00:00:00
Speaker 1: Honda East, your Cincinnati Honda destination. Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Acani, and Levy. Attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit oal-law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers. Visit RLC.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution. Powered by Toph Sheldon. 513-513-TOPH. And by your tri-state Chevy dealers.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: Chevrolet.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: The number one selling brand in Cincinnati for the past 10 years.
00:00:41
Speaker 2: Chevrolet.
00:00:42
Speaker 1: Together, let's drive. On 700 WLW. Home of the best bagels coverage.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: And away we go, 6.07 on a Thursday night. If it's Thursday, it must be the roundtable show, and we are at Longnecks in Wilder this week, the start of a three-week run. The cavalcade of football conversation took us to the Hebron spot for the first three weeks. We loved that setup. It's their brand-new location there and loved it. They took care of us, and now we hit three weeks here in Wilder. We kick it off tonight. We love this place. I think this is the very first place Wilder We did this show, if I remember correctly. But then again, we can't remember how long we've been doing this show, so I'm not sure on that. I'm Lance McAllister. He is Rocky Boyman. You have your steak tip quesadillas? Tri-tip quesadillas with fried pickles. You're ready to go?
00:01:31
Speaker 2: They have ordered every time the last two years.
00:01:34
Speaker 3: You are a man of consistency. There's no question about that. We have stuff to give away tonight. We have a shirt we're going to give away each week from Long Necks, and we have a picture. The picture of T. Higgins behind the bar will be given away our third week at the end of our run. And what's going to take place, our servers tonight have raffle tickets.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Ask for one. Fill it out.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Drop it in the bucket up here by the setup. At 9 o'clock tonight, 9 o'clock end of the show, we'll do the drawing. Got to be here to win the shirt. And then all the raffle tickets tonight are held and kept and then added over the next two weeks into one big pot. And at the end of the three-week run, we give away that ticket. T. Higgins print to the winner. They'll have to be here three weeks from tonight.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: Man, do we have.
00:02:21
Speaker 3: Things to get to. This must be a big night because one, Casey's here. Two, Kelly's here. So that's big itself. Russ Jackson is producing tonight. That's big. First time doing the roundtable show. We have Mike Mills here to our left taking care of us. And of course we have Fran and his lovely wife Phyllis, and they brought us candy tonight.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: So all is well. But I see you're trying to steal mine. You're like both of them hidden behind you.
00:02:48
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought, okay, I didn't see. Yeah, well, that's yours. I thought that I didn't realize I stuck mine behind here. Because I thought Casey was going to take it. So I was hiding it from Casey, actually.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: All right, man, we have a lot to get to. Because there's a loss to sort through. And there's a rather significant game on Sunday coming up. to get to, I think I should do some headlines.
00:03:08
Speaker 4: Hit it.
00:03:08
Speaker 3: Because there is a boatload of stuff. Let's start with a baseball note. Phil Castellini, Nick Kroll, and Brad Mentor met with the media this morning. Phil indicating the team will not be sold because, quote, they haven't accomplished what they set out to do. He added he's 100% behind the front office saying, quote, we need baseball guys to make baseball decisions.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: I would agree with that.
00:03:29
Speaker 3: And I think they should hire baseball people who know baseball decisions.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: Different baseball people, yes. Side note, yes.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Nick Kroll said Derrick Johnson, who took a personal leave of absence in June, will not be returning. Search for a new pitching coach is underway. They plan to overhaul their pitching department structure. Assistant hitting coach Will Remillard won't be retained. That will certainly fix the hitting, Rocky. And Kroll said the Reds need to be better at signing mid-tier veteran free agents because there's nothing.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Quite sounds like a sales pitch.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: To a fan base or a pending free agent says we need to be better at signing mid-tier veteran free agents.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: Just lie. Make me feel better a little bit.
00:04:10
Speaker 3: Exactly right. We're going to look for the best talent available. As opposed to the best mid-tier veteran talent in free agency. Bengals got back on the practice. You just can't make it up sometimes. Bengals got back on the practice field today and got to continue to work on Jacksonville. Here is the injury update. Limited today. Jordan Battle and Brian Cook. Dalton Reisner did not practice. Kyle Duggar did not practice.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: B.J.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Hill did not practice.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: And D.J.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: Turner pops up on the injury list.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: Limited today. With an ankle.
00:04:45
Speaker 3: There's a lot to monitor going into Sunday. Evan McPherson, named September AFC Player of the Month, Special Teams Player of the Month. He converted all eight field goal attempts, including five from at least 50. The Joey Porter saga ends in Pittsburgh. Traded to the Cowboys in the middle of the night. Steelers get a 2027 sixth round pick and a 2028 second round pick in return. Thursday night football, those Steelers are in Cleveland to take on the Browns. Winner gets first place. In the AFC North, 7.30 coverage on Fox Sports 1360. UC Bearcats heading to or in the desert as we speak. They'll take on Arizona Saturday night, 11 o'clock kick here on 700 WLW. Chad Brendel checks in at 7.06 tonight with a preview. College basketball, the Xavier Musketeers pick sixth in today's Big East preseason poll. UConn tabbed as the favorite, followed by St. John's, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence. NKU hoops today, announcing a public... exhibition against UT Martin, set for 5.30 on October the 14th at Truist Arena. Playoffs, game three, winner go home tonight for the Phillies and Braves in Atlanta. The Yankees, Padres, and White Sox each swept their series. This weekend, the Padres are at the Brewers, White Sox at the Guardians, Yankees at the Rays. And the Dodgers will get the winner of the Philly Braves game tonight. And hockey, the Columbus Blue Jackets, open the season at home to Buffalo. All right, those are your headlines. Let's get into the Bengals. And, Rock, I needed to get to this point of the week because it's like the turning point of the conversation because the first part of the week and from 4 o'clock on, it left me frustrated because it feels like that was one– they needed and should have had and didn't get. And I just don't like things that you miss an opportunity on because then it becomes the potential to be something you're going to have to chase and something that haunts you. I just think they should have won the football game on Sunday.
00:06:45
Speaker 2: Turnovers, special teams, disasters, missed tackles, and an offense that's still not looking like it's in full form. The missed tackles thing I think was... the most glaring, right? Because that seemed like it had been fixed all through camp, all through the first two weeks looked pretty good. I even thought, I thought even more so than that, just the inability to get off blocks at the second level was bad. And then the turnover situation that the special teams blunders is something that was bad as well.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it just, I got a vibe at times, it felt like we were flashing back to last season with the defense. And it just felt like the They were past that. And I have to keep reminding myself it's it's just three games in. And just because you start to know doesn't mean you're going to win a game like that. I think we tend to lose sight of the fact that every game is like one. There's 17 seasons. It's individual games. And what happened one week has no bearing on the next week.
00:07:44
Speaker 2: And it just.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: It. 2-0 had given us so many things to believe were different. And I'm not saying those were all wrong or they're a mirage. It just caused, at least it caused me to say, okay, pause. take a step back, now let's reassess this situation. It maybe isn't as good as we thought, but at the same time, by Wednesday, I think we have to understand it's not as bad as it may have felt at 4 o'clock.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Right, and this is a division matchup, and these are always going to come down to one possession or something late in the fourth quarter. These teams play each other so much, and I think a lot of the Aaron Rodgers' washed-up talk was obviously a little bit premature here. He came out and looked really, really good. So, yeah, then you combine that with just a couple mistakes here and some penalties, and we got what we got.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you're talking about it. We talked last week on the show, and the sense leading up to it was, man, that Steeler offense, there's not much there.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, one touchdown.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: Aaron had basically thrown Mike McCarthy under the bus during the week and basically said, I have to do a better job of explaining to our coaches what's not working offensively. Like, oh, well, there you go. A little passive-aggressive there. And then after all of that, they dropped 411 yards of offense on the Bengals in that first drive. It's boom, they're on the board, and I'm thinking... Wait a minute. They had one touchdown in 25 drives, and they've scored on the opening drive today and then scored on their second drive.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like off-tackle play, big run, big run, big pass up the sideline. Two minutes into the game, we're like, what's going on? Early in that game, I remember thinking about it looked like Aaron Rodgers was upset at the play call or the play call wasn't coming in. I'm like, they look like they're in disarray here until the ball was snapped. Everything was working pretty good.
00:09:37
Speaker 3: When we come back, I want to, because we're putting to rest Sunday, I've got three things I have to get off my chest. And I'm going to need you to, if not hold my hand, but just say relax a little bit. Because there's three things since Sunday that I've been unable to let go. And you know me. When when it comes to there, there are some things I can't let go. And when they're related to Zach Taylor, sometimes I really can't let him go. So we'll get into those and then we'll start looking ahead to the, uh, The game on Sunday. No drags this week. He's on assignment, we'll say. But we have Chad Brendel tonight from Bearcat Journal coming up at 7 o'clock. We'll get into things next. He is Rocky. I'm Lance. Hey, if you're out and about, what better place to stop by and hang out, enjoy dinner, and catch some Bengals football conversation than Longnecks and Wilder. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution. Powered by Toph Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilder on 700 WLW. All right, we're up and running on this Thursday night of the Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We're hanging out at Longnecks and Wilder. He's Rocky. I'm Lance. Thanks for being with us. A reminder, the show brought to you in part by Hawksworth Blood Centers. We love Hawksworth Blood Centers. Hawksworth donors save lives close to home. Who will you save in Everdry Waterproofing? If your basement leaks, call Everdry. It's not dry till it's Everdry. All right, Rock. Let me work through three things with you. This will be a little therapy session. I need to put it behind me and move on. But we'll address them in the form of our Hot Topic of the Week, brought to you by Hudson Oil, fueling champions on and off the field. We'll present it as coaching decisions on Sunday. First, the punt block call. Bengals are up 20-17, third quarter.
00:11:25
Speaker 2: They're up.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: Steelers are facing fourth and six at their own 41. And the Bengals... Darren Simmons called for a punt block and said Johnson was flagged for roughing the kicker. Steelers keep possession and go on to score and go up 24-20. To me, I understand the value of a punt block and being aggressive. I also think there has to be a time and place and the risk and reward. The Bengals decided to roll the dice on that play rather than simply take the ball when it was punted back to them and hand it to Joe and Jamar and T. It's the first time they had stopped the Steelers' defense on the day. The Steelers weren't backed up into their own end zone. To me, it just seemed like something, hey, we got a defensive stop. Our offense is rolling. They've scored in four of the last five possessions. Let's just double-team the Gunners. Let's do something to set up a return, and we're going to have Joe and the offense cooking down And Darren Simmons rolled the dice on a punt block, and it's a roughing the punter and possession to the Steelers and points from the Steelers. Is my concern valid?
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely. When's the last time the Bengals blocked a punt? Couldn't tell you. I thought I read it was 2013. That sounds right. Yes. Something like that. Look, to me it comes down to this. I think you want to be solid in special teams. It truly is a third of the game.
00:12:45
Speaker 5: But.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: If you have a– you use your return game if you don't have a powerful offense, right? To use an ancient example, right? We played the Bears in the Super Bowl, right, in 2006. Rex Groshen was their quarterback. They didn't have a great offense, so they needed to generate– yards and points via the special teams game. That's why they get Devin Hester and he does what he does. We have Joe Burrow and T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. Get them the ball. Safely get them the ball. We don't need to worry about a ton of returns. or punt blocks, or generating explosive plays in the special teams game when you have an offense as good as the Bengals have.
00:13:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, it just set up as the perfect scenario. Wow, the defense has gotten a stop. We're going to get the ball back. I'm thinking if I'm Zach Taylor and Joe's going to have the ball first and ten, And, again, time and place.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: I understand.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: There's moments. Hey, if the punter is backed up to the back end line and space is short, go try to block that thing. If you're trailing late, if you don't have anything going on, but it just seemed like the risk and reward was out of balance to go for the punt. And I, because I like numbers, Rock, I looked it up. And last year, there were... 1,958 punts in the NFL. Now, I have no way of knowing how many times a punt block was actually called on the play. I just know that only nine of 1,958 punts last year were blocked. That computes to, by my Butler math, 0.46% of the time a punt was blocked last year.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: Not a high percentage. Not a high percentage. And between that and then the muff punt, I mean, say it out loud. Joe Burrow and this offense get two less possessions.
00:14:26
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: Can't have it. Can't have it. More times than not, he's going to generate some offense when he gets more chances.
00:14:33
Speaker 3: All right, so first one out of the way. I put it behind me.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: That's good.
00:14:35
Speaker 3: You were very calm in keeping me calm, and I liked it.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Try.
00:14:40
Speaker 3: Number two. The game is tied. Bengals have it fourth and two basically at midfield. 739 left in the game. And Zach opted to punt. And he said, we were going to pin the Steelers deep and trust our defense.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: And my thought was, well.
00:15:01
Speaker 3: Wait a minute. What had the defense done to make you trust him at that. They'd given up almost 400 yards of offense that day. You have the ball at midfield. It's fourth and two. Earlier in the game on fourth and two, Joe went to Mike Gesicki for 25 yards and a touchdown. Earlier in the game on fourth and two, they went 21 yards to Jamar Chase. I would, again, back to trust, I'd have much more faith in Joe Burrow operating fourth and two at midfield than punting the ball back to the Pittsburgh Steelers and asking my defense to finally get a stop. Am I wrong?
00:15:33
Speaker 1: No.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: How much do you know? do the Bengals use analytics and the analytics book and all that?
00:15:38
Speaker 3: I know this. They've added to that aspect of the organization in recent years.
00:15:43
Speaker 2: Okay, because I feel like that scenario, right, fourth and two on your own 49, when I call college games, more times than not, they go for it. Yes. 20 years ago, they wouldn't. But now, more times than not, that fourth and two, 50-yard line, that is 100% green on the card of go for it.
00:16:01
Speaker 3: That's a great point because I have to believe whatever they were looking at said– on Twitter, there's this punt bot account, and it will show you after a decision is made what the probability was. I've got to go back and look at that because I would think the probability would say– Go for it at that point.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: It makes me think that they don't use it or he didn't trust it or, yeah, trust his defense.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: At that point, I trusted Joe more than my defense.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. Same scenario as I said earlier. When you have a powerful, and again, now this hasn't been the most explosive offense, but history has shown this is an explosive offense. If you have that.
00:16:38
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:16:39
Speaker 2: You go for it. If you have a lower tier, you've got a backup quarterback and you've got nobody to receive, okay, that factors into it. But, A, I will not believe that the analytics said punt that ball there. And number two, even if it did, you say, God, I feel pretty good about our offense. And to your point, I don't feel great about our defense the first two weeks, but not today. All right, one more.
00:17:03
Speaker 3: Might not be able to squeeze it in before the bottom of the air completely. I may have some residue left over on this. But the final drive, I don't know if you're like me, but I'm thinking when the Bengals get the ball back, I said, all right, for all that's happened today, Joe has the ball back with 2.14, 2.08 to go in the game.
00:17:19
Speaker 4: You know what?
00:17:20
Speaker 3: By damn, they're going to win this football game. And before they even run a play, you see Joe looking around demonstrative like basically what the blank is happening and time, have to call a timeout because after a change of possession, there was confusion on the personnel that Zach was putting on the field.
00:17:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just can't happen, right? There's so many reps and so much continuity there for that to happen in that moment. Can't have it.
