 4: How did that play inside the building?
00:27:43
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it was... Come on, man. Sure. We don't need to do that. Right.
00:27:49
Speaker 6: But I also don't think it was... what are you doing? Like, I just think it's, let's be smart about what we're saying here. We don't need to say stuff that's kind of meant to be behind closed doors. Um, but I don't think it was anything that had people all up in arms because how can he even change it in two days anyway, the way he's kind of been doing this his whole life, whatever. I just think in general, it's like, let's be smart about what we're saying. We don't need to give up those secrets, but Outside of that, no sweat.
00:28:20
Speaker 3: Be yourself.
00:28:20
Speaker 5: I want more. I want more of it. Tell me what you guys are— What's this week's tip and tell?
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:28:26
Speaker 4: Let's go.
00:28:27
Speaker 3: Let's go. Let's put it in there.
00:28:28
Speaker 4: Put me inside the meeting room. Absolutely.
00:28:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I appreciate that from Jordan. I do worry we may get less of Jordan being honest with us now because of this, but that's okay.
00:28:40
Speaker 5: If he provides those moments of honesty and then has two picks in the next.
00:28:43
Speaker 3: Game— Sounds good.
00:28:45
Speaker 4: Let's go.
00:28:45
Speaker 3: Keep going. What's this week's television?
00:28:47
Speaker 4: Right.
00:28:47
Speaker 3: Two more picks.
00:28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:28:50
Speaker 6: I think it was just, why did we do that? But outside of that, it didn't make huge waves. It certainly made way bigger waves. If for some reason, nationally, everybody really thought that was a big deal.
00:29:02
Speaker 5: I did a half segment on it, and then on Friday morning, I'm like, maybe I should have made this out to be a bigger deal than it is.
00:29:08
Speaker 6: I was there, and I didn't really think It was that big of a deal.
00:29:15
Speaker 3: I understood. You could see him directly putting foot in the mouth and standing there.
00:29:22
Speaker 6: But I was like, I'm not going to make a big deal.
00:29:25
Speaker 3: To me, it wasn't what it then eventually became. But, hey, I get it.
00:29:30
Speaker 4: How would you assess the linebacker play through five games?
00:29:36
Speaker 3: Uneven. Better.
00:29:39
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: Then last year. Yes.
00:29:41
Speaker 6: Like you see more moments of confidence and understanding what they're doing and playmaking, but there's still just a lot left to be desired. And you know, the, whether it's fitting the right gaps, whether it's going sideline to sideline properly. We're seeing a lot of issues with these outside runs as teams run away from Dexter Lawrence. While some of that, certainly the blame goes on a bunch of different people in the outside corners, and they're part of that, and the edge setters are part of that, but the linebackers.
00:30:16
Speaker 3: Are a big part of that.
00:30:17
Speaker 6: Being able to diagnose, see it, chase down, find the alley, go through the right spot to make the to cut down a toss or see the jet sweep and that stuff, that stuff.
00:30:30
Speaker 3: Has not been as clean as you'd want it to be.
00:30:34
Speaker 6: And so while sometimes they look better, there's still just too much of that.
00:30:40
Speaker 5: I feel like with Barrett, there's like two plays per game that make me say the same things in real time that I would say during.
00:30:47
Speaker 4: The games last year.
00:30:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker 4: And not as many with Demetrius Knight.
00:30:51
Speaker 3: I think that's probably fair. Yeah.
00:30:53
Speaker 5: Not that Demetrius Knight has been perfect, but, like, there were a couple of moments on Sunday where I, Barrett, what are we doing?
00:31:01
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:01
Speaker 6: And then there's a couple moments where you're like, wow, really nice play by Barrett Carter.
00:31:05
Speaker 3: Sure, yes.
00:31:05
Speaker 6: Whereas last year it was just, Barrett, what are we doing? And then you didn't really have the other part.
00:31:11
Speaker 4: So I think that's good.
00:31:13
Speaker 3: And it's part of the progress for these guys.
00:31:16
Speaker 6: And even if it's not, man, we've got nowhere else to go.
00:31:20
Speaker 3: Right, yeah. Well, Kaiser's here now.
00:31:22
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. That's right. It was funny.
00:31:24
Speaker 5: On the internet yesterday, there were a lot of like, oh, I wanted him in the draft two years ago.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: So everybody's going to get their guy, Kaiser.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: You got your guy. Yeah. Kaiser's here. I mean, sure. I mean, it's just Swayze Bozeman was fine. He came in.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:31:42
Speaker 3: I mean, this is no different than that. Okay. Go for it. Yeah. Next.
00:31:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's not going to move the needle. You're still going to be watching Barrett and Demetrius.
00:31:51
Speaker 3: It's not like there's any change in that.
00:31:53
Speaker 5: You know how much I love listening to pro football coaches, and college coaches for that matter, talk about how hard they work.
00:32:00
Speaker 3: They work really hard. They stay late nights.
00:32:02
Speaker 5: They stay late nights, and they love to make sure that everybody knows that not only do they work long hours, they have no concept of what's going on in the real world. They have no Remote idea about current events. I mean, they are under rocks. All football, all the time. They sleep in their offices. They neglect everything. Sometimes they forget to eat. They forget their kids' names. I think we're seeing that catch up to coaches. Because this NFL week, including last night, we had some of the worst situational coaching I've ever seen in my life. Todd Bowles has a chance to go up three points. up 17 points at the one-yard line, gimme field goal, and instead he runs a play, opens the door for the Cowboys to come back. Fortunately for Todd Bowles, his team hung on to win. We had Nick Sirianni in the London game not telling his kicker to bang the ball into the end zone. We have whatever the hell Dan Quinn and Jaden Daniels were doing. We had Sean McVay deciding, you know what, my special team stinks and the other team has Josh Allen. Let's lean into those two things. Do you think that there will be a moment or a movement now where coaches go, you know what? Let's have eight-hour work days. Let's take an hour off for lunch. Let's have a life. Let's get a decent night of sleep. And maybe we'll make better decisions on game day. These people stay up endless hours. They work nonstop. And this is the stuff they do?
00:33:20
Speaker 6: And how many analytics staffers and game management people are involved? Are on the headset even.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:28
Speaker 6: Are right there to be like people paid handsomely who've dedicated their lives to understanding the odds of each situation.
00:33:36
Speaker 3: And by the way. Are they just getting ignored?
00:33:38
Speaker 5: A job that I came up with like 12 years ago is now commonplace around the NFL.
00:33:42
Speaker 4: The common sense guy.
00:33:43
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:43
Speaker 4: Common sense is being ignored.
00:33:45
Speaker 3: It is being ignored. Let me ask you a question.
00:33:47
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:33:49
Speaker 3: How many times.
00:33:51
Speaker 6: Did you watch back the end of the Commanders game trying to think, well, this is me, right? I'm not understanding the situation correctly. What am I missing about this that happened here where I can– and then at what point in that did you– what number did you realize, oh, it's not me?
