00:00:00
Speaker 1: You know what is ideal? Robert Weintraub. He joins us every Thursday. He has a weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine. In this week's column, he urges you to be happy, dammit. I threw in the dammit. Go read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com. I tweeted out a link. Go read it now. Hi, Robert.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: Hey, Mo. I'm happy with the dammit. I think that's a good edit. I should have edited it in the first place. Yes, I quoted our old pal with the punchable face, Aaron Rodgers. Everybody R E L a X. It's only four games. We're going to be okay.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: I think they will. I really do. I think everything's going to be okay, but I, this, this whole like operating the offense under center thing, we're talking about this, like this is advanced calculus, which I admittedly never took. I went back this week and I found football footage from 1901 on YouTube. And there were two teams operating under center. They found a way to snap the football to the quarterback and gain yardage. 125 years later, this is somehow perplexed the Bengals coaching staff.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: Why? 1901 was Joe Flacco. He was one of the guys under center. Well, listen, I mean, we talked about this. It's a couple of things. One, We always said it's going to be a process, right? You can't just all of a sudden do everything under center from a heavy, heavy shotgun team, heaviest in the league, and expect things not to be a little clunky here and there. And the real question was when the bullets are flying and you really need to score points and make plays, are they going to default back to their comfort zone? and ignore the fact that the only way through in this situation is by accepting some of those clunkiness and not having it go right. I don't think we necessarily know the answer, but it's easy for us to say, oh, why can't you just do this? These guys really aren't trained to do it. The league is seeing it a lot on tape, and they're counteracting it. I think also we're looking at the second word of that under center. And we're not really talking about Ted cares all that much. And he's a guy who hasn't played center with the quarterback's hands on his butt all that often. He was a guard in college and most of his NFL career. So, you know, he's only recently been a center and certainly hasn't played a lot of under center Texans tough. Cause he's the second most important guy after Joe Burrow in that, in that frame, he has called all the blocking assignments. He has to get everybody on the same page and they're still kind of learning it. And As I said, teams are really agap blitzing a lot to kind of counter the under center attack. It's all cyclical, right? I mean, teams started to turn to those agap blitzes.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Why?
00:02:39
Speaker 2: Because they were getting gashed, and our old friend Mike Zimmer did it, and they forced teams to go more heavy into the shotgun to get away from those guys. Those blitzes are standing right over them. And now here we are coming full circle right around. I think if they really commit to it, you know, they might not be as good as those 1901 teams, but they can be viable. And you know, the only question really, and it has been all along for me is whether they will in fact, stick with it or just go with what they do best, which is still pretty darn good. Joe burrow in the shotgun.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Uh, Joe Burrow gets the football last week, minute 44 to go. He's, he's in his side of the field. He's got a chance to go win the football game and shut up at least for a while, a growing list of doubters. Instead, we all know what happened as a, as a, a smart person, which is.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: What you are.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: Uh, what is your take on the growing? Yes. What is your take on the growing Joe Burrow isn't clutch narrative?
00:03:31
Speaker 2: I think the growing narrative is that I'm not that smart, but I'll take your compliment with that. with a grin. Thank you so much. Well, I mean, I'll say a few things. One. Yeah. It would have been awesome to have him, you know, score two late touchdowns with his fourth through six, the receivers out there when the game against a good team and shut everybody up, it was very close to happening, but it didn't, doesn't really concern me. I mean, are we going to trade Joe burrow now for a fifth round pick? Is that war too much clutch? You know, who was clutch? Tim Tebow had that workout. And the problem was he was clutch because he'd stunk for three quarters and then got you know, Mojo working with the last couple of minutes. You know, you have to remember also that my guy who put that out there, that original tweet about his one for 34 and this now 35, I guess, is a guy named Scott Kaxmar, former colleague of mine, good guy, like him, but he's also a Steelers fan. So take it all with a grain of salt. He lives to put down his enemies. in Cincinnati, new England, Cleveland, et cetera. Listen, I mean, to me, he's really, he's over to Joe burrow. I mean, the super bowl and the AFC championship game in 2022, or when he had chances to really cement his legend or create his legend. And he came up short in those games at the very end. Why? Because he had replacement lineman trying to block all famed defenders and it didn't work out, but you know, that's what the great, great quarterbacks, the elite that separate themselves from the just really good quarterbacks. They come through in those moments, regardless of circumstances. And until he, you know, he does that in the biggest of games, not in the September game against Jacksonville, but in a game that really means everything. And he comes through in those last minutes, you know, he's, he's always going to carry that reputation. On the other hand, if he wins a Superbowl by 45 points, no one's going to carry it. So that'd be fine too.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Who has a higher level of excitement, a nine-year-old waking up on Christmas morning or a tight end waking up on the morning they're playing against the Bengals?
