1/9/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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Speaker 1: Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Dance.
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Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. No one cares one hour long press conferences like ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Moegger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for listening. This is our first Friday show since August. We have a lot to get to Let's get right to it. The Duke Tobin press conference ended about an hour ago. Kelsey Conway was there covering the Bengals, covering Duke Tobin, covering the press conference for The Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. She has a lot of work to do it, so I can't thank her enough for joining us right out of the shoe, Kelsey, it's awesome to have you.
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Speaker 3: How are you.
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Speaker 4: I'm great, how are you?
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Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me on always.
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Speaker 3: It's awesome to have you, all right.
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Speaker 2: The big takeaway from Duke Tobin's press conference for you was.
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Speaker 4: What Bengals fans should prepare for more of the same.
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Speaker 3: Sadly kind of mine as well.
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Speaker 2: Right, because I heard I heard a lot of references to successes of the past, as limited as they may be. I didn't hear anything indicating reflection and using that reflection to maybe pivot in a different direction philosophically or structurally or from an urgency perspective. I walked away from it thinking that if you went into that press conference as a fan thinking, you know what, maybe we'll find out that things are going to be done a little bit differently. Here you walked away from that press conference disappointed.
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Speaker 4: So I'm glad that I'm coming on to be able to talk with you about this because we in the last couple of years, you and I have had a chance to talk about this on air when I've been at the Senior Bowl with Duke, and the more I thought about it after time had passed after the press conference, the more I felt it was very similar to my Q and A with him that I did Inmobile last year. And the big takeaway, the two big takeaways that I had is that Duke Hobin said he's frustrated. He feels the fans disappointment. Nobody feels it more than him. He wants to win all of that, but for two years in a row now, he said the same thing to me. He said he's down on the team's ability to finish games. So he said that to me last year, I wrote it in a story that was on the enquire and he said it, saying it's press conference that the thing that burked him most was the team's inability to finish games in those one score games. And for that to be his message two years in a row makes me believe that he thinks that the roster is good enough and that the reason that they're not winning those one score games maybe isn't a talent acquisition issue. It's more of a coaching mentality, a locker room mentality issue. And to me, for that to be the same thing in back to back years that he thinks is the issue is a little concerning because it's all about do you have enough good players to win those one score games? And they don't, and they have it for two years in a row. So I thought he would maybe take a messaging point of you know, we're going to do everything we can to build a championship caliber defense for Joe Burrow, but he didn't say any of that. You know, expect them to add they are going to add players in free agency on defense. He said we need to get better on defense, but he also said we're emerging on defense, and you know, he talked on and on about the talent on offense, and these are all the same things he said to me last year. So I walked away wondering what exactly will be different, And if I think that, I would assume all the fans think that. And he also said they're not going to add to the scouting department. So there were multiple times for him to say in point to certain things he's going to change, and he didn't. So that leads me to believe, yes, they might add a couple of more free agents on defense this year, but if you're expecting sweeping changes in the organization, I would just say temper your expectation to the fans.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it was exactly my takeaway from it. And it's interesting, you know, I heard Duke talk about on a number of occasions today the one score of games. Excuse me, that the games that got away from them late right where they blew or couldn't get back into or tried to come back and couldn't finit whatever. It was a lot of games they lost by not being able to make plays late in the game. And I guess, on one hand, you could say, well, that's the arrow, that's the finger being pointed at the coaches. I kind of go, he's pointing at the players, and Duke, those are your players, right?
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Speaker 4: No, for that to be the message point in back to back years is very weird. And I would also point to I asked him who has control over the fifty three man roster, because obviously his title is director of personnel, But you know enough about what's going on with the Bengals in the front office the structure with Mike Brown being involved that yes, Duke Cobin is in charge of the roster, but there are things that Mike Brown is still involved in and Zach Taylor is involved, and so I just wanted to point blank ask him, are you the one responsible for that roster of those players that aren't making enough plays in one score games that we're talking about? And he said, yes, well I do get you know, say of where we go and pointing us in the right direction. But he kept using the term collaboration. And if there was a if there would have been more of an opportunity to ask follow ups, because there was plenty of reporters there, my question would have been does too much collaboration? Could that be a disadvantage of disadvantage for you and in you not having a clear cut direction of this is exactly where we need to go with an example of too many cooks in the kitchen. And it doesn't seem like I didn't leave the press conference to day knowing any more about who exactly makes the final calls when it comes to the Bengals roster. So with all of that to be said, like I still leave with plenty of questions about how things are being run in the Bengals front office. And when you have that many questions, it's hard to believe that success could be definitely on its way. They might get lucky, but I don't think that there's going to be a whole lot of things done differently to ensure any Bengals fans that yes, they are going to be better on defense this year.
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Speaker 2: So the part of the press conference that in that regard specifically confused me is Duke was asked, and off the top of my head, I don't remember who asked the question, so my apologies for that, and I'm paraphrasing the exchange, but he was asked at one point like, yeah, there's collaboration, but at some point like there's got to be the person who says, this is what we're doing. Right, in any collaborative setting, there's someone who decides, once and for all, here's what we're doing. And he kind of shot that down and said, essentially like, well, it never really gets to that. Well, yeah, it does. Someone someone decide we're taking. And I think the example used was a Marius Mims. Someone makes the final decision, we're gonna take Shamar Stewart. Someone makes the final decision we're gonna go with Ginos Stone and not sign a safety. And so I walked away from it, just like you as unclear as ever as to who has final say, because he said, when it comes to having a final say, basically, those situations don't arise.
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Speaker 4: How is that the case, Well, those situations do arise. I've talked to you about people off the record to know that there are very much instances where the coaches want this player and you know, personnel might not see it that way. And there's also the factor of you have to loop ownership in. Are they willing to just shot the money for this player so that whole operation doesn't I didn't get any clarity that I was hoping to, And of course they're not gonna tell us everything, right, They're allowed to keep some things in house. But I was hoping that by asking that it would maybe clear up something for the fans to wonder, you know, at the end of this person is responsible for the roster, and Duke did say I need to do a better job of pointing us in the great direction in that aspect. But the other main takeaway that I had was I felt like, and I've felt this way for a couple of years now, with the Bengals. In totality, I think they too much live in the world of talking and acting in a way that they're just stuck on the fact that they were very successful for two years. And he spoke a lot of times about I understand he wants to show he has confidence in his scouting staff. I get it, but he went out of his way to kind of make comments to you know, alluding to the same scouting staff that made that great free agent class in twenty twenty one work. I just think that there's too much talk and the way that they operate about what happened with the Bengals when they got really lucky in that twenty one and twenty to twenty two seasons, and I left thinking, how are we still talking about twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, Like they're so far removed from that. It just left me wondering, like, is it still the whole We did this one time, so we can do it again. Like I still just think overall, the Bengals still live in a world too much where just because they did it those two years doesn't mean that you can't approach, you know, the ensuing years that same way. You have to change, you have to evolve, And I feel like they kind of still live in the days where they were really successful those two years and they think that kind of absolved a lot of their issues, And I just I'm just not sure that that that's the right approach because every other NFL team operates every year the new league year. What are we going to do to go win another championship? They're not still talking about the super Bowl that they lost four years ago.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like twenty twenty one in twenty twenty two, as awesome as they were, they we frame them as if they're the norm, and the reality is this Cincinnati Bengals have missed the postseason in eight out of their last ten years. Duke Tobin has been in place for all of those ten years. So those two seasons, as awesome as they were and as much as they should represent the norm, they're the outlier. And I'm with you, and I I hear fans do it. I heard Duke Tobin do it today, leaning a lot on twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty two, I guess here's another question that I have, and I'm I don't know that you're going to have an answer to this, But Duke talked about there's no comfort here, right, There's no comfort with his job, There's no comfort in the organization. There's no comfort even if you won a Super Bowl. Well, it's one thing to say that, it's something else to trot out the same people from one year to the next when the previous year was a failure and to kind of double down on a lot of the same things that you have done that have led to the failures of the last three seasons.
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Speaker 3: Did you kind of walk away with the same.
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Speaker 5: Impression one percent?
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Speaker 4: And my other thought on that is, okay, if there's no comfort here. The two main questions that I didn't get a chance to ask, which I will make sure I get asked. I will ask him at the combine or other areas, is if there is no comfort here, and Zach Taylor will be the one that everybody talks about if they underperform next year, does he get fired if there's no comfort here? Duke saying that to me puts him very much on the same radar as Zach in terms of your if next year, when you're looking at everything, who's to blame? If if they're going to point the finger at Zach, if there's no comfort and everybody's accountable on the same level, then wouldn't that mean that Duke Tobin would also be one that if Zac's gonna go, how could you make an argument that he shouldn't. So I think him saying that today was interesting because I do think that there is a level of comfort inside the Bengals organization and I think that that is what Joe Burrow is wanting to change. That's why he says we need to change something. We've gotten too comfortable here doing the same thing over and over again. So for him to say that was interesting. And the other main thing that I wanted to ask him that I didn't get a chance to ask him, because you know, he wanted us to all know that his scouting staff found Joe Flacco, which I saw that you posted on x You caught on to him saying that a bunch. But I wanted to ask, do you think that you should be examined by the front office the same way Zach is on a year to year basis in terms of wins and losses. And I wanted to see how he answered that. But I didn't get a chance to ask that. But those were two of the main things that I wanted to ask that I didn't get a chance to today.
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Speaker 2: All Right, two more because I know you have to do your job and I appreciate you doing this.
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Speaker 3: At at the top of the show.
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Speaker 2: Right after that press conference, Duke was asked about contract issues that have dragged on right and have been perhaps distractions and have gotten contentious, and he kind of he kind of knocked that down right, like, well, you know, we don't negotiate against the person, and you know we got deal done.
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Speaker 3: And I guess here's my.
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Speaker 2: Question this offseason, it would be awesome if the Bengals didn't have anything like that.
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Speaker 3: Now they only control that so much.
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Speaker 2: I get it, but among all the players that they want to resign or could resign, who represents the best chance of being another one of these long drawn out negotiating soap operas that have dominated the discourse when it comes to the Bengals in the off season for so many years.
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Speaker 4: Oh, that's easy Chase Brown. Because I talked to Chase before the end of the season and I said, do you want an extension this offseason? And he said, you know, I don't know yet, because yes, it would be great to have the long term security. There's also still more money to be left on the table potentially if he has another awesome season, right And I know who chases agent is. He's a tough, high profile agent, and I could just be I could see that going where if the Bengals offer isn't you know, high enough for Chasing in his agent right now for that to kind of put a sour taste in his mouth and and then maybe force him to want to do what Jamar did and you know, play out that final year and say, look, I'm gonna make you pay.
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Speaker 5: Me even more.
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Speaker 4: I think that one's the one that has a potential, not because of anything to do with Chase Brown, his personality in his agent as just he has a he has a well seasoned agent who's good at getting his his players paid, and I could see that being one where if it doesn't go well to start, it could potentially be one that that could get could get similar to the way that some of these have dragged out in a way that kind of gets ugly. So it'll all it'll be all about the Bengals first offer to Chase to in my opinion, to set the tempo for how that went goes. I think the two corners will be easier than Chase Brown, and that's also a tricky one because he's a running back, so it's gonna be hard to see like the Bengals might. It might be hard for the Bengals to figure out the right value for him, and his agent's going to make sure that he maximizes whatever you can get, and that might result into Chase Brown playing in his final season without a deal and betting on himself, and we'll see where that one goes.
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Speaker 2: I also walked away from the press conference thinking that if they're aggressive anywhere this offseason, it's going to be an edge rusher or it's going to be a pass rusher. Did you walk away with the same impression.
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Speaker 4: I guess not, because they had a similar You know, Duke Tobin has said year after year, I really value edge rusher's defensive line is really important to me. He said all of that last year, and they didn't do anything to fix the defensive line and free agency and took a player in the first round who they knew was it's going to be a project.
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Speaker 6: He said.
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Speaker 4: It's very important to me. I like pass rush, but you know, without really having been able to dig into available free agent edge rushers, I don't Again, I'm tempering my expectations. I think that they're going to add there, but I also didn't think that they their big acquisition on the edge of rusher market last year was going to be Joseph Osize, So that one, he said it it's important to him, but it's a really tricky one nail and free agency, Like the Bengals totally nailed it with Traya Hendrickson, It's going to be hard for them to find that type of production from someone who is hitting the free agency market that they're going to have to pay a lot of money too. And it's just hard to see based off the way things have gone the last couple of years, see them go all out, all in on one player to fix all their problems because they've got so many. So I think those edge rushers cost a lot of money, and I'm just not sure the Bengals.
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Speaker 3: Are going to have.
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Speaker 4: Although they're in good cap space shape you want, you well know that, but I just think of edge rushers, they cost a lot of money and they need multiple players on defense.
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Speaker 2: Uh, well said, I can't thank you enough. By the way, one more ready for it?
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Speaker 7: Go?
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Speaker 3: How about those Bearcats?
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Speaker 4: Should we just leave it there? Do we go to commercial breaks?
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Speaker 6: Now?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're gonna have to. Well, well, well that's a discussion for another day. I can't thank you enough now, you and a lot going on. Appreciate it. We'll do it again soon.