00:34:09
Speaker 5: I rewatched it. So the Washington Commanders radio call is incredible.
00:34:15
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
00:34:16
Speaker 5: It's like they're apoplectic in the booth. I've watched it 25 times.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:34:22
Speaker 5: Just trying to figure out where in the chain of communication, where in the system, where is the specific moment where was there a breakdown?
00:34:33
Speaker 4: It's really remarkable.
00:34:34
Speaker 6: The only plausible thing is that they thought they had a timeout, right?
00:34:38
Speaker 3: Has to be, yes. It's the only plausible thing.
00:34:40
Speaker 4: Has to be.
00:34:41
Speaker 3: There's no other reason. For any of that to happen.
00:34:45
Speaker 5: But I don't know, like, with, I mean, you get three timeouts. They're not hard to count down from.
00:34:51
Speaker 1: No.
00:34:52
Speaker 5: You have, like, people in the headset, people on the sideline, who I would imagine their sole function is to keep track of, do we have three, two, one, or zero?
00:35:02
Speaker 3: Where's that guy?
00:35:03
Speaker 4: What's that person doing?
00:35:05
Speaker 3: Well, they're not talking to Jaden Daniels. No? I can tell you that much.
00:35:10
Speaker 5: I legitimately feel like these men work themselves to a point that they're so exhausted that on game day, they can't think. It's me sitting on my couch can go, hey, let's tell the kicker to kick the ball out of bounds. Or, hey, Sean, don't give the ball back to Josh Allen. Don't put yourself at the mercy of a coin flip. Don't leave yourself with little time if Josh Allen scores first. Or Todd Bowles, like, up three scores first.
00:35:37
Speaker 4: I don't know, man.
00:35:38
Speaker 5: You're playing kind of with house money with an undrafted rookie as your backup quarterback.
00:35:42
Speaker 4: I think these guys have worked themselves to the point that they're stupid.
00:35:46
Speaker 6: That's probably true. Perhaps we've got too many. Again, are there too many numbers? Is there too much happening where you're not getting to the simplification of this? Let's just focus on the simplest part. I think that's possible. You know, all I hear about is how we.
00:36:03
Speaker 3: Go over so much situation in football. Yeah, right. Every Saturday, every Friday, all offseason.
00:36:09
Speaker 4: All offseason.
00:36:10
Speaker 6: We train on every situation. We've gone through all of it.
00:36:13
Speaker 3: And yet when these situations come up, so I don't know. Maybe they just need to stop practicing.
00:36:21
Speaker 4: Why practice?
00:36:22
Speaker 3: Why me?
00:36:22
Speaker 4: Well, why not, right? I just, I'm baffled by the fact that, and again, it's my favorite. I love listening.
00:36:29
Speaker 5: I love listening to football coaches tell you how hard they work. It is literally my favorite thing in the world. Well, if you work that damn hard and that damn long, then you ought to be able to make simple decisions like, hey, let's have our quarterback know that he can't let the clock run out so we can kick a game-winning field goal.
00:36:45
Speaker 3: They had the whole play clock to just get one point across.
00:36:49
Speaker 4: No timeouts, Jaden.
00:36:50
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. I just did it just now. No timeouts, Jaden. That's all you got to do.
00:36:54
Speaker 4: No timeouts.
00:36:57
Speaker 5: I just, I cannot imagine what it must have been like in real time to be a Washington Commanders fan.
00:37:05
Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
00:37:06
Speaker 5: Like, I once watched Andy Dalton with the game hanging in the balance on, like, 4th and 11th.
00:37:10
Speaker 4: Throw it away. Throw it away.
00:37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:37:12
Speaker 5: And I remember that. But, like, that team stunk. And I was kind of over Andy Dalton at that point. But I remember that moment, like, whoa. This is who I'm rooting for. I cannot imagine in real time what that must have felt like to be a Washington Commanders fan. And Pleasure Team had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, chance for a really nice victory.
00:37:32
Speaker 4: You blow it, you still have a chance, and that happens. And you tie.
00:37:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:37:36
Speaker 6: That's got to be one of the lowest moments for a franchise that was owned by Dan Snyder for a very long time.
00:37:42
Speaker 4: Imagine how low that is.
00:37:43
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:37:44
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, there is no doubt. That was....
00:37:48
Speaker 6: I can't remember anything remotely like it, even amongst the other things that you, the other situations.
00:37:55
Speaker 2: Right.
00:37:55
Speaker 6: Because some of those other ones, at least I can make an argument for, like, you can make an argument for the, oh, well, the math actually says Todd Bowles should go.
00:38:04
Speaker 4: Oh, come on, man. I've seen that out there.
00:38:07
Speaker 3: You know you have, too. I have. It's out there.
00:38:09
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:38:10
Speaker 3: But there is no argument for the.
00:38:12
Speaker 4: Complete lack of any understanding. That's like a garden fire.
00:38:17
Speaker 6: It's just on a total other planet, whatever happened with Washington. I don't even put him in the same ball.
00:38:22
Speaker 5: The thing about the Todd Bowles thing, and he seems like a really, really nice man. The entire, as the second half of the fourth quarter is unfolding, he's got this sly look on his face like, yep, that's going to get me fired.
00:38:37
Speaker 3: You know what's.
00:38:38
Speaker 6: Funny is probably 96% of being a really good head coach and a winning head coach has nothing to do with that. But that 4% will get you fired way faster than the other 96%.
00:38:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker 6: Like, in terms of what actually, you know, you spend your time on and you focus on what really matters.
00:38:58
Speaker 3: But, man, nothing will get you fired faster than that stuff.
00:39:01
Speaker 5: So now teams need to hire a what-the-blank-are-we-doing guy.
00:39:06
Speaker 6: Yeah. Do they sit next to the common sense guy? Like, do they share a booth? Or do you need to keep them separate?
00:39:14
Speaker 4: The what-the-blank-are-we-doing guy has got to be on the sidelines.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Okay, okay.
00:39:19
Speaker 6: He's like kind of, he's the get back coach and the what are we doing guy?
00:39:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, like you're, this is break glass in case of emergency. Like run out onto the field. Like do something crazy.
00:39:30
Speaker 3: Streaker? Right.
00:39:31
Speaker 6: Look, if things go sideways and you know it's going wrong, I need you to just run out there.
00:39:35
Speaker 5: UC had a game last year, basketball, where the opposing team's head coach stepped onto the floor to stop a fast break.
00:39:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker 5: And I'm like, well, why wouldn't you just do that all the time? Like, you know, two shots in the ball, but like you stopped the fast break.
00:39:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:39:49
Speaker 5: What would be the penalty if, like, the what the eff are we doing guy runs out onto the field and, like, just grabs Jayden Daniels?
00:39:57
Speaker 4: It's 15 yards, but, you know.
00:39:59
Speaker 3: Could you?
00:40:00
Speaker 6: Could you pay someone to sit in the stands and have a seat for them in the front row, and they just jump over?
