Pełna transkrypcja odcinka The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 11/3/26

passing grades. Unfortunately, there's an injury question. I am off on Thursday, which was already pre-planned, so we're not going to have Chad on Thursday. So we're moving his typical weekly segment to today. We'll talk some UC basketball, talk some UC football. And looking forward to that. My sincere thank you to Austin Elmore for pinch hitting for me yesterday at Twin Peaks in Florence. It killed me to not be there yesterday. For a few different reasons, not the least of which was that game on Sunday... provided a lot of content. Like, you could have done three hours on that game in and of itself. And I guess a few different ways of looking at it. A, there's no such thing as a bad win in the NFL. And I emphatically and sincerely believe that. No such thing. Winning is hard. Winning in the National Football League, I think, is harder than we give it credit for being. Mechanically, you'd rather be the Bengals than, well, the Baltimore Ravens, who we are going to talk about today. Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Tee Higgins did their thing on a day where it often looked like Joe and Jamar had just met each other. They find a way to win. They come from behind late. I'll be honest with you. At no point during that game, and I mean this, at no point during that game did I feel like the Bengals were going to lose. You just had a sense that a bad Tennessee team at some point was going to do the wrong thing. And at some point, somebody was going to step up for the Bengals. Dexter Lawrence did. Joe Burrow did. Tee Higgins did. Jamar Chase did. Mike Kosicki did. But you could also look at it through this lens, and I think this is fair. That looked and felt a lot like 2024. And I use 2024 more than last year because last year Joe Burrow didn't play every game, but there certainly were elements of 2025 to that game as well. But the 2024 Bengals won nine games, and Joe Burrow played the full season, and he was an MVP finalist. But the team, it felt like their M.O. that year was, well, we're going to give up a We're not going to have a real plan on offense, but Joe and Jamar and T are going to do a bunch of cool stuff, and that's how we're going to get by. Quarterback's going to take a lot of hits. We're going to give up a lot of points. We're going to give up a lot of yards. We're not going to tackle well. We're not going to cover well. We're going to look like we got our pants down on defense a bunch, but we're going to be fine because Joe, Jamar, and T are going to save us. And it has felt like, I know that's never been their plan. I know they've never sat together in a room. And by the way, let me get this part out of the way. If you're wondering, wait a minute, where's Paul Daner Jr.? He's on his way to Madrid, which is why you don't hear him today. So my apologies for not mentioning that at the top. But it's not like the Bengals for all those years sat around and said, hey, here's what we want to do. Here's the kind of team we want to build. We're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to protect our quarterback. We're not going to tackle well. But we're going to be cool because Joe, Jamar, and T are going to do a bunch of cool stuff. That's not what they planned, but it's what they ended up being. And I think the most disturbing thing about Sunday to me was that script and that look seemed painfully familiar. And you could use that script. You could follow that script to beat the Tennessee Titans. You might be able to follow that script to beat teams that are better than the Tennessee Titans. You cannot follow that script to win a championship. And that's, I hate to say, kind of all that counts right now. I don't think it is far-fetched to suggest that as the standing stand at this moment, that you could pretty much pinpoint what the AFC playoff field is going to be by looking at who's in the top seven right now. And the Cleveland Browns may have... have something to say about that. I don't want to discount that team, despite what happened to them against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't think they're easy to play. I think there's the potential, at least, that they've got some stick around in them. But if you just do one through seven, Buffalo, Denver, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Cincinnati. 00:10:18 Speaker 3: New England. 00:10:20 Speaker 2: I think those are the seven AFC playoff teams. I find it hard to take the Baltimore Ravens seriously right now. I find it hard, although I think they're going in the right direction, for this year to take the Las Vegas Raiders seriously right now. The Texans may make it, but that's because they catch Jacksonville, and I don't think they catch Jacksonville. I think the seven AFC playoff teams, for lack of a better way of putting it, are set. And so how do you separate yourself from those other teams, from the other six teams? You don't do it by giving up 1,000 points to the Tennessee Titans. You don't do it by not tackling Tony Pollard. You don't do that by making Cam Ward look like a capable NFL quarterback, and you might go, Mo, it's a one-off, no big deal. But it's not. And, like, that to me was the takeaway on Sunday. Yes, they win. And, yes, they did the right things to win when they had to. And, yes, it's great that you've got a guy like Burrow and a guy like Higgins and a guy like Chase playing. it was funny, right? When it felt like nobody could catch a football, Bengals started throwing the ball to T Higgins and the offense sort of took off from there. But that to me is the takeaway. And so the questions are number one, why are we still watching kind of the same thing, right? Like that look, just the defensive look was very reminiscent of some seasons and some teams that just completely went sideways. And when's this going to get fixed? When's this going to get fixed to the degree that we could finally start talking about the Bengals being bona fide, bona fide legitimate contenders to get to the Super Bowl and win the AFC? 17 minutes

after 3 o'clock. Our lines are open. 00:12:01 Speaker 4: 513-749-1530. 00:12:01 Speaker 2: 866-702-3776. The defensive issues the Bengals showed us on Sunday are not going to be fixed today. by trading for Jonathan Taylor. They're not going to be fixed by trading for Tony Pollard. Not going to be fixed by trading for Brees Hall. So we're a week away from the trade deadline. Obviously, a lot of moves have already been made. Bengals are being written about as one of the teams that have expressed interest in Jonathan Taylor. And Jonathan Taylor makes them better at running back. He doesn't make him better at tackling opposing running backs, however. And so we've got to spend some time on what the approach should be at the deadline. And it cannot be. It simply cannot be. We made our big move back in April because over six months of stuff have happened since. And by the way, the Bengals are where you plan for them to be back in April. So why wouldn't you take another step and go make a move to get a guy or two who could help you rectify the issues we saw play themselves out against the Tennessee Titans. We're going to spend a lot of time on that between now and 5.30. We've got to spend some time on the Baltimore Ravens, who I think we can scrape them off the plate. I hate to do it because of injury, but it's injury. It's the games they've given up. It's the loss to the Bengals. I think the bigger question there is, now what? We've got to spend a little bit of time on that. Bengals off to Madrid today. We're going to go to Madrid coming up. in the 5 o'clock hour. My guy, Taron Bland, producer of this show, big Minnesota Vikings fan, wants the Minnesota Vikings to trade for Joe Flacco. We'll spend a few minutes on that coming up as well. It's 19 after 3 at Moegger. By the way, on Twitter, you can find today's show preview video thanks to Sharefax Credit Union. Sharefax.org. Go there right now. Learn about the benefits of Sharefax Credit Union membership. And you can send a tweet anytime during the show thanks to Delta Dental. We are loaded today. Brendel coming up in about 25 minutes. We've got the UC football game to talk about. The Bearcats down 42-6 at halftime to Utah. I didn't necessarily have UC winning the game as the most prominent spot on my bingo card. I didn't see them being down 36 at halftime either. The first college football playoff ranking of 2026. is going to come out tonight. Easily, that's the biggest news in the United States of America this evening. We've got a little bit of time on that we'll spend as well. Xavier's performance last night. Richard Pitino talked about that. You'll hear that coming up in 15 minutes. We'll get to the UC basketball performance last night, including an injury to a guy that you feel bad for personally, and you wonder what his absence could mean for the team long-term. We'll get to that with Chad coming up in 25 minutes. It's 20 after 3. I'm Mo Egger, thrilled that you're with us today. This is ESPN 1530

Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:15:05 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:15:10 Speaker 2: From the UC Health Traffic Center, lung cancer. And 1530 broadcasting from the View. The Lightmore Group here in Mount Adams. If you missed yesterday's Tony and Austin football show. and it's available on the iHeartRadio app. Again, thanks to my guy Austin for pinch-hitting for me yesterday. I listened to that entire show live, and it killed me to not be there, but it was a nice respite from some of the stuff I had been going through. But I, A, appreciate Austin. B, it was a terrific show. If you missed it, go listen to it now. It's available on the iHeartRadio app, podcasts of this show, are a service of Long Necks Sports Grill. We've got folks waiting already. Let's go. Jim in Centerville. You're on ESPN 1530. Jim, good afternoon. How are you? 00:16:04 Speaker 3: I'm good, Mo. 00:16:05 Speaker 5: How are you doing? 00:16:06 Speaker 2: All right, man. What's up? 00:16:08 Speaker 4: You're better. 00:16:09 Speaker 3: I was afraid you. 00:16:10 Speaker 5: Were going to die there the other day. And then seeing you post from the doctor's office, I was legitimately concerned. 00:16:18 Speaker 2: Well, I'm good. Thank you. But it's good to be back. 00:16:20 Speaker 3: Good. 00:16:22 Speaker 4: Good. 00:16:23 Speaker 5: Just a quick public service announcement for anyone who goes to the Bengals games. If you're one of those people that whistles like your dad used to whistle at you when you're in trouble, they put their fingers in their mouth and do that really high-pitched squeal. Yeah. I would appreciate it if you just maybe didn't do it every play. We were sitting with some people, and I swear to you, every defensive play, and they kept the whistle going for like 10 seconds straight at each time. And, yeah, we ended up having to move because we couldn't deal with that. 00:17:09 Speaker 3: It was piercing. 00:17:12 Speaker 2: I mean, was it one person? Was it a handful of people? Was it somebody that anybody could say anything to? 00:17:19 Speaker 5: It was one person, and she was next to her daughter, I think, who was yelling something incoherent the whole time. They clearly enjoyed their tailgate. 00:17:31 Speaker 2: Of course. 00:17:32 Speaker 5: But, yeah, literally everybody around us was just looking at each other. 00:17:36 Speaker 3: Like, can we do something about this? 00:17:37 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:17:39 Speaker 3: I mean, we were cool, but it was piercing. 00:17:44 Speaker 2: I will say the only thing that– Go ahead. No, go ahead. 00:17:48 Speaker 3: I was just going to– I'm just going to. 00:17:50 Speaker 5: Say the only thing that you couldn't hear, the only time you couldn't hear her do that was after Dexter Lawrence's sack. 00:18:01 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:18:03 Speaker 5: And I'll tell you, that overtime, the crowd won the game for the Bengals. 00:18:08 Speaker 3: The crowd, I. 00:18:09 Speaker 5: Know Joe Burrow, yeah, he scored the touchdown, but they had to call two timeouts right there because the. 00:18:16 Speaker 3: Crowd was so loud. 00:18:19 Speaker 5: That even if they'd made that fourth down conversion, they would have gone with no timeout and probably had four or five false starts and never. 00:18:27 Speaker 3: Gotten past the 50. 00:18:29 Speaker 5: It was so incredible. 00:18:30 Speaker 3: Listen to that. 00:18:31 Speaker 5: That was the noise I appreciated from that game. 00:18:36 Speaker 2: That's good noise. I'll tell you this. I was not able to go on Sunday because of not feeling well, but I was texting with the folks who sit with me, and one of them got shushed. Where, you know, everybody expects the crowd to be, understandably so, the crowd to be quiet when the offense is working. And I guess somebody who we sit with made like a room voice remark about something. I don't know. And it wasn't yelling. And like the person behind him shushed him. As if the difference between Joe Burrow being able to operate the offense was my friend saying something like, hey, before we leave, I have to go to the bathroom. So. 00:19:17 Speaker 5: Yeah, you're in the 300s too, I think. And that's where we were. And I guarantee you, I haven't watched the TV video or replay of that game, but I guarantee you would be able to hear this whistle. 00:19:33 Speaker 3: It was so loud. 00:19:38 Speaker 5: It's abusive I mean my goodness to hear that I still can't hear right because. 00:19:44 Speaker 2: Of that You know, I love a raucous crowd. I do think you have to be cognizant of how what you're doing impacts other people. And I think over the course of a three-hour football game, it's usually pretty easy to tell, like, okay, am I annoying people? And I can't imagine making that noise and not thinking, huh, Maybe I'm annoying some of the people near me. Perhaps I should stop doing this. 00:20:11 Speaker 5: Everyone was looking at each other and looking at her. We weren't shying away from trying to make her feel guilty. But, I mean, we should send her into a cave to find terrorists. I mean, that's the kind of people that need to go. They need to enlist in the armed forces and just be able to, like, scare people out of places. 00:20:34 Speaker 2: Well, for your sake, I hope next Sunday night she's not there. 00:20:40 Speaker 5: Amen, brother. 00:20:41 Speaker 2: Jim, thanks. 00:20:43 Speaker 3: Take care. 00:20:44 Speaker 2: Crowd and overtime certainly did seem awesome, I should say. We'll get to that. Sports headlines coming up. We'll talk about one of the area college basketball programs and how their season started with a bang last night. Next, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:20:59 Speaker 7: Not just talk. This is sports with soul, sweat, and swagger. Tony Pike's Cincy 360. Tomorrow at 12 noon on ESPN 1530. 00:21:12 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:21:16 Speaker 8: From the UC Health Traffic Center. 00:21:18 Speaker 2: Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey

Chevrolet, home of Lifetime, powertrain protection, and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life. kelseyshev.com. Bengals made it official. Cassius Howe goes on IR after having wrist surgery. Team off to Madrid today. Taking on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Live on ESPN 1530. That game will start at 9.30 Sunday morning. College basketball tonight. Kentucky will host Manhattan in the season opener for Big Blue. Tip off at 7 pregame. 5.30 on ESPN 1530. Tonight, the initial college football playoff rankings of 2026 will be revealed. Expected to be ranked, the Kentucky Wildcats and the Indiana Hoosiers possibly ranked, and I believe that when I say ranked, in the top 10 Ohio State. We will see. I think they're the most interesting team to talk about tonight because How much do you weigh what's happening at quarterback versus what they've put on film, the resume? How much do you factor in how they performed against USC on Saturday night? We will find out. The Scott Satterfield Radio Show is also tonight. That's at 8 p.m. from the original Montgomery Inn on 700. WLW. Tons of college troops from last night. Brendel and I are going to talk about the Bearcat game in just a few minutes. It was a smashing debut for Richard Pitino's team. The Musketeers, Taryn and I were just talking about this, ball game over by the first time out. The Musketeers jumped out against Mount St. Mary's to a 13-zip lead. Never looked back. 97-52. there was a ton of great defensive pressure by the Musketeers. It was 39-5 with about four minutes to go, and I literally wondered, is Mount St. Mary's going to get to 20 points? Scored in lots of different ways, showed, I think, the ability to play a lot of different ways, and you typically don't hear coaches after the first game sound as effusive in their praise of their team as Richard Pitino did after the game last night. 00:23:30 Speaker 9: Well, I mean, I thought it was a terrific performance all around. I think besides a couple of the minutes in the second half, that was about as complete of a performance as we've had since I've been here. The defense in the first half, the unselfishness, 26 assists on 35 made field goals. We were relentless on the offensive glass. So besides a couple of minutes in the beginning of the second half, there's not a whole lot to complain from. So All three exhibition games were very valuable and certainly played great tonight. 00:24:07 Speaker 2: Xavier, his assessment, dead on. I don't know that there's an area that they didn't excel last night. Rebounding, defense, passing the ball, shooting from outside, getting to the rim. You can only do so much with a season-opening victory if it's not against a high major. Hard to not walk away from that game last night. Overwhelmingly impressed. by the Xavier Musketeers. In the field of 64, opening day marathon, NKU wins. Willie Foster, 24-10. The Norse get off to a great start, beating UTEP, 84-76. Miami University came back. Luke Skalczak, 19, come back to beat James Madison, 86-77. They've now won 31 of their past 32 regular season games with a victory in Harrisonburg, West Virginia last night. The Bearcat game last night, I think mostly a smashing success. There's an injury issue we have to talk about. Chair Brendel will join us to talk about that when we come back. We're broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:25:14 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:25:18 Speaker 2: 13 from 4. This is ESPN 1530. Mo Egger broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams. Typically on Thursdays. We talk UC sports with our guy, Chad Brendel, barricadejournal.com. I am off on Thursday, pre-planned off day, not something last minute. And so we're not going to get a chance to talk to Chad, but there is lots to discuss. UC basketball season opening victory last night, the UC football game. And Chad and I look forward to spending a lot of time with each other in Houston this weekend. He is here now. We're doing it on Tuesday. Hi, Chad. 00:25:52 Speaker 3: I don't know. 00:25:53 Speaker 10: I'm researching dining establishments near the hotel today. 00:25:59 Speaker 2: So, for those who don't know, with Dan Hoard and Tony Pike in Madrid, the UC football broadcast on Saturday will be handled by yours truly and Chad, with Chad handling color, which means, my friend, talk as much as you want. 00:26:15 Speaker 10: I mean, there is one thing that's unknown in this situation, Mo, and that is that I talk a lot. 00:26:22 Speaker 3: So I think we'll make it work. 00:26:24 Speaker 2: I think we will. I'm looking forward to it. Jared Calhoun called his team's offensive performance embarrassing. 00:26:32 Speaker 10: I get it. 00:26:33 Speaker 2: Coaches have really high standards. There were some things I didn't love. I thought his grading was a little harsh. How about you? 00:26:40 Speaker 10: For his expectations, I'm not surprised. They were taking rushed shots. They were taking guarded shots. They were taking kind of wild attempts at the rim that they. 00:26:54 Speaker 3: Get counted as layups. I don't know that I would count them. 00:26:56 Speaker 10: As layups because they were not what I have seen from this team, from the Bahamas to the three exhibition games to the practices that I've been to. 00:27:07 Speaker 11: He. 00:27:09 Speaker 10: Expects a higher standard of how they execute offensively. 00:27:12 Speaker 3: That was not up to his standard. 00:27:14 Speaker 10: So I wasn't surprised, but my favorite line was I was watching, you know, watching all the clips at halftime and I wanted to vomit in. 00:27:25 Speaker 3: A trash can. Like, geez, coach, that's aggressive. 00:27:31 Speaker 4: I don't know. 00:27:32 Speaker 2: A little much, but, but yeah, I look, I've seen a lot of offenses that have made me want to do that. That was not it last night. What was your sort of 30,000-foot takeaway from the game? 00:27:46 Speaker 3: Really good second