00:17:56
Speaker 3: You have an opportunity coming off a change of possession. And you know, I mean, Zach, the offensive mind he is. You know, leading up to that, he's got to be thinking in his mind, we're getting the ball back here. Here's what we're going to do. And yet, I think it was Dante Myers ran initially, ran onto the field, and then it was kind of, oh, and then he turned and ran off the field.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: As you know, once you.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: Enter a substitution, then the ref pauses and let the Steelers kind of match with their substitutions. And by that time, the play clock is running down, and Joe's only option was to call the timeout or.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Now, I know it's wasting oxygen for me to even say this, but is this a scenario that could have been fixed if there was a set play caller instead of the head coach who's also worried about the game and management and timeouts and all that?
00:18:44
Speaker 3: I think that is a very fair thing.
00:18:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, a coordinator. I imagine Zach does as well, but he's got other things to think about.
00:18:53
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:18:54
Speaker 2: On third down of the previous series, he's like, we get the ball back, we're coming out with this play right here. Yes. Here's the formation.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: Here's the personnel. Let's go. All right. We got through that.
00:19:05
Speaker 4: Is that better?
00:19:06
Speaker 3: I do feel a little bit better. I might have a final thought to offer on the other.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: Side on it. So you haven't let it go at all. Maybe not.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: He's Rocky.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Longnecks and Wilder.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: 700-WLW.
00:19:22
Speaker 3: We're at Longnecks and Wilder. We do the roundtable show. This is the start of a three-week run for us here. It's all presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, and brought to you in part by our friends at Miami University. For today's students, become tomorrow's leaders. Visit MiamiOH.edu. And OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. All right, final thought, I promise, before we get into the defense.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: Oh, the last point.
00:19:49
Speaker 3: One, and this was rough, on that final drive, Rock, the, what, third play in, Joe throws, he's looking down, feel there's nothing there, he turns and dumps off to Chase Brown, and it's a four-yard loss. which at that point, I think, and I heard T.J. Hushmanzada say this, so I'll defer to him. He said, Joe's got to just throw it in the ground. You're not going to take a four-yard loss on that play. Just throw it in the ground and move on. Not only do they lose four on that play, 35 seconds tick off the clock before the next play is run, which to me, one is difficult enough, but you've lost four yards and you've lost 35 seconds on that drive, and that's just....
00:20:32
Speaker 2: It's hard to just understand how that happened, though.
00:20:34
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker 2: You know, this is, again, a unit that knows each other, has played a lot of football together. That's the thing.
00:20:40
Speaker 3: That's the great point. The continuity is supposed to be a plus for this offense.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: Right, yeah. It's supposed to show up in situations like that. You know, and less in, okay, you know, a receiver catching a ball and all that, but more of like, hey, we're on the same page here. And I just don't feel like, you know, Peyton Manning, that wouldn't have happened at Peyton or– or Tom Brady, or, you know, I'm not saying anything bad about Burrow, but I'm just saying, like, it's a critical situation in a game that already they looked kind of sloppy in. All right.
00:21:11
Speaker 3: I promise one final point because we talked about it during the break. The idea of the value of yards versus a timeout. And that initial timeout on the drive was caused by the play clock was running down.
00:21:27
Speaker 2: And Zach made a decision.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: They called the timeout to prevent the delay of game. So it would have been a penalty first and 15. He said, no, no, no, call timeout. The debate this week was the value you place on a timeout, having another timeout, versus... having to go five more yards on the drive, and the idea of, wait a minute, do you really want to burn a timeout here if it only means an extra five yards you're going to have to gain, meaning pocket that timeout. Don't burn it because you're going to need it later in the drive. How do you view that scenario at the value?
00:21:59
Speaker 2: That's a tougher one, but, I mean, if you just look at it this way, what's more valuable, a timeout of what you get three and a half or five yards, which you seemingly– can get easier than not. I would agree.
00:22:12
Speaker 3: Because once the timeout's gone, it's never coming back. You've got a chance to make up five yards. And if you're saying, do you feel Joe in this offense is capable of converting from a first and 15? I would say yes. I'll keep that timeout. I'm not going to burn it here. Because we're going to go to win this game, and there's going to be at least two opportunities I'm going to need a timeout, and they were only down to one.
00:22:36
Speaker 2: At that point. Maybe less in that scenario, but more time. I mean, take the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers. How many timeouts did he burn? Yes. Two or three on seemingly a first down play on backed up. And, again, I kind of follow the use your timeouts in the second and fourth quarter, not the first and the third. But– Yeah, that's... Okay, now.
00:23:01
Speaker 3: I'm officially done.
00:23:02
Speaker 2: Those were the.
00:23:03
Speaker 3: That was the hot topic of the week. Three different things.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: How many times, though, do you see in that scenario a team just take the yardage instead of calling a timeout? I feel like I don't see it. Maybe I'll notice it. Yeah, you don't.
00:23:14
Speaker 3: And I wonder how much of... I'd love to see what the... Like the analytic aspect of all that and weighing the value of the timeout versus the extra.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: But they have those things now.
00:23:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's... That's what I found very interesting. All right, to the defense. We'll name our defensive player of the game, and that is brought to you by our friends at O'Connor, Achani, and Levy. Attorneys you know, attorneys you trust, visit oal-law.com. We'll go with Jordan Battle, who came up with the interception off the deflection on Sunday, and that leads us into defensive conversation. Rock, it was concerning at the least to see.
00:23:51
Speaker 3: Time and time again, the Steelers get to the perimeter. I'd love to see the next-gen breakdown. They do graphics of where all the routes go and the runs go. To see the number of total yards the Steelers got on the perimeter and just time and time again. And I guess it makes sense because if you're the Steelers or any other team and you're watching the Bengals on tape, my eyes go right to the middle and say, I am not running at him. So it's like, no, go this way or go this way. You shouldn't be able to do it with the ease the Steelers did that got them onto the perimeter. Why does that happen?
00:24:26
Speaker 2: Well, it seems very simple when you look at it just like that. Like, hmm, where would I rather run the ball? Into the guy who's 400 pounds and a multiple pro bowl guy or try to run an off tackle?
00:24:37
Speaker 3: And is that ends crashing down and not setting the– The perimeter?
00:24:43
Speaker 2: It just looked to me that on the perimeter, there was some wide zone and some off-tackle plays. It just seemed like it was the Steelers' thought, and they were correct, that they could get better leverage on the linebackers from that position rather than trying to... You know, like an inside zone run where they're blocking the line and then walking up to the second level. But then, my wife does too.
00:25:03
Speaker 3: What is wrong with you?
00:25:04
Speaker 2: On the outside, they have better angles and a cleaner shot to get to the second level. Makes sense.
00:25:10
Speaker 3: Makes sense. Russ, do not podcast that last 20 seconds. I don't know what's happened to Rock. There's also this aspect that I will admit, this isn't a second guess. I wasn't even thinking of it until yesterday. Monday morning, when I get up on Monday morning, the first thing I do, I'm weird. On Mondays, I go to the NFL game book online, and I print out the snap count. They show you the game book of the entire game, drives, play-by-play. The final page is snap count because I'm always interested in who got what number of snaps, how they spread out the snaps on the defensive line. And I'm looking, and I'm writing down the ends and the interior on the defense, and I said, wait a minute. Shamar Stewart didn't get a snap.
00:25:50
Speaker 2: And then I said, all right.
00:25:51
Speaker 3: And I went back to the first page, which shows who started, who played, and then there's a line, and underneath it, did not play. And it was Flacco, somebody else, and then Shamar Stewart. And I'm thinking... wait a minute, Shamar Stewart was active and did not play a single snap one week after making his season debut, playing five snaps, he got a sack and two tackles, and I was stunned he didn't take a snap, and I don't, I don't, Zach's explanation was we've got a lot of good guys on that line and there'll be opportunities, but I find it hard to believe he didn't get a snap.
00:26:27
Speaker 2: It just seems, it goes against the whole mantra of, wow, the depth that we have on this defensive line. We ought to rotate guys and keep them fresh. And if you're going to have him active, why not use him? If you're not going to use him, don't have him active.
00:26:39
Speaker 4: 100%.
00:26:39
Speaker 2: There's got to be somebody else you could activate that might contribute to the game. Yeah, I don't know if that was, and it can't be an injury or else they wouldn't have had him active. Exactly.
00:26:49
Speaker 3: And I'll give him some credit. I don't believe that. Al Golden forgot about him. Like, oh, damn, I forgot Shamar was there. So I go back to, and I guess this is concerning, it must have been a decision that he truly wasn't one of the four best edge guys, five guys that got snapped. So then we're back to a bigger question. How is the former first-round pick, who came back and is healthy to play, how is it deemed that Cedric Johnson, a former sixth-round pick, Cassius Howe, a rookie this year, how is it deemed they got... 12 and 24 snaps and your former first rounder got none because that that to me then says a lot about how they view shamar.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: Stewart well and and that's fine but but then don't activate if you don't feel like he can play in the game then maybe there's got to be another position i mean you know you get 52 guys on game day like you know you got to really you know go in and look hard on who's going to contribute and maybe that's a guy maybe that's a linebacker that's going to get Six special team snaps. It's better than having a guy active and not standing there doing nothing.
00:27:54
Speaker 3: While we're on the defense, I think it's going to be interesting tomorrow with the next injury report because they've lost Jalen Davis, their slot corner, which means Dax has to go from outside in. DJ Ivy now takes over a starting spot on the outside. Brian Cook, the communicator and ringleader of that back end, is dinged up. Kyle Duggar is dinged up. Jordan Battle's a little bit dinged up. No matter who plays in what combination, I worry about communication because when you've got a lot of moving parts and guys in different spots, what can get lost is the communication and understanding on the field where everybody's supposed to be.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: Especially if Brian Cook's not out there. He's the main guy with all the experience and all that. And having so many guys, you can... If one guy's got to come out, you're out off about four names there.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:28:44
Speaker 2: That's concerning.
00:28:45
Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you this about Dax Hill from just a purely personal standpoint for Dax. Because you could argue they've kind of jerked him around in his time here. He's been outside. He's been inside. They're moving here, moving there. And he likes playing outside. Okay, that's great. You don't always get what you like. But he's better outside than he is inside. Because of the injury, he's going to have to be forced inside. He's going to be a free agent. There's more money to be had as the outside guy, and he's more comfortable being the outside guy. Take me inside the mind of a player, and I guess you just have to make the concession. It's not what I want, but it's best for the team.
00:29:26
Speaker 2: What the team needs. And somebody who might.
00:29:29
Speaker 3: Be looking at me on the outside is going to respect that I did it to do what's best for my team, maybe shortchanging my market.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: Value as an outside corner. See what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, the only way you can look at it, I would say the only way that's going to help you as a player in the long run is certainly isn't saying, well, I only play outside and screw you. But what you should tell yourself, whether you really believe it or not, is, hey, okay, I'm better outside than inside. But if I show I can play inside, that's another trait that I have. When it comes down to free agents. Flexibility. And they're like, we like this guy and that guy. But, ah, you know, he can do that too. He can do that too. It's not his best thing, but he can in a pinch. And you need that. You need to have multiple skill sets with him. you know the fact that these roster sizes on game day are so small you gotta be.
00:30:15
Speaker 3: Able to do a lot of things yeah i mean in reality if you mope about it and maybe you don't say i won't do it but if you mope about it and more go through the motions that's only going to show up on tape as somebody who is a red flag to.
00:30:28
Speaker 2: Any other team and that's a guy no coach wants that that gets back that gets talked about you can't have that all.
00:30:34
Speaker 3: Right this is good we're 47 minutes in i gotta say if i were listening to this show i think this was pretty damn good ain't bad yeah all right he's He's Rocky.
00:30:42
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:30:44
Speaker 3: When we continue, we'll talk about the significance of Sunday. I thought the O-line was pretty good.
00:30:49
Speaker 2: J.J.
00:30:50
Speaker 3: Wallace barely heard from on Sunday. And some other news and notes. He's Rocky.
00:30:55
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: Roundtable show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilders, the spot on 700 WLW.
00:31:06
Speaker 6: It's a big cat clash, and the Bengals are on the prowl for a win. To get one, they'll have to jolt the Jaguars. And trust me, fur will fly. You might call it a pounce-a-palooza. It's spot versus stripes. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on 700-WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
00:31:36
Speaker 2: If your front door creaks, your windows rattle, or your garage door opener groans like a haunted house. All right, heading.
00:31:43
Speaker 3: Down the stretch. About to put our first of three big hours in the books. Time for you to get here. We're at Longnecks in Wilder. Ask your server for a ticket.
00:31:52
Speaker 2: Fill it out.
00:31:53
Speaker 3: Drop it in the bucket up by our broadcast setup. We'll draw a cool shirt from Longnecks later. And then you'll be in the drawing in three weeks for the very cool T. Higgins print that is currently available. behind the bar. We take it till nine tonight. This show brought to you in part by Mel's Auto Glass, the clear choice for windshield repair and replacement. Rock, oh, I don't want to leave out the offensive line. We were talking defensive line in the last segment. O-line reduced T.J. Watt to kind of an afterthought. If you get a day where you kind of at the end of it.
00:32:24
Speaker 2: Say, oh yeah, I didn't really think about T.J.
00:32:27
Speaker 3: They must have been, and Going into the week, it was, oh, man, Orlando Brown Jr., you're going to have to help him and tight ends and chip and do all this. And they survived that, survived it until the final snap. Unfortunately, when Dalton Reisner admits it was his responsibility on the play that Let the defender in.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Harmon Joe.
00:32:46
Speaker 3: But on a day that many snaps against that line, they won more than they lost.
00:32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you'll take that every day of the week. That performance against, again, a great rusher and a great unit.
00:32:57
Speaker 3: All right, a couple of things to close the hour. One, this team suddenly has penalty problems. If anything, under Zach Taylor, they've been a very disciplined team. Starting in his first year, they have finished with the second fewest penalties, the fourth fewest, the second fewest, the ninth fewest, the third fewest. This year, the fifth most, 25 penalties in three weeks. And, Rock, here's what's really frustrating. Eight false starts, pre-snap penalties. Eight false starts. Four times we talked, they lined up offsides defensively.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: That's impossible.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Three holdings, two offensive holdings, delay of game. But, man, the pre-snap penalties are just killer.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: Are you looking at my notes?
00:33:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:37
Speaker 2: I'll recite what Jeff Fisher would always hammer. He said, we need to not have the penalties that are before and after the whistle. So that's eight false starts. That's defensive offside. Now look, okay, a defensive holding, you're playing hard, that's going to happen. Two offensive holding, that's going to happen. Delay of the game, you don't want. So, yeah, the ones before and after the snap, you just can't have them.
00:33:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, and 25 of them, it seems like they've eliminated, they've reduced what was going to be a touchdown drive maybe to only a field goal drive or no points or you keep the defense on the field. It's got to be cleaned up from that standpoint. Here's the significance of Sundays. and I said this earlier in the week, I think there is a sizable gap between how we're going to feel about the Bengals at 4-15 Sunday afternoon if they are 3-1 compared to if they are 2-2. Because let's understand, if they lose Sunday, that's two straight losses. It's a home loss, and it's another loss in the AFC situation. versus if you get to 3-1, I think we'd all say, all things considered, 3-1, let's go. I think there's a big shift in perspective on this team.
00:34:45
Speaker 1: Huge.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: And the Jags are a good team. I know we'll get into them later, but they're a real team. They're going to win the AFC South, if not a lot more, playing really well right now. And I think the Steelers' loss, it just hurts more because in your head, again, you're like, okay, Aaron Rodgers washed up. They've scored one touchdown.
00:35:05
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:35:06
Speaker 2: Defense looks meh. If they were the Chiefs or the Steelers of some years past, you could accept it, but it really feels like it was an opportunity miss.