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Speaker 4: Thanks so much, absolutely, thanks so much for having me on.
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Speaker 3: You got it.
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Speaker 2: That's our friend Kelsey Conway covering the Bengals and the Duke Tobin Mega Conference Mega Press Conference for the Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com.
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Speaker 3: I'm Muagar.
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Speaker 2: This is ESPN fifteen thirty twenty minutes after three o'clock show. Preview video is up on Twitter at Moagar. Thanks to share Facts Credit Union, you can become a member. You should become a member just like me. Go to share facts dot org. All right, we don't have another guest until four o'clock. We're a guest heavy in the four o'clock hour, so I've got open lines five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. I don't know that there's a bigger overarching takeaway from the Duke Tobin press conference as the one Kelsey started our conversation by talking about we'll get to that and yours coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
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Speaker 8: Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise. Call five one three, nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three southbound seventy five after Norwood Laterala disabled vehicle off on the right shoulder. Another disabled northbound seventy five in Ohio. That's between Sharon Road and two seventy five, also on the right shoulder, and slow traffic southbound seventy five from Freeman to Fort Washington way I'm at He's that like with traffic.
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Speaker 2: This report is twenty five after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for listening. Hopefully your weekend is off to a great start. Our first Friday show since August, and awesome to be here. We've got a lot of the non Duke Tobin stuff coming up in the four o'clock hour, including the Red Search for a new TV deal and more importantly, I guess, the Red search for some TV money. We'll get to the college football playoffs semi final game tonight, the Peach Bowl in Atlanta featuring IU and Oregon, and our guy Jed Demuci has requested to be our official Miami guy. The RedHawks are unbeaten. We'll do that at four forty five, and our guy Robert Wintrop as well at four twenty. On Duke Tobin and the Bengals. Let's grab a phone call or two.
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Speaker 3: Terry. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Terry, how are you?
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Speaker 6: I love the show?
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Speaker 3: Wonderful. What's up?
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Speaker 9: Well?
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Speaker 10: I just remember it conversation. I had a friend of mine played for the Bengals years ago, and his best friend was Bruce Costlin, and one day you had lunch or dinner together and Costla told me that, well, I can't get the draft picks I want. I can't I can't choose to cut who I want, and I can't.
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Speaker 7: Keep who want to keep.
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Speaker 10: And after Tobin's discussion about Mike Brown, I just really think that you know that that still goes about today, that you know the main guy is Mike Brown, you know.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there was one of those many answers during a very long press conference where Duke tobinin you know, said, I think, almost verbatim, it's Mike Brown's team.
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Speaker 3: And to me that was an acknowledgment that at the end of the day.
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Speaker 2: Uh, Mike Brown, with the roster, Mike Brown, with coaches, with personnel, with the front office staff, is going to get what he wants and is going to say no when he wants.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 2: And and look that that doesn't mean that others don't have significant input. That doesn't mean that others can't make significant divisions or decisions or the owner doesn't want to, for lack of a better term, interfere. But yeah, it's it's Mike Brown's team. And by the way, every owner in the NFL has the ability to say yes or not to stuff or to meddle as much as they want. Some do so more than others. I frankly, some do do so more than Mike Brown does. Some are completely in the background and barely touch anything that's specifically football related. But I think if you, if you were wanting to walk away from that press conference today thinking that anybody besides Mike Brown has final say over what happens with this football team, uh, you were sorely disappointed.
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Speaker 10: Yeah, yes, sir, Well, it's amazing that it doesn't changed all the made back that Bruce, And how can a coach and or you know, the whatever Duke Tobin's saying it or his title is, how can they, you know, really take accountability for that? Don't know?
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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you know, thank thank you for the phone call, Terry. Each of us have a boss. Each of us are still accountable for the things we decide to do and the decisions we make as it relates to our everyday job. And so it is completely and totally fair to do two things with Duke Tobin. Understand the parameters he's working in or working within as the director of Player personnel for the Cincinnati Bengals, but also hold him accountable for his job performance. You know, Duke Tobin was the executive of the Year at the two at the end of the twenty twenty one season one.
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Speaker 3: Mike Brown Stuke Tobin.
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Speaker 2: And got and by the way, deserved a ton of credit for his work with that football team. The one way that I'll i'll depart from what Kelsey had to say about twenty minutes ago is you know, the reference to getting lucky and getting to back to back AFC championship games. There's always luck involved, but they didn't get lucky. That that was that was the result of you know, not screwing up the twenty twenty draft, but also getting a lot of the guys right on defense and having a defense in the postseason that was opportunistic.
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Speaker 3: Uh and and Duke got a lot of credit for that.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, he should be blamed or held accountable when when his decisions or his input into the decision making doesn't result in winning.
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Speaker 3: There can be accountability.
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Speaker 9: You know.
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Speaker 2: I because Duke Tobin works for Mike Brown or anybody else does not clear him of accountability, whether it's internal or external. I mean Saint Zach Taylor is held accountable, and there are a lot of things that went wrong this season that I don't think Zach Taylor has that much to do with. That's why you know my take all along as it relates to Zach and Duke is I don't trust Duke Tobin Zach Taylor. I'm kind of lukewarm. It doesn't bother me that much that he's back. Duke Tobin, I don't know, man, And for me it's mainly because he ignored the obvious last offseason. But Zach Taylor's held accountable enough that he's got to answer questions dozens of times a year. Duke Tobin was held accountable to the degree that he had to answer questions today for the first time.
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Speaker 3: In a setting like.
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Speaker 2: That, it is completely fair to hold both accountable if you own the team. Right now, it doesn't appear that either is being held accountable to the degree that most would like. Twenty nine away from four o'clock, five point three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty is our phone numbers. So let's talk about the the general theme to what happened today at the venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
00:25:07
Speaker 5: Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
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Speaker 8: From the UC Health Traffic Center. Uc Health's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise. Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three Erie Avenue. It's a new accident in that's over at Brotherton Court on southbound seventy five after Norwood laterally disabled vehicle off onto the right shoulder. Traffic is running slow northbound on seventy five between Mitchell and Paddock, A three to five minute delay.
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Speaker 11: Get you through there. I'm at ezelic with traffic.
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Speaker 2: Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family to yours for life kelseyshev dot com.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: Uh Duke Tobin.
00:25:59
Speaker 2: Today he spoke for about an hour with the assembled Pro football media and reminded everybody that he traded for Joe Flacco.
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Speaker 3: And also intimated that there will be.
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Speaker 2: No major changes to how the Bengals do things this offseason. Meanwhile, the NFL Playoffs begin this weekend tomorrow two games Rams and Panthers in Charlotte, Chicago hosting the Green Bay Packers three games on Sunday, Buffaloes at Jacksonville, San Francisco's at Philly, and the Patriots host the Chargers. Monday night, it's the Steelers and Texans. All of the NFL playoff action can be heard this weekend on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. FC Cincinnati has announced its preseason schedule. The season feels like it just ended like a week ago. The Orange and Blue will play their first preseason match against the New England Revolution. That game will be in Bradenton, Florida. They'll play four preseason matches in Florida. Players have begun reporting to Cincinnati. The official data is tomorrow. Preseason training begins next week. Season just ended. College hoops tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. It's NKU at Milwaukee, tip off at seven pm. Tomorrow's Xavier host Providence, Kentucky and Mississippi State XU game on seven hundred WOW. The Wildcats could be heard here on ESPN fifteen thirty. That game will tip off at eight thirty Tomorrow night. Sunday, Cincinnati is at UCF Bearcats looking for their first big twelve win of the season. Also this weekend tomorrow it's Indiana hosting tenth rate in Nebraska and Ohio State on Sunday's at Washington. Speaking of Indiana, which I was the IU football team, this is I think one of the most remarkable stories we've had this century. That's not a statement of hyperbole. The Indiana Hoosiers are sixty minutes away from playing for a national championship. IU is taking on Oregon tonight in the Peach Bowl. That game is in Atlanta. A winner will take on the Miami Hurricanes hockey hockey this evening. The Cincinnati Cyclone skated home against Fort Wayne. The puck drops at seven thirty tonight, twenty two away from four o'clock.
00:28:16
Speaker 3: If there's anything.
00:28:17
Speaker 2: You've missed on this show, including Chad Brendle yesterday very good on the Bearcats, go find it on the iHeartRadio app. Could also get it at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com on the podcast page. Podcasts of this show are a service of Long Neck Sports Grill. If you're looking for a place to watch all the games this weekend, long Necks can't do any better. Four KTVs all over the place and so much more free locations in northern Kentucky, Wilder, Hebron and rich Wood. We'll get to more phone calls here in just a bit, and some other stuff in the four o'clock hour.
00:28:51
Speaker 3: I don't know.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: About you, but I didn't go into the Duke Tobin press conference thinking that I was gonna feel so much better about the season that just went down, or Duke and his staff's ability to put the Bengals in the short term back in a position where they are legitimate championship contenders, and that's what this is all about.
00:29:13
Speaker 3: Do I think the Bengals are going to be better next year? Yeah?
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Speaker 2: I would be willing to bet the Bengals win more than six games next season. I frankly would be willing to bet the Bengals or a playoff team next year, like I Joe plays seventeen games. That's where my money's going to be every single year. But are they legitimately considered championship contenders? They weren't prior to this past season. They aren't now. I don't think they will be at the beginning of next season. That's a reflection of a lack of confidence in Duke Tobin. I don't know that there was anything he could say today that was going to change my mind or yours as it relates to Duke keeping his gig, having confidence in him. Nothing was going to be said. I think many folks watched or listened to that press conf diference, hoping for hoping for a reason to be mad, quite frankly, and I don't think there was anything to be angry about. Like I don't think he was defiant or smog or condescending or standoffish.
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Speaker 3: I don't think there was any of that. I thought the.
00:30:16
Speaker 2: Questions he was asked were good questions. I always wonder, you know, for a press conference like that, you have folks who show up who typically don't cover the team, and some who did ask good questions. But I there is a part of me, and I'm a big freedom of the press guy, but there's a part of me that wishes a setting like that would pretty much solely include the folks who are down there every single day, just because I think Number one, those folks have wanted to talk to Duke Tobin in that kind of setting for a long time. Number Two, I think you're going to get the most informed questions and I think you're going to get better answers because Duke is probably a little bit more familiar with the person who's asking the questions as opposed to somebody who covers, you know, news and stuff like that. But for me, and it's just me, maybe the main thing I was looking for was some indication, some indication that things are gonna be different. Not just you know, things are different because they win more games. But one of the central questions to this entire offseason has been, Okay, you bring back the same people. Will they do their jobs differently? Will they value different things? Will they take different approaches? Will they change philosophies? Will they add people? Right, you can change without firing by adding people. That's one thing you can do. And there was nothing about that press conference and hour's worth, there was nothing about that press conference that I think made any one of us feel like, you know what, they're going to be different. Much of that hour was ben with Duke Tobin citing the fact that they've won before, talking about successes of the past, and he's had some. But when you do that, that tells me that you're going to lean into some of the things that helped achieve those successes in some cases a long time ago and in other cases not that long ago. He was asked about the offense, like we did this topic. I don't know three weeks ago. Things you can do differently, even if the same people are in place, taking a look at the offense and doing a deep dive into whether you know, maybe it would help the efficiency and effectiveness of the offense if somebody else were calling plays. Duke seemed to want nothing to do with that conversation. Enhancing the scouting department, adding voices, adding people. Duke really didn't seem to want to entertain that possibility dramatically changing how they approached play contracts. Duke really didn't seem interested in that. I don't recall there being a question asked about how they evaluate college players. He did talk about college player evaluations being underway. But one of the things a lot of folks have wondered, myself included, has been are they going to get away from leaning in on traits and focus more on what players do on film, what players do when they're actually playing football, instead of what the tape measure says. Certainly didn't get that impression, Not really sure that was talked about today. Maybe today wasn't the right time for that to be discussed. But the big overarching theme for me at least is that they're not going to change how they do things now. Maybe they don't need to, and maybe time will prove that they didn't need to change anything, because I think what we're all hoping for is that the last three years proved to be an outlier in this otherwise really really awesome period of Bengals football. But when you're coming off three can secutive non playoff seasons, and you're the guy in charge of the front office, which Duke is, and they haven't made the postseason an eight out of the last ten years, and they've had so many missteps or failures that have doomed this franchise. When the person in charge of the roster, when the person in charge of player personnel effectively doubles down on some of the same things that have gotten this team here where it is right now, it's kind of sobering. And so I take everything Duke said with a grain of salt. I take everything Duke said and go, Okay, there was almost no chance he was gonna say anything that was going to make anybody do cartwheels about him being the guy still in his office or his ability to turn this around. But I do think it was fair to go into this thinking that maybe there will be some indication that moving forward, things will be done a little bit differently. I don't think anybody walked away with that impression today. Again, all the references to successes of the past and how they've done things before, and you know, how it's worked out in certain cases before, that to me.
00:35:18
Speaker 3: Is an indication that they're not going to change.