half. 00:27:47 Speaker 10: You could tell there were some jitters. 00:27:50 Speaker 3: I also think, and Jared. 00:27:52 Speaker 10: Won't point to this, but losing Jaden Hastings immediately, like the first possession of the game, Eastings is their most vocal guy, especially on defense. He's the guy that at the back of that defense is kind. 00:28:05 Speaker 3: Of frustrating everything. And when you lose. 00:28:09 Speaker 10: Him right from the jump, I thought their defense was impacted by that. The other thing that was wild, Mo, he said in his post-game press conference, and how many times over the last 35 years or whatever have we heard, we would have just played better on defense. 00:28:27 Speaker 3: We would have been better on offense. 00:28:30 Speaker 10: Jared Calhoun said, if we would have just been better on offense, we would have been better on defense. 00:28:37 Speaker 3: And it was a shock to my core. 00:28:40 Speaker 10: I got shivers down my spine when he said that because it is such a direct 180 from everything we've heard. And what he meant was, if we score... we can set up the press. We can set up our defense. We can be more intentional defensively where we're not scoring and teams are just coming down and, you know, kind of the way American, they wanted to grind the shot clock and, and, you know, run a bunch of sets. 00:29:07 Speaker 3: And he wanted to keep them from doing that. 00:29:09 Speaker 10: So it was a, it was a culture shock to hear a coach take the exact opposite stance on. 00:29:18 Speaker 3: Efficiency on both ends of the floor. 00:29:20 Speaker 2: I'll ask you about Jaden Hastings here in a second. Here's what I like, and you can speak to this. This is last night. This is a reflection of the three exhibition games. I like how they look coming out of timeouts. And to me, that says something about what's going on in the huddle. That says something about everybody's level of attentiveness. That says something about, you know... things are being clearly communicated. Maybe the things that are being prioritized in the huddle. And they don't score every single time, but I feel like in their first offensive possession, even if they don't have the ball coming out of the dead ball, I always feel like, and I saw it last night, they get good looks. 00:29:57 Speaker 10: Mo, I think a lot of that can be attributed to, and I think defensively they look generally pretty good coming out of timeouts as well. 00:30:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 00:30:05 Speaker 10: That's the result of having offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators, right? Because what happens in those huddles? If it's coming out of, you know, the other team's got the ball, one of the defensive coordinators is going to be with the team and say, hey, this is what. 00:30:19 Speaker 3: We're looking to accomplish. 00:30:21 Speaker 10: And then offensively, I know Max Bent is kind of the. 00:30:27 Speaker 3: The guru of those. 00:30:29 Speaker 10: Out-of-bounds,

sideline out, baseline out, whatever plays, and he's able to get those guys, sit them down and. 00:30:35 Speaker 3: Say, hey, this is what we're going to run, this is what we want to do, and they. 00:30:39 Speaker 10: Are generally beautifully drawn up. You're going to get, it feels like, two or three times a game, it's an easy, easy basket out of a timeout because of something that they drew up in the huddle. 00:30:54 Speaker 2: What can you tell me about Jaden Hastings? 00:30:58 Speaker 10: I mean, it didn't look good, especially the second time where you know they didn't just throw him back out. 00:31:04 Speaker 3: I know a lot of people are upset that he went back out there. 00:31:07 Speaker 10: Cincinnati's got one of the best training staffs in the country, one of the best processors in the country. 00:31:14 Speaker 3: They tested that thing. 00:31:15 Speaker 10: They made sure that they were comfortable with him going back out there, and then it slipped back out. 00:31:22 Speaker 3: That's a little bit. 00:31:23 Speaker 10: Concerning about the structural– nature of his shoulder right now. My guess, we're not going to see him Wednesday or Thursday, excuse me. Wouldn't be surprised if they even maybe kind of held him out for a little while to try to get that thing back to as healthy as they can possibly get it. It's terrifying because If you had asked me at our college basketball spectacular a week ago, who is the guy that they can least afford to play without, Hastings would have been one of the first names out of my mouth. 00:32:07 Speaker 3: I don't know this for sure, but. 00:32:10 Speaker 10: The way that that went down, you have to think at least there's going to be a little bit of time where they're going to want to rest that and try to let it recover. Now they're going to have to learn how to play without him here for at least the very short-term future, I would think. Hopefully it's nothing long-term. I'm guessing we probably won't get any concrete news on that until we hear. 00:32:31 Speaker 3: From Jared on Thursday. 00:32:34 Speaker 2: Have you ever met Doug Gottlieb? 00:32:37 Speaker 3: No, but I have not liked him for a long time. 00:32:39 Speaker 4: Okay. 00:32:41 Speaker 3: He's kind of smug. It comes off as kind of smug, and that's not. 00:32:51 Speaker 10: Really my, you know, it's not a personality fit with me. I'm not a big fan of Doug. 00:33:00 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:33:03 Speaker 2: So I don't know him, but I have communicated with him via DM. And this was back when he was one of us. He was a radio show host. 00:33:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:33:12 Speaker 2: And he was very kind. And so I'm hoping to say hi in person to Doug Gottlieb on Thursday. 00:33:19 Speaker 10: Hopefully he's a lot nicer in person than he comes off on some of his TV and radio stuff. 00:33:25 Speaker 3: He doesn't do anything anymore, does he? 00:33:27 Speaker 2: He does not, no. I'm in the minority. I thought he was a good national sports talk radio host. What you can tell I'm doing here is I'm trying to avoid talking about what it felt to be down 42-6 at halftime on Saturday night. 00:33:44 Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about that either. 00:33:45 Speaker 10: I got in trouble for what I had to say when they were down 42 to six at halftime on Saturday. So, you know, I'm trying to behave myself as well. 00:33:53 Speaker 3: That was bad. 00:33:55 Speaker 10: It was complete system failure. They couldn't get off the field on third down defensively, which was my number one concern that game. And boy, if that was a concern last week, I know I was like, oh, well, Utah was, like, number six in the country in third downs on offense, third down conversions. 00:34:18 Speaker 3: I was like, well, it can't be. 00:34:19 Speaker 10: Houston's got to be worse than that, right? 00:34:23 Speaker 3: No, they're first. 00:34:24 Speaker 10: Houston converts 60% of their third downs. That's my biggest concern with this defense is being able to get off the field. 00:34:30 Speaker 3: They did it in the second half. They were good at it against Texas Tech. They were good in. 00:34:35 Speaker 10: The first half against West Virginia, terrible in the second half against West Virginia. So it's kind of, you know, Jekyll and Hyde on... what this team is going to be on third down. They were terrible on third down. And then you throw in the, the two, you know, defensive scores and, you know, Houston had four, Utah had four possessions and they scored six touchdowns. And last I checked, that's pretty rare. That doesn't happen a whole lot. Uh, it was, it's the, the first thing that came to mind was that South Florida game in 2015, when it was 51 to seven or whatever. 00:35:10 Speaker 2: It was at halftime, 51 to three. And then the, 51-3. 00:35:13 Speaker 10: And then the other one was the bowl game in Hawaii that I think I watched for about six minutes and changed channels. It's the only time I remember in my 20 years of doing this where I was like, I'm not doing it. I'm not watching this bowl game in Hawaii that doesn't mean anything when it looks this bad. It looked that bad the first half on Saturday. 00:35:39 Speaker 2: They just seemed... And I don't know if this is a function of, look, we've seen extremes with how bad they were against West Virginia and then extremes with how good they were against Texas Tech. It felt to me like maybe this is a stupid way of looking at things. Utah's offense is so hard to prepare for that Cincinnati didn't prepare for the basics. And so they looked a step slow on Saturday. 00:36:07 Speaker 10: It looked like, and they do some weird stuff, don't get me wrong. Their ability to, like, move the eyes of a defense and then do something directly counter-opposite to what they're showing you was, I was really, really, like, I called, when they played Illinois, I said that Illinois' offense was like basketball porn. Watching the Utah offense was like the football version of that The way that