00:35:15
Speaker 3: Because if the goal is, I think everybody thinks the goal is to win the Super Bowl, your margin of error, I just don't want this to be a game we're looking at too often in years past, whether it was week one against the Patriots a couple years ago, that loss. How many times do we say during the show, man, that loss is going to haunt this team forever? You hope that a game like this past Sunday isn't the difference between winning the division or not, or getting home field or not, or being the one seed versus the two seed, because ultimately, if that's the goal, then little things like this are the difference between being at the advantage to the disadvantage.
00:35:53
Speaker 2: And that's a good point, because most of the teams in the league, the goal was make the playoffs, and then everything else we'll figure out. We have more lofty expectations here, so it does come down to very important things like first round bye, home field, and yes.
00:36:08
Speaker 3: Can you imagine if one game ultimately is the difference between hosting Buffalo or going to Buffalo for the playoffs?
00:36:16
Speaker 2: Monster.
00:36:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, you look back and you go.
00:36:20
Speaker 3: That game with Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Don't get the roughy. Yeah, that's what it comes down to.
00:36:26
Speaker 3: Now, can I give you some mathematical numbers related to the playoffs?
00:36:29
Speaker 2: Because you know I'm in numbers. Yeah, by the way. Ready for these?
00:36:32
Speaker 3: These aren't mine. They're NFL numbers, but I love numbers. There are nine teams right now in the NFL that are 2-1. There's two tonight playing, the Browns and the Steelers. There's two on Sunday, the Bengals and Jaguars. Since 2016... Teams that go 3-1, start the season 3-1, make the playoffs about 72%.
00:36:54
Speaker 2: Of the time. That's a big number. Huge.
00:36:57
Speaker 3: But, but, you're going to ask me, but Lance, what if you're 2-2, what are your playoff odds?
00:37:05
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:37:06
Speaker 3: Rock, I'm glad you were going to ask that, because that number... 41%.
00:37:11
Speaker 2: Chops 30-something percent. From 72. Virtual certainty. To 41.
00:37:17
Speaker 3: Less than a coin flip. That's the significance of Sunday at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: That's big. Mighty big game.
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Rock everybody in the AFC North while I'm looking at it. Let's go ahead and cover the AFC North. Brought to you by Branstetter's Kangaroo. Hometown proud and family operated for 28 years. Visit GoKanga.net. They hop to it. We love Branstetter's Kangaroo. Right now, the AFC North, everybody's 2-1. Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, 2-1 with the Browns and Steelers playing tonight on Thursday Night Football.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: How about the Ravens?
00:37:52
Speaker 3: The Cowboys kick a field goal with seven seconds left to tie the game, and everybody's thinking overtime. The kickoff sails out of the end zone, and they bring it all the way out to the 35. Lamar, with one pass, throws it down to a 27-yard pass.
00:38:07
Speaker 2: It's caught.
00:38:08
Speaker 3: Lamar calls timeout. And the Ravens kick a 56-yard field goal on a seven-second drive to win the game.
00:38:16
Speaker 2: Good clock management, good play. The whole deal. That was big.
00:38:20
Speaker 3: It is the latest that a game-winning drive has started. Seven seconds left when they got the ball back. It's the latest a drive start to win a game began since 1978, Rock. And one more for you. It's the first time in the Super Bowl era that each team kicked a field goal in the final 10 seconds of a football game.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: That seems impossible.
00:38:45
Speaker 3: It was until Sunday.
00:38:46
Speaker 2: That's why the NFL is so great, and these games are so close. They come down literally to the wire, almost every single one of them.
00:38:53
Speaker 3: I will give Jim Nance credit for the line, and he can be a little bit cheesy, but when the kick sails through the uprights, they're playing in Brazil. He says, it's a trio in Rio. Three field goal, Rio did it.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: You know what? In every play-by-play guy in the country, you're like, damn, that was good. What do you think of that one?
00:39:12
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:39:13
Speaker 3: By the way, to close the hour, we've got a minute. I think we were all prepared to leave the Browns for dead and kind of mock them. And they go, oh, yeah, Deshaun Watson. And Deshaun Watson's playing good. And all of a sudden, Deshaun Watson leads a game-winning drive with 148 to go, and the Browns are 2-1. And building some confidence, they beat the Panthers.
00:39:32
Speaker 2: So who do you want to win tonight, Browns or Steelers? And no, both teams can't lose.
00:39:36
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a really good question.
00:39:38
Speaker 2: Let's see.
00:39:39
Speaker 3: The Browns are home to the Steelers. So I want the.
00:39:44
Speaker 2: And by the way, the Browns have not lost a Thursday night game at home since 2000, like, Whoa.
00:39:50
Speaker 3: Really?
00:39:51
Speaker 2: I want to say like the 90s. Whoa.
00:39:54
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker 2: All right.
00:39:54
Speaker 3: So, okay, now think about this because you put me on the spot with this. I guess I'd like the Browns to lose at home because it'd be a home loss. You'd like to think a good team would pocket home wins. If this is a loss, that hurts them more than a Steelers team going on the road.
00:40:11
Speaker 2: That's too complicated. I was looking for like a name, like a Steelers or Browns.
00:40:16
Speaker 3: So you're asking me to disregard analytics and just give you an answer.
00:40:20
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:40:22
Speaker 3: I thought much more of you, Brock. I thought you had quoted.
00:40:26
Speaker 2: Him early in the show. You know what I'm going to do?
00:40:28
Speaker 3: You know what I'm going to do? During the top of the hour, I'm going to make it a question on Twitter.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Can I do that?
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Do it.
00:40:35
Speaker 2: And then we'll get an answer. There you go. He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
00:40:39
Speaker 3: That's one hour down. I have no idea what's ahead. Casey and Kelly are sitting here going, we came here for this.
00:40:46
Speaker 2: We came here for this. Man, oh, man.
00:40:49
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon from Longnecks Wilder on 700 WLW.
00:40:57
Speaker 1: Brought to you in part by Honda East, your Cincinnati Honda destination. Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Achani, and Levy, attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit OAL-Law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers, visit rlc.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, 513-513-TOPH. And by your tri-state Chevy dealers, Chevrolet, the number one selling brand in Cincinnati for the past 10 years. Chevrolet, together, let's drive on 700 WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
00:41:48
Speaker 3: And away we go, second hour unfolding before your very ears. And if you're here, thank you. We've got a prize giveaway at the end of the show. Got to be here at 9. We've got raffle tickets. Drop one in our bucket list. We'll draw the winner for the cool shirt coming up at 9 o'clock tonight.
00:42:02
Speaker 2: He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
00:42:03
Speaker 3: We're at Long Necks in Wilder. The roundtable show is presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Toph Sheldon. Let's talk UC football. By the way, I've changed my mind on who I want to lose. I'll explain why in a second. Very analytically inclined.
00:42:18
Speaker 2: I changed my mind.
00:42:19
Speaker 3: I ran some numbers in my head, and I've changed my mind. I'll tell you in a second. Let's talk UC football. Down 10-0 and 17-10 at home to Kansas State. They win 31-26, now 4-0. They are in the desert to take on Arizona Saturday night. 11 o'clock kick right here on 700 WLW. For more on that, the man who will be all over this and finding ways to stay up late Saturday night, Bearcat Journal, Chad Brendel. How are you?
00:42:48
Speaker 4: Can we find a way for the Browns and the Steelers to both lose?
00:42:51
Speaker 2: No, I already took that off the table, Chad. I was trying to go there, too, but we took that off the table.
00:42:57
Speaker 3: That would be the perfect scenario.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:42:59
Speaker 3: All right, so a week ago when we were talking, had I said to you, hey, Chad, I think they're going to take Avery Johnson's legs away and I think they're going to make him throw like 50 times, you would have said I was crazy.
00:43:14
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what they did.
00:43:17
Speaker 4: Well, I would have said it was hard to do. I don't know what. Do you remember the Baylor game last year?
00:43:26
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:43:27
Speaker 4: When Baylor came in with the number one passing offense in the country and tried to run the ball?
00:43:31
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:43:31
Speaker 4: I kind of felt like that. They ran Avery Johnson six times. Like, if Avery Johnson's your quarterback and you only run him six times, I don't think you're trying to win.
00:43:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:43:42
Speaker 4: It doesn't make any sense to me.
00:43:45
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense when coaches make decisions where you don't do the best. You don't try to maximize the best attributes of your players. It doesn't make sense.
00:43:56
Speaker 4: Rocky, his footwork's terrible, right? He's at his worst when he's standing in a clean pocket, scanning down the field. He throws balls into the dirt. He sails the ball. That's all footwork, isn't it? Because his arm, he's got a great arm.
00:44:16
Speaker 2: And 50 pass attempts. Yeah, but you're right. For whatever reason, he's just better when he's running around scrambling Creed and then sitting in the pocket. And, look, I mean, give the Bearcats credit. They made him do that and made him uncomfortable.
00:44:32
Speaker 4: That's what Nate Woody did to him last year when they were at Army. It's what he did to him again this year. I mean, Nate Woody has played Avery Johnson twice. And Avery Johnson ran the ball nine times combined in those two games. And Nate Woody's team won both times. Like, that's not a coincidence. That's not an accident. They did a great job kind of just keeping him in the pocket. Keeping the pocket like he didn't have avenues to escape and run to open grass. They didn't get upfield and they didn't sack him, but they just said, we're going to keep you right here and we're going to dare you to throw a 50 times that team threw the ball 50 times.
00:45:10
Speaker 2: That's insanity.
00:45:13
Speaker 3: We talked about, um, It was a couple of weeks ago we were talking about the running game, and they go for 271 on the ground. Colt Tabb does it again. I marvel at the fact he's averaging 11 yards a carry, but I think you mentioned it, and I've really watched it since. Their wide receivers and their physicality in blocking down the field and breaking those, it's something to watch how well they block as a team to help that running game.
00:45:42
Speaker 4: I don't remember. I mean, we're four games in, so there's trends that are developing and things you feel like you can count on. I feel like I can count on these wide receivers blocking down the field, and that's the difference. If you watch, the safeties aren't able to come up and stop those runs at 7, 10 yards. They're getting wiped out, and all of a sudden, there's wide open field for Colt Tabb and Jabron Payne. Satterfield said something interesting Tuesday night. If you listen to the coach's show, he said that they didn't think Kansas State's corners wanted to tackle. So they have the wide receivers playing down to the safeties. And that's why all of those runs were so open 30, 40 yards down the field. You can go back to the first play of the game. They ran wide zone left. right at Kansas State's corner, and he was essentially unblocked and wanted no part of tackling Jabron Payne. The wide receiver gets down the field, takes out the safety, 30-yard run, 22-yard run, whatever it was, to open the game. That's kind of been their identity. I don't recall a team that has blocked... 30, 40 yards down the field and still running with their guy, like still blocking their guy 30, 40 yards down the field with the type of consistency this team has.
00:47:09
Speaker 2: All right. I was going to say, Chad, let's go ahead and spin it forward here. Bearcats 4-0, I think a place, you know, that a lot of fans before this season would be absolutely ecstatic about. And I think a couple of winnable games here coming up, a chance to maybe be 5-0 here. What do you see here out of this Arizona team?
00:47:29
Speaker 4: Noah Fafita's awesome. So if Noah Fafita throws 50 times, I don't think that's good for the Bearcats because I think he's probably going to complete 70% of them, and he's going to rack up a ton of yards. So they've got to get him uncomfortable a little bit. Now, he's good on the move, too. But he's one of the better, and it's amazing for his size. Lance, did you go last year and watch them?
00:47:54
Speaker 2: Yes. That game? Yes, he is.
00:47:56
Speaker 4: He's so small.
00:47:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:47:57
Speaker 4: He is so small, but he is so poised. And he'll take some sacks. They're one of the worst teams in the country at keeping him upright because he will stand in there and wait until the absolute last second for somebody to come open and deliver a ball. He doesn't have happy feet. He is not looking to get out of the pocket. When they call a pass play, he's looking to stand in there. And that's why he's one of the three or four best quarterbacks in the country on third down. He's thrown for over 300 yards on third down alone through four games, which is a remarkable statistic on third down.
00:48:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's six in the country at 56% on third downs going into Saturday night.
00:48:41
Speaker 4: That is my biggest concern in this game is getting him off the field on third down. They have had some problems there already, and Arizona is excellent defensively. converting third down. And it doesn't matter. Third and short, third and medium, third and long. He's going to hang in the pocket and make a tough throw and find a spot in your defense and move the chain. So that's really my key. If Cincinnati can keep them under 50% on third down, I think they really have a chance to win this game.
00:49:13
Speaker 3: All right. Then the other question, the obvious question coming out of Saturday night, JC Flacco. goes 8 of 13 passing how do you feel if he has to throw it more in a game which eventually he's going to have to how do you feel about that.
00:49:31
Speaker 4: Um i'm more confident now than i was at the beginning of the season Because I think he's making smart decisions. He has not been forcing the ball. I don't remember a pass that he's really put into a danger spot where it's like, oh, that thing should have been picked, even if they don't have any interceptions on the season. But as long as he continues to make the smart read, to make the right throw, and to keep the ball out of harm's way, I feel pretty good about where he's at. I.
00:50:04
Speaker 4: Do you want him throwing 35, 40 times a game?
00:50:06
Speaker 1: No.
00:50:08
Speaker 4: But if he's up to 25, 27 in a game, I don't feel terrible about that. And they're probably going to have to do some of what they did against Miami in the second half, which is using those sideline out routes and using some space to open up the run game because Arizona's got an outstanding run defense. And they load the box. They do a lot of– stunts and games and slides they bring a lot of guys and they they disguise it so there's going to be a lot of bodies in the box i wouldn't mind seeing them doing what we saw in the second half of the miami game and spreading that defense out by hitting gavin grover hitting isaiah johnson uh... hitting those guys on the sidelines on first down so you get five yards go out of bounds and you stay in front of the sticks And that should open up the run game a little bit more on a defense that they're crowding the box because their past defense, you know, they lost three guys to the NFL that are all really good already in the NFL as rookies. They're not as good in the back end, so they're loading the box. They're trying to make things difficult. They're disguising coverages. I'd like to see Cincinnati take advantage of some of that, pick up some of those easy yards, and then hopefully that opens up the run game. But to answer your question, 25, 27 passes, I feel J.C. French can handle that. 35, I get a little worried. That's too much for what this offense wants to be.
00:51:39
Speaker 3: All right, last question. You were filling in this afternoon on ESPN 1530. Talked with Jared Calhoun. Give me a Bearcat nugget or note you took away from that conversation that would interest listeners.
00:51:51
Speaker 4: I think the most interesting thing by far was I've never heard of teams doing this, Lance. Cincinnati and Ohio State scrimmage on Wednesday the 7th at the tennis center. Two weeks ago, Jared Calhoun went to an Ohio State practice And watched Ohio State today, three assistants from Ohio State were at Cincinnati watching Cincinnati practice. I've never heard of that. Two coaching staff coordinating with each other and saying, we think it will be best if you know what we're doing and we know what you're doing. That's how we're going to get the most out of this scrimmage. Coaches are generally... They're neurotic. They don't want anybody to know anything. These two coaching staffs are like, no, come on in. Figure out everything we're doing. You can write down all our plays. You can do anything you want to do, and we'll see you on Wednesday. I think that's amazing. I think it's awesome.
00:52:44
Speaker 2: Never heard of it.
00:52:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. All right.
00:52:47
Speaker 2: Well, good.
00:52:47
Speaker 3: For more on that and all things UC football, basketball, UC athletics, tell them what they're going to get, what they're going to find at BearcatJournal.com.