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:40:06
Speaker 4: You're like, I don't know who that guy was.
00:40:08
Speaker 3: Right, yeah. No penalty, just the game stopped.
00:40:10
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:40:11
Speaker 3: Go out there and try to tackle him. Maybe that's the move.
00:40:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, you pay his bail and kick the game when he field goals.
00:40:16
Speaker 3: Probably cheaper than actually employing them.
00:40:18
Speaker 5: All right.
00:40:19
Speaker 4: Bye week next week.
00:40:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm excited.
00:40:21
Speaker 4: I am, too.
00:40:22
Speaker 6: I'm going to watch Red Zone on Sunday and live that life.
00:40:26
Speaker 3: Yes. Live like the rest of you get to live.
00:40:29
Speaker 4: It's going to be fun. All right.
00:40:30
Speaker 5: Paul Danerjian, read him in The Athletic. Catch the Growler podcast. Latest episode is out.
00:40:35
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Very good. Back with more 5 from 4 ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:40:38
Speaker 3: Traffic.
Speaker 1: You found Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: This is.
00:00:05
Speaker 3: ESPN 1530.
00:00:08
Speaker 4: I'm just.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Sitting here.
00:00:15
Speaker 5: BSing with my guy, Paul Daynor Jr. We are broadcasting from the transect. Downtown, part of the Delightmore group. Delightmore runs a handful of really awesome event venues all throughout the greater Cincinnati area. They're going to reopen the Phoenix just down the street from here starting early in 2027. You can learn more about the Transept, Mercantile Immersive, the Carnegie Hall, all at delightmore.com. The View in Mount Adams, which is an unbelievable establishment. So check them out, delightmore.com. At Mercantile Immersive, there will be a watch party for the Bengals-Ravens game. It is a ticketed event, but it's not just watching the game on a television. It's like being immersed by Bengals-Ravens, which can you think of a better game to be immersed by?
00:01:09
Speaker 4: I cannot.
00:01:10
Speaker 5: So learn about that at delightmore.com. We have a lot of ground to cover. Show preview is available on Twitter at MoEgger. Thanks to ShareFax Credit Union. Go to sharefax.org to learn about the benefits of membership. Paul is here, and now we can have our conversation on the air. What's going on?
00:01:28
Speaker 6: I'm doing great. We were just talking about the tea factor in Miami.
00:01:32
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:01:33
Speaker 6: In that you can always tell how many Bengals fans by the level of the tea are on the road. Because in Miami, you've got the orange, you're wearing orange, how much of that is Miami orange versus, and then you hear the tea, and you're like, oh, that's Bengals orange. Because it was extremely loud. There were a ton of Bengals fans in Miami.
00:01:55
Speaker 3: That's been the case. Houston was very similar.
00:01:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:58
Speaker 5: Team fans are traveling. We talked about this last week, like avoiding Armageddon.
00:02:05
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:02:06
Speaker 5: Did you download the Armageddon movie poster to post just in case they lost?
00:02:10
Speaker 3: I had thoughts.
00:02:12
Speaker 6: I thought I was just going to go with the Aerosmith song, straight YouTube.
00:02:18
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:02:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was just going to go with the song and just no context was what I was thinking, so I didn't go full poster.
00:02:24
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:02:26
Speaker 5: Luckily, I didn't need I had the poster, and I also had, like, an image of the astronauts, like, ready to go.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:02:32
Speaker 5: And I wasn't sure which I was going to use. Fortunately, didn't need either.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
00:02:37
Speaker 6: I feel like, you know how we're always just being tracked and, like, then getting.
00:02:42
Speaker 3: Targeted in our algorithm by whatever we've been talking about? Yes.
00:02:45
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: It weirds me out. Yeah.
00:02:47
Speaker 6: I was getting targeted by all kinds of weird Armageddon stuff. I got targeted with a Ben Affleck... Like, it was him doing deleted scenes for Armageddon, and somehow it came back into the funnel. I'm like, how did this end up in my algorithm, other than the fact that we've been using.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: The word Armageddon more than normal?
00:03:11
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:03:11
Speaker 3: There it was for me, which is just really concerning.
00:03:14
Speaker 4: Weird game, because I never felt like it was in doubt. At no point.
00:03:18
Speaker 5: Even when Miami's lining up to try an onside kick, I'm like, Malik Willis isn't going to.
00:03:23
Speaker 4: Two-pat Malik is not going to take the ball down the field. That's the word.
00:03:27
Speaker 5: I never felt, yeah, I never felt like the game was in doubt. I was also pretty underwhelmed by the overall performance. And that doesn't mean, like, everybody played poorly. In fact, a lot of guys played, Joe Burrow played well, the most important guy on the team, played well.
00:03:39
Speaker 4: There was some good in that game.
00:03:41
Speaker 5: You wrote about sort of the post-game vibe, which I, it was a combination of exhaustion because of the heat and disappointment with the overall level of play. I, um.
00:03:53
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:03:54
Speaker 5: To me, that was a simple, like, get the W, get to the bye week, and get going. At least that's how I felt coming in. Coming out, I kind of shrugged my shoulders.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: Yeah. Coming out of it, you realize, maybe I did want a little more. Yeah.
00:04:06
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:04:07
Speaker 6: Well, and I think it would have felt like that if they would have finished the game the way that they started it. I mean, if at 28-10 in the fourth quarter, they do tack on a touchdown and get a stop, and it's 35 to 10 or 42 to 16 or something like that, you come out of it and it feels different, but instead you, you had an all too familiar feeling of watching mistakes, let a team keep around, like the Tampa, Tampa game ducks, right?
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Like some of the stuff like that.
00:04:40
Speaker 6: And, and I think that's a big part of where the post game feeling came from was look, they're, taking the idea of finishing games seriously, whether it's against a team that's 0-4 and you're up 18 and it's 198 degrees outside, or it's Baltimore on New Year's Eve and you're up 5. It needs to feel the same. This needs to be something to take in seriously and to not have the types of errors that you saw down the stretch or and not playing the cleanest brand of football to close out games. That is something that is going to be emphasized. I think it was emphasized in the post game. And that is why the tone was what it was after the game, because this, that is the difference, like not having that focus, that ability to go to the end to finish games for a team that didn't finish games the way you want to the last two weeks in the last three years. Um, that's something that they're going to try to figure out. And I think that's a, that's a part of the reason why. And, It just clouds an otherwise positive day.
00:05:49
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:05:50
Speaker 6: It's just sort of been the consistent theme with this team, certainly through their losses and through a lot of the last couple of seasons.
00:05:57
Speaker 5: I've been around college basketball coaches that in November when their team beats a team, wins a bye game, but they don't play great.
00:06:06
Speaker 4: They're kind of happy.
00:06:07
Speaker 5: And they'll pretend to be madder than they are, but they like the fact that like, hey, we won the game. We don't have to worry about losing it. But I got some stuff that I could use in practice. Do you think there's a part of Zach Taylor at all that's like, I'm glad we didn't win this one 56-7 going into a bye. And now I've got something that I can, I know this is maybe sort of cliche, but I've got some teachable stuff.