00:35:23
Speaker 2: And look, I don't think anybody was expecting the Bengals to like do a total one to eighty in terms of just how they operate, how they do things. They weren't going to suddenly add two dozen scouts. I mean, they're there. The change comes slow here, but when change comes, it's incremental change. I don't think anything that was said today would make anybody believe incremental change is in the offing. You could tell me if you disagree, or if you have a different sort of macro takeaway than I do. Five win, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. You could send a tweet at Moeger Thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good to Delta DENTALOAH dot com fourteen. From four o'clock a lot on Duke Tobin Today will re air not the press conference in its entirety, but we'll play some highlights. Coming up in the five o'clock hour. Robert Wantrabar, guy from a Cincinnati magazine who writes an awesome weekly Bengals column during the season. Smart Dude is going to join us coming up in four to twenty. Are the Reds not going to get any TV money? Are they not going to have games on TV?
00:36:29
Speaker 3: This year? If they do, what are they going to look like?
00:36:31
Speaker 2: We'll get answers to those questions as well after four on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
00:36:37
Speaker 5: Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
00:36:42
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00:37:14
Speaker 3: This report is.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: Nine from four ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks thanks for listening. I gotta come up with a pole question on Twitter. Thanks to night at Heartland Insurance the place, the place for all your insurance needs uhi NS dot com. Uh, let's see Gunner, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Gunner, thanks for your patience. How are you hey?
00:37:40
Speaker 9: How you doing today?
00:37:40
Speaker 12: Mo?
00:37:42
Speaker 3: Wonderful? How about yourself?
00:37:44
Speaker 13: Good man? Good?
00:37:46
Speaker 14: You know, my main cake away from that press conference was that GEO Stone is assuredly coming back.
00:37:51
Speaker 3: No I talked about Stone.
00:37:59
Speaker 6: I just had a I.
00:38:00
Speaker 14: Had to say it to you. But on a serious note, I you know, he talked about, you know, at the end of the day, all the matters is what you know, winning the Super Bowl, right, That's how I grade myself at the end of the season. Blah blah blah blah blah. But you know then all he wants to do is harken back to his all we found.
00:38:18
Speaker 6: But look at this.
00:38:19
Speaker 9: One free agent.
00:38:19
Speaker 14: We founder this one, you know trade I made for a forty five year old quarterback that nobody else was talking about in the whole league. Nobody else was looking to trade for this guy before. He's never he's never come in and done this for a team at the end of the season, although he did it for the Browns a couple of years ago. But I just it's just, you know, it's that inconsistency with him. And you know, I called into Tony and Austin Show a few weeks ago, and you know, one of the things that really frustrates me is is just their strategy right with everything. You know, one year we're going to go really heavy free agent, and the next year we're not.
00:38:54
Speaker 15: One year we're gonna draft for trades.
00:38:55
Speaker 14: The next year we're gonna draft twenty six year old, you know, bad college players three rounds too early and miss out on you know, productive players. Right now, you know, I know everybody remembers the end of that season with Browning. It was it was very obvious at the end of that season what the issue was. If you remember the defensive line, the defense was bad. You know, Hubbard was really bad. DJ Reader got hurt.
00:39:20
Speaker 9: Right, it was.
00:39:20
Speaker 14: It was not good. And what did they do coming into that next year? Didn't sign anybody, didn't bring in any defensive line.
00:39:28
Speaker 9: Then you know we were rolling out, you know, nose tackles from the streets.
00:39:33
Speaker 14: I can't remember the one guy's name, but you know, he wasn't any good. And and then you you have that bad season last year, and he's like, you know, we're gonna make adjustments and we change and we're always evaluating ourselves and self scouting. And they didn't do anything again. And now he sits up there, you know, all pompous and smug, like laughing at his own jokes, you know, smelling his own farts, talking about you know that they're basically going to do nothing again. I fully expect them to try to re sign Gosai and not pursue a you know, a real threat from the edge. I fully expect them to probably pass on Caleb Downs and draft Kendrick Falk, an other kind of traits guy out of Auburn. So that should all make us really happy. I don't know, man, just a disappointing time to be a fan. I left that press conference just more disappointed than I think I've ever been as a fan, and you know, I'm thirty two years old.
00:40:28
Speaker 9: I've been good.
00:40:31
Speaker 2: Well, you started your call by talking about Geno Stone, right, Like, the lack of consistency was evident with him this past offseason where they brought him back. They didn't they didn't go sign a safety, and free agency they didn't draft a safety, even though there were some really good ones available.
00:40:48
Speaker 3: So they all, right, we're gonna ride or die with Ginostone.
00:40:51
Speaker 2: Then they asked him to take a pay cut, and you know, we asked at the time, like what if Geno Stone says no, what's plan B? Like if you asked someone to take a pay cut and they said no, then me, you've got to have something behind it. And it didn't feel like they did. So on one hand, yeah, we're we believe in Genostone. On the other hand, yes, I got to take a pay cut, right, So.
00:41:11
Speaker 3: There's right, so you don't believe in it, right, So there's there.
00:41:14
Speaker 2: Was like even with that on that one isolated guy, that one isolated incident, there was a striking lack of consistency with that. To me, you know, you're you're right, it was just it was a I don't think it was a smug defense. I think it was a defense of, hey, here's what we've done before. It's worked before, why want it work again? And when you do that, you're telling people we're not going to do anything differently.
00:41:40
Speaker 6: Now.
00:41:41
Speaker 14: And you know, even even last year, it's like it's just it's not that complicated. All you got to do last year is add what one or two more guys and we're probably talking about a three or four win difference, right, Like what did we sign Orrin Burke's for two million dollars? You couldn't find a better linebacker to come in and play, you know, like the TJ's Layton, you couldn't find a better defensive tackle to coming out. Thought he played good down the stretch. But it's just yeah, it's a striking lack of consistency across the board, right individualized the one player, you know, extrapolated to a scouting and drafting philosophy, it's just bad.
00:42:19
Speaker 6: I appreciate you, appreciate everything you do.
00:42:21
Speaker 9: I'll talk to you soon.
00:42:23
Speaker 3: All right.
00:42:23
Speaker 2: That's kind of you to say, thank you so much, Gunner, have a great weekend. I mean, it was a defense and a defense of things they've done in the past, and in some cases a reminder of past successes which are limited and when those are the themes of your press conference and folks want some sort of sign that things are going to be done different, They're going to be underwhelm when you don't give it to them. More from our guy Robert Wintrop. Coming up at four to twenty Next, what's up with the Reds TV deal on ESPN fifteen thirty cents at Sports Station.
00:43:01
Speaker 5: Well the holidays of fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:43:07
Speaker 16: No.
00:43:07
Speaker 7: Five.
00:43:08
Speaker 2: That before this is ESBs sixty thirty. Lots more on the Duke Toobin Mega press conference in just about fifteen minutes. But I wanted to spend a few time on this because I think folks have questions. So the Reds have opted out of their TV deal with the FanDuel Sports Network and so I guess they're in limbo, and in limbo in terms of we don't know what the TV coverage is going to look like this year, but also that TV money they need, that TV money, are they going to get it?
00:43:38
Speaker 3: How much will they get? Where's it going to come from?
00:43:40
Speaker 2: When this sort of thing comes up and it has often in recent years we reach out to our guy Maury Brown on X at Bisball. Mory's senior contributors to Forbes always kind enough to join us when we have questions about TV contracts in the Red.
00:43:55
Speaker 3: So I feel like we do this every year, Mory, It's good to have you. How are you?
00:43:59
Speaker 9: I'm great?
00:43:59
Speaker 3: How about so? I'm well, I feel like we did this a year ago.
00:44:03
Speaker 2: The Reds opt out and then they go back to FanDuel Sports Network, the season plays out and they make the playoffs.
00:44:10
Speaker 3: But this feels different from where we were a year ago?
00:44:13
Speaker 7: Is it?
00:44:15
Speaker 1: It is in the sense that by opting out, I think that there's obviously the realization that they're not going to get the revenues that they expected that they were contractually.
00:44:25
Speaker 9: Obligated to by.
00:44:27
Speaker 1: You know, once again, we've we've gone through several iterations of this. Now it's you know, now branded fan duel.
00:44:33
Speaker 7: But.
00:44:35
Speaker 1: The bottom line of it is by these clubs, and the Reds are one of them, right out of nine opting out. It doesn't preclude them from coming back to fan Duel, but it does set it up to where they would go when you know, we're theoretically under with less revenues, and that's obviously a concern. The upside to this, if they do go back, right would be that that money is then lock in, and that's a key factor with the RSN model and why the clubs like it no matter how they're performing, no matter how things are going, that money gets locked in. Now, if they don't come back, then that can change, and that could have a couple of different looks. What would those looks be, Well, I think the one that you're most likely to see at this stage now would be for Major League Baseball to take over the rights. And this has happened. It's not like it's anything new. They've picked up other clubs and done this. They would go ahead and produce it. They would go ahead and reach out to the likes of and Exminity and work new carriage deals distributors, and then also the streaming deal that ostensibly in theory, well not in theory, it does remove blackouts right in some areas where they don't have it, fans will be able to reach it that way. But the difference here is is that in twenty twenty four, the league said, oh, you guys were supposed to get this much under your TV deal, You're not going to be able to get that anymore. We're going to backstop that money with revenue sharing money and we'll go ahead and make sure that you keep those revenues. That model has now changed. So whatever the clubs pull in, and that would include the Reds, right, whatever they pull in, you know through the TV deals they get reached and whatever streaming is, that's what they're going to get. They would not expect to get the money that they have seen or were expecting under this deal that's currently FanDuel Networks.
00:46:43
Speaker 3: How much of a financial haircut would they be taking.
00:46:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the question that nobody can really answer because I think that what happens here is it depends on your club. And you know, okay, so if I'm in Cincinnati, right, it's not like it's a huge market. Okay, But you did mention that the outset, right, they made the playoffs. You know, you're on a bit of an upswing here. You can feel pretty good about it, but you know, I don't know how less it would be. That would be something that really couldn't be answered until the end of the season, right, But you would expect it to be less and that you know is going to be a concern. And I think the biggest concern for all the clubs, and look this is this, this reaches now to almost the majority of all the regional sports networks, is there's just unpredictability. And what happens when we get into unpredictability, you tend to go ahead and you go, well, we're not going to take as much risk. We're going to have to hold back and see how this thing goes. You know, remember, we're in the last season before we potentially go into a lockout. The owners and players don't know what's going to come out of the end of that. The expectation is a offseason lockout at best. At worst it starts to eat into the beginning of the season. So there's just an awful lot of unpredictability. And when you get into that, clubs tend to go either risk neutral or they go risk averse and they just like, whoa, We're not going to do any long term contracts or anything like that. It just sets this whole thing up. And I think that that has played in largely to why we've had such a cold offseason. It's just not been what you might normally expect.
00:48:32
Speaker 3: Nationally.
00:48:33
Speaker 2: Major League Baseball has new TV contracts and they've redone their deal with ESPN, and one thing they've done is they've Baseball has sold off MLB Dot TV to ESPN. They have the rights ESPN does to a handful of teams local in market games. Eventually down the road is that are they going to own the local rights to all thirty big League clubs?
00:48:56
Speaker 3: And what's that going to look like?
00:48:57
Speaker 1: If the answer is yes, yeah, I don't think it's gonna be all thirty. I think you're gonna have a hard time convincing the Dodgers, the Yankees, your big brand, big you know, big market teams. I think you're gonna have a hard time with that. Can Manfred wrestle the majority? You know, maybe with a few exceptions, I do, And I think that that's where they're gonna go. And that's the other wild card in the midst of this. It sounds like, for whatever reason, and it may again come up to the fact that we are coming to the end of a you know, of a season and going into a labor a potential labor stoppage, that ESPN is not going to pick that up.
00:49:40
Speaker 9: Until twenty twenty seven.
00:49:42
Speaker 1: So again on all of this is to bridge to get Fox and TBS and all the national rights along with whatever package of local rights you can get all lined up together.
00:49:56
Speaker 9: At the end of the three years.
00:49:58
Speaker 1: That we have here that they you know, happened with the ESPN backing out of it, they filled that gap with ESPN, NBC and some streaming deals. Right, that stuff is kind of the bridge for three years. When that all lines up, then you're going to start to look at something entirely different. So there's just again we're in this kind of tweeener state where streaming is starting to take more of a position of power. More people continue to leave traditional televisions, mostly boomers right that are still watching traditional TV, and it just lends us uncertainty to the entire media landscape, and it's all playing out.
00:50:35
Speaker 9: Of course for baseball it's worse.
00:50:36
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, it doesn't affect Cincinnati, but you know, for the NBA and NHL right there in mid season at least Baseball has a little bit of time here. Although they see this as something that's critical to have happen now, they want to get this out of the way so that fans know where they're going to wind up on the dial come the start of the season.
00:51:00
Speaker 2: Oh, there's where I was going to go next. If there's a Reds fan listening to this, who's going You know what? Last year was pretty good because I could stream the games on the fan dual app, I didn't have to have traditional cable. So kind of wondering where I'm going to watch the games in twenty twenty six, what's the answer?