00:52:57
Speaker 4: We've got wall-to-wall coverage of the Arizona game, podcast, Keegan Nickerson, Austin Bass doing great writing on it. Keegan just put up an article with some of his thoughts from basketball practice today. You name it, we have you covered at Bearcat Journal. Football, basketball, Tim Adams and Jeff Gentle have been covering baseball, which is going through fall ball right now. So you name it, and you're going to get it at BearcatJournal.com.
00:53:23
Speaker 2: Love it.
00:53:24
Speaker 3: Always enjoy our conversation. We'll talk next week.
00:53:26
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:53:27
Speaker 8: Thanks, Ellis.
00:53:28
Speaker 4: Have a good one.
00:53:29
Speaker 3: Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com Still ahead.
00:53:33
Speaker 2: Oh, I know what I want to ask.
00:53:34
Speaker 3: When we come back, and we ran out of time with Chad, but UC went out today to Arizona. They're going to play at 11 o'clock on Saturday night and listening to Scott on his coach's show this week. They're going to keep them up later the next two nights and try to adjust their bodies that way. I want to talk with you as a former player and even the experiences over the years of trying to adjust to a different time zone and the best way to do it, going out early, going out right at the time.
00:54:02
Speaker 2: I've done both.
00:54:04
Speaker 3: All right, well then, perfect.
00:54:05
Speaker 2: Look at you.
00:54:06
Speaker 3: I thought I was going to have to ask Mike his thoughts on it.
00:54:10
Speaker 2: Or Fran. I'm not saying you're not going to get a better answer.
00:54:13
Speaker 4: If I didn't get.
00:54:13
Speaker 3: Anything from you guys, I was just going to ask Phyllis what she thinks.
00:54:15
Speaker 2: There you go. We'll continue.
00:54:18
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tove Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilder, the spot 700 WLW. 725-700-WLW, The Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We hang out each Thursday night for the next three weeks at Long Necks Wilder.
00:54:38
Speaker 2: He's Rocky, I'm Lance.
00:54:39
Speaker 3: It's all brought to you in part by Hawksworth Blood Centers, Hawksworth Donors Save Lives. Close to home, who will you save? Everdry Waterproofing. If your basement leaks call Everdry, it's not dry till it's Everdry. Boy, it is a big night tonight. Tom Horan's here, but even bigger than that, Mike Duell from Overhead Door in Northern Kentucky. Where'd he go?
00:54:55
Speaker 2: Oh, there he is.
00:54:56
Speaker 3: Oh, he's talking to my son.
00:54:57
Speaker 2: Right there.
00:54:58
Speaker 3: It's good to have him in the house. Going to be contacting him about some Overhead Door stuff and some things on the wall in my garage and all that. Details to follow. Big stuff going on. Big stuff going on. All right, now, one, I've changed my mind. I ran the calculation in my head, and I've decided now, because the Browns aren't going to be very good ultimately, and the Steelers are going to be better than them, I want the Steelers to lose tonight. Because the Browns, at best, maybe six, seven wins. I think the Steelers maybe are more of an eight, nine, maybe.
00:55:28
Speaker 2: Get to ten.
00:55:29
Speaker 3: So I want them to lose because I think. they've got a better chance of being a factor than the Browns are of being a factor.
00:55:35
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? That's what I thought the whole time. And you're going into, like, you know. Why didn't you just stop me? Home field and, like, what, the wind calculations and all this nonsense. I'm like, look, say it out loud.
00:55:45
Speaker 3: Did you just call analytics nonsense?
00:55:47
Speaker 2: I'm just saying. Say it out loud. I want you to say that.
00:55:50
Speaker 1: During your broadcast.
00:55:50
Speaker 2: The better team at the end of the year, the Steelers or the Browns?
00:55:54
Speaker 3: I want you on your broadcast on Saturday right in the middle of the show with you. What's your guy, Clay Matvick?
00:55:59
Speaker 2: Clay Matvick. I want you to say Clay.
00:56:01
Speaker 4: Clay.
00:56:01
Speaker 2: Analytics are, what did you just call them? Ridiculous? Worthless? It was ridiculous. I just wanted.
00:56:07
Speaker 3: To say, Clay, the reality is those analytics we just put up on the screen, they don't mean squat.
00:56:13
Speaker 2: They don't mean squat. And I want his reaction. Shut up.
00:56:20
Speaker 3: I looked at the very scientific poll question I asked on Twitter, at Lance McAllister. The question was, for Bengals purposes, which team would you rather see lose tonight? Steelers or Browns?
00:56:33
Speaker 2: And?
00:56:33
Speaker 3: 84% say Steelers.
00:56:37
Speaker 2: See, the people.
00:56:39
Speaker 3: Sometimes it just comes down to who you hate more, and I can't stand the Steelers. I really don't care about the Browns. I hate the Steelers.
00:56:44
Speaker 2: Right. Which is probably where a lot of it is.
00:56:47
Speaker 3: So wouldn't doubt just pick against the team you despise?
00:56:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just feel the Browns, even though they're playing pretty good now, ultimately are still more dysfunctional. Then the Steelers, and they came down to something, you know, I would take them over the Steelers.
00:57:03
Speaker 3: The analytics would agree with that. All right. So UC flew out today. They play Saturday night, 11 o'clock Cincinnati time, 8 o'clock Arizona time. In listening to Scott Satterfield paraphrasing, they decided to go out early. to start making the adjustment. They're going to keep their guys up later the next two nights to try to adjust the bodies. Take me through the dynamics of all that and the body and the adjustment and the best way to try to do it.
00:57:30
Speaker 2: So this is basically the opposite approach that McVay tried, right?
00:57:34
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:57:34
Speaker 2: We're going to just fly in and just play the game and get out.
00:57:36
Speaker 3: Off the tarmac and out of the field.
00:57:40
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm sure you know if there's some historical analytics on that. More analytics? Jeez, Rod. Here I am. Talking on both sides of my mouth here. Yeah, I'm trying to think. When I was with the Chiefs in 08, we played. Again, they were central times. It wasn't like some big thing, but we played a game, played Chargers. And we went out a day early. For that same thing, the, like, kind of acclimate kind of thing, because it was a noon game, which would have been, you know, whatever. Yeah.
00:58:19
Speaker 9: Anyway.
00:58:20
Speaker 2: It was a noon. It would have been a 1 p.m. Eastern game, so it would have been 11.
00:58:23
Speaker 4: Anyway.
00:58:24
Speaker 9: So.
00:58:25
Speaker 2: And I thought we played good, though, so I don't know. I don't know if every team is different.
00:58:30
Speaker 3: And Scott even admitted they ran the numbers, and it's going to cost them more, obviously, another night in a hotel.
00:58:35
Speaker 2: That's part of it, too.
00:58:36
Speaker 3: They just waited as being worth it was worth doing and spending the money to put them in what they thought would be the best position to be ready to play Saturday night at 11 o'clock Eastern time.
00:58:46
Speaker 2: I just feel as a player, just mindset-wise, I'd rather get out there a little early and Nothing too extravagant, but I think I'd rather get out there early and kind of adjust. Although I will say, any more, man, like if I travel and do a game in Central Time or West Coast, my body clock stays on Eastern.
00:59:08
Speaker 3: All right, we've reached the midway point.
00:59:10
Speaker 2: Of the show.
00:59:10
Speaker 3: Still ahead, Daniel Kuhn checks in, high school football tonight show. He's in for Greg Shoemaker. Dan Klaskens has the fantasy football fix. 8 o'clock hour, we'll get a little preview and a scouting report on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Remind me to ask you about pro football focus grades and maybe a little bit on the Joe Burrow narrative this week about clutch, all of that, and Dante Moore's injury as we continue. He's rocky?
00:59:37
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:59:37
Speaker 3: Are we going to have time to get all that in? We better hustle. Let's check news. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon from Longnecks in Wilder on 700 WLW. WLW, we're hanging out at Long Necks in Wilder, the first of a three-week run after we had three fantastic weeks at their Hebron location. This is the show we call the Roundtable Show. It's presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, Lance McAllister, alongside is Rocky Boyman. Each week at this time, we turn to the high school football scene. In most weeks, it's Greg Shoemaker. He's on assignment, we'll say again tonight, but ably filling in. We enjoyed talking with him last week. He's back to talk with us again this week. You're talking high school football tonight show. You're talking tristatefootball.com. We must be talking with Daniel Kuhn. Daniel, how are we doing tonight?
01:00:28
Speaker 9: Good. How are you, Lance?
01:00:29
Speaker 2: Excellent.
01:00:30
Speaker 3: Let's get into this big slate tomorrow night. Let's go one by one here. Let's start with what could be, I guess, the GCL South title to be decided Friday night. Give me thoughts and storylines on Elder and Elder taking on Moeller.
01:00:47
Speaker 10: Yeah, out at Welcome Stadium in Dayton tomorrow night.
01:00:50
Speaker 11: This is going to be a big game, as is every game in the GCL South. But this is for the GCL South title.
01:00:56
Speaker 10: If Moeller can take care of business, they'll be an outright champion for the fourth time in five years. With a loss, they'll be sharing the title with Elder and possibly St.
01:01:05
Speaker 9: Axe.
01:01:06
Speaker 11: That'll be the first time that's happened in over 10 years.
01:01:08
Speaker 10: Moeller's 13-1 in the GCL South games for the last four years. Their only loss came to Elder last year. I mean, this game's really going to come down to what most GCL South games come down to, and it's going to be in the trenches. I mean, we're going to win this game in the trenches and run the football effectively to be able to take care of this game.
01:01:27
Speaker 11: You look at what Elder happened to them last week with St.
01:01:29
Speaker 4: Ag.
01:01:29
Speaker 10: They gave over 100 yards rushing to Aiden. to Aiden Graham for St. X. And Muller's got a really, really good running back at Juice Club of Brown. So the Crusaders are going to look to get him rolling on Friday night. Hunter McLaughlin has been the big story for the Crusaders. They were really strong at the beginning of the year in terms of offense, and he's really kind of come in as a soft and sparked that Crusaders offense. You know, 560 yards passing, six touchdowns, no interceptions. But, of course, on the other side, Elder has a phenomenal quarterback in Tayden Eastep. I mean, he's averaging over 320 yards a game. He's got 19 total touchdowns. And truthfully, Lance, I saw them play on Friday night last week against St. X.
01:02:07
Speaker 11: He's their entire running game.
01:02:09
Speaker 10: The Panthers don't really have a true running back, so Eastep is their running game as well as their passing game. And, of course, the big storyline last week was with Adrian Flyman and whether he would watch as he is playing tomorrow night. It will be the final week of his two-week extension on his eligibility issues.
01:02:26
Speaker 11: So keep an eye out for him. Have another nice night, and it should be a great one tomorrow night at Welcome Stadium.
01:02:31
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff, Daniel. Let's move on to number two, Lakota West, sitting at 5-1 at.
01:02:38
Speaker 2: Number nine, the Middies from Middletown. What are you seeing in this one?
01:02:42
Speaker 10: Yeah, this has been interesting. I mean, Middletown had a really hard, tough start to the season, playing two really good teams in Elder and Princeton. They gave up a ton of points in this matchup, 63 between the.
01:02:51
Speaker 11: Two, but they've only allowed 41 total in the four games.
01:02:55
Speaker 10: They really struggled on offense and trying to get a rhythm in the beginning of the year. Gavin Nolan, who was a transfer from Centerville, came in and he's done really well or did really, really well last week against the Sycamore team. That really kind of, I think, gave many his confidence on offense. I mean, they're like they're not only averaging about 85 yards a game and just three yards per carry.
01:03:14
Speaker 4: On the ground.
01:03:15
Speaker 10: So he certainly helped them out. And Lakota West has just been outstanding. The only blemish they have is that loss to Princeton, which is understandable. But Kenyon Norman has been as advertised for the Firebirds this year. Carmelo Jordan is another one that you want to keep an eye on. He's been really good to them in the passing game. He's actually the only one with a touchdown receiving all year. He's got six of them. And then, you know, outside of Norman and his, you know, 1,000-plus yards, no other player has more than 86 yards on the ground. And then Wakota West, I mean, as with the Tom Bolden coach team, have a phenomenal defense. They're only allowing 12 points per game. And they only have five sacks. So they've just been really, really good at keeping team offense, opposing offense behind sticks and putting their offense in position to go out and win them games.
01:03:58
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to Northern Kentucky then. Highlands at Cubcats. Let's get it on.
01:04:05
Speaker 4: Big one on North Kentucky.
01:04:06
Speaker 10: I mean, these are the two probably most set teams out in North Kentucky right now. Highlands has been rolling over everybody. They had a tough loss at the beginning of their season. Bounced back really nice. Cubs have had the one loss to Beachwood, which obviously Beachwood is.
01:04:20
Speaker 11: A very, very good program. So no heads hanging there. I mean, this is a rivalry.
01:04:24
Speaker 10: Highlands has won three of the last four. And Cubcat won nine in a row prior to that, and then the Highlands won 14 in a row prior to that. So whoever's going to come out on top has a good chance to continue that streak. I mean, Bluebirds are averaging almost 50 points per game.
01:04:40
Speaker 11: I mean, they're so.
01:04:42
Speaker 10: Good offensively and have so many good weapons to spread the ball around to. 19 different Bluebirds have receptions. No player has most.
01:04:49
Speaker 2: Of those catches.
01:04:50
Speaker 4: Dang!
01:04:51
Speaker 10: Bryce Armstrong is really the catalyst for how good that offense is. I mean, there's a lot of, you talk a lot about Tate and Lorenzen, but Bryce Armstrong flies under the radar.
01:05:01
Speaker 11: It's so impressive.
01:05:02
Speaker 10: 13 passing touchdowns, six rushing touchdowns, and he also leads the team in rushing. And then on the other side for the Colonels, Kian Miller, he's only a sophomore, but I had the pleasure of seeing him play early this year.
01:05:13
Speaker 11: He's the real deal. I mean, over 500 yards.
01:05:16
Speaker 10: Sorry, over 600 yards this year, 15 touchdowns at such a young age. He's already blossoming into a real big star. And certainly, if you're keeping up on sports, keep an eye on this.
01:05:26
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on. Talawanda sitting at 5-0 versus undefeated in number 25, the Northwest Knights. What do you see?
01:05:36
Speaker 10: Well, listen, this is a game between two schools that don't get a lot of.
01:05:39
Speaker 11: Love in terms of media.
01:05:41
Speaker 10: Not a lot of people know about either one of these programs, but I'll tell you this. Talawanda is notorious for having physical teams, and Northwest likes to beat you with explosive plays. So it's kind of like the immovable force meets the unstoppable object in.
01:05:53
Speaker 11: This game tomorrow night.
01:05:54
Speaker 10: Northwest is 6-0 for the first time in over 13 years. They're only allowing eight points per game. Jordan Lilly is impressive. He's got four.
01:06:04
Speaker 11: Touchdown performances last against Mount Healthy. He can spread the ball around with his arm.
01:06:08
Speaker 10: He can beat you with his feet. He and his teammate Ethan Dixon are both averaging more than 100 yards on the ground, so keep an eye on Dixon to pound the rock. And then you look on the other side, you have Talawanda, like I said, big physical team. They're only allowing 4.3 points per game. They have 16 sacks and a whopping 43 tackles for losses this year. And Talawanda also, you know, they can pass the ball. They like to run the ball, but they can pass it. They have more than 300 yards passing in 2026. I mean, they, so let me rephrase that. They have 300 more yards passing this year than they did last year. And that is a very stark contrast. And listen, it's one of those games where it's just old school, hard-nosed football. And if you love classic football, this is the game for you.