00:06:28
Speaker 4: I've got some stuff.
00:06:29
Speaker 5: I've got a reason to sort of, I don't know, corral my team's attention as we get set for a massive game against Baltimore.
00:06:37
Speaker 3: A part of, yes.
00:06:39
Speaker 6: I think he'd also love to go out there and actually have a clean game. Like actually have a game where you're not seeing these mistakes, where you're not giving up 200-plus yards rushing to the Dolphins and have some of those problems that feel like they're bigger than just one game. I mean, this is now a continuation of some of the stuff that we've seen that feels like, okay, is this who this defense is? Because what we have seen now as the league is starting to adjust and understand the Bengals' personnel is, is a defense that looks like last year's defense with a really good defensive line. It looks like throw up, add a pass rush onto the problems that you had last year, and you can cover some of it. That's how you go from 31st to 16th or whatever they're at right now. But they're not, as much as everyone says just get to average, that's not how they view it, nor should they, for what.
00:07:37
Speaker 3: This defense needs to be.
00:07:39
Speaker 6: And I think when you see some of those problems creep up, when you see some of the things like lack of focus on fumbles and what have you, like, those are real issues. And, yes, it's nice to be able to keep pushing your team and point out that they haven't done, they're not where they need to be yet, and use that.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: Sure. I also think how tired of it you must be.
00:08:03
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:08:04
Speaker 3: You know that you can't. that part can't get fixed. You just play cleaner, be in the right gap, do the things that you know you're supposed to do.
00:08:11
Speaker 5: I wanted 42-3. I wanted Flacco taking snaps in the fourth quarter. I wanted, like, you know, some decisive, just like, FBS versus FCS shellacking. That's what I was looking for. So, I walked away from it mildly disappointed. It's disappointing finding out about Tanner Hudson torn pec.
00:08:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. Which, you know.
00:08:35
Speaker 5: okay, they have a lot of tight ends, and Tanner spent some time on the practice squad, but also, if you watch the game on Sunday, you saw the things he could do.
00:08:44
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker 6: I mean, the Tanner Hudson drive, where he converts the third and seven, finds the space, powers through, extends to understand the situation where he needed to be, executes it, right? And then they run a play, which is really a fun play, where they come out in six offensive linemen and three tight ends, with the design being than to go to spread when the other team brings in all their big guys and just pick whoever has a linebacker on them, whether it's Chase Brown or Tanner Hudson or whatever. It ends up being Tanner, and Joe Burrow immediately knows.
00:09:16
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just going to go to him.
00:09:17
Speaker 6: He's going to win, and he does, and he makes a diving catch for you. He just does. He'll make those plays. He'll be in the right spot, what we just talked about.
00:09:24
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:09:25
Speaker 6: Guys being in the right, doing the right thing, understanding what they need to do. And now, Grant, this is the guy that the opener in 2024 didn't do the right thing.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: Right. But I would argue since then.
00:09:33
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: Reliable.
00:09:35
Speaker 6: Very reliable to do all those little things correctly. A veteran that understands it has great chemistry in the offense. You lose something without him. And he can fill in multiple roles. If you lose one guy, he's out there basically playing receiver for a game.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: The next game he's doing receiver.
00:09:52
Speaker 6: Stuff more in line even, which isn't necessarily his wheelhouse, but he's in there doing it. And uh he's just there's only so many guys that you have that you can say that about so yeah there's a loss there.
00:10:02
Speaker 5: Yeah you you lose solid reliable players and and well the good news is.
00:10:07
Speaker 6: That you get some help like colby young yes getting healthy at the same time takes some of this thing off because i think they're He was doing a lot of Colby Young stuff. They're very similar players in the way that they're using this offense. I think the hope is that Colby Young can take some of that stuff on.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: It's not great.
00:10:28
Speaker 4: Can we go with two Pat Willis? I like two Pat. I like two Pat.
00:10:31
Speaker 3: Or one Pat.
00:10:31
Speaker 6: I like two Pat Willis. I prefer that there was more alliteration in there.
00:10:35
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:10:42
Speaker 3: But there's really no– I was.
00:10:45
Speaker 4: Trying to play off Tupac.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:10:47
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know how he'd do it.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: He is awful.
00:10:52
Speaker 4: I mean, I just call it what it is objectively.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: Tank commander? Yeah.
00:10:56
Speaker 4: You know, like Matt.
00:10:57
Speaker 5: LaFleur is the greatest quarterback's coach in the world because he actually got something out of Malik Willis and helped get him paid.
00:11:03
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:11:03
Speaker 3: I mean, imagine sitting there looking at that contract. Oh, yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker 6: Doing other than trying to get the number one overall pick at this point, which is there's real competition for.
00:11:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's bad.
00:11:15
Speaker 6: And the thing is, you really appreciate the way their team plays.
00:11:19
Speaker 3: They play hard.
00:11:20
Speaker 4: They do, yes.
00:11:23
Speaker 6: And that's why I think there was nervousness because Kansas City and Minnesota experienced that. It was funny that if you look at, we were talking about this in the game preview pod last week, that The stories being written post-game in Kansas City and in Minnesota the previous two weeks were kind of a sloppy win that you wish would have been better. Are we okay with this? Because I think they do that. They play hard, they make it harder, and a team gets up on them and they don't quit.
00:11:56
Speaker 3: It's kind of similar to what ended up happening in this one.
00:11:57
Speaker 6: Kind of similar storylines coming out of this one, but they're just setting the culture of playing hard right now.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: They're not setting the culture of Having a good quarterback.
00:12:05
Speaker 5: Or a lot of good players. It's 16 minutes after 3 o'clock. Paul Daner Jr. covering the Bengals for TheAthletic.com as well as the Growler podcast. Follow him at Paul Daner Jr. He and I have a lot to get to between now and 4 o'clock. I'm here until 6. Thank you so much for listening. Today's 17 after 3. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
00:12:33
Speaker 2: From the UC Health.
00:12:35
Speaker 5: After 3 o'clock, this is ESPN 1530. Mo Egger, we are broadcasting from the Transept, an amazing event venue downtown Cincinnati, right across the street from Washington Park. On a gorgeous, though hot, day outside, Paul Daner Jr. from the Athletic and the Growler podcast is with me.
00:12:55
Speaker 4: You wrote about the running game. Samaj P. Ryan.
00:12:59
Speaker 5: Distribution of touches on Sunday, 16 each. What's wrong with Chase Brown?
00:13:06
Speaker 3: I don't think anything's wrong with Chase Brown. I mean, I.
00:13:11
Speaker 6: Think that I don't look at him play and think he looks like somebody who has lost bursts, lost.
00:13:21
Speaker 3: The steps, doesn't know how to do it. Like he's in great.
00:13:23
Speaker 6: Shape when you watch him catch the ball in space. Like it's still he looks like.