they got you looking this way. I mean, they were having Dampier, like, sprint. Like, he was going to, like, speed option and then stop on a dime and drop three steps back into, like, a passing set. Like, Cincinnati did a bad job identifying what Utah was. 00:36:54 Speaker 3: Trying to accomplish. 00:36:55 Speaker 10: And Utah has, like, I don't know why more teams don't do this, Mel. Utah, the big guys are huge, right? 00:37:03 Speaker 12: Mm-hmm. 00:37:05 Speaker 3: And the fast guys are really fast. So you have that combination. 00:37:10 Speaker 10: A lot of teams, they're smaller and faster, or they're bigger and slower. Utah was like, okay, our big guys are really, really big, and then our fast guys are really, really fast. 00:37:20 Speaker 3: And I would recruit that way. 00:37:22 Speaker 10: I think that's a pretty smart way to build a football team. 00:37:26 Speaker 3: All right. 00:37:29 Speaker 2: Makes sense. I appreciate you adjusting your schedule for me, as always. We'll see you Thursday. 00:37:34 Speaker 3: Whatever you need, and I can't wait. 00:37:37 Speaker 10: I was trying to get us, like, I guess when you guys travel, it's you, Dan, and Tony in a row. And I was trying to organize to where maybe we could get that middle seat, like, empty. But I'm told that there's no– I was told there was a 0% chance there's enough room on that plane for there being an empty seat in our row. 00:38:01 Speaker 3: But I tried. 00:38:02 Speaker 2: Well, appreciate your effort. Looking forward to it. Will be fun. And we'll have a blast calling that game. Chad, thanks so much. 00:38:08 Speaker 3: Appreciate you. 00:38:10 Speaker 2: Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com. Coming up on 4 o'clock, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:38:16 Speaker 3: This is SportsZenner. 00:38:21 Speaker 8: I'm Christine Lisi. This just in. 00:38:22 Speaker 13: The Ravens named rookie quarterback Joe Fignano. Their starter Thursday against Jacksonville. Lamar Jackson's on his way to IR. He'll have surgery on his injured right thumb. Tyler Huntley is out with a toe injury. Some interesting comments today from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on 105.3 The Fan. Said he believes the defense is improving and focused on necessary adjustments to get better. Also voiced optimism about the overall team's general direction. 00:38:46 Speaker 8: ESPN's Dan Graziano, not so sure about that. 00:38:49 Speaker 14: Are you going to go to the playoffs and do anything as the Dallas Cowboys this year with this defense? You just lost a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to Cardinals backups. 00:38:57 Speaker 8: I understand the. 00:38:58 Speaker 14: Cowboys want to believe they've put together a good roster that can compete, and it's hard to give that up when you convince yourself of it, but there's nothing that this defense is showing that makes you think they're close. 00:39:08 Speaker 8: Dan Graziano out on Sportsmanlike. 00:39:10 Speaker 13: As the clock continues to tick toward the expiration of MLB's current CBA, big change for Major League Baseball's labor deal proposal. Instead of instantly implementing a salary cap in 2027, it would postpone it until 2028. 00:39:21 Speaker 8: The reason? The difficulty of teams navigating free agency amid the current uncertainty. 00:39:27 Speaker 2: Hey, it's Evan Cohen. 00:39:28 Speaker 12: Coming up Wednesday, we'll react to the release of the first official college football rankings. Plus, we'll look ahead to the best weekend of the college football season. Hey, it's out sportsman likes to Tammy Stern right here on ESPN Radio, ESPN 2 and ESPN News. 00:39:48 Speaker 11: Your one stop for advertising call 844-8 ESPN 1530. 00:39:51 Speaker 8: That's the name of the. 00:39:53 Speaker 2: Radio station what's up this is ESPN 1530 as I just said thank you for listening we're broadcasting today from the view in Mount Adams it's got a great view of Cincinnati I put the show preview uh video up on Twitter to sort of capture what you see when you come here This is a venue that you could rent and have a party here. You could have a corporate gathering. Holidays are coming up, obviously, holiday parties. Maybe you're booking a wedding or something like that. If you're looking for a spot, this place is spectacular. It overlooks downtown Cincinnati. We almost could look right into GABP. Could almost look right into the ballpark, which is really cool. We can look over into Covington. We can look over into Newport. We could look out onto Fort Washington Way, the Lytle Tunnel, City View Tavern. There are lots of cool places. We're on top of it all here in Mount Adams. This is part of the Delightmore Group. The Delightmore Group is so good to us. They run multiple venues throughout Cincinnati. The Trancept, Mercantile Immersive. Going to reopen the Phoenix here early in 2027 downtown. Carnegie Hall in Newport. By the way, Mercantile Immersive will have a really fun Bengals watch party on Sunday morning. So learn all about these venues and all the events they have here at delightmore.com. We're going to go to Madrid in the next hour, a little bit after 5 o'clock. And we're going to talk with one of the, like the main guy in Madrid, the biggest Bengals fan in Madrid. He is so stoked that his team is coming to his country, to his city. And so we'll reach out to him coming up in about an hour. We're done at 5.30 today for UK basketball as the Wildcats take on Manhattan tonight. Tip off at 7 pregame at 5.30 on ESPN 1530. So much fun to talk about college basketball and all the season opening games last night. I watched on Sunday morning as I was dealing with some things physically, the game in Rome between Villanova and Notre Dame was fun to watch two high major programs play on a Sunday morning. Great to have college basketball back. We've started the show by talking about the Bengals game on Sunday, and it's like When a team wins and you focus on what they don't do well, you get accused of dwelling on the negative. You

get accused of not being positive enough or not appreciating the win. I firmly believe this. Number one, sports are fun. When your team wins, that's supposed to be fun. If you can only dwell on the negative, you're doing it wrong. I remember the 2021 UC football season where. 00:42:37 Speaker 2: The standard was perfection, right? It was, they got to win every game to make the playoff. If they don't make the playoff, it's going to be resoundingly disappointing. And I remember going like, they're winning games. Like it's, it's okay to be excited about the fact that they won. They had a game that year. It was the night that college game day broadcast from UC. They beat Tulsa 28 to 20, I think. And they didn't play great. Luke fickle after the game had to remind his players. We won like turn the music on, celebrate. We won. And so I certainly do believe you can, as a fan, a critical fan, because I've done it, fall into the trap of not appreciating the difficulty in winning, even if you're playing one of the dregs of the NFL. It counts the same as if they would have won 56 to nothing. It counts the same as if they would have taken that Tennessee team and beaten them so bad that the Bengals are playing the F Troops in the second half. It is really hard to win. You hear coaches and players and executives say this all the time, like, it is really hard to win. So when they do, hell yeah, be fired up. Like, if you walked out of that stadium on Sunday, if you went to it, if you watched the game at an establishment, you were high-fiving people, like, dude, don't be ashamed of that. But if you're going to talk about the performance of the team, I think you have to be pretty critical about what we saw. And the frustrating thing about Sunday isn't necessarily, boy, they made Cam Ward look like a competent NFL quarterback. Or they couldn't tackle Tony Pollard. Or the game had to go to overtime or was hanging in the balance in OT and late in the fourth quarter. It's how it looked. And I was listening to Austin talk about, well, is it Zach? Is it Al Golden? I'm to the point where who we point the finger at is irrelevant. The fact that we saw something that unfortunately feels painfully familiar is troubling. I think you could look at the standings right now, see the seven teams that are currently occupying playoff spots in the conference, and say, those are the American Football Conference's seven playoff teams. Cleveland might have something to say about that. But I don't think it's far-fetched to say that as the standings sit right now in the AFC. 00:44:56 Speaker 2: Those are going to be the teams that play after Week 18. Now, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh will determine who's going to win the AFC North in all likelihood. So, you know, maybe there's a flip-flop between where Pittsburgh is. The Steelers currently occupy the three. The Bengals occupy the six. That game next Sunday night is now massive. Uh, maybe we have a great division race between Casey and Denver, two teams that played a really fun Sunday night football game this week. But I think you look at Buffalo, Denver, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Casey, Cincinnati, new England, maybe not necessarily in that order. But that's the order they're in right now. Those are your seven playoff teams. So how do you separate yourself from that bunch? It's not to say that those teams don't have their own respective issues. Denver's got a quarterback issue. Buffalo, I don't think they've solved their defensive problems. KC, I'm still not entirely bought in, but they are 5-2. They do organizationally, at least, have a pedigree. How do you separate yourself? Well, you separate yourself by consistently looking different than you've been. And unfortunately, the Bengals brand for a couple of years has been, we're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. We're not going to block anybody from getting to our quarterback. But our QB and our two wide receivers are going to be capable of doing really cool things. And so we're going to be fine. And sometimes it works. Two years ago, they went nine and eight. Two years ago, they played a meaningful football game week 18. What was the MO that year? Maybe not by design, but it was We're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody, but our quarterback is awesome. Although Joe wasn't exactly awesome this past Sunday because of the picks, but our quarterback is awesome. And he and Jamar and T can do amazing things. And at the end of the day, that's going to be enough. I think we all agreed that could be fun weekly. That doesn't win you a championship. And so what I, we've talked a lot about like, all right, one of the Bengals is going to be taken seriously as bona fide contenders. I think we agreed if they beat Baltimore, that would advance the conversation. But Lamar didn't play in that game. Lamar's not going to be playing anytime soon. One thing you can do is not look like you've looked, especially when you're playing one of the bottom feeders of the NFL. And so I think you're being very fair if you walked away from that game happy that they won, maybe excited that they won, but apprehension about what they're going to be moving forward because they still at least haven't completely moved on from what they have been, which is a team that has all sorts of defensive issues. Now, look, they have very good defensive players. Dexter Lawrence is sack. One of the plays of the season. He has been terrific. Dexter Lawrence has been as good as advertised. He's been worth what they've given up, but they still have issues in the back seven. They still have issues at linebacker. They still have issues in the secondaries. They still have some problems as it relates to safety. Now, Cash's howl is out. So, you know, maybe that compromises the pass rush a little bit. And we are going to talk about Shamar Stewart and it kind of being