00:51:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that you know, again, if it goes some Major League Baseball, your streaming options are still going to be there, and you're going to go ahead and have it on your traditional most of your traditional TV carriers, and that, to Baseball's credit, they've been very good at it.
00:51:33
Speaker 9: They've been able to go ahead.
00:51:34
Speaker 1: And make those things happen pretty rapidly, and it's been pretty good. I would fully expect with the branding right, the FanDuel would be gone. I would expect if they hold the model that they've been, that your on air personality remain the same that you would get that now the question would be how pregame and postgame goes.
00:51:55
Speaker 9: That may look a little bit different.
00:51:57
Speaker 1: But for the most part, your game broadcast will feel what the graphics the exception the same, And they've even gone so far as to contract out the people that have been doing camera work and whatnot. A lot of the production people there. Again, you're in studio. Stuff will likely change. Those people would be impacted if this happens, But again, the actual game broadcast should feel largely the same.
00:52:25
Speaker 2: Can I just book you now for December first, when the lockout starts?
00:52:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't feel very good right now. I mean, this is the stuff. Look this, you know, and laughing about it all aside, This stuff with television has a huge impact. It's it's monies that the clubs have had guaranteed and it's been a cash cow for them for a long time. And so all of this uncertainty creates this you know thing about, hey, we need to go ahead and talk about a cap. The players, of course, are dead set against it, whether we're going to have a floor, whether we address stuff like you know, deferred compensation, which has been a huge loophole for the likes of the Dodgers to go.
00:53:08
Speaker 9: Out and continue to run ram shot.
00:53:11
Speaker 1: And I think there's going to be an awful lot at stake with this labor deal coming up and both sides are girded for it. It'll be a fun And I say that in quotes offseason.
00:53:23
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, well, I'm sure we'll check often.
00:53:26
Speaker 2: You're always kind of enough to join us when I have a dumb guy questions about the Reds TV deal.
00:53:30
Speaker 3: Mory, thanks so much.
00:53:32
Speaker 9: All right, man, you take care. Thank you for having me. Have a good weekend.
00:53:35
Speaker 3: Most definitely you. Two. That's Maury Brown.
00:53:37
Speaker 2: Follow him at bisbal Moury's senior contributor to Forbes. It's quarter after four. I'm oegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Robert Wintrob reacts to Duke Tobin's mega press conference. Next on ESPN fifteen.
00:53:50
Speaker 5: Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
00:53:54
Speaker 11: Traffic from the uc Health Traffic Center.
00:53:57
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00:54:26
Speaker 5: This report is sponsored Bye.
00:54:30
Speaker 3: Twenty after four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
00:54:33
Speaker 2: Our friend Robert wine Traub during the football season usually joins us on Thursdays and four to twenty.
00:54:40
Speaker 3: Today is non Thursday, but it is four twenty.
00:54:42
Speaker 2: We've moved him back today because I wanted his thoughts on the Duke Tobin mega press conference, which lasted an hour.
00:54:50
Speaker 3: Robert is with us. Now, did you enjoy the press conference?
00:54:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's funny.
00:54:55
Speaker 17: You know, we wait and wait and wait for Dutoduke Tobin excuse me to speak, and then he goes out a little long, and everybody's like, yeah, get this guy out of here.
00:55:03
Speaker 7: Where's the hook?
00:55:04
Speaker 15: A little?
00:55:09
Speaker 2: I wanted it to keep going. I wanted it to just go on on. I would have been more than okay had it leaked into our show. Did you have any overarching takeaway from from Duke's chat with the media.
00:55:20
Speaker 17: Well, funnily, I guess my main takeaway is if he's going to be asked, you know, what changes need to be made in Cincinnati for twenty twenty six and he answers, we need to win more games. I'm fine with him not coming to any of these press conferences and not more often, which we all sort of want. But I mean, you know, it was mainly a filibuster. He wanted you to know very clearly that the Joe Flacco move was his idea and it should have ended up in a parade thrown for him, and you can't understand why.
00:55:49
Speaker 3: And you know, it was a great move.
00:55:51
Speaker 17: I've given him credit for all season, and in a different circumstance and different context it would have been viewed as such. But of course, you know, the overarching issue was the fact that they just ran back a defense that was horrible last year and it got worse. And you know, as they do so upen in Cincinnati, they expect things to change without any particular reason for it, and you know, kind of just look to the pass and say, we did it once upon a time, we've done it occasionally, and you know that means we can do it again.
00:56:23
Speaker 7: And you know, to a point that's true.
00:56:25
Speaker 17: But that's just not the way to operate, obviously, for a team that's supposedly going after championships. But as I wrote in the column that right yesterday Cincinnati Magazine, the Bengals aren't that way.
00:56:36
Speaker 7: This is not who they are.
00:56:37
Speaker 17: We all know that their settings are not set to championship level. It's set to be competitive, you know, it's not set to all in. It's set to put a decent team on the field and remain financially flexible. So, you know, the idea that we were expecting, or people were expecting, some sort of you know, grand scheme to be.
00:56:56
Speaker 7: Laid out by Duke and how.
00:56:58
Speaker 17: There's going to be a massive change he's going forward, I think was just unrealistic.
00:57:02
Speaker 7: It's nice to see him at least acknowledge that there's a lot of frustration.
00:57:06
Speaker 17: But otherwise, you know, I don't take away too much from it other than you know, they at least hear from the outside that there's a lot of noise surrounding Duke's job performance over the last couple of years, and they at least had to trot him out to you know, get the villagers.
00:57:20
Speaker 7: To extinguish their torches for five minutes. But overall, not much is going to change.
00:57:25
Speaker 2: I listened to him talk about how there's no comfort lack of comfort. He doesn't have comfort. There's no comfort even when you win the Super Bowl. And what I heard today beyond that and what I see sort of flies in the face of that.
00:57:36
Speaker 3: Would you agree, yeah, completely?
00:57:39
Speaker 6: You know, I think I could want to come back to what the George you.
00:57:44
Speaker 9: Gas and one of.
00:57:45
Speaker 17: The most respected personnel guys really ever in NFL history said once when you know the Mara family wanted to put one of the sons in charge of player of personality, he said, you can't have player personnel directors who are unaccountable, who can't be fired.
00:57:59
Speaker 7: You can't lose their.
00:58:00
Speaker 17: Job for bad decisions. And that's what the Bengals have. I mean, Duke Tobin is not actually a Brown family member, but for all intents.
00:58:07
Speaker 7: And purposes, he is.
00:58:09
Speaker 17: He's a lot like what we have with the New York Yankees, who I'm a big fan of. And you have GM there Brian Cashman, who is essentially a family member of the ownership, who's been there since before the century he actually started. And you know, fans wonder why things don't ever change, just because there's no real danger of him losing his job, and there's no real danger of Duke Tobin losing his job. Maybe he's uncomfortable in the fact that he's not doing his job to the performance level that he wants to have, and I give him credit for that. And it's not like he's not capable of building a decent team.
00:58:40
Speaker 7: Of course, we've seen he is.
00:58:42
Speaker 17: But you know, if you don't have a situation where you're so uncomfortable that you're going to lose your job and your livelihood and have to go find something else to do with your life, there's really you know, there's not much else to say. You can pay lip service for as much as you want at these breast conferences, But the truth of the matter is he can do pretty much what he wants with immunity until proven otherwise. So it's hard to start to really take that too seriously when he says things like that.
00:59:10
Speaker 2: I think a lot of folks have wanted some degree of clarity as to who has final say over the roster. Now, Duke kind of talked about collaboration. He did say it is Mike Brown's team. Did you walk away from it as frustrated with the lack of clarity about such a thing as everybody else did?
00:59:31
Speaker 7: Well, I guess. I guess. I don't think it is a lack of clarity. I think he said it flat out.
00:59:35
Speaker 17: I mean, I think, you know, we as much as we assume that Mike Brown has sort of receded behind the scenes and doesn't really give his input, I think he clearly does give his input in quite a bit, and probably in way more I don't want to say demonstrative fashion, but he has a lot more of the fingerprints on the team and the roster than we all kind of give them credit for. You know, the only real difference functionally between what Jerry Jones operates in Dallas and what Mike Brown operates in Cincinnati is that Jerry Jones is chesty about the fact that that's his team and that's his roster and that's everything. And in Cincinnati you get a lot of squid ink being thrown up all the time because nobody really wants to be responsible for things like that, and nobody wants to come out and say that it's a ninety year old GM still kind of you know, with the final say or the right of first refusal or you know, I'm not saying he gives, you know, scouting reports on three hundred players and says, here's the guy we're going to draft every single round anything like that. But you know, the sort of overall just stalt of the team still flows from his opinions on football, and you know, Duke Tobin's role is to sort of present with options, give his strong opinion at times. I'm sure he talks Mike Brown at the things, but you know, at the end of the day, it's still the owner of the team making the final decision. Yeah, I don't think anybody really is surprised by that. It's always been the case, and you know, despite his advanced stage, it's always going to be the case until the day where he's no longer with us.
01:01:06
Speaker 2: Robert wy Travis with this Cincinnati magazine dot com. I what Duke Tobin has in front of him this offseason, it's easy to identify the problems the Bengals have coming up with solutions and navigating all the stuff they're going to have to get right is anything.
01:01:23
Speaker 3: But but I do think they have a layup.
01:01:25
Speaker 2: You got a guy who plays guard in Dalton Reisner, who did not make a lot of money last year. They got him late in the process. Dalton has said publicly like I don't want to go through that again. Go ahead and re sign me. Duke Tobin, are you listening? I want to play. He plays a position the Bengals have had a hard time filling. He played it well, especially in the second half of the season. The offensive line could actually be considered good. This to me, Robert is a layup. You got to make your layup. So Duke Tobin, before you do the hard stuff, do the easy stuff. You're standing under the rim, nobody's near. You lay it in and sign Dalton Reisner.
01:01:58
Speaker 3: Do you agree?
01:02:00
Speaker 7: I do agree. I would say a different metaphor.
01:02:03
Speaker 17: It's almost like they need to be a gimme putt where the agents for double risers to.
01:02:07
Speaker 15: Say, oh, just take it.
01:02:08
Speaker 7: You know, we don't even want to come to take it up. Man, you move on to the next sole.
01:02:15
Speaker 9: Yeah.
01:02:15
Speaker 17: Obviously it's a clear case of team need player playing well and proof of concept and it should be very easy.
01:02:22
Speaker 7: That doesn't mean they're going to sign him next week. I mean, that's just not really how things happened in the NFL.
01:02:27
Speaker 17: They signings of that nature of your own guys tend to drift into at least the combine and closer to March, just because that's just the.
01:02:35
Speaker 7: Way things are done in the NFL.
01:02:37
Speaker 17: But you know, you made the point that they signed very late in the process last year, and they could have had him way earlier, and he would have been up to speed earlier and wouldn't have had to, you know, kind of spend several weeks, you know, playing himself into shape and really gelling with the line.
01:02:51
Speaker 7: Now you have a situation where you could easily take care of that problem. You get rid of something.
01:02:56
Speaker 17: As you said, there's going to be a lot of difficult decisions to be made on the defensive side of the ball by the who and how many players to approach and free agency in the draft.
01:03:04
Speaker 7: And this is a guy who you know, it's obvious. The answer is right in front of you. Now these are the Bengals. Never assume they do the obvious thing.
01:03:13
Speaker 17: They could easily look it around and say, well, we drafted a guy Jalen Rivers, who you know we like, and and maybe if we could save some money and Dalton Riser and put it to the defensive side of the ball and get away with having a you know, an untested or a guy in the right guard that we don't love and hasn't proven himself, but you would hope that wouldn't be the case. And it's just something that the Bengals for all the talk this year about how you know the reason in the rationale behind you know, keeping.
01:03:43
Speaker 7: Zach Taylor and and Do.
01:03:45
Speaker 17: Tobin, you know, doing things the way they always have been done and nothing's going to change. Well okay, well then if it's not that complicated and you have everything set right in front of you, then just take care of an easy one without any you know, drama, without the usual nonsense that goes through the training camp period. And you know that we see every single year all the noise and get people talking on the national shows about the Bengals being the same old Bengals. They can eliminate that in this particular case.
01:04:11
Speaker 7: With one easy move. You would hope they would do it. But you never know what this club.
01:04:15
Speaker 17: So I'm not gonna say it an automatic gimme putch.
01:04:18
Speaker 7: You don't have to make that lay themselves.
01:04:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, well if much like me, if they could blow a gimme putt, they will, So I guess I can relate to Duke Tobin in that regard.
01:04:28
Speaker 3: Always awesome stuff. Man, Well chat soon. Thank you as always anytime, Thanks so much.
01:04:33
Speaker 7: Happy to hear everyone right back at you.
01:04:35
Speaker 2: That's our guy, Robert Wintrob. You could read his Bengals column. The latest one is up at Cincinnati Magazine dot com. Indiana University is sixty minutes away from playing for a college football playoff national championship. Now that maybe makes it sound easy. We're going to talk about the Hoosiers with somebody who knows more about IU football than anybody on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
01:04:58
Speaker 5: Station Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty.