00:13:29
Speaker 5: The same guy and all those training camp practices tony and i like gushed over how good.
00:13:34
Speaker 6: He looked it was hard not to yeah i mean he looks exactly like the guy he's been uh the last couple of years and i just think the stuff that they.
00:13:47
Speaker 3: Have been trying to do is.
00:13:50
Speaker 6: Not meshing it's just this I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone.
00:13:57
Speaker 3: We're just on repeat.
00:13:59
Speaker 6: This is the same thing that happens every single year where the thing from the last year and the carryover and getting this stuff to work in the running game is struggles early and then figure something out and they change it and go, and it's just, we're just doing it again. I just feel like it's happening again. And, And I don't know if that's just the under center stuff or there's just not a connection between what's happening in the run blocking or he's not.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Seeing this as well as he saw the old system.
00:14:30
Speaker 6: It's really hard to pinpoint. I don't think it's him as a player. I really don't. He's not hitting the wall. We're not seeing a guy start to wear down. I just don't think that's the case. I just think it's a matter of Confidence and the system fitting what he can do and just getting a few of those explosives going where they give him the full lanes to get out there and go.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: I know. I've seen them run blocking. There's a metric for everything.
00:15:06
Speaker 5: I did a lot of metric work here that I'm going to bring up to you.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. I don't know, man. I don't see. There are a few plays.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: Where you can see he could have made more.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:15:19
Speaker 6: I don't see some, like, just string of examples of he's just missing all this great open space when.
00:15:27
Speaker 3: You look at the carries.
00:15:28
Speaker 6: And talking to people on the staff in many different ways, that is not.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: The way anybody else views it either. No? No.
00:15:38
Speaker 6: I think that, obviously, the shotgun, downhill, gun run stuff.
00:15:46
Speaker 3: where you.
00:15:47
Speaker 6: Hit contact at two and three yards and need to get four or five fits five, 11, 240 pounds.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: Samaj AP, right?
00:15:56
Speaker 6: Like, obviously I think chase can do fine at some of that stuff too, but obviously that fits his style a little bit more. So yes, I understand him being in there.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: I really don't think that this is the sign.
00:16:10
Speaker 6: Of some awful season though, coming from chase Brown. I, I, I would be willing to, I would be willing to bet that the Chase Brown breakout, some explosives, are going to come and going to come very soon, and I think.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: That this will be a footnote. That's my guess.
00:16:28
Speaker 6: Now, give me a couple more weeks of this to see, because eventually they're not going to keep beating their head over against a wall on this, but I still just don't... I don't think they see it that way, and I don't see it that way either.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: What do I do? I was asked yesterday, what do you... most pleased.
00:16:46
Speaker 5: By through five games, and I said that I feel like this offensive line is pretty good.
00:16:51
Speaker 4: Joe Burrow is healthy. He's upright.
00:16:53
Speaker 5: I know he banged his thumb on Sunday, but I'm not seeing the quarterback get killed. You and I talked on the growler this morning about he's on pace for 31 sacks, which over the course of a full season would be really, really good compared to some of the totals.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: We have seen. We get into some of these metrics.
00:17:11
Speaker 5: As has often been cited over the last week, the Bengals' offensive line is number one, even through the fifth game, number one in run-block win rate. They're number 24 in pass-block win rate. Now, I see a good run-blocking offensive line. I see a decent, at least decent, pass-blocking offensive line. The metrics don't suggest as much. I see times pressured per dropback, 22.5%, which is slightly above league average.
00:17:40
Speaker 4: So it's okay.
00:17:42
Speaker 5: I see he's taken 26 hits. It's tied for most in the NFL. Yet the sack rate is career best. What does all this mean? They have a good offensive line, I think. I look at all this stuff and I don't know.
00:17:59
Speaker 6: It means there's too many numbers, right? And I don't mean that like, you know, I love analytics.
00:18:05
Speaker 3: I love numbers. I love the impact of the game. I'm a believer in them.
00:18:09
Speaker 6: I think that there is so much out there now that it is really hard to truthfully pinpoint the nuance when you get into so many individual, very tiny compartmentalized statistics.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:18:26
Speaker 6: To truly grab the nuance from 32 different teams, 32 different situations, 32 different teams where they had one bad game or one, you know what I mean, or fixed a problem or changed a scheme or whatever, and it doesn't take all of that into, I think you and I have watched every snap, And we see an offensive line that's pretty good.
00:18:50
Speaker 4: I'm pleased with its overall performance.
00:18:52
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:53
Speaker 6: And I think that that's fair no matter what.
00:18:55
Speaker 4: And that includes, by the way, Orlando Brown.
00:18:57
Speaker 3: Right.
00:18:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker 6: Especially against Miami, who had a really good game. So I just think you're talking about, did we just get served cake?
00:19:09
Speaker 4: The glance we just experienced. I don't know.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: We just got served cake.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: Cake in front of us. All right. I'm not going to.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: Say no, but anti-cake.
00:19:20
Speaker 6: That's sort of my opinion on it, though, is that I think the eye test says they're pass-protecting well, and I think there's still a lot to be done in the run game. I just think that's the case. And the offensive linemen have said as much. The offensive linemen pointed out against Jacksonville, they didn't play great. All of them. That was really the takeaway from it. I don't I don't see it as a Chase Brown thing. I do see it as a systemic thing.
00:19:50
Speaker 3: To use more Samaj P.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: Ryan.
00:19:51
Speaker 5: I just, for me, with the running game and the pass protection, I go back to, like, over the last seven games of the season last year, without even looking at numbers, I just, I remember getting to a point where I'm like, I think these guys are doing a good job. And I'm not an expert on anything, much less offensive line play, but like, I do think I know what it looks like when an offensive line is good.
00:20:13
Speaker 4: I think this offensive line's decent.
00:20:17
Speaker 6: And I think that when you looked at certainly the second half of last season, you saw an offensive line that looked great, and then maybe some of the numbers told you that they weren't.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Yeah. To me, I just go by the eye test.
00:20:32
Speaker 6: I think that, sure, they have their moments, and Orlando had a couple of bad games in there. But as a whole, I mean, they're able to confidently drop back and take their shots when they need to. Joe sits back there against some good pass rushers and has time to just throw what he wants to throw. I feel like they're in a pretty good place there. And Amarius is maybe the best right tackle in football. Like, I don't think they're in a bad place there. I do think they're still figuring things out in the run game.
00:21:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:21:08
Speaker 4: Paul Tanner Jr. is with us. I want to talk about Yak.
00:21:11
Speaker 5: We have to talk about Jordan Battle, Eric All, and should coaches start working seven and a half hour days? My favorite trope. We're going to get to it here between now and four o'clock. Sports headlines coming up. We're at the transept. We're about to eat some cake. Life is good. 29 from four. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: Not just talk. This is sports with soul, sweat, and swagger. Tony Pike Cincy 360. Tomorrow at 12 noon on ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: From the UCHealth Traffic Center, life's busy enough. Let UCHealth Pharmacy deliver your prescriptions right to your door at no extra cost. Sign up at uchealth.com slash pharmacy.