time for him to step up. But the frustrating thing to me about Sunday was I've seen it before. Now, they won the game, though. Yes, I've seen it work before. I've seen the Bengals win games like that. We have in the Borough era where he bails them out. But can you win the championship that way? We all agreed each of the last two off-seasons the answer is no. When's it going to be rectified? Does it get rectified at the trade deadline? A couple of things about the trade deadline. They are, by all accounts, they've engaged with the Indianapolis Colts in discussions about Jonathan Taylor. who I would imagine a lot of teams are. Very good piece today written by Ben Solak of ESPN about what he thinks the trade deadline is going to look like at running back in particular. Tony Pollard, who evaded 1,000 tackles on Sunday against the Bengals. He's going to be dangled and probably dealt, maybe Brees Hall by the New York Jets. By all accounts, Saquon Barkley, who you talk about trying to gut your way through a game, he did on Sunday despite a bad hammy. It feels like he's going to stay put in Philadelphia, but the guy at the top of that list is Jonathan Taylor. And the Colts are reportedly looking for something controversial. to what the Panthers got from the 49ers a couple of years ago when they traded Christian McCaffrey to San Fran. San Fran sent it a two and a three, and the Colts are looking for even more than that. So there's a few different discussions about Jonathan Taylor as it relates to the Bengals. One, what are you willing to give up? Two, how high are you willing to go if there's a major bidding war? Three, are you making just one trade? Because the issues we saw play themselves out on Sunday aren't rectified by Jonathan Taylor. They're not rectified by Brees Hall. They're not rectified by Tony Pollard. They're maybe not going to be rectified by any one player, but they could be addressed by acquiring, like, Zach Bond from the Eagles. Or, we just saw him on Sunday, Imani Hooker. Or, Derwin James. I hate to make it as simple as this, because I do feel like you should be looking to make upgrades whenever you can at any position. And yes, the Bengals have had issue at running back. They've had, at times, problems just simply running the football, and they've had problems at times with running backs not being able to hold onto the football. But if you have one deal to make at the deadline, is it for somebody who makes you better at what you're already supposed to be good at, or somebody who addresses a weakness? here's my thing about Jonathan Taylor. Not that I don't want him, not that I don't appreciate how good he is, but why lean into what you've been for a long time when what you've been hasn't worked? Like, let's just make it about Jonathan Taylor for a second. Trading for him to me is it's leaning even heavier into what you've already been, which is stars on offense, money on offense and getting as many offensive weapons as possible, none of which any of us have objected to, and just sort of shrugging your shoulders as it relates to the defense. Now, again, it's not like the Bengals haven't tried to make the defense better. We were all alive this past offseason. But isn't prioritizing an offensive player, a star, even at a position where we've all agreed they need to get better, isn't that leaning further into what they've already been? And isn't what they've already been something we just saw on Sunday? We're going to score a bunch. We're going to count on our offensive stars to bail us out. But we're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. Getting Jonathan Taylor doesn't help you tackle, doesn't help you cover, doesn't help you stop people. So it's not that anybody should necessarily be diametrically opposed to it, but if there are players who play defense available... that represent upgrades at positions where you haven't been good at, or you need more of, or you're dealing with injuries at, how do you not prioritize that just a little bit more? 513-749-1530 is our number, 866-702-3776. It is finally time for Shamar Stewart to do something. We'll get to that coming up in just a few minutes. You'll hear Scott Satterfield talk about making the transition from what happened on Saturday at Nippert Stadium to what needs to happen this Saturday in Houston. Next, 19 after four, Mo Egger broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:52:35 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN. 00:52:37 Speaker 15: Touchdown, Bengals! This week, the Bengals are going international as they make their way to Madrid to duel with the Dirty Birds of Atlanta, a game we hope will be known as the Running of the Bengals. Can the orange and black overcome the overseas trip, or will the Falcons swoop in for the win? Honestly, isn't the Falcon just an oversized pigeon? Remember to set your alarm. The game kicks off at 9.30 a.m. with coverage starting at 5.30 a.m. Sunday morning. Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:53:17 Speaker 7: This is Football in the Natty, brought to you by Belterra Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:53:30 Speaker 2: By the way, I don't do, for what it's worth, not that anybody was wondering, I don't do prediction markets. Not my jam. I like FanDuel. I like regular sports wagering. Those prediction markets, not my thing. But I got a note here from... Somebody with a prediction market, I guess, about where Joe Flacco is going to be after the trade deadline. And the prohibitive favorite would be the Baltimore Ravens. I feel comfortable saying this. There is a better chance of somebody coming to my house and offering me $ 2 million for it than the Bengals trading Joe Flacco to the Baltimore Ravens. I don't know why anybody would believe or think that. And I know the Cleveland

Browns traded Flacco in the division last year. I think that was a little bit of a different scenario. I don't know why anybody would think the Bengals would have any interest in giving a life preserver to someone who is sinking like the Ravens are. I hate that it's happening because of injury, and there's other things in play as well. There's very interesting conversations about what Lamar Jackson's future is going to be But the Ravens seem, at least as it relates to winning the division, they seem dead. I don't know why anybody would be interested in providing them relief, giving them a life preserver, or however you'd want to put it. Honestly, and Taryn and I were talking about this before the show, there's teams that would be interested in Joe Flacco, I'm sure. It's one of the best insurance policies in the NFL. We're not yet midway through the season. I like Josh Johnson a lot. I If you're trying to win this year, Joe Flacco is a very good asset for this year. They should have less than zero interest in trading him. Let's get to the UC football game on Saturday, which was profoundly disappointing in the fact that it got away from them before halftime. Utah's offense, extraordinarily efficient, extraordinarily well run. You knew that going in. You couldn't give up two Utah defensive touchdowns, but the Bearcats did. Here's Scott Satterfield earlier today talking about the emphasis on moving on from the Utah game completely as they get set to take on Houston on Saturday. No, we should do that every week. You know, you really should. 00:55:46 Speaker 6: I mean, if you go back and look, what you've done up to this point doesn't really matter. I mean, you have to go out and play this game and you have to do it. This game has to get our full attention and focus. And I think it's human nature. like to go back and all right, look, see where our record is and see, you know, what we've done against this team and what they've done. And I think, you know, the outside world, that's great to talk about, you know, but as players and coaches, like we should never do that. We should focus on everything we have on Houston and what we, you know, how can we get this game done? It's the same thing throughout a game. Like you shouldn't be scoreboard watching either in a game. Like, you know, whether we're up or down, like you should just be playing every play the best of your ability. But again, human nature steps in. And I think that's what we have to guard against. I think As our team, you know, as you go out throughout this, I mean, look at everybody right now where they're sitting in the league and throughout the country, and there's four games, there's a lot of ball left. You start doing that and focusing on that, man, you'll let these games just slide by. And so we have to do a great job of focusing on this week, today, Tuesday practice, and doing everything we can to be the best we can be today. And I think the teams that do that the best this next month is going to be the teams when they look back at their record and be like, man, okay, this team, they were focused, they did a great job. And the other teams, maybe not. 00:57:02 Speaker 2: So that's what we have to guard against. Utah was awesome. I've had a chance now to see the Bearcats play against Texas Tech. I've had a chance to see them play against Arizona. Texas Tech beat Arizona this past Saturday. I had a chance to see them play against Utah now. We'll see Houston up front up close on Saturday. None of this means that Utah is going to win the Big 12. Utah is the most impressive team I've seen in person. against Cincinnati this year. Here's Scott Satterfield on what his team learned during that game at Nippert Stadium. 00:57:33 Speaker 6: Yeah, they were six for six in the first half on third down. I mean, you got to get off the field. You know, it's like that in the second half of West Virginia as well. We didn't get off the field on third down. You know, just a little bit of everything, really. When you go back and look at all these games, like when we're really good on third down on defense and you're getting off the field, it gives a great chance and opportunity to win these games. You know, and I think A little bit of it is not getting enough pass rush at times. You know, tighter coverage. You know, if you get loose coverage, then those guys can catch it. 00:58:03 Speaker 2: And, you know, obviously right there. 00:58:04 Speaker 6: At the sticks to get the first down. 00:58:08 Speaker 2: You know, I. 00:58:08 Speaker 6: Think sometimes one-on-one matchups we've got to win, you know, and we've lost a few of those. You know, but the second half of this past game, they did a really good job on third down. 00:58:20 Speaker 3: We got off the field. 00:58:21 Speaker 6: We got off and then fourth down as well because, you know, these teams are, Across the 50, they're going for it on fourth. We held them twice on fourth down this past week. But I do think it's a little bit of both. I think this week will be imperative. I think first down will be critical this week against Houston. They're so efficient. They do a great job. If you go back and look at them, they don't have many negative plays. You know, so if we can try to knock them off a little bit on first down to make that third down a little bit longer, I mean, it's, you know. These offenses these days, when it's third and three or four or less, I mean, they can do everything, run, throw, whatever, and it makes it a lot more difficult to stop them. If you get them in that long yardage scenario, then obviously you get a little bit better idea about how to get off the field. 00:59:02 Speaker 2: Satterfield talking with the media earlier today, UC and Houston on Saturday at 3.30. Sports headlines next, ESPN. 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:59:12 Speaker 7: You've been listening to Football in the Natty, brought to you by Red Key Express on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati

Bengals. 00:59:24 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 00:59:26 Speaker 10: Traffic. 00:59:29 Speaker 15: From the ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:59:35 Speaker 2: Sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection and Guarantee Credit Approval from their family, the yours for life. KelseyChev.com. Bengals made it official. Zach Taylor announced this yesterday, but cash as hell goes on IR after having wrist surgery. No corresponding roster move announced. Bengals taking on the Falcons in Madrid Sunday morning here at 9.30. Pre-game coverage starts at 5.30 Sunday morning on ESPN. 15.30, Bengals playing their third international game in their history, looking for their first victory. I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to, I like morning football. It's a little weird. The international games are always kind of weird. This game Sunday scares me for a few different reasons, not the least of which is just those international games, they just feel weird. And one of the mitigating factors in both teams will deal with the travel, like who handles the environment better. Zach Taylor has talked before about when the Bengals played in London in 2019, they were 0-8. And he talked about how the practices out there were some of their best and most spirited practices. Now, maybe that's not saying all that much because that team won two games. We'll see. 9.30 Sunday morning. Again, live on ESPN 1530. Bengals leaving for Madrid today. College football tonight. Thank God for this. If you're going to be posted up watching television and you're not going to watch like a streaming service, but you need something to watch. Maction. Miami taking on Buffalo, the Red Hawks, a win away from bowl eligibility. That game will kick off at 8 o'clock tonight. There are two Maction games, so if you need a sporting event to watch tonight, amid all the election coverage, there's the Mac for you. Mac football, baby. Miami, Buffalo. The other game is OU and Akron. That game starts at 7 o'clock. College basketball tonight. Kentucky takes on Manhattan in the season opener. Tip-off at 7 p.m. on ESPN 1530. Pre-game coverage will begin at 5.30. And one other college football note, it's a big one. The initial college football playoff rankings of 2026 will come out tonight. Everybody will overreact and pretend like those rankings are final when there's still a month to go in the season. But nonetheless, a lot of fun. Tonight, if you're a Kentucky football fan, I think it would be a shocker if the Wildcats weren't ranked in the top 10. Now, that doesn't guarantee anything, and UK still has a lot of obstacles in front of it, but still a very big deal for that program. Tonight, to see its name on the screen, ranked, but like ranked where they would be in the playoff if the playoff began tonight, none of that takes away from the stakes of Saturday's game against Tennessee and Knoxville, which is massive. But I could tell you this as a

UC football fan, And granted, Cincinnati's name is not going to appear on the screen tonight. It's not unlike seeing your team's name pop up on the screen for the first time in forever on Selection Sunday. When you root for something, a program that's not a traditional college football power, and there's all the big boys, there's all the traditional powers, and then there's your school, that's pretty cool. And so Kentucky's name is going to pop up on the TV tonight. I think there's a lot of things interesting about the rankings. I think what they do with Ohio State because of the quarterback situation now coming off a loss is interesting. I don't think anybody believes the Buckeyes have been eliminated, but certainly the margin for error is now razor thin for Ryan Day's team. How does the committee sort through all the two loss SEC teams? What do they do with Utah? What do they do with BYU? Because of how unevenly BYU has played since beating Notre Dame. That is tonight at 7 o'clock. Scott Satterfield radio show tonight at 8 p.m. on 700 WLW. It is put up or shut up time for Shamar Stewart. And if there's one thing that has maybe happened this week as it relates specifically to the trade deadline, it's I don't think we're going to be talking about Shamar Stewart being traded anymore because, well, of the injuries up front, specifically to cash is how. I feel bad for Shamar and folks will say like this, this was his own doing last year to a degree was, but you know, he was still there for the beginning, for the beginning ish. He got to training camp kind of close to the beginning, ended the holdout early. Then he gets hurt, has kind of a lost rookie season. I think everybody was excited to see what a clean slated Shamar Stewart would look like in 2026 and, And then he gets injured on the first day of training camp. And, you know, he's had games, obviously, this year where he's been a healthy scratch. Ain't going to be a healthy scratch on Sunday. And if he is, then there's a whole different set of problems. It's a year and a half. Team needs you. You're surrounded by dudes at your position. You're on a defensive line that has Dexter Lawrence, who has proven to be at times almost impossible to block. Shamar, like, it's time. you know, this, if, if, if you're going to make anything of your second NFL season, this is it. And, and we'll see, we'll see if he's capable of doing that against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, 20 minutes away from five o'clock. I will admit to being a little torn and even a little hypocritical when it comes to international games, because there's, And I talked about this when the Bengals went to London 10 years ago. There's a part of me that looks at the international games through this prism. Just from a Bengals perspective, and I know this is not a home game for them, but there's been billions of dollars spent by taxpayers on NFL stadiums. Billions around this country. And to me, there's always been kind of an implied deal.

You build us a stadium... We'll stage all of our home events there. This is one of my basic problems with the baseball lockout. This is not the players going on strike. This is the owners saying, we're not going to have games in these stadiums that in many cases they didn't pay for. And I think there's a basic agreement here from that perspective. Like, all right, we'll build you a baseball stadium, 81 home games, give them to us. And then we get to enjoy all the ancillary benefits. I think there's something similar in the NFL where it's like, we paid for these stadiums. So the games should take place in those stadiums, not in Madrid, London, et cetera. At the same time, I went to both London games. I'm hypocritical there. I think the games when they're played overseas are sort of fun. And I, I always get such a huge kick out of finding people on social media who are fans of the Bengals. We did this with the folks in London, who day UK folks in 2016, uh, finding fans in those cities that teams are going to who get a chance to see a team they typically root for from like a third of a world away, and they get a chance to see them up close. And not just a chance to go to the game, but a chance to sort of be a wash in all things Bengals. I mentioned the London trip, and this was, I think, a little bit more so the case in 2016 as opposed to 2019. But what was so cool to me was getting there And when you have an NFL team in your city, maybe you kind of take them for granted. You get a chance to see them every week. You can go to a game if you want. They're just kind of part of your life. The cool thing about those people in London, it was a big deal that these Cincinnati Bengals were going to be playing in their country and in most cases, their city. They were stoked. So we found some folks in Madrid who feel the same way about the Bengals coming to Madrid. And the gentleman, the day that we found out the Bengals are going to London, we found a guy on social media who essentially runs the Bengals fan club in Madrid. And so this guy was stoked then. I can't imagine what this week is going to be like for him. He's going to join us coming up in just about 20 minutes, and I'm looking forward to that. And maybe if you're making the trip, and I know there's a lot of folks who are headed out tomorrow or on Thursday, if you're making the trip, he'll give you some do's and don'ts. That'll be fun. Coming up at 5.05. It's 16 from 5, broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:08:36 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 01:08:41 Speaker 2: From the UC Health. 12 from 5, ESPN 1530. Mo Egger, if you've missed anything on this show, or if you missed me not being on this show, like yesterday, the Tony and Austin football show, which I appreciate Austin for pinch hitting, everything's available on the iHeartRadio app. Entire shows, interviews, whatever it is, you can find it. iHeartRadio app, podcasts of this show. As always, a service of Long Neck Sports Grill. Long Neck Sports Grill has three awesome locations in northern Kentucky. You got Wilder. You got Hebron. Brand new location in Hebron that no brand new. I think they started in March? February? Regardless, it's still new-ish. Opened this year. And of course, Richwood, home of the Roundtable show, Longneck Sports Grill, as they rotate between the three. Each one of them, 4K TVs all over the place. Each one of them, game day specials. Each one of them, a great place to post up and watch pro and college football. Longneck Sports Grill, we love them. Hopefully they love us. Want to be loved. Want to be loved. Look on the Bengals trade thing. It's This is not an overreaction. It is a reaction. I don't think it's an overreaction to how they played on Sunday. How they played on Sunday was familiar. How they played on Sunday was... It looked like it was representative of a formula that the Bengals haven't intentionally put together, but that they've had to use in the past. which is we have an amazing quarterback. We have two ridiculously good wide receivers. We can score a lot of points. We're never out of a game because of who we are on offense. We can make mistakes on offense. Our quarterback can throw three picks and we could still be okay, but we're going to have to bail out our defense. We're going to have to find ways to win in spite of the fact that we're not a great tackling team, that we have issues at linebacker, that we have issues in the back end of the defense. I don't know why you prioritize leaning into that. In an ideal world, if you're really going for it, then you could trade for Jonathan Taylor, but you could also upgrade your defense. And maybe that's what the Bengals do. But as we focus on running backs, and I know Jonathan Taylor is not the only one that's out there, making that your priority to me is just leaning into what you've already been. And if we were on board with what the Bengals have already been, then why were we so excited about acquiring all the guys the Bengals got on defense this offseason? I think if there was one thing most of us could agree on at the end of the 2024 season and then at the end of the 2025 season, it was the way they're built and the way they have to win is not sustainable, especially if the objective is to legitimately compete for a championship. It can't be Burrow escapes again. And Burrow, and by the way, he got sacked three times. He was hit a bunch on Sunday. He was under duress a lot. So that's also been a part of the formula for a while here. And again, not an intentionally used formula, but we're going to have a tough time protecting. We're not going to be great at tackling. We're not going to be great in coverage. We're not going to be great in the middle of the field. We're deficient at linebacker. I don't know, man. This whole linebacker thing At the end of last season, we talked about, like, man, the Bengals need to get some other linebackers.