01:06:55
Speaker 3: All right, Daniel, give us a preview. It's going to be a big night tomorrow night. Lay out a preview of that high school football tonight show.
01:07:03
Speaker 10: Well, I will be on it this week, so I wasn't on it the last time we talked last week, Lance, but I'll be on it tomorrow night. I forget who I'm going to be on with, but we're going to have a great time. We're going to be breaking down all the games across the tri-state. Well, I don't know if it's Greg or if it's LaFawn. They didn't really tell me. We're going to go run with whoever we're with. And, you know, we're going to have a great time. We're going to break down all the games. We're going to talk to some head coaches. And we're going to give you that high school football fix and catch you up on anything you might.
01:07:30
Speaker 11: Have missed if you really want to find out everything that happened across this tri-state.
01:07:34
Speaker 2: Excellent.
01:07:35
Speaker 3: Always good stuff. Hey, appreciate you filling in tonight. Excellent job again.
01:07:38
Speaker 2: And thank you.
01:07:40
Speaker 4: Of course, Lance.
01:07:41
Speaker 11: Thank you. Thank you, Rocky, as well.
01:07:43
Speaker 2: You got it. Thanks, Daniel. Great stuff, buddy.
01:07:44
Speaker 3: Daniel Kuhn checking in, filling in for Greg Shoemaker tonight. The High School Football Tonight Show, tristatefootball.com. That'll start at 6 tomorrow night, I believe, on both ESPN 1530 and Fox Sports 1360.
01:07:56
Speaker 2: And then that St.
01:07:57
Speaker 3: X game, 645. The guys are back after the game with the nightly wrap-up, which is fantastic. They talk with coaches, be it on the bus or wherever they may be able to track them down.
01:08:10
Speaker 2: And reaction to the.
01:08:11
Speaker 3: Night that was in high school football tomorrow night.
01:08:14
Speaker 2: All right, let's do this.
01:08:15
Speaker 3: Around the corner, Dan Klaskens has your fantasy football fix. The 8 o'clock hour, we'll delve into those Jacksonville Jaguars and hear perspective from Jacksonville.
01:08:26
Speaker 2: That is ahead.
01:08:26
Speaker 3: We're rolling until 9 tonight. 9 o'clock would be Dan Carroll time, but plenty of ground to cover between now and then. He's rocky on Lance. Roundtable show brought to you in part by Miami University. Where today's students become tomorrow's leaders, visit MiamiOH.edu. And OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. We're at Longnecks in Wilder. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Toph Sheldon on 700 WLW. Full hours this week, always presented by Cincinnati. Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon. Don't forget, if you're in the house or if you're on your way here, get a raffle ticket from your server, fill it out, drop it in the bucket. Coming up at 9 o'clock, we will draw. We've got a very cool long-neck Bengal shirt to give away, and you'll be entered in the drawing box. in three weeks for the excellent T. Higgins print behind the bar currently. Got to be here to win tonight. Got to be here to win three weeks from tonight. We'll do those drawings at the end of the show coming up at 9 o'clock. All right, let's talk fantasy football. Our next guest, host of Fantistics Insider Football, Sirius XM Fantasy Insider Football.com. That would be Dan Klaskens.
01:09:40
Speaker 2: How are you?
01:09:42
Speaker 7: Lance, how are we doing tonight, my friend?
01:09:43
Speaker 2: Very well, very well.
01:09:44
Speaker 3: Fired up for football tonight, AFC North Clash.
01:09:47
Speaker 2: You know what? I'll ask you what I ask, Rocky.
01:09:49
Speaker 3: Are you in agreement? From a Bengals perspective, you'd rather the Steelers lose tonight.
01:09:56
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? Would you go with that?
01:09:58
Speaker 7: From the Bengals' perspective and from my betting perspective.
01:10:03
Speaker 2: Well, that's all settled. There you go.
01:10:05
Speaker 3: That's the deciding factor, absolutely.
01:10:08
Speaker 7: But I hear you, fellas. We're not flushing the Browns down tonight.
01:10:11
Speaker 2: There you go. There you go.
01:10:13
Speaker 3: All right, let's start here. Let's start with the struggling stars. Some guys, owners are probably pulling their hair out playing for their teams. Take us through some of the struggles.
01:10:21
Speaker 7: Yeah, I got a little mini all-star team here, struggling stars. We'll start at quarterback with Drake May. The overall numbers haven't been catastrophic, but The high leverage play has been bad. Third down, just 52% completions, 12% interception rate. Inside the red zone, just 37.5% completion, 20% sack rate. I'm not panicking three weeks in, but Buffalo is a tough place to expect a breakthrough. Right now, May's more of a QB2 than a QB1. Saquon Barkley, he's the running back on our struggling Stars team. The volume's still there. We're just not getting the fantasy profile we drafted for it. One reception in each of his three games. He had 82 rushing yards against Chicago, but 73 came before halftime. So you're obviously starting Saquon, but we're just waiting for the difference-making fantasy production that came at that premium draft price. Brian Thomas Jr., he's our wide receiver of struggling stars, one of the bigger disappointments at the position. This week could be a nice opportunity for a rebound. A 51.5 point total in this Jacksonville and Cincinnati game. I like it for fantasy. We'll see. And then Kyle Pitts, he'll round out our team. Here we go again. Target shares through three weeks.
01:11:28
Speaker 4: 4.7%, 9.6%, 8.6%.
01:11:29
Speaker 7: He hasn't even commanded 10% of Atlanta's targets in a single game. The talent's never been the issue, but at some point, opportunity has to matter more than potential.
01:11:39
Speaker 3: Yep.
01:11:40
Speaker 2: All right, Dan, let's go to injuries. I see some big names on this list here.
01:11:45
Speaker 7: We'll try to get through them quick, Rocky. There are some big names, and that running back is where we're going to start. Devon Aitken, buzzkill there for his managers and the Miami Dolphins.
01:11:54
Speaker 2: He's moving.
01:11:55
Speaker 7: They're going to be moving forward without him. ACL injury. Jalen Wright practiced in full today. I like him over Alvin Gordon in the long term. It's not a situation I'm crazy about. Brees Hall, the Jets running back, out multiple weeks here with the quad issue. Braylon Allen becomes legitimate RB2 as he sits. Travis, ETN, HN, whatever we're calling him. We're calling him on the IR as of today. Four games at least, plus in week 8-5. We're talking week 9 in play before fantasy managers get him back in action. Rico Dowdle in tonight's game, just like he was last week versus the Bengals, out. Jalen Warren going to get that big workload. I'm a little concerned coming off the short week here, so... Not expecting quite as big of a day as we saw last week, but still very fantasy-friendly. That receiver, good news. Lots of good news here. Puka Nakua practiced in full today, trending towards a return in Week 4. Nico Collins, he was limited with his hamstring, but too straight. I'm optimistic he's back in Week 4. Justin Jefferson, he was not spotted during Thursday's practice, so we're going to have to keep our eyes on him tomorrow. And Devontae Smith at his hamstring did not practice again. The Philadelphia Eagles are preparing to play without him. I think fantasy manager should as well. We'll keep our eyes on Liam McCotty, Mike Evans, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels back in the mix. And Baker Mayfield out.
01:13:06
Speaker 2: For a few weeks.
01:13:07
Speaker 7: So we're talking Jalen Daniels for the Bucs. It's looking pretty scary. Downgrade all of those Tampa Bay wideouts.
01:13:14
Speaker 3: No doubt about that. All right, how about our weekly studs, duds, and sleepers?
01:13:19
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's start with the studs. I'm not trying to pick on the Bengals. I'm just all in on Jacksonville. I've been that way since the preseason. And Trevor Lawrence is the reason why. He's my first stud this week. As I said, a great fantasy environment. Him and Joe Burrow, both in my top four at quarterback. But I love, since the start of 2025, Lawrence has accounted for 21 go-ahead touchdowns, 16 through the air, five on the ground. That's the most in the league. He's a lock this week, as is Matthew Golden. The week three breakout, it could have been even bigger than it was. He's getting all the action. I really think that he is legitimate. I'm treating him as a weekly starter for the Packers on the dud side. We're sitting Ashton Gentry. Still starting in most leagues. I'm just really lowering expectations, really. We're not going to bench him, but Kansas City, a strong defense. I don't like the game strip. Volume keeps Gentee viable, but I'm not counting on him as an RB1 this week. Labney Conkney didn't practice again today. He was already on my dud list. Let's sit the Chargers wide up. How about L.A.? The Chargers, fewer than 17 points in each of its first three games. I'm sitting most everybody on that. And then the sleepers, I'll give you a couple. Hopefully you guys listened to Marcus Mariota last week. He ended up being a top five quarterback. This week, I don't know if he's going to get that good, but C.J. Stroud's on the bounce back. The Texans' offense has been ugly, but this Dallas matchup gets my attention. I love the healthy 48-point total here. And with Nico Collins back, I think he's going to have his best Sunday of the season. And my final sleeper, Jawan Johnson. The Saints are playing the Falcons on Monday Night Football, and the Saints have been getting him in action. 77% of the routes he has ran on passing plays. And, guys, that's just opportunities. I can't say enough equals things. And Jawan Johnson's a top-ten tight end this week for me.
01:15:01
Speaker 3: All right, Dan, we love talking about and highlighting stuff going on with the DAV. You've got another way for listeners to get involved. Tell them about the DAV 5K and how people can participate.
01:15:13
Speaker 7: Yeah, Lance, thank you for that. DAV 5K is a great way to get moving, get back to Americans, veterans. You can walk, roll, run, ride.
01:15:21
Speaker 2: You can help.
01:15:21
Speaker 7: DAV continue providing free programs and services to all their families. So grab some friends, get your family involved, join us. It's November 8th at the banks here in Cincinnati or anywhere virtually. You can learn more at DAV5K. org.
01:15:33
Speaker 2: Love it.
01:15:34
Speaker 3: Always enjoy the conversation, and let's do it again next week.
01:15:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
01:15:38
Speaker 7: Yes, and I'm with you guys.
01:15:40
Speaker 2: I'm rooting for the Browns tonight. All right, very good.
01:15:43
Speaker 4: Thanks, Dan.
01:15:43
Speaker 2: Thanks, Dan.
01:15:45
Speaker 3: Dan Klaskens for our fantasy football segment each Thursday night at this time. Right before the top of the hour, let me take a look at the Kelsey Chevrolet college football weekend preview, and we'll hit a couple of the area teams. UC Bearcats 4-0 visiting the Arizona Wildcats. As we mentioned earlier with Chad, Bearcats 4-0 for the first time Since 2021, they are outscoring opponents in the second.
01:16:06
Speaker 2: Half, 107-27.
01:16:08
Speaker 3: Cole Tabb of the Bearcats leads the country in rushing. 11.1 yards per attempt. 11.1 yards per rushing attempt. We referenced with Chad, Arizona's quarterback, Noah Fafita. He's thrown for 84 touchdowns in his career and 10,314 yards. That is currently ranked first and second in each category among all active FBS quarterbacks. The Wildcats fell in a 14-point hole last week. Bearcats fell in one as well. Wildcats found a way out. They're converting 56% on third down, sixth best in the country. Ohio State 4-0 is set for their first Big Ten road game of the season. They visit the Iowa Hawkeyes. 3-30 kick. It is the 70th time that Ohio State is featured in the ESPN College Game Day matchup. The most of any team in the country. Jeremiah Smith on pace, Rock. 121 catches, 2,385 yards, and 26 touchdowns.
01:17:10
Speaker 2: Did you say 2,300 yards?
01:17:11
Speaker 3: 2,300 yards receiving. The Hawkeyes 4-0 for the first time since 2021, and that defense, the Iowa Hawkeye defense, leading the nation, allowing just eight points per game. Miami opens back play, hosting Bowling Green. Miami's 2-2, Bowling Green 0-4, coached by the former Ohio State and NFL great Eddie George. The Falcons have a defensive end, Miles Bradley, who had four and a half sacks last week. He's the reigning defensive back player of the year. And the Redhawks have a quarterback, and David McComb currently leads the nation at 17.3 yards per completion. 17.3 yards per completion, Rock.
01:17:47
Speaker 2: He's slinging it.
01:17:51
Speaker 3: For the Miami Redhawks and the Kentucky Wildcats. Travel to South Carolina. Kentucky's 3-1, South Carolina 2-2. The heat's certainly on. Shane Beamer, the hot seat, getting a little bit warmer. The Gamecocks riding a seven-game SEC losing streak, and Dylan Stewart suspended. They'll be without their star defensive end. Kentucky coming off a game with the first time in program history they had three running backs rush for 100 yards or more.
01:18:18
Speaker 2: And their win over South Alabama.
01:18:20
Speaker 3: That is your Kelsey Chevrolet College Football Weekend Preview. My guy Josh Wilking passed along that Kelsey pre-owned deal of the week this week.
01:18:28
Speaker 2: It's a 2024 Chevrolet Trax LS with only 23,000 miles.
01:18:29
Speaker 3: Price just reduced to $ 18, 999. which is $ 2, 000 less than average for a Trax on the market. It is a super deal. I would be there in the morning and test drive it at Kelsey Chevrolet. Tell them I sent you. You can check it out now on my blog at 700wlw.
01:18:47
Speaker 4: Com.
01:18:50
Speaker 3: All right, two hours in the books. Just like that. One more to go. Let's talk Jacksonville Jaguars and Joe Burrow and the Bengals and more as we continue. It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tove Sheldon. Long necks in Wilder, the spot, and on 700 WLW.
01:19:07
Speaker 1: Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Achani, and Levy, attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit OAL-Law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers, visit rlc.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, 513-513-TOPH. and by your tri-state Chevy dealers. Chevrolet, the number one selling brand in Cincinnati for the past 10 years. Chevrolet, together, let's drive. On 700 WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
01:19:52
Speaker 3: And away we go, 8 o'clock hour underway on a Thursday night at Longnecks in Wilder. Lance McAllister, Rocky Boyman, The Roundtable Show. here for the next three weeks. We take it until 9 o'clock tonight. That'll be Dan Carroll time. The cast of characters here tonight, Mike Mills, our trusty engineer on hand, Russ Jackson back in the studio, just about gave me a heart attack like 90 seconds ago. I think my pacemaker fired. Fran and his lovely wife Phyllis are here. So big tonight, so big tonight that Casey and Kelly were here. It was good to see them. It was good to see them. Everybody tonight, appreciate them hanging out with us. We'll do the giveaway coming up at 9 o'clock tonight. We have Bengals and Jaguars to get to in this hour. Let's do a little bit on Jacksonville. I was struck by a couple of things I heard last night on Bengals game plan down the dial on ESPN 1530. Dan Hort and Wayne Boxmiller each week. They talked with Mark Long, who covered the Jaguars for the Associated Press. Brock, here's what he said about that Jaguar defense. They returned 10 starters. They've got their defense coordinator back, Anthony, I think it's Campanilli, and they certainly have continuity. They led the NFL in yards allowed on the ground, fewest yards per carry last year, and they're among the best this year. Here's his assessment, Mark Long, of that Jacksonville defense the Bengals offense will be facing on Sunday.
01:21:15
Speaker 4: It starts with Devon Hamilton.
01:21:17
Speaker 12: He's not the name on the defensive side of the ball, but he is really their best player, their best player against the run. He's a nose tackle who's just a complete handful.
01:21:26
Speaker 4: He is their.
01:21:28
Speaker 12: Version of Dexter Lawrence, a little bit different body style, doesn't quite get the push, but, man, is he tough to run on. And then they're in.
01:21:37
Speaker 4: You know, they set the edge.