00:05:24
Speaker 2: It's always fun for them. Yeah, it is kind of hard to believe, but I looked at the teams that were the best at stopping tight ends so far this season and going into last season, and it's these guys, the Rams, the 49ers, the Falcons, the Steelers. What do they have in common? Well, they use their tight ends a lot in their offense. and, you know, make sense of reason that they practice against a lot and they're better at stopping a tight end based attack, man. They're not necessarily good at stopping other things, but they are very good at that level. And I think, you know, it's kind of been a historic thing, certainly of late in Cincinnati, where they just kind of made a choice. It feels like they're a wide receiver based team and they're going to take away wide receivers from the other team. And they're going to live with tight ends. being the focus of the other team's offense. And that makes sense. You'd rather see a 12-yard pass to a tight end than a 25-yard pass to a wide receiver. On the other hand, if your personnel turns that 12-yard pass into a 25-yard play because they can't tackle those tight ends, that just compounds the problem, right? And especially like Darnell Washington, who doesn't do anything against anybody but Cincinnati, it seems like. So it all boils down to me and The same thing we've all talked about at length, ad nauseum, they've got to tackle better. That's where it shows up in the middle of the field. I think they sort of have an overall gestalt of being fine with living with tight ends being the focal point of the opposing offenses rather than bigger play wide receivers. But at a certain point, if you're giving up this kind of yardage, about 100 yards a game almost at tight ends right now, that's not winning football either. They have to find a way to correct that.
00:07:03
Speaker 1: Give me Robert Weintraub is with us. Bengals column up right now at CincinnatiMagazine.com. Four games into the season. What's your read on the AFC North?
00:07:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, this goes back to the original RELAX point. If you look under the hood a little bit, you know, our mainstay at FTN Fantasy, DVLA. Bengals are 11th in the league. Ravens are 5th. Steelers are 21st. The Browns, the every 11 Browns, who everybody thinks is great now, they're 24th. Point differential, it's the same thing. Bengals are plus 12, Ravens are plus 20, but the Browns and the Steelers are in negative numbers. There's also red zone defense. We talk about that as being a critical sort of under-the-hood stat all the time. Bengals are third in the league in forcing field goals, not touchdowns, when the other team gets in the red zone. You look at the rest of the top five, they have one loss combined. So the Bengals have been a little unfortunate to be 2-2. They're certainly playing at a high level in a lot of aspects, you know, we, we came up with those turnovers that burrows made at the end of these games. And, you know, you look at that and say, Oh my God, how, how are we ever going to win another game? Because that's the nature of the NFL, right? You know, I don't think that's too much to worry about right now. It's, it's the hallmark of the, Bengals under Zach Taylor's that they improve things during their bi-week and they play well down the stretch. And you look at Cleveland, they're playing a lot of young players and in the sense of reason, they would be good to start the season, but young players tend to wear down and injuries Mount. They don't have a lot of depth on that team. And as the season goes along, that could definitely hurt them. I think Pittsburgh is who we thought they were not very good, despite when they play the Bengals, they always look great. And you know, the Ravens, it's similar to, they have, they've been explosive, but here's Lamar. He's back on the injured list and they've been forced because their interior line knock-on effect from losing Tyler Linda Brown in the off season. Now they had to, you know, kind of desperately trade a second round pick for Cam Juergens of the Eagles. He's really not been the same player since he had a very bad back injury and he's injured as we speak. So, you know, if he can really come back and be the player he was and stabilize things, they'll obviously be a really good team. But I think, you know, Overall, it's the Bengals and the Ravens and then the Steelers and the Browns are still a step behind.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: Tremendous stuff as always. And by the way, that 1901 video on YouTube is worth watching. I don't know if you want to crunch that while you're... doing.
00:09:27
Speaker 2: Whatever I feel like I should go there and really get their advanced stats and get some analytics from the 1901 season. I mean, I know there's a, there's a huge cry out for it out there in, in NFL circles. So, you know, 1901, or maybe just I'll stick with the like 1910s. That was really, that's where he really saw the under center play ticket. They really did.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: You know, the 12 laterals per game.
00:09:51
Speaker 2: Really made the the league, a whole different animal.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: Awesome. man. Thanks so much.
00:10:01
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mo. See you next week.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: Read Robert's column at Cincinnati magazine.com.