01:05:02
Speaker 8: Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Health's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise called five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Debris has now been cleared off from the left lane on westbound two seventy five after Winton Road on eastbound Westwood Northern Boulevard, though an accident between McFarlane Woods Drive and Montana Avenue. Cruise are directing traffic around that spot in slow traffic northbound seventy five. Mitchell de Paddock, I'm at Eazelic with traffic.
01:05:35
Speaker 2: It is twenty six from five. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Molagger. We'll play in the five o'clock hours. Some of Duke Tobin's greatest hits from today's Mega press conference and more of your reaction. Tonight, it's the second college football Playoffs semi final game.
01:05:50
Speaker 3: It's the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
01:05:52
Speaker 2: The Indiana Hoosiers are taking on Oregon, a battle of Big ten teams. I U is sixty minutes away from playing for a new national championship in football. I don't think that's a sentence I ever thought that I would say. I'm not sure it's a sentence that Olivia Ray ever thought she would say. And she loves Indiana University more than maybe anybody. You saw Olivia for years doing sports on Channel five here in town. Now she is covering Indiana and they're a run to the national championship for ABC fifty seven in South Bend.
01:06:23
Speaker 3: And I needed somebody to talk who's yours football with?
01:06:26
Speaker 2: Nobody is more qualified, nobody knows more about the program than Olivia. So before she goes on TV, kind enough to give me a few minutes, Olivia, it's awesome to have you.
01:06:34
Speaker 18: How are you great to hear your voice again? Mo, I am so excited to talk Indiana football. You know, I've made it my entire personality for the past ten years, so I'm glad that no one can call me a bandwagon fan at this point.
01:06:48
Speaker 3: I am all in. Yeah.
01:06:50
Speaker 2: I mean you legitimately more than anybody I know, and I have you know, I have followed you for years. You're kind of like the person who followed the band before it hit big, and that's that's what you are as it relates to the Hoosiers.
01:07:03
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's actually how I stopped grew up.
01:07:05
Speaker 18: My start in sportscasting is I was a video manager on Kevin Wilson's IU football team when they went back to back bowl games Pinstripe Bowl Foster Farms Bowl, and they were too cheap to pay someone to travel to talk in front of the camera, so they put a student on there. And that is how I became a sportscaster. So it has gone way back, and my husband played and coached for them, and we even actually got married at Memorial Stadium two summers ago, right before this thing really got rolling. So if you want to give anyone, any credit you can give coach sig Sum and then I'll take the rest of it if you don't mind.
01:07:39
Speaker 2: Wow, very good. Okay, yeah, now we know where the credit should go. What was it like we'll talk about tonight. But you were there in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, and you know as a Cincinnati fan, right as a UC fan. I remember when they made the Orange Bowl and walking out there and I saw Cincinnati in the end zone and it's like, man, I never thought i'd see this.
01:07:59
Speaker 17: Uh.
01:07:59
Speaker 3: What was it like like.
01:08:00
Speaker 2: Covering and being around that program in that setting, with those stakes and then seeing them dominate the ultimate of blue bloods in Alabama.
01:08:10
Speaker 9: It was unreal.
01:08:11
Speaker 18: I actually went out there with my dad and my son. He's seven months old. My dad has been on a plane once before, and I convinced him to climb back on to go out to Pasadena because he said, if he ever got the chance to see you play in the Rose Bowl before he dies, he was gonna take it. And he did not lie to me.
01:08:29
Speaker 11: It was unreal.
01:08:30
Speaker 18: We were in the north end zone and I mean just to watch them wallop Alabama and then get to be down there on the field to watch this team act like they belonged, which was really cool, and their celebrations of the Rose Bowl like they were not surprised about what they did to Alabama in any way, shit or form.
01:08:50
Speaker 6: Uh.
01:08:50
Speaker 2: Kurtzinetti, we see the press conferences, Google me. He's an interesting guy as to the extent that you've gotten a chance to get to know him and how he he runs the program.
01:09:01
Speaker 3: Give me what we don't see?
01:09:02
Speaker 2: Why is this work to the degree it has since he took over in Bloomington.
01:09:07
Speaker 18: This is probably one of my favorite stories from the Rose Bowl. So we were at an IU football alumni event the night before the game out there in Pasadena. About three hundred former players, coaches, all of the above showed up to this bar to hang out, and a couple of the current coaches who were in the former regime when my husband coached back Kevin Wilson first year of Tom Allen, they're still on the staff and they were talking about the differences in like how the team approached the bowl game, and that would be that they were monitoring the hallways that the players were not allowed to leave their rooms essentially in downtown LA where they were staying and which was not the case when we were in New York for New Year's Eve. Everyone was out walking around Times Square and everything, and he said Coach Signati basically said, and he didn't put the tape on the door, you know, to make sure it wasn't broken, like kids do at summer camps. But he said, if he finds out you're out of your room past nine pm, it's not going to be in your best interest. So they were policing that place, and the guys take it seriously. They said, sig respects their time. So if they're not supposed to be at the stadium, they're still getting treatment in this or that because he doesn't overbook them with practices and therapy and all of that. So it's a well oiled machine and it's got off the ground in two years, which is crazy.
01:10:30
Speaker 2: The favorite tonight against Oregon played them before in Atlanta. Tonight sixty minutes away from playing for a national championship.
01:10:39
Speaker 3: If they win tonight, what have they done to beat the Ducks.
01:10:44
Speaker 18: They have gotten pressure again on Dante Moore. The difference though from the first time they saw them week seven, is that Dante Moor is getting the ball out almost a half second faster than in Week seven when they barely got by him. They did sack him six times at all kinds of pressure on him. Put him in a pressure cooker, if you will. But this defensive line is a lot different. I use lost Kellen Wyatt, they've lost Stephen Daily, so they're gonna have a lot of different personnel up there on the front seven, a lot of different mixtures that they're going to have to try and find a way to get pressure on him and confuse him like they did. The difference. Though Dante Moor's had a lot more football under his belt, he was still a newbie back then in Week seven.
01:11:28
Speaker 2: It's an amazing story, you know, I said when they beat earlier in the season, went to Oregon in one, I said, like Indy of a football being good is just fun.
01:11:41
Speaker 3: Right.
01:11:42
Speaker 2: They were good last year, played in the playoff. It felt like one off. I'm sort of living vicariously through IU fans because I think it's so cool when a newby crashes the party, and so I hope the guy you guys are playing a week from Monday, enjoy it as a fan. I know you're doing your job professionally, but it's got to be one of the coolest things you've ever had a chance to cover. I can't thank you enough for doing this, and maybe we'll bother you on on the night of the title game.
01:12:06
Speaker 3: Thanks so much. I love it.
01:12:08
Speaker 18: Thanks MO, talk to you soon.
01:12:10
Speaker 2: Most definitely, most definitely, thank you so much. That's Olivia Ray. Olivia was on Channel five for a while and did awesome work, and now in South Bend, which I'm sure is an IU grad is interesting. But doing coverage of the Hoosiers, and that's got to be cool as hell to cover, not just cover your alma mater.
01:12:27
Speaker 3: But like she is a hardcore.
01:12:28
Speaker 2: IU football fan, and I know a lot of big Indiana basketball fans. I know a ton of hardcore IU football fans. Olivia is one of them and now not the only one. That game tonight should be a lot of fun Indiana and Oregon. Meanwhile, we've needed a Miami guy. Miami is undefeated. Travis Steels team takes on Toledo tonight, our friend, speaking of former Cincinnati Sports TV anchors Jed de Muci, the Pride of Oxford. We'll talk about the undefeated RedHawks next on ESPN fifteen thirty.
01:13:02
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
01:13:07
Speaker 8: From the uc Help Traffic Center. Uc Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise. Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three, nine two two sixty three. There is an update with some good news for you. Eastbound Westwood Northern Boulevard is now reopened from an earlier accident between McFarlane Woods Drive and Montana Avenue. Northbound seventy one. Traffic is slow between Ridge and Ronald Reagan Highway at three minute delay. I'm at ezelic with traffic.
01:13:37
Speaker 2: This man dem had a one hour long press conference which will play the hits of coming up after the top of the hour. Tonight, UH an early evening tip off in Toledo. It's Savage Arena. The undefeated Miami RedHawks Travis Steels team is sixteen and oher, obviously unbeaten in MAC play. They battle the Toledo Rockets, who were also unbeaten in MAC play. That game is a six o'clock. Miami was good enough for thirtieth in the latest AP Top twenty five Men's College Basketball poll, And so you know we've got Chad Brendle who joins us to talk about the Bearcats. And we've got Rick brooring double duty with Xavier and NKU basketball, and our very own Drew by Drew Wester.
01:14:19
Speaker 3: Heidi is our ud guy.
01:14:21
Speaker 2: I think we just made Olivia Ray or Indiana University person. We needed a Miami guy or a Miami person. Jed Demuci stepped up, formerly of Local twelve, and said, I'll be that guy. He loves the RedHawks, He's excited about Miami. I hear he's starting to look at stub Hub for like Sweet sixteen tickets, and so he's with us to talk about Travis Steel's undefeated team.
01:14:40
Speaker 3: Hi, Jed, how's it going?
01:14:44
Speaker 15: Fees are just astronomical on Ticketmaster for these for these sites with how are you mo? I'm happy to I will carry the flag for the RedHawks.
01:14:54
Speaker 9: Absolutely.
01:14:55
Speaker 2: Miami was good last year and lost a heartbreaker in the MAC Tournament title game. Right, That's a game that they frankly should have won. So I guess it shouldn't be a huge surprise that they're good this year. But they're sixteen to Oh how surprising is that?
01:15:12
Speaker 9: Well?
01:15:13
Speaker 15: I think because they were successful last year and because they really had Akron on the ropes in that MAC Championship game. I think a lot of teams at a higher level took notice and kind of didn't want to put them on the roster because, you know, the way the quad systems work, the juice didn't really worth the squeeze to schedule Miami. You know, Acron. I think this year played per Due, which obviously produce a top opponent, but a lot of teams that are high mid major teams I think had a problem scheduling teams at a higher level. And Travis Steel has mentioned that, he said it takes two to tango, and Miami ended up with the schedule that you know, Ken Palm says isn't very good. There aren't a lot of really good MAC schedules because I don't think teams think that it's worth bringing in Akron and potentially losing. I mean, Kansas State brought in Bowling Green and lost this year, So I don't think they're going to be scheduling Bowling Green anytime soon. So you know, I think a lot of people will say, oh, you know, Wright State's broadcast when they were down ten points to Miami said Miami hasn't played anybody, which a little nonsensical when you're losing to the team, but you know, Wright State has some nonsensical things in their past. But I just think when you look at when you look at what they've accomplished, they don't have to apologize. I'm sure that Travis understands that it's a much better way to go about getting tested before MAC play, getting tested so you can go in and win the MAC tournament as opposed to being undefeated. But hey, sitting at sixteen to zero, they figured it out and they've won in different ways, and you know, I don't think they should have to apologize for being where they are.
01:17:00
Speaker 2: If teams aren't gonna play you, there's nothing you could do. And that's the thing about that, though, is it's not gonna change. I with with more success this year, and you know, we'll see how the rest of the season unfolds. It's it's still early January. It ain't like that's gonna change anytime soon.
01:17:16
Speaker 15: Yeah, And Miami's used to having to apologize. You know, Sorry, we have a really beautiful campus. Sorry, we're one of six schools that has a Super Bowl winning quarterback in the US President. Sorry, Chuck Martin's really good at his job. I mean, this is just the latest in a long line of things that people expect Miami to apologize for. And again they face adversity losing Evan Ifsorrow as you know, they're the facto leader on the court to an ACL injury. They just ripped off the red shirt of Justin Kirby, so they're going through the process of figuring out who's going to be there when the bell rings and the MAC Tournament. There hasn't been an at large team to go to the NCAA Tournament from the Maxins. Miami did it in nineteen ninety nine, and that's only this that's the second to last appearance Miami has had in the NCAA Tournament. They went my senior year as well, thanks to Doug Penno hitting a big three to send them to the tournament. But Miami's been to the tournament twice since nineteen ninety nine. So this is a big deal in Oxford.
01:18:21
Speaker 2: So I think in college basketball at particular at the level where you know they're mainly one bid leagues, we don't celebrate winning a regular season conference championship enough because I don't want to say anybody can win three games in three days or four games in three days. But I think the real test of a team's quality and depth and mental toughness is getting through the ten week gauntlet, playing on the road, surviving the dog days. And so let's talk about this season in those terms. First, if there is something that Miami fans should be worried about as they navigate the max schedule, what is it?
01:18:57
Speaker 15: Oh, I mean everybody. I mean they're getting everybody's best up Toledo tonight. Is I mean Toledo's favored tonight. I think by a point and a half. They're the model of consistency. I think Todd Kowalchik, their head coach, has had seven to twenty win seasons at Toledo, so going to their place, miam hasn't won at Toledo, I think since twenty eleven. So today it's a tough test. You got Kent State always tough. Buffalo is having a good year. You know, they only get one shot at Akron, So I think, you know, there are definitely teams where you would say you could take a night off. But if they're going to continue to be undefeated, it's it's they're going to get everybody's everybody's best shot. So I mean, the goal isn't to finish the season undefeated. The goal is to is really I understand your point, but the goal is to get back to the tournament and hopefully that's that. I know that's what Travis is thinking as well.