Not swap out the linebackers, but other linebackers. And God knows, Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter have certainly had their moments, not the least of which was the safety, which was a huge play in that game on Sunday. But haven't we seen enough at that position to kind of feel like it's time to make an addition there? Like, if it's... trade deadline or bust or running back or bust at the trade deadline to me that's just it's leaning into what you've already been and what they've been for a while hasn't worked i've made the playoffs since 2022 so it i i love some of the players at running back that are talked about but there's a the athletic has a big board it looks like a draft board but it's it's players who either could be traded or are likely to be traded between now and next Tuesday, and it's been updated with some of the moves that have been made around the NFL, I can go through it and find players that solve problems a lot more than the running backs do. I don't understand prioritizing leaning into what they've already been when what they've been for a while has just simply not worked. And as I look at the current playoff field, which... I'm sure this wager is out there somewhere. The seven teams that occupy playoff spots right now in the AFC, will they be the AFC's playoff teams? You could probably make that wager somewhere. I feel like it's very relatively at least easy to identify who's going to be in the postseason. You kind of start to talk about like, all right, getting the best possible record, winning a division, winning that game next Sunday against Pittsburgh, getting the highest possible seed, contending for a Super Bowl spot. Are you doing that with this defense that's currently constructed? There's good to the defense. Pass rush has been terrific. Unfortunately, they're not going to have Cassius Howell, but there's nothing to not like about that guy. There's obviously nothing to not like about Boye Mafe. There's nothing to not like about Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen and what they have up front. They're deficient in the middle, and they're deficient on the back end. And that's been the theme of the last number of years. 01:14:40 Speaker 1: How. 01:14:41 Speaker 2: How you then talk about adding a running back, more than anything else, I don't. And look, I've talked about adding Jonathan Taylor because of the lack of productivity, relatively speaking, from Chase Brown. But man, I think you have to find ways to, I don't know, address longstanding deficiencies that again popped up on Sunday. And that to me was the troubling part of why that game was harder than it should have been. It wasn't, hey, good team at home should beat the Tennessee Titans handily. You shouldn't let a team like that hang around. It was really independent of the opponent. It was, wait a minute, we're doing this again? We're going to give up a bunch of points and then ask Joe, Jamar, and T to bail you out? Asking Joe, Jamar, and T to bail them out

for quite a while has simply not been a championship formula. It hasn't been a playoff formula. And now we've got to start talking about what's a championship formula. What we saw on display on Sunday was, frankly, the exact opposite. 513-749-1530 is our phone number. We're done early because of the UK basketball game. The Wildcats are taking on Manhattan tonight. So we're finished at 530. We are broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams. And right now, with some clouds rolling in, we have behind us an enormous window. That looks out into downtown Cincinnati and Covington and Newport. And so we're looking due west this time of day, this time of year. The sun is going to set behind us. Some clouds have obscured the sun a little bit. This is a gorgeous setting for any kind of event that you would be having. And so go to delightmore.com, look for the view in Mount Adams, and I think you're going to be thoroughly, thoroughly impressed. Bengals are on their way to Madrid. We're on our way to Madrid. Not like they are, but, you know, using modern technology. We're going to chat with, like, the biggest Bengals fan in Madrid. He's going to join us coming up in just a few minutes. It's coming up on 5 o'clock. I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:16:57 Speaker 15: This week, the Bengals are going international as they make their way to Madrid to duel with the dirty birds of Atlanta. 01:17:04 Speaker 4: A game we hope will be known as. 01:17:06 Speaker 15: The running of the Bengals. Can the orange and black overcome the overseas trip or will the Falcons swoop in for the win? Honestly, isn't the Falcon just an oversized pigeon? Remember to set your alarm. The game kicks off at 9.30 a.m. with coverage starting at 5.30 a.m. 01:17:24 Speaker 3: Sunday morning. 01:17:25 Speaker 15: Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:17:36 Speaker 2: All right, what's up? Good afternoon, Moeller, ESPN 1530. Thank you for listening today. We're done in 24 minutes. UK basketball bumping us out of the way at 5.30. Wildcats taking on Manhattan. The Bengals are en route to Madrid. Getting set for that game. You just heard that deep voice guy talk about taking on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. That game will kick off at 9.30 in the morning here. You'll hear it on ESPN 1530 back on May the 12th. the day we found out the Bengals were going to play in Madrid, we found Jesus Jimenez. He is a Bengals fan who lives in Madrid, and he is part of a group of Bengals supporters who are in Spain, that part of the world, and they are so fired up that the Bengals are going to come. They're going to be here this week. They're going to be awash in all things orange and black, and so we had Jesus on with us the day we found out the Bengals are coming, and with the Bengals going today and I'm sure a lot of folks in our audience making that trip this week. I wanted to bring him back. I can't imagine how excited he is. He has joined us via StreamYard. He's got his jersey on. I could see you better than you could see me. I'm in a dark background. Nonetheless, Jesus, what's up, man? 01:18:51 Speaker 4: Hello, Mo. Hello, Gary. Good afternoon there. Good evening here. 01:18:56 Speaker 11: There's a lot of things that's happened from the last time we talked about. It's completely crazy that that has been happening in these six months. Totally, totally crazy that a lot of changes that when, when we talk about the, of this stuff, when, when they, when the Bengals announced, so the NFL announced that, that today, that maybe this, this Sunday is going to be the, that we're below Bengals come to, to our country, to my city. So that we are all really, really excited about that. 01:19:30 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. 01:19:30 Speaker 2: I could tell you were excited back when we talked in May. I could tell you're excited now. Let's kind of go back to the beginning. And I know you and I talked about this when you came on my show a few months ago. How and why did you become a Bengals fan? 01:19:44 Speaker 11: How I became a Bengals fan is like I started to watch NFL maybe 11 years ago. And I decided that it was the moment to have a team. 01:19:56 Speaker 4: To follow a team. 01:19:57 Speaker 11: And I have to say that in that season, it was 2015, I had started to maybe watching sometimes some Bengals. 01:20:06 Speaker 4: Games and. 01:20:09 Speaker 11: But the main point that I decided that I have to be a Bengals fan, it was the wild. 01:20:14 Speaker 4: Card against the Steelers. 01:20:15 Speaker 11: One of the most horrible times, one of the most horrible moments in recent Bengals story. 01:20:24 Speaker 4: It was my point. 01:20:26 Speaker 11: Of starting to be as a diehard Bengals fan. 01:20:31 Speaker 2: So you decided to become a Bengals fan on one of the worst nights in franchise history. I could appreciate that. I could appreciate that. All right. Now, since we last talked to you in May, you said a lot of things have happened. What are those things that have happened? 01:20:46 Speaker 11: For example, the first thing is that we started to, as a group, we call it a group, we call it La Jungla Hispana. We started to communicate with the franchise team. And I want to say from here, thank you to Brian Sells, the chief business officer of the Cincinnati Bengals, to all the support, to all the things that we have been doing from that moment. 01:21:12 Speaker 4: We met in Madrid. We've been with him, Oscar. 01:21:16 Speaker 11: And me, another La Junglespana member went with him in Madrid. We taught him the Ocean Rock Bar. It was a bar that one of the owners is a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:21:33 Speaker 4: And that's the place where we are going. 01:21:35 Speaker 11: To have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 01:21:40 Speaker 4: It's a common point. 01:21:42 Speaker 11: Of the Cincinnati Bengals fans meeting here in Madrid. 01:21:47 Speaker 4: And