Speaker 1: You know what is ideal? Robert Weintraub. He joins us every Thursday. He has a weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine. In this week's column, he urges you to be happy, dammit. I threw in the dammit. Go read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com. I tweeted out a link. Go read it now. Hi, Robert.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: Hey, Mo. I'm happy with the dammit. I think that's a good edit. I should have edited it in the first place. Yes, I quoted our old pal with the punchable face, Aaron Rodgers. Everybody R E L a X. It's only four games. We're going to be okay.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: I think they will. I really do. I think everything's going to be okay, but I, this, this whole like operating the offense under center thing, we're talking about this, like this is advanced calculus, which I admittedly never took. I went back this week and I found football footage from 1901 on YouTube. And there were two teams operating under center. They found a way to snap the football to the quarterback and gain yardage. 125 years later, this is somehow perplexed the Bengals coaching staff.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: Why? 1901 was Joe Flacco. He was one of the guys under center. Well, listen, I mean, we talked about this. It's a couple of things. One, We always said it's going to be a process, right? You can't just all of a sudden do everything under center from a heavy, heavy shotgun team, heaviest in the league, and expect things not to be a little clunky here and there. And the real question was when the bullets are flying and you really need to score points and make plays, are they going to default back to their comfort zone? and ignore the fact that the only way through in this situation is by accepting some of those clunkiness and not having it go right. I don't think we necessarily know the answer, but it's easy for us to say, oh, why can't you just do this? These guys really aren't trained to do it. The league is seeing it a lot on tape, and they're counteracting it. I think also we're looking at the second word of that under center. And we're not really talking about Ted cares all that much. And he's a guy who hasn't played center with the quarterback's hands on his butt all that often. He was a guard in college and most of his NFL career. So, you know, he's only recently been a center and certainly hasn't played a lot of under center Texans tough. Cause he's the second most important guy after Joe Burrow in that, in that frame, he has called all the blocking assignments. He has to get everybody on the same page and they're still kind of learning it. And As I said, teams are really agap blitzing a lot to kind of counter the under center attack. It's all cyclical, right? I mean, teams started to turn to those agap blitzes.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Why?
00:02:39
Speaker 2: Because they were getting gashed, and our old friend Mike Zimmer did it, and they forced teams to go more heavy into the shotgun to get away from those guys. Those blitzes are standing right over them. And now here we are coming full circle right around. I think if they really commit to it, you know, they might not be as good as those 1901 teams, but they can be viable. And you know, the only question really, and it has been all along for me is whether they will in fact, stick with it or just go with what they do best, which is still pretty darn good. Joe burrow in the shotgun.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Uh, Joe Burrow gets the football last week, minute 44 to go. He's, he's in his side of the field. He's got a chance to go win the football game and shut up at least for a while, a growing list of doubters. Instead, we all know what happened as a, as a, a smart person, which is.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: What you are.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: Uh, what is your take on the growing? Yes. What is your take on the growing Joe Burrow isn't clutch narrative?
00:03:31
Speaker 2: I think the growing narrative is that I'm not that smart, but I'll take your compliment with that. with a grin. Thank you so much. Well, I mean, I'll say a few things. One. Yeah. It would have been awesome to have him, you know, score two late touchdowns with his fourth through six, the receivers out there when the game against a good team and shut everybody up, it was very close to happening, but it didn't, doesn't really concern me. I mean, are we going to trade Joe burrow now for a fifth round pick? Is that war too much clutch? You know, who was clutch? Tim Tebow had that workout. And the problem was he was clutch because he'd stunk for three quarters and then got you know, Mojo working with the last couple of minutes. You know, you have to remember also that my guy who put that out there, that original tweet about his one for 34 and this now 35, I guess, is a guy named Scott Kaxmar, former colleague of mine, good guy, like him, but he's also a Steelers fan. So take it all with a grain of salt. He lives to put down his enemies. in Cincinnati, new England, Cleveland, et cetera. Listen, I mean, to me, he's really, he's over to Joe burrow. I mean, the super bowl and the AFC championship game in 2022, or when he had chances to really cement his legend or create his legend. And he came up short in those games at the very end. Why? Because he had replacement lineman trying to block all famed defenders and it didn't work out, but you know, that's what the great, great quarterbacks, the elite that separate themselves from the just really good quarterbacks. They come through in those moments, regardless of circumstances. And until he, you know, he does that in the biggest of games, not in the September game against Jacksonville, but in a game that really means everything. And he comes through in those last minutes, you know, he's, he's always going to carry that reputation. On the other hand, if he wins a Superbowl by 45 points, no one's going to carry it. So that'd be fine too.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Who has a higher level of excitement, a nine-year-old waking up on Christmas morning or a tight end waking up on the morning they're playing against the Bengals?