01:21:38
Speaker 12: Josh Heimdall and Trayvon Walker, not over-the-top fantastic pass rushers, but very good at setting the edge and not letting people get outside them, being able to stop the run. So for them, that's where it starts. They can wreck games, and they're a handful up front. I believe if you go back to last season, Cincinnati versus Jacksonville, Trayvon Walker really kind of had his way with– Amarius Mims on the right side.
01:22:07
Speaker 4: So it'll be interesting.
01:22:07
Speaker 12: Amarius Mims has made huge strides since that Week 2 matchup last year.
01:22:12
Speaker 4: So it'll be.
01:22:13
Speaker 12: Interesting to see what that matchup head-to-head looks like in Year 2.
01:22:28
Speaker 3: He only has 10 catches. It's not only, but I'd like to see him catch a little bit more. But of his 10 catches, he's only averaging 3.2 yards a catch, which is way below his career average. And I just think he's a guy I'd love to see them get him in space screens. They rarely run screens. I just think there's something there with... With Chase Brown's elusiveness, you get him out there and set him up with a screen and get some blocking in, there's no reason he should only be averaging 3.2 yards per catch.
01:22:54
Speaker 2: To your point on screens, I have a coach that tells me, and they do a ton of screens, and the reason is, he said, there's a limited amount of practice time during the week, and the smallest amount of time you devote to something the offense does is the screen games. That's why you practice. It is deadly when run... But, no, that would be a great way to get him in the ball more.
01:23:17
Speaker 3: On the other side of things, Trevor Lawrence coming to town. Trevor Lawrence is in his fifth season, and now it finally feels like in his second season now with Liam Cohen, the head coach, that it's really started to click. He's still only 26 years old, quarterback rating 107.2, and Mark Long last night kind of laid the path he's taken and just the difficult situations coaching-wise that kind of derailed his first season. three-plus years in the NFL. Here's Mark Long, the Associated Press, talking about the development of Trevor Lawrence.
01:23:51
Speaker 12: You know, this is exactly what Trevor needed for his career. You look at a guy who was drafted first overall in 2021 by Urban Meyer, and that was a complete debacle. We all know how that started. Week four in Cincinnati, Urban decides strangely to stick around after that game And ends up at his restaurant there in Columbus. Gets in all sorts of trouble. And it really was the beginning of the end for Urban Meyer. But that just ruined Trevor Lawrence's rookie year. Then he looks like he's going to turn the corner with Doug Peterson. But that turns into a debacle because you had offensive coaches. pointing the finger at each other, offensive coaches not even talking during game planning, or Doug Peterson decided to give up play calling. All of that affects the young quarterback.
01:24:43
Speaker 1: And it did.
01:24:44
Speaker 12: And finally, in year five for Trevor Lawrence, he basically gets saved here.
01:24:50
Speaker 4: With Liam Cullen.
01:24:51
Speaker 12: And Liam, fantastic mentor, played the position, so he knows what he's talking about. And he's really found.
01:24:59
Speaker 7: A different level for Trevor Lawrence.
01:25:02
Speaker 12: And Trevor's got it all. He's got it all hands down. He's figured it out.
01:25:08
Speaker 3: Last night on Bengals Game Plan, Mark Long talking about Trevor Lawrence. And, Rock, as I heard him say that last night, there's a lot of young quarterbacks. And so much of quarterbacking is the situation you're put into. In most cases, quarterbacks go high. You're going high to a bad team. And there's some quarterbacks who get in bad situations who never get out of them. Maybe no fault of their own. It's just because of the coaching turmoil and turnover. And, you know, a guy like Sam Darnold went through a lot of bad situations before he got to a good one. This seems like the situation that's bringing out the best in Trevor Lawrence.
01:25:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Liam Cohen wasn't a name on a ton of people's radar. Man, he's been absolutely fantastic. And you're right, there's so many quarterbacks throughout the years that just go to a bad organization, an organization that doesn't have an offensive-minded kind of coach, and they get kind of stuck.
01:25:56
Speaker 1: Yep.
01:25:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sam Darnold is the best example of that. When he finally catches on with the Seahawks and McDonald and all them, look out.
01:26:04
Speaker 3: Now, a name you've no doubt heard of for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis Hunter, who has at times served the dual role, offense, defense. We know what he did in his time at Colorado. He had his first career interception last week. He was asked last night about how much they're using him on offense and defense, if his offensive days are done or how it's being managed at this point. Here's thoughts on Travis Hunter.
01:26:33
Speaker 12: He missed half of last season with the injury. He missed all the offseason with the injury. So they're bringing him along slowly. And I think they overwhelmed him last year by bringing him in. as the second overall pick, throwing him in on offense and defense and letting him learn both. Well, trying to learn both, he really never mastered it either. And that was a problem, and I think they saw that midway through the year that he didn't know where to line up.
01:26:58
Speaker 4: He didn't know where to line up on offense.
01:27:00
Speaker 12: And he really didn't know where to line up on defense. And even to this day, when you look at him out there, he still turns probably 60% of the time after the huddle on defense and even off it. He has to be told where to line up and reminded of what they're doing. There is still a learning curve for this guy. They do like him on defense, and they think he can be a Pro Bowl cornerback. He's much better in man than zone. That's the other thing, and they're kind of a zone defense right now. So it would be interesting to see if they switch that up this week and maybe give Travis Hunter a lot of man opportunity on Jamar Chase, or if they bracket Jamar, do they put Travis Hunter on T. Higgins and take their chances that way?
01:27:42
Speaker 3: You know, Rock, I think Mark brought up a great point of last year, basically putting too much on his plate. I mean, you know how difficult it is as a rookie, your head's spinning. They were asking him to learn things on each side of the ball each game, and that's a lot to process.
01:27:55
Speaker 2: Well, it's not just that. I mean, offenses and defenses are so complex anymore. I mean, even since I've been playing, it's otherworldly, just in terms of, I mean, defensively, the pictures and the rolling of the coverages and all those sort of things on both sides of the ball. And, yeah, as a rookie, it's just... Not a lot of time. He had the injuries. So I think it's better that, yeah, have him focus on one side of the ball. And, yeah, maybe you get a couple plays. Yeah, a little package. Yeah, absolutely.
01:28:25
Speaker 3: One more perspective on the Jacksonville Jaguars, the running game that comes to town, led by a name that might not be a household name, but it's certainly putting up big numbers, Basial Tootin. He's a fourth-round pick out of Virginia Tech two years ago, or last season. He's 5'9, 209 pounds. He's averaging 4.7 yards a carry. Here's Mark Long on the Jaguars running back.
01:28:50
Speaker 12: He's got great vision and a great cutback ability, and then we haven't quite seen it yet, but great speed. This is a guy who ran 4.28, I think, at the NFL Combine. That's one of the things they loved about him is they just thought.
01:29:03
Speaker 5: He was a home run hitter.
01:29:04
Speaker 12: So they haven't gotten him. He hasn't quite gotten that home run hit yet, and so they're kind of waiting on that, but they think it's coming.
01:29:12
Speaker 2: He's had a couple.
01:29:12
Speaker 4: Where it's like.
01:29:14
Speaker 12: Q-string tackle here, arm tackle there. Just one move, one step away from breaking one. If you're the Bengals, you're hoping it doesn't happen this week. But if you're the Jags, you're kind of fingers crossed. We think he's going to break through at some point. And the sooner the better for the Jags as far as they're concerned.
01:29:35
Speaker 3: Brock, I've got an amazing number on Trevor Lawrence if you're ready for this. Yes. And prior to Liam Cohen's arrival, Jacksonville had lost 18 of 23. Since he's arrived, Jacksonville has won 15 of 20. But here's the dominance of Jacksonville of late. Going back to last season, they've won 10 of their last 11. In the last 11 games that Trevor Lawrence has played, He has been pulled early because they had such a commanding lead seven times in the last 11 games.
01:30:07
Speaker 2: It never happens.
01:30:08
Speaker 3: It never happens. In the Chargers game, he left with eight minutes to go, six minutes to go against the Titans, seven against the Colts. He left with 13.51 to go in the Jets game last year. They were up by four touchdowns. 13 minutes and 17 seconds to go against the Titans. They were up by 31 late in the game versus.
01:30:27
Speaker 2: Our third quarter.
01:30:28
Speaker 3: He did not finish the third quarter against the Browns when they were up by 24 and eight minutes to go last week against the Patriots. That is unheard of. I couldn't tell you. I was jotting that down from Daniel Griffiths, one of the beat writers for But that's what I thought of. I said, man, the number of times I've thought it even tweeted, why is Joe Burrow still in the game? I've never heard of an NFL quarterback being taken out of the game because a team is such in control in seven times in 11 games. They've won in this stretch of those seven games. They've won by 29, 22, 17, 28.
01:31:02
Speaker 1: 34, 24 games.
01:31:08
Speaker 2: That just doesn't happen in the NFL.
01:31:09
Speaker 3: They've been a juggernaut over the last 11 games going back.
01:31:12
Speaker 2: To last season. Well, now you're making me nervous about this weekend. Darn right. You and your statistics are there. All my analytics.
01:31:19
Speaker 3: Take a time out to continue to talk a little Joe Burrow and more.
01:31:22
Speaker 2: He is Rocky.
01:31:23
Speaker 3: I'm Lance. It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Long Necks in Wilder on 700 WLW.
01:31:37
Speaker 2: Let's keep it moving.
01:31:38
Speaker 3: Thursday night, roundtable show. Hanging out at Long Necks in Wilder. The roundtable show brought to you in part by... Miami University, where today's students become tomorrow's leaders. Visit MiamiOH.edu. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. And Mel's Auto Glass, a clear choice for windshield repair and replacement. Braves and Phillies are underway, scoreless in the first in a game three winner take all. The other three series were sweeps. This one is going the distance. Tonight, Braves and Phillies. All right, Rock, there was much conversation this week around Joe Burrow. Some narratives created and spun. Some were ridiculous. Some had some merit. The whole early in the week, the tweet, I don't even know who it was.
01:32:30
Speaker 2: One in 35.
01:32:31
Speaker 3: One in 35, one in 34 when the Bengals in the fourth quarter trailing with eight minutes to go. And my head hurts. I'm not even going to attempt to explain how silly that stat was. But there are some things that are very valid points about Joe Burrow and the Bengals late in games. There's no doubt. ESPN this week noted that Dating to the start of the 2024 season, Joe Burrow is tied for the NFL lead in lost turnovers in the fourth quarter or overtime. He's had eight interceptions and four fumbles in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2024.
01:33:06
Speaker 2: But I say all that to say this.
01:33:08
Speaker 3: I find it hard to believe that anybody who is a Bengal fan looks and says, the problem with this team is Joe Burrow, and I'd much rather have fill-in-the-blank quarterback in the NFL right now.
01:33:20
Speaker 2: Do you think that's what people are saying, or is it just kind of saying, hey, this guy gets a lot of credit but needs a little more criticism?
01:33:27
Speaker 3: I think there is something to that. That was going to be my next point, and I'm glad you brought that up because I think lost in all this, to me it's become– it's kind of like society. There's no middle ground anymore. You really like something or really hate something, and it's black and it's white.
01:33:40
Speaker 2: Well said.
01:33:42
Speaker 3: There's the group and some of our trolls who just want to say something to get people stirred up. But then I think on the other hand, to your point, I think there is an element of because Joe is viewed as the savior of the franchise. that you can't question Joe because if there's questions about Joe, then there's questions about the validity of the Bengals and the franchise and how good they are. And I think it's fair to say that Joe shouldn't be leading the NFL since 2024. in the most turnovers in the fourth quarter and in overtime. I think it's fair to say on Sunday, he had no business throwing the four-yard pass to Chase Brown. That was a four-yard loss. He should have just thrown it into the ground. And he's got to have better ball security on the play he fumbles on to effectively end the game. I think those are fair. That doesn't mean anybody hates. I don't hate Joe Burrow. You don't like Joe Burrow. But I think that would be talked about with any quarterback in the NFL if you're being fair about the situation.
01:34:41
Speaker 2: You did nail it, though. There is a lot of just bro, total apologists. And no matter what he does, it's not his fault. It's everyone's fault. And I'm not sure where that stems from. But, you know, yeah, I think you can say he's a great quarterback, a franchise quarterback, maybe one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. But, God, talk about a– That hurtful stat, you know, turning the ball over in the fourth quarter, that's a major, that's something to, you know, it's fair criticism. It absolutely is.
01:35:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love him. I wouldn't trade him for anybody else, but I think it's fair to say, just as anybody else on the team. You can't make mistakes. And when you're the quarterback, part of the drill, the quarterback gets all the blame, everything falls on his shoulders. But part of it is if you make mistakes, you're going to be questioned.
01:35:32
Speaker 2: And to his credit, he never tries to deflect and say, well, not really. He always says, hey, that was on me. I've got to get better. And I enjoy that about him.
01:35:41
Speaker 3: It was two weeks ago he said he thought I was very average in the game and had to be better. Absolutely.
01:35:46
Speaker 2: All right.
01:35:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if we can do this justice in the four minutes before the bottom of the hour. Maybe we'll start the conversation. I subscribe to Pro Football Focus, and that subscription is $ 110 a year. And that gives me access to player grades and the whole thing. And I do it not for me, because honestly, I look at the numbers and they don't make any sense. I don't know how they're graded. I'd love to be in there when they're grading. I don't understand how pro football focus and take a player like an offensive lineman and say his grade is 71.3. I have no idea how somebody could explain to me the difference between an offensive lineman with a grade of 74.2 and a grade of 71.3 and what they saw in grading that they took off 10th. So I do it honestly because my listeners seem to be interested in it. and I post the stats each week.
01:36:39
Speaker 2: And it's a way to quantify something that was never quantifiable.
01:36:42
Speaker 3: Yes, and I think that if there were something else, the reality is they jumped into the market and they cornered the market, and they're the only ones who really make it available to you to see a number that quantifies a performance. But I wonder sometimes why I'm subscribing to it because I don't understand much of it, and I think some of it is ridiculous, and yet, I understand listeners and fans want to see a number next to a player's name to say he's good.
01:37:11
Speaker 2: Or he's bad.
01:37:12
Speaker 3: There seems to be a thought right now that Pro Football Focus doesn't like Amarius Mims because his rating is so low, despite the fact he hasn't given up a sack or a pressure hit this year. And yet, I think they factor in penalties. He's had some penalties. And they also factor in his run game grade. But I wonder, just in the circles you run in, is pro football.
01:37:33
Speaker 2: Focus talked about?
01:37:35
Speaker 3: Do you, as a former player, do you understand where I'm coming from when I.
01:37:39
Speaker 2: Say, how did they... I'll give you another example. I'm on a roll here.
01:37:43
Speaker 3: I don't know how anybody sitting in that room at pro football focus... can grade because they don't know what the intent of the play was originally or the responsibilities of those.
01:37:54
Speaker 2: Or the check or the audible. Yeah, isn't that fair? 100%, and which is, you know, and I think it's great. I think you can overall get an idea of how a guy's playing by his general grades. Yeah, but at the end of the day, you've got to trust your eyeballs on something like blocking. Like, to your point, Marius Mims. You know, my eyeballs over three games say, you're doing pretty good, right? You know, that's kind of how you have to say, but it is, especially I think for, you know, a more casual fan that doesn't understand the ins and outs of, offensive line play. It's a way to quantify something. But do I put a ton of credit in it?
01:38:35
Speaker 6: No.
01:38:35
Speaker 2: I also think just in general, a lot of those analytics stats, especially in baseball, it's like a number.
01:38:42
Speaker 4: I'm like.