00:22:06
Speaker 5: Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain, protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life.
00:22:15
Speaker 4: KelseyChev.com.
00:22:18
Speaker 5: Tanner Hudson, unfortunately, a torn pectoral injury that'll have him out for the season. Bad news for Tanner, who caught a touchdown pass on Sunday against the Dolphins, Bengals, and Ravens a week from Sunday live on ESPN.
00:22:32
Speaker 2: 15-30.
00:22:32
Speaker 4: Baseball tonight.
00:22:35
Speaker 5: American League Championship Series Game 2, Guardians at Rays. Cleveland came from behind last night, behind Nathaniel Lowe. Reds legend Nathaniel Lowe. It's a big two-run, tie-breaking hit. Give the Guardians lead. They have a 1-0 lead in the series. Evander good to go for a second consecutive day as FC Cincinnati gets set to take on New England tomorrow night. And NHL Hockey, the official team of our show, the Nashville Predators, take on Las Vegas tonight.
00:23:04
Speaker 4: Buck drops at 7.05. You're a Nashville guy?
00:23:07
Speaker 3: Nashville's a good team sport.
00:23:09
Speaker 5: I broke up with the Blue Jackets because they broke up with radio. And so I needed a new team. And then I was going to go Toronto. And then this guy came up to me at the UC basketball tip-off dinner. And he made a very, very compelling, not just argument, but presentation as to why I should pick the Nashville Predators.
00:23:29
Speaker 4: So they're off to a 2-1-2 start. Nashville's close.
00:23:33
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:23:33
Speaker 5: It's a great town. The thing is, it is in the Western Conference. So a lot of West Coast games.
00:23:39
Speaker 4: Which is fine. I stay up late.
00:23:41
Speaker 3: Reds used to be in the West.
00:23:42
Speaker 4: They did. Back in the day.
00:23:43
Speaker 3: Yes. It's like a little flashback for you. I like it. I like Nashville. How could you not want to like Nashville? I'm in. Yeah. Let's go.
00:23:49
Speaker 4: Let's do it.
00:23:51
Speaker 5: A few things here. Tony Pike and I have talked about this. Bengals want to be more explosive. One way to do that is to pile up a lot of yards after the catch. Only three teams have fewer yards after the catch than the Bengals. They're averaging 3.9 yards after the catch. Where is the yak and how do they get more yak?
00:24:12
Speaker 3: Keep throwing to Jamar. Eventually he'll get it. I think Chase Brown eventually.
00:24:18
Speaker 5: Teams that get a lot of yak have a lot of running backs.
00:24:23
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think they've had a lot of checkdowns to the tight ends.
00:24:29
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. And that's not going to be as yacky maybe.
00:24:33
Speaker 6: As some of the others are. I mean, traditionally, so much of the Bengals' yak is just Jamar.
00:24:42
Speaker 3: Getting the ball on the run.
00:24:43
Speaker 6: I think you want to get him into space more often when we look at some of his numbers.
00:24:49
Speaker 3: We were talking about this earlier on my podcast.
00:24:51
Speaker 6: But his numbers are not as spectacular as he's been.
00:24:56
Speaker 3: Right.
00:24:57
Speaker 6: Some of the stuff that's been missing has been the catch and run that's allowed him to be more explosive. I mean, his yards per reception is like 10 and change right now. So I think that's one of those where you get him to catch the.
00:25:10
Speaker 3: Ball with a little bit more running room.
00:25:12
Speaker 6: More often, particularly in that middle of the field. I think that's when you can start to see the yak kick up for the team and for Jamar, and that can get a lot of things going.
00:25:24
Speaker 5: Zach Taylor was yelling at Eric Ault. on Sunday, and you could understand why. Eric Hall still got a lot of snaps on Sunday, relative to the way we've talked, and maybe with Tanner Hudson's absence, Eric's going to get even more. I asked you last week, this is the guy that I want to cling to. This is the guy that's supposed to be the tight end of my dreams.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: It ain't happening yet.
00:25:48
Speaker 6: It's not, and this was a particularly rough day for him.
00:25:53
Speaker 3: Obviously, with the fumble, he got saved by an inch. and then the bad personal foul.
00:26:00
Speaker 6: I just, you know, that is, I understand where the frustration is coming from from Zach Taylor at that point.
00:26:08
Speaker 3: I mean, goodness. This is the stuff. This is the stuff that's holding this team back when you're going to do things like that. And so.
00:26:17
Speaker 6: There can't really be any excuses there. But, yeah, Eric was, you know, he's been the X factor. And I don't, he is never going to say, my injury. I'm thinking about it. It takes time to get back. Just out of human nature, you've got to imagine it.
00:26:35
Speaker 3: He's not built or wired like most.
00:26:39
Speaker 6: You've got to imagine there's something maybe to that and reintegrating back into football after not playing for such a long time.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: I'm willing to go down that road. They really haven't. It's sort of like under center. It hasn't really meshed.
00:26:54
Speaker 6: The way you thought, you thought under center and Eric all, and here comes the weapon and you're just going to see it over and over again. And that hasn't quite developed. It doesn't mean it can't, it doesn't mean there isn't still time for it, but yeah, I think that's a, one of the disappointments of this year so far is that you haven't, I think you felt like he was immediately going to be a huge game changer for this offense. And, and he's just kind of, he's just kind of been another guy out there in some respects, but I'm willing to, buy into the fact that he needs more time to just kind of get back into the flow of things.
00:27:29
Speaker 5: Jordan Battle offering the public a glimpse into the Malik Willis scouting report.
00:27:33
Speaker 3: I loved it. I didn't mind it.
00:27:35
Speaker 4: I loved it. I'm also not one of his coaches.
00:27:39
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I understand.
00:27:40
Speaker 4: How did that play inside the building?
00:27:43
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it was... Come on, man. Sure. We don't need to do that. Right.
00:27:49
Speaker 6: But I also don't think it was... what are you doing? Like, I just think it's, let's be smart about what we're saying here. We don't need to say stuff that's kind of meant to be behind closed doors. Um, but I don't think it was anything that had people all up in arms because how can he even change it in two days anyway, the way he's kind of been doing this his whole life, whatever. I just think in general, it's like, let's be smart about what we're saying. We don't need to give up those secrets, but Outside of that, no sweat.
00:28:20
Speaker 3: Be yourself.
00:28:20
Speaker 5: I want more. I want more of it. Tell me what you guys are— What's this week's tip and tell?
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:28:26
Speaker 4: Let's go.
00:28:27
Speaker 3: Let's go. Let's put it in there.
00:28:28
Speaker 4: Put me inside the meeting room. Absolutely.
00:28:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I appreciate that from Jordan. I do worry we may get less of Jordan being honest with us now because of this, but that's okay.