01:19:55
Speaker 2: Is the Miami University community starting to take notice and get excited because that has been an issue at times when it comes to men's basketball and football.
01:20:06
Speaker 15: Absolutely, And you know, I was at the game. I was home in in in Cincinnati for the holidays when we went to the Milligan game, which was probably the best game you could take your five and four year old son too, because it was just.
01:20:21
Speaker 6: So many points.
01:20:23
Speaker 15: But the community, I think, I think the acting game was was really a step in the right direction because you know, kids aren't back on campus yet and just from watching it on TV, it sounded like there it was a great environment. Travis said as much after the game that he was happy that they were packed in and but I mean he has seen this come a long way in the time that that coach Steel has been in Oxford. You know, I think that there's a lot of I think he had a big sort of oh my gosh, what did I just do moment when he when he first started and now the crowd is coming back to the level of energy for Oxford can be difficult at times, that's for sure. I remember writing commns about that that the Miami Student when you know, the Doug Penno team was making a run, like more people need to show up. So that's constantly on the front burner. I'm hoping to get Rick Rooring excited. I mean, a couple of days ago you asked him, you said, you said, hey, can I ask you a question about another team in the area? And his response, his response was who put you up to this? That's the response you give when you get startled by an intervention, not when you're asked to talk about sort of an undefeated basketball team. So hopefully the you know, the local media can can get a little fought up about what's going on too.
01:21:52
Speaker 3: That's that's that's why we're having you on.
01:21:53
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this because I think of, like, you know, growing up as a kid and Herb Syndeck and Charlie Coles had the Red the red Skins the Red Hawks in the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis. I remember watching them beat Arizona in a high school classroom in nineteen ninety five in the NCAA tournament. It felt like Devin Davis. Then obviously you know Wally's Rbiak, who I watched play when I was in college. Like, like Miami basketball mattered this century, it hasn't. They've had different coaches. The Jack Owens thing didn't work out, John Cooper didn't work out, Travis Steele.
01:22:30
Speaker 3: It is.
01:22:31
Speaker 2: Why is it taking so long for that program to get pulled out of the morass that it was in.
01:22:38
Speaker 9: That's a great question.
01:22:39
Speaker 15: I mean, I think it takes' that's a newly doted question. I think it took having a guy, and obviously Jack Owens ed ties as well. I thought really that he was going to be the guy to kind of get us get Miami over the hump, and it didn't happen. I think, if you know, I think Sailor deserves a lot of credit. I think Travis deserves a lot of credit for walking directly out of you know about probably a very frustrating, a very emotional exit from Xavier and taking something like this on. I don't I don't know that answer. But what I can tell you is it takes a guy like Travis Steele who kind of knows. Maybe it's maybe it's being.
01:23:23
Speaker 9: A head coach before.
01:23:24
Speaker 15: Maybe it's being you know, being in going in the Big East and having those seasons and having that experience to know that the things that you're facing you can face when you come to the MAC and when you have to recruit and when you know that you're not going to be, you know, the only guy in some kids living room trying to convince him to come to your school. Maybe having that pressure of being you know, that high level of the coach and having the humility to come do it at a smaller level, maybe that's the secret formula.
01:23:54
Speaker 2: All Right, you're are Miami guy now, so you know we'll be checking in.
01:24:00
Speaker 15: I appreciate that, sir. Happy New year, right.
01:24:03
Speaker 3: Back, catch it, thanks so much. Enjoyed the game to night. Yep, that's our guy, Jeddiman.
01:24:09
Speaker 2: Last time we had Jed on, he was at the was at the PGA where Scotti Scheffler got arrested in Louisville and he was there.
01:24:16
Speaker 3: He was there for that, so we had him on.
01:24:17
Speaker 2: So he's sort of our when the best golfer in the world gets arrested, he joins US. And when Miami is good and Travis Steele's team is really good, and yeah, the the criticisms of the schedule, I think there's there's a difference between criticism and an observation. You could observe their schedule and go ole boy. Non conference just the metrics will tell you as much it leaves, it leaves a little to be desired. I think that's the most gentle way I could put it. There's only so much about that that Travis Steele and his staff and the athletic department can control. But in MAC play, they've gotten off to a great start. Offensively, they are fun to watch. Last year's team was a lot of fun to watch. They should have won the MAC title game against Akron last year, and yeah, that's it's obviously about getting to the NCAA tournament, but Miami hasn't won a conference regular season championship in twenty one years, and so don't I don't think anybody should sneeze at that accomplishment. They are not there yet, and they have a tough game tonight, but it's uh, it's cool when Miami's good. And you know, I do remember in the nineteen nineties, as much as we certainly talked UC and Xavier in Kentucky, basketball in Indiana was still, you know, relevant with Bob Knight as a kid, Miami was you know, a bigger part of the landscape than it has been. And uh, hopefully Travis is getting it back to where it used to be. And hopefully they have their name called on selection Sunday, either as an automatic qualifier or perhaps against all odds, an at large team. We will see that is obviously not likely, but still it's cool to see the RedHawks having the season that they are. All right, we got an hour to go five point three seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. We did all guests in the four o'clock hour, and now we've got a ton of time to talk with you.
01:26:01
Speaker 3: We'll hear some Duke Tobin. Audio will play the hits.
01:26:04
Speaker 2: We'll talk about what he said and didn't say, and sort of the message that he sent. This afternoon on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
01:26:12
Speaker 5: This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
01:26:19
Speaker 2: It's five oh five ESPN fifteen thirty. Moeger, thank you for listening hopefully here weekend. This off to an amazing start.
01:26:27
Speaker 3: It does feel weird getting on on a Friday. We haven't been on a Friday since August, because you know, he carried bendos pep rally for eighteen straight weeks.
01:26:37
Speaker 2: My friend and colleague Taren Bland has very carefully selected the greatest hits from Duke Tobin's press conference from earlier today, and we'll have that for you coming up at five twenty. In the event that you either missed the press conference, which lasted an hour, or you'd like to relive some of it, we'll have that for you coming up at about fifteen minutes.
01:26:58
Speaker 3: A few other takeaways.
01:26:59
Speaker 2: We'll get to Duke Tobin, I think answered the most important question of the off season without really answering the most important question of the off season.
01:27:10
Speaker 3: And remember what Joe Burrows said when the season ended.
01:27:13
Speaker 2: We'll get to all of that, plus maybe take a look at some playoff games this weekend as well.
01:27:17
Speaker 3: But we have folks who have been waiting. I don't want to make people wait.
01:27:20
Speaker 2: That entire last hour was guest after guest after guest after get and good ones too, good ones too, so uh let's see here.
01:27:29
Speaker 3: Mike. Mike, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Mike, good afternoon. How are you.
01:27:34
Speaker 12: I'm good, How are you doing?
01:27:36
Speaker 3: Wonderful? Thanks for hanging on.
01:27:39
Speaker 9: You.
01:27:39
Speaker 12: Recently acquired his shirt? Did I get answer? Your wardrobe or is it above your fireplace?
01:27:44
Speaker 2: Uh? But believe it or believe it or not. I wore it last night.
01:27:51
Speaker 12: That well, good, good on it.
01:27:55
Speaker 2: It's say no Ben, Everything's good, Everything's fine, all good. It's it's currently in the hamper, but I did wear it last night. Mike Football show t shirts.
01:28:09
Speaker 12: I wanted to comment on Duke's press conference. I don't think what he said kind of mattered. But the fact that the Bengal has been available for an hour I think said a lot. That they're feeling the pressure from the fan base, local media, pressing a big Duke available. So I think he might have said they're going to change things what they're doing, But that alone, to me, is enough to say there they feel the pressure. I feel that they're not comfortable right now. Him and Zach are both feeling it, and hopefully good things.
01:28:39
Speaker 9: Come from that.
01:28:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, look what they did today is different.
01:28:43
Speaker 2: We can talk about how maybe they're not going to do anything different in the coming weeks and months as it relates to building the roster. But but today was different, and today today I thought was refreshing Today. What they did today doesn't have to be an hour every year. In fact, it won't be an hour every year if occasionally he makes himself available. I don't know what the average NFL GM's availability is during the season, but I gather from just being a fan of the league that gms are made more available or available more.
01:29:14
Speaker 3: Frequently than Duke Tobin is.
01:29:15
Speaker 2: And so I guess what I would want to say to Duke was like, hey, was was that that bad? And what I would say to the people who run the Bengals is was that that bad?
01:29:24
Speaker 7: Like?
01:29:24
Speaker 3: Why?
01:29:25
Speaker 2: Why can't that happen more often? Why can't there be a little bit more transparency?
01:29:29
Speaker 3: Now.
01:29:30
Speaker 2: I didn't expect Duke to sort of unveil his plan, his roadmap for the entire offseason. I didn't expect Duke to say anything that's necessarily going to inspire a ton of confidence.
01:29:41
Speaker 3: But the fact that he made.
01:29:42
Speaker 2: Himself available is different, and that may tell you that perhaps there is a little bit more discomfort in the walls of paikor stadium, then you might normally expect.
01:29:54
Speaker 3: And that's that, that in itself is not a terrible thing. I'll say that.
01:30:01
Speaker 12: Thank you very much, Mike, thank you.
01:30:03
Speaker 2: I appreciate the appreciate the phone called. Poll questions up on Twitter right now at moegar thanks to United Heartland Insurance. I don't know what you're paying for insurance, but I bet the folks that United Heartland Insurance can help you pay less. Check out u h i NS dot com. Duke Tobin's uh MEGA press conference made you feel. I just I realized I gotta do it again because I misspelled optimistic. All right, you are you are gonna you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna repost the poll question. Will we talked to another Mike? Mike, go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. My good afternoon. How are you, Mike?
01:30:49
Speaker 3: Good afternoon? How are you?
01:30:53
Speaker 2: Mike is apparently not feeling all that great, because we don't hear from him one more time.
01:30:56
Speaker 3: Mike, how are you?
01:30:58
Speaker 13: My bad?
01:30:59
Speaker 6: My bad?
01:31:00
Speaker 13: My bad?
01:31:01
Speaker 10: My dad?
01:31:01
Speaker 6: Sorry? Okay, how are you feeling?
01:31:03
Speaker 13: Brother?
01:31:04
Speaker 9: All right?
01:31:05
Speaker 3: I feel okay? Is everything all right?
01:31:08
Speaker 8: Well?
01:31:08
Speaker 7: It is?
01:31:09
Speaker 6: There's always something because my brain doesn't work like it used to anyway, neither is mine. Boy, that was some kind of that game last night. Couldn't ask for more? Couldn't ask for more?
01:31:22
Speaker 16: Now, let me ask you this, that final play, if that had been, if that had been somewhere between the fifteen and twenty yard line, they would have.
01:31:32
Speaker 2: Called it probably, And you said, you can't ask for anything more. And that's where I'll disagree with you, is you could ask for more because I hated a game that good, with that kind of stakes, that was played at the level that it was ended with some controversy. But I think that should have been past interference. I agree with you that I think there's a higher likelihood that that has pass interference. If that, if that, if that ball is thrown to a guy who's you know, between the twenty and thirty.
01:32:02
Speaker 6: Yard line, yep, because then it's not considered a hail mary. And it really it was kind of like I heard Dan Patrick sayd it was kind of an intermediate hail mary. Yeah, I thought it was funny. But anyway, the guy was grabbing and starting at the ten yard line, so it butn't like it was right at the very end. Who did you you give Pittsburgh a chance with against that vicious front, the best front for since Minnesota's Purple People Eaters that I can remember, or or the Steelers or the Bears, because they can always drop seven guys in coverage if they want.
01:32:41
Speaker 3: I give.
01:32:42
Speaker 2: I think the Texans are going to win. Houston's defense toward the end of the season the last few games didn't play great, but it's still a good unit. They were awesome on the road this year, gave up fifteen and a half points a game. I know the Steelers are going to get Metcalf back, and so I think I think Houston wins because I just don't know how Pittsburgh scores. That said, Houston's offensive line is not great. There is a level of offensive inconsistency that I think is troublesome if you're rooting against Pittsburgh and betting against Pittsburgh the way I am. But Stroud has played well in the opening round of the playoffs in his first two years in the league, and I just I don't know how Pittsburgh scores enough to win the football game against a Texans defense than when it has been at its best this season. Has been, for my money, the best in the league.
01:33:30
Speaker 6: You give the Chargers any glance of hope against New England, I think.
01:33:37
Speaker 2: New England wins, but because the Chargers offensive line issues, I think are going to catch up to him. But there is something about a young quarterback in his first playoff game that is not the most trustworthy. You know, folks are going to lean into the fact that the Patriots schedule was historically not great. I think New England wins, and I think the pay Patriots cover, but I could understand why one might one might pause because of a QB in his first playoff game when at times this year there haven't been there's been a lack of explosiveness with that offense. But I I think the Patriots are going to win, mainly because I don't know that the Chargers, with all the different offensive line combinations they've tried this year, are going to be able to block anybody in the playoffs. And the first team they play in the playoffs is the Patriots.