01:38:43
Speaker 2: What does that mean? I can't, you know, like RBIs, you batted in a lot of runs. The high number is pretty good. That's easy to understand. But some of the other ones is like, if I don't know what it means, like how worthy is it? But again, it's a way to get some sort of, because it is hard to describe RBIs. how an offensive lineman played, but if you can put a number on it, then that makes it a little easier.
01:39:08
Speaker 3: Yes, and from that, I do like having a number next to it. I think you raised a great point, and maybe a little bit more on this when we come back, because there's two numbers that, while I may understand them, I reject them. War in baseball, and a big buzzword in the NFL is EPA, expected points. I want to get into just a tiny bit on that, and then we'll do some college football, and I want to talk to you about Dante Moore today.
01:39:31
Speaker 2: Sound like a plan?
01:39:32
Speaker 3: All right, man, it's already 8.30 tonight.
01:39:34
Speaker 2: He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
01:39:35
Speaker 3: Roundtable show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. Longnecks Wilder, the spot, 700 WLW.
01:39:44
Speaker 2: News, traffic, and weather.
01:39:46
Speaker 1: News Radio 700 WLW, Cincinnati.
01:39:51
Speaker 13: Rain on the way. It's going to be here in the morning. This is the 830 Report. I'm Matt Reese. Potential rescue for all that brown grass scorched by the sun and missing the occasional rainfall. 90% chance of rain in the tri-state tomorrow. Storm system headed this way stretches from Texas up to Michigan.
01:40:11
Speaker 8: 30 million from Texas to the Midwest are under the gun as powerful storms wreak havoc. In Fort Worth, cars, trucks, and even a city bus got swallowed by floods near Arlington Heights High School just as students were arriving. One woman seen being carried from her car by a firefighter. Others guided to higher ground.
01:40:32
Speaker 13: That's ABC's Alex Perez reporting from Dallas. Radar here in the Tri-State all clear right now. That's going to change tomorrow morning. Right now, we check the latest traffic and weather together. And on this Thursday night, seeing a lot of delays out there, and it's because of construction. Miami-town area, 275 at I-74. You're going to run into some delays there. Got an accident right now. Looks like southbound 75 just passed Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway, and that's in the construction zone. That's double trouble tonight. Also seeing some delays on northbound 75 at the Lachlan split. And been seeing some slow traffic on 275 in the five-mile area, Anderson Township, because of some construction there.
01:41:24
Speaker 1: Here is the latest weather forecast from News Radio 700 WLW.
01:41:29
Speaker 5: In the tri-state weather, it's cloudy skies and a chance of rain by daybreak. A 7 a.m. temperature of 67. Otherwise, a rainy Friday and a high of 70 with temperatures falling in the afternoon. At night, a few showers and then becoming mostly clear, a low of 52. From your severe weather station, I'm 9 First Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Raleigh.
01:41:52
Speaker 3: News Radio 700 WLW.
01:41:54
Speaker 13: We're at 72 degrees right now in Cincinnati.
01:41:58
Speaker 2: Radar all clear.
01:42:00
Speaker 13: Game day forecast built by TLG Peterbilt Cincinnati. Keeping customers for life. Bengals at home Sunday against Jacksonville. And it'll be mostly sunny and a high of 71.
01:42:13
Speaker 2: A very nice day.
01:42:16
Speaker 13: Police say road rage led to the gunfire on 275 in Springdale overnight near Princeton Pike. Suspect in a black Ford 250 pickup fired a shot into a car and the driver of that car injured by the shattered glass. Police know who the pickup driver is. No charges have been filed yet. We are a week away from a huge event in Cincinnati that goes on for several days.
01:42:42
Speaker 2: It's blink.
01:42:43
Speaker 12: Thanks to the work of the Chamber of All of our partners and the passionate artists who contribute to this festival, we are once again set up for a magical weekend.
01:42:53
Speaker 2: And there will be something for everyone. Please come and check out Blink.
01:42:56
Speaker 13: Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Light Festival. He is expected to draw more than 2 million people over four days beginning a week from today. Blink will cover downtown Cincinnati and OTR, Over the Rhine and the Banks and Covington.
01:43:12
Speaker 9: Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel and it was torturous.
01:43:17
Speaker 13: She would be dead right now if the execution succeeded, but it didn't. Instead, Krista Pike is in the hospital. She received two doses of a legal drug, but survived it. Her legal team wants a commutation. This is Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey.
01:43:35
Speaker 2: Krista is alive.
01:43:37
Speaker 9: Right now, we don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment. But we do know that she is alive right now and receiving life-saving medical care.
01:43:52
Speaker 13: So the state of Tennessee is stopping executions. Pike's attorneys say she was still breathing and snoring after receiving those two potentially deadly doses.
01:44:05
Speaker 2: Her history... She.
01:44:06
Speaker 13: Was convicted of a 1995 murder when she was 18 years old, confessed, but says her traumatic childhood and years of abuse played a role in her actions. In a couple of days, President Trump is stopping in three states as the midterm election draws closer. Texas today, the president toured the Peterbilt Motors plant, and tonight, president is in Oklahoma for a rally tomorrow.
01:44:35
Speaker 2: He'll be in Alabama.
01:44:37
Speaker 13: And in the Dayton area on Saturday, the president is going to be holding a rally at Butler High School in Vandalia near Dayton. And on Wall Street today, the Dow added 20 points to close at 50,926.
01:44:49
Speaker 2: S & P 500 up 14. NASDAQ up 10.
01:44:50
Speaker 9: 835.
01:44:50
Speaker 7: Next news at 9 o'clock.
01:44:51
Speaker 2: Matt Reese, NewsRadio 700 WLW. Real people. Real talk. Real messy. 700 WLW.
01:44:53
Speaker 13: Guaranteed human.
01:45:10
Speaker 4: 836-700-WLW.
01:45:11
Speaker 2: The music is for us, Rock.
01:45:27
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We're at Longnecks. Still time to get here. We're going to do our drawing coming up in about, well, exactly 24 minutes when the show ends.
01:45:39
Speaker 2: Here's the drill.
01:45:40
Speaker 3: Each week we hit a location for three weeks. We started the year at the Hebron location. They're brand new. That is fantastic. And they took care of us. And thanks, guys, at Hebron. Each of the stops in our second one is now Wilder, the first of three weeks here. And we are giving away a Barleycorn's Bengals shirt at the end of the show. Each server in the place tonight has a raffle ticket. Ask him for one and drop it off in the bucket. We'll draw it.
01:46:08
Speaker 2: Nine o'clock. Got to be here to win.
01:46:09
Speaker 3: And then in the grand scheme of things, after our third show, we will give away the Bengals print behind the bar right now. It's a really cool print of T.
01:46:17
Speaker 4: Higgins.
01:46:18
Speaker 3: Got to be here to win in each instance. instance each week. All right, before we get into a Dante Moore and the, uh, the hit on Saturday night, uh, final wrap up you were talking about, and we were discussing quantifying numbers and pro football focus. And again, I subscribe to pro football focus and, and I, uh, I like the fact that there's somebody out there who, who does, and for the people who don't like it, I say, well, what is your alternative? What else do you have to look at? And maybe that's Maybe that's like a backhanded compliment. There's nobody else to look at, so you have to look at them, but that's the reality. They were the first in the market, kind of cornered the market, and it may drive people crazy, but they figured out a way to quantify a number. I always say when the people, when I will post the information through my social media, and they say, well, what about this, and why is this, and why is this? I don't believe this. I say, well, what else do you have to compare it to? I say, you may not like the number, but if you're only going by your eye, your eye test, maybe that's, what you're going by, but somebody sat and graded this, whether you agree with the grading or not, that's another question. But to the point of quantifying numbers, baseball has war, and war is wins above replacement. And, Rock, that's a number that means if you have a war of five, that means you are worth five wins to your team above a replacement player. If your team lost you and had to bring in an average replacement player, that term, just an average replacement player, you would be worth five wins per season above the average replacement for you, which sounds.
01:47:49
Speaker 2: Good in theory, but... Man, that's a stretch.
01:47:53
Speaker 3: I don't know how you quantify over 162 games in over, say, on a good team, 90, 95, 100 wins, how you quantify and assign a number to a player. And a war can be like... 3.2. So again, down to the decimal. I don't know how you, over 162 games, over a player who has 600 plate appearances, how do you tell me the difference between somebody who has a 3.3 war and a 3.5?
01:48:20
Speaker 11: War?
01:48:22
Speaker 3: When you say it out loud, it doesn't make any sense.
01:48:25
Speaker 2: And is everybody calculating that obscure number on the same scale with the same parameters? It's the same thing with the PFF. It's like five different People are watching these NFL games. Is it the same scale? And maybe I'd like to know if you make that more transparent, like how they're grading people.
01:48:43
Speaker 3: And I'll give you a number along these lines. Not a new number, but it's used a lot. EPA, which is expected points added, described by definition an advanced analytics metric that measures the value of an individual play based on how much it increases or decreases the team's likelihood of scoring.
01:49:04
Speaker 2: So you could have a passing play.
01:49:05
Speaker 3: The EPA on that play was 2.7, which was it increased the scoring percentage of that play 2.7, which I don't know. It just gets into the weeds of can it really be broken down into that small of a number and a decimal point? And you know me, I love numbers, but. EPA and war just seem too minuscule.
01:49:28
Speaker 2: Too obscure.
01:49:30
Speaker 3: See, I like to make it simple because I'm a simple person. I would think, in theory, if you hit a game-winning home run three nights in a row, your war could be three because you won three games. I mean, in reality, your home run won a game three consecutive nights three Yet war wouldn't look at it that way over 162 games. Maybe your war winds up only being two and a half, but I would say, well, what about those three nights in a row you had the game-winning hit? See, it just makes me nuts sometimes.
01:50:01
Speaker 2: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
01:50:03
Speaker 3: There you go. All right, something more tangible. Give me your reaction to the much-debated... hit on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore Saturday night. He is, I will let you describe the play because I think your point is the way he approached the play and ultimately executed the play and then the hit. But you set up what happened and how it looked.
01:50:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the USC player comes and as Dante Moore is getting ready to take a slide, he comes and just, I am always a defender most of the time of the defensive players saying, hey, it's good. He did kind of go at his head.
01:50:41
Speaker 3: Quarterback is sliding. Quarterback is sliding. And the defender is a missile right.
01:50:47
Speaker 2: And even more so, it was how he behaved afterward. You know what I mean? Celebrated. Celebrated. Separated himself from everybody else. Look at me. Now, he was wrong in that instance. But I do think there's a good conversation going on right now about, You know, how to treat the quarterback and the running quarterback. And sometimes these quarterbacks, there's a big case being made. I know Lamar Jackson does this. He always goes forward. He doesn't do the slide thing. A, because you get more yards, right? And B.
01:51:20
Speaker 3: Because when you go into a slide giving yourself up, it's the instant where your foot sticks in the ground for the slide.
01:51:27
Speaker 2: That's where.
01:51:28
Speaker 9: No.
01:51:28
Speaker 2: It's the instant you start to drop. I see what you're saying. The instance you go to give yourself up, it's right there. Gotcha. So a lot of times a quarterback will slide, but the spot is actually two yards behind that. But I just think that the defenders, I think there should be some onus or some punishment on a quarterback that then will run the ball and... deliver a hit, knowing that the defender's like, do I tackle you? Do I not? You see Patrick Mahomes do it. I've seen some videos this week where he goes and lowers his shoulder to a guy, and the guy's getting ready to tackle him on the sideline. So I think there needs to be some conversation of the responsibility. of the quarterback, and is there a penalty? I don't know exactly.
01:52:14
Speaker 3: Well, I've seen quarterbacks do a little fake-a-roo, like a fake slide, and that causes the defender to momentarily freeze because you say, okay, he's giving himself up, and then he doesn't give himself up.
01:52:26
Speaker 2: Right. How much the quarterback is protected, and maybe rightfully so, is really confusing for a defensive player.
01:52:38
Speaker 3: I saw this yesterday. This was pretty cool. I don't know if you've seen this about the UCLA coach, Bob Chesney. He reached out to the Oregon coach, Dan Lanning. And Dante Moore is still in Los Angeles. At least he was yesterday, I think, still being evaluated. Bob Chesney, the UCLA coach, reached out to Dan Lanning and said, Hey, I'm in town. And if you need me to check in on him or because Oregon had gone back on me. So if you need me, if I can help in any way, just stop by and say hi to him, see how he's doing, pass along anything.
01:53:16
Speaker 2: Which I thought about that. I said, well, that's actually.
01:53:18
Speaker 3: Kind of cool that he would reach out to Lanning and say he's in our city. And if there's anything I can do, let me know, which I applaud. That was very cool.
01:53:27
Speaker 2: That was cool. He's a good guy. Let's do this.
01:53:31
Speaker 3: Let's take a timeout and come back. Let's figure out what we've left out to this point, and then we'll do your Rocky's Road. I want to ask you about Jaden Mays.
01:53:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about that? And more. He is Rocky. I'm Lance.
01:53:45
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Longnecks and Wilder on 700 WLW.
01:53:56
Speaker 1: In 1804, Lewis and Clark set out on a western expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Tensions ran high once Lewis lost cell service and could no longer bet on hockey games, forcing Clark to silence his partner. And you'll hear another great American moment when you listen to Bill Cunningham tomorrow at 12 noon on 700 WLW.
01:54:24
Speaker 2: When our kitchen needed.
01:54:25
Speaker 3: An upgrade, Kelly and I chose Stone Statements from their huge selection of stunning naturals. This Thursday night, Lance McAllister, Rocky Boyman. We're at Long Necks in Wilder, the first of a three-week run. Braves and Phillies on, and the Braves have struck for three in the second in this winner-take-all. Loser goes home, 3-0 Braves over the Phillies.
01:54:50
Speaker 1: And.
01:54:52
Speaker 3: Let's see, New Mexico State leading Western Kentucky, the Hilltoppers, 6-3.
01:54:56
Speaker 2: I got both of those teams coming up here. By the way, I.
01:55:02
Speaker 3: Thought that ball was hit pretty well. It was going out. Just a quick, totally unrelated note. Did you happen to see the college game day kicker kick the field goal for a million and a half this week?
01:55:16
Speaker 2: I didn't see this, and I saw the one a week before.
01:55:18
Speaker 3: And he did it barefoot. Back-to-back weeks, barefoot kickers.
01:55:23
Speaker 2: I feel like you're going to have to start making that harder, because two weeks in a row, giving away a million bucks.
01:55:28
Speaker 3: This kid, and Peyton Manning was on the scene, because it was before the Texas-Tennessee game. But this kid misses the first one barefoot, and then, of course, the crowd goes crazy. And one more try, one more try. So for a million and a half, barefoot, he nails right down the middle. And wins a million and a half. And the one you saw two weeks ago, that was good from, I mean, distance, like straight down the heart of it.
01:55:54
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable. I should have looked this up, but who's the last kicker in the NFL to kick barefooted?
01:56:01
Speaker 1: Oh.
01:56:01
Speaker 3: Because that used to be kind of a thing when I was young. And there were barefoot punters, too.
01:56:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:56:09
Speaker 2: You know what?
01:56:09
Speaker 3: I need to look up.
01:56:10
Speaker 2: It's a shame they don't make a device where you can plug it in and ask a question. Well, hold on here.
01:56:19
Speaker 3: I want to say Russell Erksel. I don't think Russell Erksel was a barefoot kicker.
01:56:22
Speaker 2: Here we go.