00:28:40
Speaker 5: If he provides those moments of honesty and then has two picks in the next.
00:28:43
Speaker 3: Game— Sounds good.
00:28:45
Speaker 4: Let's go.
00:28:45
Speaker 3: Keep going. What's this week's television?
00:28:47
Speaker 4: Right.
00:28:47
Speaker 3: Two more picks.
00:28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:28:50
Speaker 6: I think it was just, why did we do that? But outside of that, it didn't make huge waves. It certainly made way bigger waves. If for some reason, nationally, everybody really thought that was a big deal.
00:29:02
Speaker 5: I did a half segment on it, and then on Friday morning, I'm like, maybe I should have made this out to be a bigger deal than it is.
00:29:08
Speaker 6: I was there, and I didn't really think It was that big of a deal.
00:29:15
Speaker 3: I understood. You could see him directly putting foot in the mouth and standing there.
00:29:22
Speaker 6: But I was like, I'm not going to make a big deal.
00:29:25
Speaker 3: To me, it wasn't what it then eventually became. But, hey, I get it.
00:29:30
Speaker 4: How would you assess the linebacker play through five games?
00:29:36
Speaker 3: Uneven. Better.
00:29:39
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: Then last year. Yes.
00:29:41
Speaker 6: Like you see more moments of confidence and understanding what they're doing and playmaking, but there's still just a lot left to be desired. And you know, the, whether it's fitting the right gaps, whether it's going sideline to sideline properly. We're seeing a lot of issues with these outside runs as teams run away from Dexter Lawrence. While some of that, certainly the blame goes on a bunch of different people in the outside corners, and they're part of that, and the edge setters are part of that, but the linebackers.
00:30:16
Speaker 3: Are a big part of that.
00:30:17
Speaker 6: Being able to diagnose, see it, chase down, find the alley, go through the right spot to make the to cut down a toss or see the jet sweep and that stuff, that stuff.
00:30:30
Speaker 3: Has not been as clean as you'd want it to be.
00:30:34
Speaker 6: And so while sometimes they look better, there's still just too much of that.
00:30:40
Speaker 5: I feel like with Barrett, there's like two plays per game that make me say the same things in real time that I would say during.
00:30:47
Speaker 4: The games last year.
00:30:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker 4: And not as many with Demetrius Knight.
00:30:51
Speaker 3: I think that's probably fair. Yeah.
00:30:53
Speaker 5: Not that Demetrius Knight has been perfect, but, like, there were a couple of moments on Sunday where I, Barrett, what are we doing?
00:31:01
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:01
Speaker 6: And then there's a couple moments where you're like, wow, really nice play by Barrett Carter.
00:31:05
Speaker 3: Sure, yes.
00:31:05
Speaker 6: Whereas last year it was just, Barrett, what are we doing? And then you didn't really have the other part.
00:31:11
Speaker 4: So I think that's good.
00:31:13
Speaker 3: And it's part of the progress for these guys.
00:31:16
Speaker 6: And even if it's not, man, we've got nowhere else to go.
00:31:20
Speaker 3: Right, yeah. Well, Kaiser's here now.
00:31:22
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. That's right. It was funny.
00:31:24
Speaker 5: On the internet yesterday, there were a lot of like, oh, I wanted him in the draft two years ago.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: So everybody's going to get their guy, Kaiser.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: You got your guy. Yeah. Kaiser's here. I mean, sure. I mean, it's just Swayze Bozeman was fine. He came in.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:31:42
Speaker 3: I mean, this is no different than that. Okay. Go for it. Yeah. Next.
00:31:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's not going to move the needle. You're still going to be watching Barrett and Demetrius.
00:31:51
Speaker 3: It's not like there's any change in that.
00:31:53
Speaker 5: You know how much I love listening to pro football coaches, and college coaches for that matter, talk about how hard they work.
00:32:00
Speaker 3: They work really hard. They stay late nights.
00:32:02
Speaker 5: They stay late nights, and they love to make sure that everybody knows that not only do they work long hours, they have no concept of what's going on in the real world. They have no Remote idea about current events. I mean, they are under rocks. All football, all the time. They sleep in their offices. They neglect everything. Sometimes they forget to eat. They forget their kids' names. I think we're seeing that catch up to coaches. Because this NFL week, including last night, we had some of the worst situational coaching I've ever seen in my life. Todd Bowles has a chance to go up three points. up 17 points at the one-yard line, gimme field goal, and instead he runs a play, opens the door for the Cowboys to come back. Fortunately for Todd Bowles, his team hung on to win. We had Nick Sirianni in the London game not telling his kicker to bang the ball into the end zone. We have whatever the hell Dan Quinn and Jaden Daniels were doing. We had Sean McVay deciding, you know what, my special team stinks and the other team has Josh Allen. Let's lean into those two things. Do you think that there will be a moment or a movement now where coaches go, you know what? Let's have eight-hour work days. Let's take an hour off for lunch. Let's have a life. Let's get a decent night of sleep. And maybe we'll make better decisions on game day. These people stay up endless hours. They work nonstop. And this is the stuff they do?
00:33:20
Speaker 6: And how many analytics staffers and game management people are involved? Are on the headset even.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:28
Speaker 6: Are right there to be like people paid handsomely who've dedicated their lives to understanding the odds of each situation.
00:33:36
Speaker 3: And by the way. Are they just getting ignored?
00:33:38
Speaker 5: A job that I came up with like 12 years ago is now commonplace around the NFL.
00:33:42
Speaker 4: The common sense guy.
00:33:43
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:43
Speaker 4: Common sense is being ignored.
00:33:45
Speaker 3: It is being ignored. Let me ask you a question.
00:33:47
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:33:49
Speaker 3: How many times.
00:33:51
Speaker 6: Did you watch back the end of the Commanders game trying to think, well, this is me, right? I'm not understanding the situation correctly. What am I missing about this that happened here where I can– and then at what point in that did you– what number did you realize, oh, it's not me?
00:34:09
Speaker 5: I rewatched it. So the Washington Commanders radio call is incredible.
00:34:15
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
00:34:16
Speaker 5: It's like they're apoplectic in the booth. I've watched it 25 times.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:34:22
Speaker 5: Just trying to figure out where in the chain of communication, where in the system, where is the specific moment where was there a breakdown?
00:34:33
Speaker 4: It's really remarkable.
00:34:34
Speaker 6: The only plausible thing is that they thought they had a timeout, right?
00:34:38
Speaker 3: Has to be, yes. It's the only plausible thing.
00:34:40
Speaker 4: Has to be.
00:34:41
Speaker 3: There's no other reason. For any of that to happen.
00:34:45
Speaker 5: But I don't know, like, with, I mean, you get three timeouts. They're not hard to count down from.
00:34:51
Speaker 1: No.
00:34:52
Speaker 5: You have, like, people in the headset, people on the sideline, who I would imagine their sole function is to keep track of, do we have three, two, one, or zero?