01:34:31
Speaker 6: I think it's amazing that hardball. Of course, Austin hates Jim Hartball, which is unfounded, but anyway, everybody else likes the guy. Yeah, Austin and I had a little chat about that. That was pretty fun.
01:34:44
Speaker 2: But for what he do, by the way, I don't agree with you. I don't think every I don't. I don't think everybody else likes the guy.
01:34:50
Speaker 3: I don't.
01:34:50
Speaker 2: I don't agree. And he's a wonderful coach. He's an awesome coach. You can't deny that. But I'm not sure he is as universally beloved as you might suggest.
01:35:00
Speaker 6: Well, who who's warm love and him? Or his brother?
01:35:03
Speaker 3: Oh, his brother?
01:35:06
Speaker 2: I think, I think, I think people like John Harball, John John Harball seems like I can't recall one even remotely. I guess the one controversial thing he was involved in was the Ray Rice deal in two thousand.
01:35:19
Speaker 3: And fourteen or fifteen.
01:35:20
Speaker 2: And I don't think John Harball looked or that organization looked very good then. But in an eighteen year career, and that's a big butt, but I don't I don't know in an eighteen year career that I can think of another time where John Harball has done something to make him feel make him seem unlikable. And Jim Harball, Jim Harball is not as unlikable as he is, just a little weird and by the way, weird.
01:35:46
Speaker 3: It's not awful. I'm weird.
01:35:47
Speaker 2: He's goofy, but I John Harball has always seemed to have a warmer personality.
01:35:52
Speaker 3: Put it that way.
01:35:52
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, he's more business like. There's no question. So what do you I'm losing it. I'm just give me a second.
01:36:01
Speaker 2: Mo uh oh, you think.
01:36:10
Speaker 6: Do you think Patino if he can go out and get him a big man somehow next year, that there their team because that's what they're lacking. They just don't have any size, right, that's the.
01:36:19
Speaker 2: Problem, which which Patino, Richard or Rick No, no, our guy?
01:36:28
Speaker 3: Uh well, I think he.
01:36:30
Speaker 2: I think he needs biggest caliber players across the board. You know, I just think he needs biggest caliber players across them. And I would be willing to bet that Richard would say the exact same thing, that those players do play hard, that there there's not a lot of biggiest caliber players on that team. Yeah, Sonard, guys, guards, I appreciate the phone call, Mike, have a have a great weekend. There's just not a lot of big, big East caliber players on the roster. And they they do play hard, and they had that stretch where they were really rounding in the form sort of culminating with the skyline Chili Crosstown shootout. Biggie's play for the most part has been sobering. I think effort has been there. There's just look at them on the defensive end. Defensively against De Paul they were a disaster, and then on the glass against Marquette they were even more of a disaster. And you know, Okay, those are deficiencies. Do they have enough offensive firepower to overcome it? And no they haven't. And you know that may sound harsh, but I don't know what other conclusion you could draw after watching this team, uh for slightly more than half the season sixteen minutes out of five o'clock bye. By the way, for what it's worth, that was past interference last night. There's some mutual contact as the two players are going down the field, but as the ball gets there, the grabs the receiver's jersey and like yanks him down. I you know the replay, if you pay even remote attention to sports, you've seen the replay a bunch of times. That is pass interference one of my biggest pet peeves in all the sports. And when I was a younger guy, I would say this, Oh you don't. You don't blow the whistle there, You don't throw a flag there, Yeah, you do. The job of an official isn't to use discretion based on time and score and stakes. The job of an official or an umpire is when there are infractions, to call them independent of time, score, venue.
01:38:40
Speaker 3: What's at stake the job of an official.
01:38:43
Speaker 2: So I don't think it was I'm not throwing that flag because it's the last play of the game, but I would throw it when there's ten minutes to go in the second quarter. I think it was just a blown call. Pass interference calls are missed all the time. That was a missed pass interference call. And so what you hate about it is, you know, look, certain ole miss is not guaranteed to win the game if the call is correct, not like a fieldgal would have done him any good. And so they would have had to run a play not from the one yard line because it's the college rule. But that was past interference. And what you hate about it is that was a great game. That was a great physical, tense game where there were some great plays, there were some mistakes. It felt like Miami dropped like five picks last night, back and forth. You hate that a game ends like that with so much on the line, and by the way, a game ends like that where the loser has gone through so much because of their weird former head coach. You hate that a game ends like that on a play like that where it's controversial and far from the only football game that's ended with a controversial call or a non call. But that was by the book textbook interference wide receivers being pulled down by his jersey by the defender like that's as the ball gets there, that's past interference. Nineteen minutes after five o'clock, I got the poll question up because I correctly spelled the word optimistic at moegar thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Duke Tobin's mega press conference made you feel optimistic, pessimistic, or apathetic. Vote now at moegar. You'll hear Duke Tobin's greatest hits next on ESPN fifteen.
01:40:26
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01:40:31
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01:40:48
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Speaker 8: Northbound seventy five between Mitchell and Paddock with a five minute delay, and southbound seventy five more slow traffic from Freeman to Fort Washington Way. I met selic with traffic.
01:41:01
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01:41:06
Speaker 3: ESPN fifteen thirty. Moeger, thanks for listening.
01:41:11
Speaker 2: Uh, Duke Topin talked earlier today for a press conference that lasted an hour, and like what that bad Duke like the questions. I thought the questions that were asked were fair. I thought the questions that were asked were were coming from a place of the people who asking them understanding what fans want to hear. I don't think anything was confrontational. I thought it was And by the way I thought, I don't think Duke was confrontational or standoff as you know, that was a Q and a I was a I thought that the tone was appropriate for a press conference involving an.
01:41:49
Speaker 3: Executive whose team failed this season.
01:41:52
Speaker 2: And yes, there were light moments, and that doesn't bother me at all.
01:41:56
Speaker 3: I I don't know.
01:41:57
Speaker 2: That we got a ton out of it, But what the bad wasn't that bad at all, at least for Duke Tobin. Now, some of the conclusions that you may draw from it are perhaps sobering and understandably so there was a lot here, and so we'll just give you some of the some of the highlights. Here is a Duke Tobin stating his belief that the Bengals are a championship team. But listen closely, go ahead.
01:42:21
Speaker 19: We still have a championship team in my mind. We have elite, world class players. We had a lot of challenges this year, a lot of challenges. We didn't navigate them effectively enough. We navigated some of them as effectively as you could, and then we had challenges elsewhere when you lose your quarterback.
01:42:42
Speaker 13: We have a quarterback that we.
01:42:44
Speaker 19: Have taken great pains in building an offense around and four and it does and that offense took steps this year without him, and so with him, we feel like that is starting to just hit its stride. With the way the offensive line came on, with the way the running game came on, I would tell you that I saw things this year that I wouldn't have thought I would ever see somebody walk into the building two days before a game, pick up an incredibly complex offense, go out with people he just shook hands with and make it work.
01:43:25
Speaker 13: That is amazing.
01:43:26
Speaker 19: You know, you know people from Afar because they're in the same industry as you, and I know Joe Flacco from Afar. But when you meet him and get to appreciate what he's all about and what he accomplished here in such a short time and then go out and have an injury, not be able to practice and still go out and produce, that.
01:43:48
Speaker 13: Speaks to him.
01:43:50
Speaker 19: It also speaks to our coaches and how they are able to immediately pivot and regenerate something that gave us a chance. Other parts of the team then decided it wasn't going to give us a chance, and that's on me.
01:44:08
Speaker 13: That's on me.
01:44:09
Speaker 19: But there are things that worked and things that show me, hey, we've got the right people in this building.
01:44:17
Speaker 2: So Duke Tobin just said at the beginning of that that he believes the Bengals have a championship team. He then spent the next sixty seconds talking only about the offense. Taran pointed that out. He starts it by talking, we have a championship team. We believe, Well, if you believe you have a championship team, then you talk about like all parts of the team. They do have a championship offense like they have, for my money, still the best in the league at playing the quarterback position. They have elite weaponry, good offensive line. Yes, that is they have a championship offense. They have nothing resembling a championship team. Duke Tobin earlier today. One of the questions Duke was asked about adding scouts this offseason, go ahead and hit.
01:45:08
Speaker 19: It the specifics of the offseason. We're still going through that right now. We're still debriefing the season. We're still analyzing each and every player on our roster where the needs are. We have a good feeling for where that is. I wouldn't outline exactly we're going to bring in you know, Paul over here and he's going to play you know, three technique for us. We have a very good idea of where the needs are on our football team and we're going to attack them from a personnel standpoint. Our coaches during the season did a great job in what we were asking the players to do.
01:45:47
Speaker 13: They made changes in how we were going.
01:45:52
Speaker 19: About it, and it worked on that side, on the defensive side of the ball, and honestly it worked on the offensive side of the ball.
01:45:58
Speaker 13: So we had some nimble during the season.
01:46:02
Speaker 19: In terms of our scouting staff, our scouting staff, in my opinion, is it is the size that it is because I think the collaboration is.
01:46:14
Speaker 13: Better at that size.
01:46:17
Speaker 19: We have never lacked for information on a player. There's never been a player selected that we didn't know anything about. There's never been a player selected that we didn't have multiple reports and large background on. It's not about the volume of information we have. If we make a mistake, it's because at the decision point we made the wrong decision. But it wasn't because we didn't have information on the player. We have information, and we have plenty of opinion on the player, you know, and we've made a lot of good picks. I get that people are don't believe we've made any good picks. We've made a lot of good picks on our current roster, on past ross and there will be more on future rosters.
01:47:02
Speaker 13: I really believe that.
01:47:06
Speaker 3: It's interesting.
01:47:09
Speaker 2: It's only one guy I would love to know what the information was about Jermaine Burton. Okay, you got a lot of what what what information compelled you to go? Yeah, let's take that dude.
01:47:20
Speaker 3: Uh. Here's more. Uh. I don't know how you'll hear this.
01:47:24
Speaker 2: This is a duke uh where you might and some have theorized that he is perhaps taking a shot at his quarterback.
01:47:31
Speaker 3: Here's Duke Tobin from earlier today.
01:47:36
Speaker 19: Well, it's the Bengals and uh and when we don't win a championship, that's the only thing that I'm after is a championship. It's not it's not any individuals in this buildings championship. It's the Cincinnati Bengals championship. And that's really the only definition of success that that I have. I don't have a definition of success of making the playoffs or doing X, Y or Z. It's the it's the team that has the positive feeling at the end of the season. That's the only thing that I'm chasing. That's what we want. We want it for all of our players, we want it for all of our staff.
01:48:17
Speaker 13: You know.
01:48:17
Speaker 19: We we have set our team up for Joe in a way that we feel is pretty darn good. And there are resources on the team that we've expended on that. So when you spend sixty sixty five percent or whatever it is on offense of your cap it's going to affect the other parts of your team. We know that we have to find solutions that fit into that that then produce on the other side of the ball, and we will.
01:48:50
Speaker 3: I did a poor job of setting that up.
01:48:52
Speaker 2: Duke was asking, answering a question about you know, I think it was posed by James, you know, referencing the window, the championship window with Burrow and Chase and Higgins in their primes, and that that answer didn't bother me a ton, because I don't think he's wrong.
01:49:10
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think the explanation is wrong.
01:49:12
Speaker 2: Now, the the execution of his ideas and what he's trying to accomplish that obviously hasn't worked. I don't expect the person in charge of a roster to ever talk about certain championship windows. I don't expect Duke Tobin to talk specifically about winning while Burrow as the quarterback, because if you do that, you know, then you're you could you could then assume that, well, we don't. We can't win a championship once Joe's done.
01:49:37
Speaker 3: If that makes sense. One more this I like this answer. Here. Here's Duke on drafting players.
01:49:45
Speaker 2: For drafting players with the idea that they're ultimately going to sign second contracts.
01:49:51
Speaker 13: Again year over year.
01:49:52
Speaker 19: You can't build your team in free agency. It's just not a sustainable process. You have to have your young guys come on, have to and whether it's a one year progression, two year progression, three year progression, those guys have to come on. If they don't come on, that's my fault. We've taken the wrong guys. You know, we're no longer drafting guys for second contracts and so forth. We need guys that come in and can give us some help right away and then grow into bigger roles quickly. We need that. That's what every team needs. And every team has A players, B players, and C players, and you need your C players to be able to fill those roles effectively enough so your A and B players can have success. And we've got to do a better job in all three of those levels. On defense, and that is something that we're focused on.
01:50:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a Duke Tobyn and it's not that they don't want to sign players they draft to second contracts. But I think the point is, and I think it's an important one, they need draft picks who can come in and play and help immediately. I've said this a few different times. I don't think this is a developmental league.
01:51:06
Speaker 3: Now.
01:51:06
Speaker 2: Players are supposed to get better, and you can draft some guys in later rounds that you go, okay, have them as a part of our organization and develop them into you know, starting caliber players. But you need dudes in this day and age, this is a cheap labor league. You need guys who can hit the ground running. You need a rookie draft class that can fill roles and fill holes immediately, especially when, especially when you're a bad team. It's one thing when you're coming off with Super Bowl appearance and you can stash tax Hill. It's something else entirely when you haven't made the playoffs in a couple of years and you have major, major holes to fill. You can't afford to draft players who don't help you for three years down the road. It's great that that twenty twenty three draft class has has played.