from this. 01:21:49 Speaker 11: Beginning, we have been talking about the different things that the Bengals are going to, all the activities and all the things that Bengals are going to do here in Madrid. 01:21:59 Speaker 3: All right. 01:21:59 Speaker 2: What are those things? What can people enjoy if folks in my audience are making the trip? 01:22:05 Speaker 4: Okay. 01:22:05 Speaker 11: For example, from Friday, there is something called the Meninas Activation. Menina is one of the figures of the Velázquez painting Las Meninas. It's going to be special with the color of the Bengals. 01:22:20 Speaker 4: And we're going to be in. 01:22:22 Speaker 11: Plaza España, Spanish Square, from 11 p.m. 01:22:29 Speaker 4: To 1 a.m. We have to be there. 01:22:32 Speaker 11: And then Friday night is going to be the most special party, the Bengals party. It's going to be at Florida Park in El Retiro. It'll be a really big park here in Madrid. That is going to be the more official place that we are going to be there. And as I told before, all the Bengals fans can go from the Thursday night to this. Every night can go to the Ocean Rock Park. It's in Tribunal in Malasaña, especially in the center of Madrid. And the more special things, well, the park, for example, we have organized and Well, me and a friend have a nice lunch on Saturday with 62 people. 01:23:22 Speaker 4: Dan is going to come. 01:23:24 Speaker 11: He's going to be the captain of Bengals. He's going to come. Jesse, his wife, is going to come. Bengals team is going to come here. It's going to come John Di Girolamo, who was the one Bengals international fan of the year of 2023. It's going to come people from Mexico, from Germany. 01:23:48 Speaker 4: And this is not official. This is from our group. But just to say that we're going to. 01:23:54 Speaker 11: Name the fans that you know, because you know Bengals team and you know who by yes, and you know the Bengals captain. And on the Sunday, it's going to be the game of our lives, the most heavy moment. 01:24:10 Speaker 4: Of our lives, of a sports life. 01:24:13 Speaker 11: And as I told you, in the six months, it all has been really, really crazy. Yeah. 01:24:21 Speaker 2: So if I have folks who are leaving tomorrow or Thursday and they will take in maybe some official events, but if there's one or two things maybe beyond that that they should do or visit in Madrid, what are they? 01:24:37 Speaker 4: Well, the thing that. 01:24:38 Speaker 11: Well, for our tourists, in every place, if you go to the center, go for a ride in the center, you can watch all the different things. Like, for example, you have to say the Plaza Mayor because all of my friends, as you sent to you yesterday in the video, I said that. 01:24:56 Speaker 4: In the moment, don't go to Plaza Mayor. They make a lot of laugh about me. And as you saw, we. 01:25:02 Speaker 11: Have a video created that there's some people who was in the In the restaurant, want to punch me because I said. 01:25:09 Speaker 4: I don't go to Plaza Mayor. I recommend to watch that video. And you, Mo, as you saw, you are part of that video. 01:25:18 Speaker 11: But Plaza Mayor is really good because you can taste a lot of things and industries. 01:25:24 Speaker 4: For example, we love our gastronomy. 01:25:28 Speaker 11: You know you're going to find, for example, really good and cheap beer. 01:25:34 Speaker 4: Really good tapas. 01:25:36 Speaker 11: Tapas in so many different bars in Madrid because every bar has to give you some different things. And The classic things to visit is the Cibeles, the Neptuno, the fountains. Then you can go to our markets, Mercado San Miguel, for example, or maybe you can lose in La Latina. It's a neighborhood full of, in Cava Baja, it's a really street full of bars and restaurants. All the things that we have here, you are in the center. You can enjoy a lot in your travel. I know that there are so many people who have come from Cincinnati. Maybe they're talking about 2,000 or something like that. And I know that they're going to enjoy a lot of the city. 01:26:26 Speaker 2: Is there something or an area that you would recommend that Bengals fans don't do or don't visit? 01:26:35 Speaker 11: In this moment, no, because the last time I've done, all my friends, all my colleagues of the Humble Hispana made a lot of jokes about me. 01:26:44 Speaker 4: So this time, don't recommend. No. 01:26:48 Speaker 11: I think for us, my city is one of the most special cities in the world. So I know that everything that you're going to do, guys, you're going to enjoy a lot. 01:26:59 Speaker 2: The stadium itself, easy to get to? Anything that people need to know about getting to or from the stadium? 01:27:06 Speaker 11: One important thing that the people have to know is the Pernambuco metro stop is not functioning now. 01:27:12 Speaker 4: It's out because it's in work. 01:27:16 Speaker 11: So you have to go to the new ministerial metro stop. if someone has to, has to recommend it is, or maybe go on, on bus. There's different, different chances to go by bus, but the Metro station is not the Bernabeu. That's the most important thing to, uh, what can I say about the Bernabeu stadium is, well, my, my friends are going to laugh at me because I'm not a real Madrid fan, but I have to admit, I have to admit and say that Bernabeu is, is one of the best, is the best stadium here in Spain. Now, after the work that the club has done to the stadium since six years ago, more or less. And now, I think the people that are all the people from America that came to Madrid last year was really, really impressed with the Bernabeu. And I think it's going to impress you really so much, guys, when you saw it. 01:28:17 Speaker 2: So there are obviously, you know, you and your buddies in the support group, a lot of Bengals fans. Are we expecting a large, based on what you know, a large contingent of Atlanta Falcons fans? 01:28:31 Speaker 11: I have to say, I

don't know anything about the Falcons fan. 01:28:35 Speaker 4: Anything. 01:28:36 Speaker 11: I don't know anything. I know that there are the locals, but I don't know anything about them. I only know about we, and as I see in the Facebook groups, and I said that people laugh. For example, they have told to us that there are going to come a lot of people, but I don't know anything about the other people. I don't know anything about the Atlanta fans. I guess that they're going to come, but I don't know anything. 01:29:00 Speaker 2: I was lucky enough to go to London when the Bengals played two games there. And obviously there's been more and more games played in that country, in that city. But a lot of folks would just go to the game and they weren't Bengals fans or they weren't fans of the team the Bengals were playing. They would go and they would wear their jersey. Are we expecting a lot of folks who are just excited to see an NFL game in Madrid but don't have a real rooting interest either way? 01:29:26 Speaker 11: Well, the thing is, for example, I remember 10 years ago when I went to London, that's true, I just said that there was a lot of people in so many different So many teams, I remember when we saw, with a friend, when we saw a Steelers fan, I always say, hey, you, boo, all the time. 01:29:47 Speaker 2: I do the same thing when I see Steelers fans, yes. 01:29:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. 01:29:51 Speaker 11: I think this year we're going to repeat the thing to say boo to all the Steelers fans. 01:29:58 Speaker 4: But, well, the thing is, if. 01:30:00 Speaker 11: You can see all the international games this year, Maybe as a Bengals fan, but I have to say for a sports fan, I think the Madrid game is going to be the. 01:30:11 Speaker 4: Best of all the games. 01:30:15 Speaker 11: That the international games go outside the USA. We don't have to talk about our offense. We don't have to talk about Sexy Dexy. But on the other hand, we have to talk about B. John Robinson. We can talk about our beloved Jesse Bates. So I think it's going to be a really, really interesting game. 01:30:35 Speaker 2: I do, too. 01:30:36 Speaker 3: I am. 01:30:37 Speaker 2: I wish I was there. Wish I was in route. But I love watching the excitement from afar. I'm stoked for you and your fellow Bengals fans. And we'll sort of live vicariously through you. Have a blast this week. And if you ever get a chance to come watch the Bengals here in Cincinnati, we'd love to have you visit. Hopefully you can do that at some point. OK. 01:30:58 Speaker 11: I've been two years ago and I want to repeat my visit there. 01:31:02 Speaker 2: Let's make it happen. 01:31:03 Speaker 4: All right. 01:31:04 Speaker 2: Well, we'd love to see you. Have a blast this week, man. I can't thank you enough for doing this. I know it's late out there. So get a lot of rest because you're going to be busy over the next four or five days. Thank you so much. 01:31:14 Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Mo. Thank you so much. We're going to miss you. 01:31:19 Speaker 2: Likewise. Thank you for doing this. 01:31:20 Speaker 4: That's our guy, Jesus. 01:31:24 Speaker 2: First Bengals fan we found like within moments on social media back in May when we saw the Bengals are going to be playing in Madrid. I am so stoked for him. That is really, really cool. All right, 20 after 5. We've got to get a break in. Done in 10 minutes. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:31:40 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 01:31:45 Speaker 2: From the UC Health Track. 01:31:47 Speaker 4: This is Football in the Natty. 01:31:49 Speaker 7: Brought to you in part by Skyline Chili. On ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:31:59 Speaker 2: Your Bengals news of the day, and it's not insignificant, even if it's not unexpected. Cassius Howell goes on IR with a wrist surgery that was announced by Zach Taylor yesterday. Bengals made it official today. The other piece of news, the Bengals jetting off to Madrid for the game on Sunday at 9.30. There is going to be a very cool Bengals watch party on Sunday at the Mercantile Immersive, which is... Uh, one of the places associated to where we are right now. So if you're looking for a place to post up, certainly a unique experience, the mercantile immersive is a unique experience. Watching your favorite NFL team at nine 30 in the morning, needless to say a, a unique experience. So you could check that out, learn more at delight more.com. Um, that's going to be a lot of fun. Be interesting to see, you know, how they, they handle things. And it'll be interesting to see how they handle things from a travel perspective, preparation perspective. Um, I don't think it's unfair to say I thought the Bengals on defense on Sunday at times looked ill-prepared. I think there was effort lacking. And one of the things I am most loathe to do is ever question a player or a team and effort. Don't love doing that. Don't know how you didn't do that. It's not the first time we've talked about effort and preparation. I feel like in the first half against the Baltimore Ravens, it was fair to say that the Bengals looked unprepared. That's traveling from Cincinnati to Baltimore. How does the travel and the environment and the time change and the just general weirdness of preparing for a game six hours away from home in terms of time zones? Obviously, Madrid to Cincinnati is more than six hours away. How will that impact preparation? And will the Bengals look like the more prepared football team against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday? We will find out. Pre-game coverage on Sunday morning, 5.30. Is that Ken Brew? Ken Brew, he's like the kind of guy that gets up about 4 in the morning. 5.30 on a Sunday morning with kickoff at 9.30. I want to thank the folks at Delightmore for hosting us today at The View. And I want you to look up The View in Mount Adams. I love coming to Mount Adams because it brings back so many great memories of the early years of my career when the radio station was in Mount Adams. But this place here, I was lucky enough to be invited to speak to the Rotary Club maybe a month and a half ago. And they have regular meetings here. And where I stood looked out at downtown Cincinnati. It was gorgeous. And so I've always thought like, boy, it'd be cool to have a wedding here, celebrate something, have a corporate event, birthday party. You've got downtown right out the window. And I mean, when I say the window, the entire side of the building is a window. the view describes what this place is. It is a great venue with an unbelievable view. The folks at Delightmore are absolutely awesome. Each one of their venues are terrific. You've got the Transept. You've got Mercantile Immersive. You've got Carnegie Hall in Newport. You have the view here in Mount Adams. And later on, starting early in 2027, the Phoenix on Race Street. We're done. Back in studio tomorrow and looking forward to that. We've got a lot to get to starting at 3.05. My thanks to Mike Mills for producing, as always, on site. And, of course, my guy Taren back in Kenwood. We're done. Show's over. Got to go. Kentucky basketball is coming up next. Year three of the Mark Pope era getting underway as the Wildcats take on Manhattan. That game at Rupp Arena is going to tip off at 7 p.m. Pre-game coverage on ESPN 1530 starts in just a few seconds. Have a great night. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:35:43 Speaker 7: You've been listening to Football in the Natty on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.