00:35:02
Speaker 3: Where's that guy?
00:35:03
Speaker 4: What's that person doing?
00:35:05
Speaker 3: Well, they're not talking to Jaden Daniels. No? I can tell you that much.
00:35:10
Speaker 5: I legitimately feel like these men work themselves to a point that they're so exhausted that on game day, they can't think. It's me sitting on my couch can go, hey, let's tell the kicker to kick the ball out of bounds. Or, hey, Sean, don't give the ball back to Josh Allen. Don't put yourself at the mercy of a coin flip. Don't leave yourself with little time if Josh Allen scores first. Or Todd Bowles, like, up three scores first.
00:35:37
Speaker 4: I don't know, man.
00:35:38
Speaker 5: You're playing kind of with house money with an undrafted rookie as your backup quarterback.
00:35:42
Speaker 4: I think these guys have worked themselves to the point that they're stupid.
00:35:46
Speaker 6: That's probably true. Perhaps we've got too many. Again, are there too many numbers? Is there too much happening where you're not getting to the simplification of this? Let's just focus on the simplest part. I think that's possible. You know, all I hear about is how we.
00:36:03
Speaker 3: Go over so much situation in football. Yeah, right. Every Saturday, every Friday, all offseason.
00:36:09
Speaker 4: All offseason.
00:36:10
Speaker 6: We train on every situation. We've gone through all of it.
00:36:13
Speaker 3: And yet when these situations come up, so I don't know. Maybe they just need to stop practicing.
00:36:21
Speaker 4: Why practice?
00:36:22
Speaker 3: Why me?
00:36:22
Speaker 4: Well, why not, right? I just, I'm baffled by the fact that, and again, it's my favorite. I love listening.
00:36:29
Speaker 5: I love listening to football coaches tell you how hard they work. It is literally my favorite thing in the world. Well, if you work that damn hard and that damn long, then you ought to be able to make simple decisions like, hey, let's have our quarterback know that he can't let the clock run out so we can kick a game-winning field goal.
00:36:45
Speaker 3: They had the whole play clock to just get one point across.
00:36:49
Speaker 4: No timeouts, Jaden.
00:36:50
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. I just did it just now. No timeouts, Jaden. That's all you got to do.
00:36:54
Speaker 4: No timeouts.
00:36:57
Speaker 5: I just, I cannot imagine what it must have been like in real time to be a Washington Commanders fan.
00:37:05
Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
00:37:06
Speaker 5: Like, I once watched Andy Dalton with the game hanging in the balance on, like, 4th and 11th.
00:37:10
Speaker 4: Throw it away. Throw it away.
00:37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:37:12
Speaker 5: And I remember that. But, like, that team stunk. And I was kind of over Andy Dalton at that point. But I remember that moment, like, whoa. This is who I'm rooting for. I cannot imagine in real time what that must have felt like to be a Washington Commanders fan. And Pleasure Team had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, chance for a really nice victory.
00:37:32
Speaker 4: You blow it, you still have a chance, and that happens. And you tie.
00:37:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:37:36
Speaker 6: That's got to be one of the lowest moments for a franchise that was owned by Dan Snyder for a very long time.
00:37:42
Speaker 4: Imagine how low that is.
00:37:43
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:37:44
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, there is no doubt. That was....
00:37:48
Speaker 6: I can't remember anything remotely like it, even amongst the other things that you, the other situations.
00:37:55
Speaker 2: Right.
00:37:55
Speaker 6: Because some of those other ones, at least I can make an argument for, like, you can make an argument for the, oh, well, the math actually says Todd Bowles should go.
00:38:04
Speaker 4: Oh, come on, man. I've seen that out there.
00:38:07
Speaker 3: You know you have, too. I have. It's out there.
00:38:09
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:38:10
Speaker 3: But there is no argument for the.
00:38:12
Speaker 4: Complete lack of any understanding. That's like a garden fire.
00:38:17
Speaker 6: It's just on a total other planet, whatever happened with Washington. I don't even put him in the same ball.
00:38:22
Speaker 5: The thing about the Todd Bowles thing, and he seems like a really, really nice man. The entire, as the second half of the fourth quarter is unfolding, he's got this sly look on his face like, yep, that's going to get me fired.
00:38:37
Speaker 3: You know what's.
00:38:38
Speaker 6: Funny is probably 96% of being a really good head coach and a winning head coach has nothing to do with that. But that 4% will get you fired way faster than the other 96%.
00:38:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker 6: Like, in terms of what actually, you know, you spend your time on and you focus on what really matters.
00:38:58
Speaker 3: But, man, nothing will get you fired faster than that stuff.
00:39:01
Speaker 5: So now teams need to hire a what-the-blank-are-we-doing guy.
00:39:06
Speaker 6: Yeah. Do they sit next to the common sense guy? Like, do they share a booth? Or do you need to keep them separate?
00:39:14
Speaker 4: The what-the-blank-are-we-doing guy has got to be on the sidelines.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Okay, okay.
00:39:19
Speaker 6: He's like kind of, he's the get back coach and the what are we doing guy?
00:39:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, like you're, this is break glass in case of emergency. Like run out onto the field. Like do something crazy.
00:39:30
Speaker 3: Streaker? Right.
00:39:31
Speaker 6: Look, if things go sideways and you know it's going wrong, I need you to just run out there.
00:39:35
Speaker 5: UC had a game last year, basketball, where the opposing team's head coach stepped onto the floor to stop a fast break.
00:39:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker 5: And I'm like, well, why wouldn't you just do that all the time? Like, you know, two shots in the ball, but like you stopped the fast break.
00:39:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:39:49
Speaker 5: What would be the penalty if, like, the what the eff are we doing guy runs out onto the field and, like, just grabs Jayden Daniels?
00:39:57
Speaker 4: It's 15 yards, but, you know.
00:39:59
Speaker 3: Could you?
00:40:00
Speaker 6: Could you pay someone to sit in the stands and have a seat for them in the front row, and they just jump over?
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:40:06
Speaker 4: You're like, I don't know who that guy was.
00:40:08
Speaker 3: Right, yeah. No penalty, just the game stopped.
00:40:10
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:40:11
Speaker 3: Go out there and try to tackle him. Maybe that's the move.
00:40:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, you pay his bail and kick the game when he field goals.
00:40:16
Speaker 3: Probably cheaper than actually employing them.
00:40:18
Speaker 5: All right.
00:40:19
Speaker 4: Bye week next week.
00:40:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm excited.
00:40:21
Speaker 4: I am, too.
00:40:22
Speaker 6: I'm going to watch Red Zone on Sunday and live that life.
00:40:26
Speaker 3: Yes. Live like the rest of you get to live.
00:40:29
Speaker 4: It's going to be fun. All right.
00:40:30
Speaker 5: Paul Danerjian, read him in The Athletic. Catch the Growler podcast. Latest episode is out.
00:40:35
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Very good. Back with more 5 from 4 ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:40:38
Speaker 3: Traffic.