01:51:57
Speaker 3: Better in twenty twenty five, just it took way too long. You can't.
01:52:02
Speaker 2: You can't have red shirt seasons anymore with first round draft choices. You need those guys, So I appreciate that answer. I don't know if it's gonna work because it hasn't worked a lot here recently with Douke Tobin's draft classes. UH twenty five away from six o'clock. Five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
01:52:25
Speaker 5: Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
01:52:28
Speaker 11: Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.
01:52:31
Speaker 8: UC Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise called five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three southbound seventy one. An accident has been cleared away. It was before four seventy one. It's a little bit of slow traffic on southbound seventy one to seventy five between Fort Washington Waite and Kyle's Lane at two minute delay and northbound seventy five another slow down from Norwood Lateral to Paddock.
01:52:58
Speaker 11: I'm at Eazelic with traffic.
01:53:00
Speaker 2: Sports Headlines are a service that Kelsey Chevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection, the guarantee credit approval from their family to yours for life Kelsey chev dot com. Duke Tobin reminded everyone today that he traded for Joe Flacco. Held a season ending press conference today. The large takeaway for most is no major changes to how they do things, by the way, really quickly. Ben Baby of ESPN tweeted this, which I think is interesting. So at the end of the season, Joe Burrow talked about how things need to change. Something needs to change, Duke Tobin said, what needs to change is our record.
01:53:41
Speaker 3: That's interesting, at least to me.
01:53:44
Speaker 2: College football tonight, it's the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff National Semifinal. It's Indiana and Oregon. That game is going to kick off a little bit after seven to thirty. Winner battles Miami in the national title game a week from Monday. College basketball Tonight on ESPN fifteenth. He already NKU the first of two games in Wisconsin this weekend, the Norse Battle Milwaukee Tonight. That game tips off at seven pm right here on ESPN fifteen thirty Tomorrow, it's a Xavier hosting Providence. Kentucky is taking on Old Miss That XU game is at four o'clock tomorrow on seven hundred WLW. The Kentucky game against Mississippi State tips off at excuse me, eight thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also this evening, they're about twenty minutes away from tip off in Toledo, the Miami RedHawks trying to stay unbeaten, battling the Toledo Rockets. You see is at UCF on Sunday at five on seven hundred WLW.
01:54:43
Speaker 3: As well, what else did I have?
01:54:46
Speaker 9: Oh?
01:54:46
Speaker 2: Hockey tonight the Cyclones play, and I did not jot down I think they play the see now because I am a stickler for detail and I want to give the proper information. I don't want to just say that the Cyclones play tonight. No, they play Fort Wayne Fort Wayne tonight. Downtown puck drops at seven point thirty. The Fort Wayne comments, and that game's at Fort Wayne. It's not downtown.
01:55:09
Speaker 3: Good.
01:55:09
Speaker 2: I said, H'm a stickler for detail, didn't know who they're playing and got the location of the game wrong. The Cyclones are playing at Fort Wayne. You are more than welcome to drive to Fort Wayne to go see that game. At Fort Wayne's a couple hours away, maybe make it by the second period. The Cyclones are on the road tonight against Fort Wayne, playing at historic Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
01:55:32
Speaker 3: That part I knew. Remember it's our first Friday show since August nineteen. Away from six o'clock.
01:55:43
Speaker 9: It'll get easier.
01:55:44
Speaker 3: You remember how to do this.
01:55:46
Speaker 2: I will remember how to do this by next Friday. Next Friday is going to be a good show. We needed a Friday dress rehearsal, and today is that. I hope everybody's enjoying it. The reaction of Kelsey Conway to Duke Tobin when we come back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
01:56:04
Speaker 5: Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
01:56:09
Speaker 8: Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise. Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three southbound seventy one seventy five after twelve. They it's a disabled car hauler that is off onto the right shoulder. A little bit of slow traffic right now on southbound seventy five between Freeman and Fort Washington Way, looking at a minute or two worth of delays to get through there. I'm at Eazeleic with traffic.
01:56:40
Speaker 3: This report and thirteen from US six o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Malwager. Thank you for listening.
01:56:46
Speaker 2: You'll hear Kelsey Conway from The Inquirer on the Duke Tobin press conference in just a second.
01:56:53
Speaker 3: Don't forget all weekend long.
01:56:54
Speaker 2: You could hear the NFL playoffs on Fox Sports thirteen sixty two games tomorrow, three on Sunday, then one more on Monday. By the way, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. We didn't do Locks of the Night on since E three to sixty at all this season. But it's the playoffs, man, I can't help myself. I like La. Look, Carolina won the first matchup, which was awesome. Fourth worst point differential of any playoff team ever. Ever, the three worst each won their first playoff game. That trend is not going to continue. As long as the Rams don't screw up on special teams. I think they win. I think they cover the big number. I also like the Packers against Chicago. That is not an exceptionally efficient Chicago defense. I like Caleb Williams always a little bit wary about quarterbacks. In their first playoff start. Number seven Seeds are one in nine since the NFL decided to expand the postseason. I think Packers make it two to nine. They've got playoff experience. Green Bay did lead in the final minutes of both games against Chicago this season. I've got Jacksonville to reach the Super Bowl at plus five point fifty. Yet the Dogs against Buffalo, obviously, I think they win that one. I think the perfect the perfect elixir when you have a beating up defense that isn't great is Philadelphia's offense right now at FanDuel I can get five and a half points with San Francisco, I'll take it. The Chargers offensive line is a mess. New England's very physical. I'll lay the three and a half points with New England and we'll talk about Monday Night's game on Monday. I also do like Indiana. The Hoosiers rush defense and the fact that they in the first matchup against Oregon they sacked Dante more six times. I just the Hoosiers have a better roster. The number has climbed to four it some books. Fandel still has it at three and a half. I'm not sure I'm laying four. I will lay three and a half with the Hoosiers tonight. Kelsey Conway of The Inquirer in Cincinnati dot com, what was your big takeaway from the Duke Tobin press conference?
01:58:55
Speaker 4: Bengals fans should prepare for more of the same.
01:59:01
Speaker 2: Sadly kind of mine as well, right, because I heard I heard a lot of references to successes of the past, as limited as they may be. I didn't hear anything indicating reflection and using that reflection to maybe pivot in a different direction philosophically or structurally, or from an urgency perspective. I walked away from it thinking that if you went into that press conference as a fan, thinking, you know what, maybe we'll find out that things are going to be done a little bit differently here. You walked away from that press conference disappointed.
01:59:37
Speaker 4: So I'm glad that I'm coming on to be able to talk with you about this because we in the last couple of years, you and I have had a chance to talk about this on air when I've been at the Senior Bowl with Duke, and the more I thought about it after time had passed, after the press conference, the more I felt it was very similar to my Q and A with him that I did Inmobile last year. And the big takeaway, the two big takeaways that I had is that Duke Cobin said he's frustrated. He feels the fans disappointment. Nobody feels it more than him. He wants to win all of that. But for two years in a row now, he said the same thing to me.
02:00:18
Speaker 5: He said he's down on.
02:00:19
Speaker 4: The team's ability to finish games. So he said that to me last year. I wrote it in a story that was on the enquire and he said it Saane's press conference that the thing that irked him most was the team's inability to finish games in those one score games. And for that to be his message two years in a row makes me believe that he thinks that the roster is good enough and that the reason that they're not winning those one score games maybe isn't a talent acquisition issue. It's more of a coaching mentality, a locker room mentality issue. And to me, for that to be the same thing in back to back years that he thinks is the issue is a little concerning because it's all about do you have enough good players to win those one score games, and they don't, and they haven't for two years in a row. So I thought he would maybe take a messaging point of you know, we're going to do everything we can to build a championship caliber defense for Joe Burrow, But he didn't say any of that. You know, expect them to add they are going to add players in free agency on defense. He said we need to get better on defense. But he also said we're emerging on defense, and you know, talked on and on about the talent on offense. And these are all the same things he said to me last year. So I walked away wondering what exactly will be different, and if I think that, I would assume all the fans think that. And he also said they're not going to add to the scouting department. So there were multiple times for him to say in point to certain things he's going to change, and he didn't. So that leads me to believe, yes, they might add a couple of more free agents on defense this year, but if you're expecting sweeping changes in the organization, I would just say temper your expectation to the fans.
02:02:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was. It was exactly my takeaway from it. And it's interesting, you know, I heard Duke talk about on a number of occasions today the one score games. Excuse me, that the games that got away from them late right where they blew or couldn't get back into or tried to come back and couldn't finit whatever. It was a lot of games they lost by not being able to make plays late in the game. And I guess, on one hand, you could say, well, that's that's the arrow, that's the finger being pointed at the coaches. I kind of go, he's pointing at the players, and Duke, those are your players, right.
02:02:42
Speaker 4: No, No, for that to be the message point in back to back years is very weird. And I would also point to I asked him who has control over the fifty three man roster, because obviously his title is director of personnel, But you know, and now about what's going on with the Bengals in the front office and the structure with Mike Brown being involved, that yes, Duke Cobin is in charge of the roster, but there are things that Mike Brown is still involved in and Dak Taylor is involved, And so I just wanted to point blank, ask him, are you the one responsible for that roster of those players that aren't making enough plays in one score game that we're talking about, and he said, yes, well I do get you know, say of where we go and pointing us in the right direction. But he kept using the term collaboration. And if there was a if there would have been more of an opportunity to ask follow ups because there was plenty of reporters there. My question would have been too much collaboration? Could that be a disadvantage of disadvantage for you and in you not having a clear cut direction of this is exactly where we need to go with an example of too many cooks in the kitchen. And it doesn't seem like I didn't leave the press confer today knowing any more about who exactly makes the final call when it comes to the Bengals roster. So with all of that to be said, like I still leave with plenty of questions about how things are being run in the Bengals front office. And when you have that many questions, it's hard to believe that success could be definitely on its way. They might get lucky, but I don't think that there's going to be a whole lot of things done differently to ensure any Bengals fans that yes, they are going to be better on defense this year.
02:04:27
Speaker 2: So the part of the press conference that in that regard specifically confused me is Duke was asked, and off the top of my head, I don't remember who asked the question, so my apologies for that, and I'm paraphrasing the exchange, but he was asked at one point like, yeah, there's collaboration, but at some point, like, there's got to be the person who says, this is what we're doing. Right, in any collaborative setting, there's someone who decides, once and for all.
02:04:54
Speaker 3: Here's what we're doing.
02:04:55
Speaker 2: And he kind of shot that down and said essentially like, well, it never really gets to that.
02:04:59
Speaker 3: Well, yeah it does.
02:05:00
Speaker 2: Someone someone decides we're taking and I think the example used was Amarus Mims. Someone makes the final decision, we're gonna take Shamar Stewart. Someone makes the final decision we're gonna go with Geno Stone and not sign the safety. And so I walked away from it, just like you. As unclear as ever as to who has final say, because he said when it comes to having a final say, basically, those situations don't arise.
02:05:25
Speaker 4: How is that the case, Well, those situations do arise. I've talked to you enough people off the record to know that there are very much instances where the coaches want this player and you know, personnel might not see it that way. And there's also the factor of you have to loop ownership in. Are they willing to just shout the money for this player so that whole operation doesn't I didn't get any clarity that I was hoping to, And of course they're not gonna tell us everything, right, They're allowed to keep some things in house. But I was hoping that by asking that it would maybe clear up something with for fans to wonder, you know, at the end of the day, this person is responsible for the roster, and Duke did say I need to do a better job of pointing us in the great direction in that aspect. But the other main takeaway that I had was I felt like, and I've felt this way for a couple of years now with the Bengals in totality, I think they too much live in the world of talking and acting in a way that they're just stuck on the fact that they were very successful for two years, and he spoke a lot of times about I understand he wants to show he has confidence in his scouting staff. I get it, but he went out of his way to kind of make comments to you know, alluding to the same scouting staff that made that great free agent class in twenty twenty one work. I just think that there's too much talk and the way that they operate about what happened with the Bengals when they got really lucky in that twenty one and twenty twenty two season, And I left thinking, how are we still talking about twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, Like they're so far removed from that. It just left me wondering, like is it still the whole We did this one time so we can do it again. Like I still just think overall, the Bengals still live in a world too much where just because they did it those two years doesn't mean that you can't approach, you know, the ensuing years that same way. You have to change, you have to evolve, And I feel like they kind of still live in the days where they were really successful those two years, and they think that kind of absolved a lot of their issues. And I just I'm just not sure that that that's the right approach, because every other NFL team operates every year the new league year. What are we going to do to go win another championship? They're not still talking about the super Bowl that they lost four years ago.
02:07:53
Speaker 2: That's Kelsey Conway from The Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com an the im mediate aftermath of the Oketoben press conference earlier today. The music means we are done. Thank you to Tarren Bland for producing, Thanks to you for listening. Have the greatest weekend of your life. We'll talk to you Monday at three oh five. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.
02:08:16
Speaker 13: You're one stop for a