00:05:24
Speaker 2: It's always fun for them. Yeah, it is kind of hard to believe, but I looked at the teams that were the best at stopping tight ends so far this season and going into last season, and it's these guys, the Rams, the 49ers, the Falcons, the Steelers. What do they have in common? Well, they use their tight ends a lot in their offense. and, you know, make sense of reason that they practice against a lot and they're better at stopping a tight end based attack, man. They're not necessarily good at stopping other things, but they are very good at that level. And I think, you know, it's kind of been a historic thing, certainly of late in Cincinnati, where they just kind of made a choice. It feels like they're a wide receiver based team and they're going to take away wide receivers from the other team. And they're going to live with tight ends. being the focus of the other team's offense. And that makes sense. You'd rather see a 12-yard pass to a tight end than a 25-yard pass to a wide receiver. On the other hand, if your personnel turns that 12-yard pass into a 25-yard play because they can't tackle those tight ends, that just compounds the problem, right? And especially like Darnell Washington, who doesn't do anything against anybody but Cincinnati, it seems like. So it all boils down to me and The same thing we've all talked about at length, ad nauseum, they've got to tackle better. That's where it shows up in the middle of the field. I think they sort of have an overall gestalt of being fine with living with tight ends being the focal point of the opposing offenses rather than bigger play wide receivers. But at a certain point, if you're giving up this kind of yardage, about 100 yards a game almost at tight ends right now, that's not winning football either. They have to find a way to correct that.
00:07:03
Speaker 1: Give me Robert Weintraub is with us. Bengals column up right now at CincinnatiMagazine.com. Four games into the season. What's your read on the AFC North?
00:07:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, this goes back to the original RELAX point. If you look under the hood a little bit, you know, our mainstay at FTN Fantasy, DVLA. Bengals are 11th in the league. Ravens are 5th. Steelers are 21st. The Browns, the every 11 Browns, who everybody thinks is great now, they're 24th. Point differential, it's the same thing. Bengals are plus 12, Ravens are plus 20, but the Browns and the Steelers are in negative numbers. There's also red zone defense. We talk about that as being a critical sort of under-the-hood stat all the time. Bengals are third in the league in forcing field goals, not touchdowns, when the other team gets in the red zone. You look at the rest of the top five, they have one loss combined. So the Bengals have been a little unfortunate to be 2-2. They're certainly playing at a high level in a lot of aspects, you know, we, we came up with those turnovers that burrows made at the end of these games. And, you know, you look at that and say, Oh my God, how, how are we ever going to win another game? Because that's the nature of the NFL, right? You know, I don't think that's too much to worry about right now. It's, it's the hallmark of the, Bengals under Zach Taylor's that they improve things during their bi-week and they play well down the stretch. And you look at Cleveland, they're playing a lot of young players and in the sense of reason, they would be good to start the season, but young players tend to wear down and injuries Mount. They don't have a lot of depth on that team. And as the season goes along, that could definitely hurt them. I think Pittsburgh is who we thought they were not very good, despite when they play the Bengals, they always look great. And you know, the Ravens, it's similar to, they have, they've been explosive, but here's Lamar. He's back on the injured list and they've been forced because their interior line knock-on effect from losing Tyler Linda Brown in the off season. Now they had to, you know, kind of desperately trade a second round pick for Cam Juergens of the Eagles. He's really not been the same player since he had a very bad back injury and he's injured as we speak. So, you know, if he can really come back and be the player he was and stabilize things, they'll obviously be a really good team. But I think, you know, Overall, it's the Bengals and the Ravens and then the Steelers and the Browns are still a step behind.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: Tremendous stuff as always. And by the way, that 1901 video on YouTube is worth watching. I don't know if you want to crunch that while you're... doing.
00:09:27
Speaker 2: Whatever I feel like I should go there and really get their advanced stats and get some analytics from the 1901 season. I mean, I know there's a, there's a huge cry out for it out there in, in NFL circles. So, you know, 1901, or maybe just I'll stick with the like 1910s. That was really, that's where he really saw the under center play ticket. They really did.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: You know, the 12 laterals per game.
00:09:51
Speaker 2: Really made the the league, a whole different animal.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: Awesome. man. Thanks so much.
00:10:01
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mo. See you next week.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: Read Robert's column at Cincinnati magazine.com.