01:56:24
Speaker 3: I was going to say Tony Franklin. Russ drops in. Tony Franklin, who kicked for the Patriots, I remember. History of barefoot kick. Tony Franklin, popularized the trend. Entered the NFL in 1979 with the Eagles. Famously earning the nickname the Barefoot Kicker. Kicked a 59-yarder. Rick Carlos, full-time barefoot kicker for the Broncos during the 90s. Mike Lansford of the Rams. Jeff Wilkins as well. And then he goes on to talk about the style disappearing as well. But, yeah, barefoot for a while. But back-to-back weeks, 1.5 million for those kicks. All right, now to the really serious stuff. Your last game was a Friday, which intrigues me. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the game and players you met, How often has ESPN, or have they, done a regular season Friday afternoon 4 o'clock college football game? And why did it happen in this instance?
01:57:21
Speaker 4: Never.
01:57:21
Speaker 2: And the reason is, and think about this, the power of ESPN. ACDC had a concert the following Tuesday, and they said they needed to get in on Saturday into the Lincoln Financial Field to be able to set up properly for a Tuesday concert. The power of ACDC moved an entire college football game. How did I not hear that? That's a great story. It's amazing, right?
01:57:48
Speaker 4: Wow.
01:57:49
Speaker 3: So could this be... Based on reaction, could this be something that ESPN says, light bulb, maybe we should do this more often?
01:57:58
Speaker 2: Funny you should ask this because I just got the internal numbers today. That game did 800,000. The analytics say? That game did 800,000 for a 4 p.m.
01:58:02
Speaker 9: Game.
01:58:02
Speaker 3: So you bet your patootie that that's.
01:58:10
Speaker 2: They're going to consider that 4 p.m. window on the front. Now, you know, a lot of people are probably watching on the back end, and it was a close game. Some more people came in. But, yeah, I mean, it's a chance to get on national TV on ESPN1.
01:58:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:58:25
Speaker 2: Albeit at 4 o'clock.
01:58:27
Speaker 3: And there's a uniqueness to it for the football fanatic who says, wait a minute, you're telling me there's a college football game on a Friday afternoon?
01:58:34
Speaker 2: I'll watch. They could call it something. Early Friday, something like that. Give it a nickname and get a whole thing behind it. Happy Hour Football.
01:58:44
Speaker 3: Tune in to ESPN. Happy Hour Football, Friday afternoon at 4.
01:58:48
Speaker 2: I'm going to steal that idea and give it to my bosses and claim all the credit.
01:58:52
Speaker 3: And I would think, man, if you're a broadcaster like yourself, you get a Friday game, that means your weekend's clear to watch your kids play and everything else.
01:58:59
Speaker 2: Dude, it could have worked out better. It was also nice because, you know, it's... Usually you get back to the hotel, it's like 11.30 at night, and this time it's like 7.30. It was great. Oh, that's beautiful. Back home, the whole weekend at home.
01:59:12
Speaker 4: Wow.
01:59:12
Speaker 2: It was great.
01:59:13
Speaker 3: All right, so the really cool thing, among many things I want to ask you about this game, tell me about your connection to Jaden Mays. Your tweet and the photos were fantastic.
01:59:26
Speaker 2: Amazing, right?
01:59:26
Speaker 3: Explain the back story to all this.
01:59:27
Speaker 2: Okay, so... Right when I got out of the NFL, I'm trying to figure out life and what I want to do and what direction and this and that. I'm trying a million things. But one of the things I did was I started my own football training academy, the Rocky Boyman Football Academy, where I trained young athletes of various ages on football and drills and all that sort of thing. And in 2000, I guess I started that in 2010. So 2011, one of my first seasons doing that, I was able to train this young kid named Jaden Mays. And he played for Fairfield Youth. Unbelievable. Great athlete, you know, and just like the sweetest kid in the world. And his mom, Kelly Hutchings, she made like a picture book, and I have it, of like all of me training him and all this stuff. And some of his, you know, it was fantastic. And I followed his career. He went to Fairfield High School, did well, wound up going to Army, but I never had an opportunity to call an Army game. Well, lo and behold, I get this game, kind of a last-minute thing. So I reach out to her and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I get to talk with Jaden before the game. Oh, how cool. And honestly, the week before, he had given up a pretty critical play kind of thing, and I know he's probably down about it. Well, he had the game-sealing problem. fourth down pass breakup to win the game and i'm like going nuts up there like going crazy for my guy right because he's such a great kid i mean again he's that army like i mean just a it's an awesome awesome kid that's very and then even better man so you know the game ends right then we're you know we kind of you know do a few things and get off headset and walk go down the you know the stair go down the elevator walking out as i'm you know, kind of walking out to go out of the stadium inside the bowels of the stadium. He comes around the corner after being on the field, big hug right there. I mean, it was, it's just, it was the best and just such a wonderful, awesome young man, great football player, great family. Just, Just amazing. It was so cool.
02:01:32
Speaker 3: Now, I watched parts of it, but not all of it. Was that story part of the game storyline on the broadcast? Did they detail your connection or pictures or anything?
02:01:41
Speaker 2: It should have been. It wasn't because I had sent it. It just didn't make it in. And I thought that right at the end there. Because I had the picture that I posted of me and him when we were eight years old, right? It didn't make it in. Whatever. That's fine. It would have been cool. Just a really, really neat kid and future leader of this world. He made a great play. That's excellent. Congrats.
02:02:11
Speaker 3: We were talking before the show. The only connection I have to that game, I've interviewed Tyler Walker, who is the Temple offensive coordinator who has connections to Hamilton and was the quarterback at Hamilton High School and walked on, I think, at Miami and may have been a grad assistant for Chuck Martin. Long story short, was at Montana State as a power as their offensive coordinator. And when the Temple coaching staff was being assembled with his new staff, he left to become their offensive coordinator there.
02:02:44
Speaker 2: I did a Montana State game two years ago, and I'm sitting in a coach's office in Montana State and It's him, right? And it's like, you're from Cincinnati, too. How the hell did we both get here, you know? It was pretty cool. He does a great job.
02:02:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a power. Montana State has a heck of a program. What do we have? We have the Steelers taking the lead, 7-0 over the Cleveland Browns.
02:03:07
Speaker 2: Steelers. Oh, no, something good has happened for the Browns.
02:03:11
Speaker 3: The Browns, they must have picked off Aaron Rodgers.
02:03:16
Speaker 2: Maybe a fumble. Oh, sacked, yes.
02:03:18
Speaker 3: I've got to check my poll question to see what the results are of the question I asked earlier.
02:03:26
Speaker 2: Let's see.
02:03:26
Speaker 3: We were debating for Bengals purposes, which team would you rather see lose tonight? This is a very solid number.
02:03:34
Speaker 12: 85%.
02:03:34
Speaker 2: 85% say Bengals.
02:03:38
Speaker 3: You'd rather see the Pittsburgh Steelers lose tonight in Cleveland. I would agree with.
02:03:42
Speaker 2: The– I'll take that as the final answer. I would have guessed that result.
02:03:45
Speaker 3: Final answer, yeah. I wonder why it's not 100%. So you are, let's see, with– you had the Friday game. You don't have a game this weekend.
02:03:52
Speaker 4: No.
02:03:52
Speaker 2: I mean, I got 10 days off, so I have no game this weekend. So the next, like, what, four or five weeks, I go to just midweek games. So I will have the– Tuesday or Wednesday, stand-alone ESPN 2 game.
02:04:05
Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
02:04:06
Speaker 4: Cool.
02:04:06
Speaker 2: So we get a nice audience. So this coming Tuesday, it's Southern Miss at Troy. But, again, it will be on ESPN. Troy won the Sun Belt West last year. All right.
02:04:20
Speaker 3: By the way, I just thought of a random note about Tony Franklin, our barefoot kicker. Do you remember the legendary snowplow game? The story behind it? Tony Franklin is the one who kicked the game winning. When Ron Myers, the Patriots coach, told the guy who was the prison worker who runs the snowplow, go out there and play.
02:04:39
Speaker 2: Snow, he couldn't see anything. And nobody knew what was going on.
02:04:43
Speaker 3: And Ron Myers said, hey, go out there and plow a spot for us. So they run the snowplow out onto the field, clear a spot. And I'm sure it was Tony Franklin barefoot, I believe. Russ, look that up if you could find it. I believe that's right. Tony Franklin kicked the game-winning field goal after the snowplow had cleared the spot to win the game over the Dolphins. And Don Shula, who was on the NFL rules committee.
02:05:05
Speaker 2: Just blew a gasket.
02:05:07
Speaker 3: That they were allowed. The referee said, oh, yeah, sure, break the snowplow out, Clarissa.
02:05:12
Speaker 2: I got to say, that's one thing with the NFL becoming so big and so corporate and so commercial. Something like that would never happen. I was thinking the other day, too, about the famous Sam White's, you don't live in Cleveland. Could you imagine Sean McVay grabbing the house mic?
02:05:27
Speaker 4: No.
02:05:28
Speaker 2: It would never happen anymore.
02:05:30
Speaker 3: Oh, it was John Smith. All right, the story's not nearly as good. It was not Tony Franklin. Would have been a much greater story. We should have just left it there. See you later. But that moment, it's just to see, and I'm sure the guy in the snowplow was working on prison release. They put in a few hours snowplowing the field.
02:05:51
Speaker 2: Like, come on. And Don Shula was so ticked. Oh, the ground scored.
02:05:59
Speaker 3: Oh, we don't like this trend. We don't like this trend at all. All right, we're out of time. Thanks to Russ for producing tonight. Thanks to Mike for taking care of us. Thanks to Fran and his lovely wife, Phyllis, for hanging out with us. It was good to see Casey and Peyton and everybody else who was here tonight. We'll do it next week, and we've got a drawing to do. This has been the Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon from Long Necks Wilder on 700 WLW.
02:06:26
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02:06:33
Speaker 13: What's next for the death row inmate they couldn't kill? This is the 9 o'clock report.
02:06:39
Speaker 7: I'm Matt Reese.
02:06:40
Speaker 13: Krista Pike survived what's being called a botched execution attempt last night in Tennessee and is hospitalized tonight. She's been on death row in Tennessee for a murder back in 1995 when she was 18 years old. Two doses of a lethal drug were not
Speaker 1: Honda East, your Cincinnati Honda destination. Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Acani, and Levy. Attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit oal-law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers. Visit RLC.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution. Powered by Toph Sheldon. 513-513-TOPH. And by your tri-state Chevy dealers.
00:00:36
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00:00:41
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00:00:42
Speaker 1: Together, let's drive. On 700 WLW. Home of the best bagels coverage.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: And away we go, 6.07 on a Thursday night. If it's Thursday, it must be the roundtable show, and we are at Longnecks in Wilder this week, the start of a three-week run. The cavalcade of football conversation took us to the Hebron spot for the first three weeks. We loved that setup. It's their brand-new location there and loved it. They took care of us, and now we hit three weeks here in Wilder. We kick it off tonight. We love this place. I think this is the very first place Wilder We did this show, if I remember correctly. But then again, we can't remember how long we've been doing this show, so I'm not sure on that. I'm Lance McAllister. He is Rocky Boyman. You have your steak tip quesadillas? Tri-tip quesadillas with fried pickles. You're ready to go?
00:01:31
Speaker 2: They have ordered every time the last two years.
00:01:34
Speaker 3: You are a man of consistency. There's no question about that. We have stuff to give away tonight. We have a shirt we're going to give away each week from Long Necks, and we have a picture. The picture of T. Higgins behind the bar will be given away our third week at the end of our run. And what's going to take place, our servers tonight have raffle tickets.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Ask for one. Fill it out.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Drop it in the bucket up here by the setup. At 9 o'clock tonight, 9 o'clock end of the show, we'll do the drawing. Got to be here to win the shirt. And then all the raffle tickets tonight are held and kept and then added over the next two weeks into one big pot. And at the end of the three-week run, we give away that ticket. T. Higgins print to the winner. They'll have to be here three weeks from tonight.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: Man, do we have.
00:02:21
Speaker 3: Things to get to. This must be a big night because one, Casey's here. Two, Kelly's here. So that's big itself. Russ Jackson is producing tonight. That's big. First time doing the roundtable show. We have Mike Mills here to our left taking care of us. And of course we have Fran and his lovely wife Phyllis, and they brought us candy tonight.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: So all is well. But I see you're trying to steal mine. You're like both of them hidden behind you.
00:02:48
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought, okay, I didn't see. Yeah, well, that's yours. I thought that I didn't realize I stuck mine behind here. Because I thought Casey was going to take it. So I was hiding it from Casey, actually.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: All right, man, we have a lot to get to. Because there's a loss to sort through. And there's a rather significant game on Sunday coming up. to get to, I think I should do some headlines.
00:03:08
Speaker 4: Hit it.
00:03:08
Speaker 3: Because there is a boatload of stuff. Let's start with a baseball note. Phil Castellini, Nick Kroll, and Brad Mentor met with the media this morning. Phil indicating the team will not be sold because, quote, they haven't accomplished what they set out to do. He added he's 100% behind the front office saying, quote, we need baseball guys to make baseball decisions.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: I would agree with that.
00:03:29
Speaker 3: And I think they should hire baseball people who know baseball decisions.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: Different baseball people, yes. Side note, yes.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Nick Kroll said Derrick Johnson, who took a personal leave of absence in June, will not be returning. Search for a new pitching coach is underway. They plan to overhaul their pitching department structure. Assistant hitting coach Will Remillard won't be retained. That will certainly fix the hitting, Rocky. And Kroll said the Reds need to be better at signing mid-tier veteran free agents because there's nothing.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Quite sounds like a sales pitch.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: To a fan base or a pending free agent says we need to be better at signing mid-tier veteran free agents.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: Just lie. Make me feel better a little bit.
00:04:10
Speaker 3: Exactly right. We're going to look for the best talent available. As opposed to the best mid-tier veteran talent in free agency. Bengals got back on the practice. You just can't make it up sometimes. Bengals got back on the practice field today and got to continue to work on Jacksonville. Here is the injury update. Limited today. Jordan Battle and Brian Cook. Dalton Reisner did not practice. Kyle Duggar did not practice.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: B.J.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Hill did not practice.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: And D.J.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: Turner pops up on the injury list.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: Limited today. With an ankle.
00:04:45
Speaker 3: There's a lot to monitor going into Sunday. Evan McPherson, named September AFC Player of the Month, Special Teams Player of the Month. He converted all eight field goal attempts, including five from at least 50. The Joey Porter saga ends in Pittsburgh. Traded to the Cowboys in the middle of the night. Steelers get a 2027 sixth round pick and a 2028 second round pick in return. Thursday night football, those Steelers are in Cleveland to take on the Browns. Winner gets first place. In the AFC North, 7.30 coverage on Fox Sports 1360. UC Bearcats heading to or in the desert as we speak. They'll take on Arizona Saturday night, 11 o'clock kick here on 700 WLW. Chad Brendel checks in at 7.06 tonight with a preview. College basketball, the Xavier Musketeers pick sixth in today's Big East preseason poll. UConn tabbed as the favorite, followed by St. John's, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence. NKU hoops today, announcing a public... exhibition against UT Martin, set for 5.30 on October the 14th at Truist Arena. Playoffs, game three, winner go home tonight for the Phillies and Braves in Atlanta. The Yankees, Padres, and White Sox each swept their series. This weekend, the Padres are at the Brewers, White Sox at the Guardians, Yankees at the Rays. And the Dodgers will get the winner of the Philly Braves game tonight. And hockey, the Columbus Blue Jackets, open the season at home to Buffalo. All right, those are your headlines. Let's get into the Bengals. And, Rock, I needed to get to this point of the week because it's like the turning point of the conversation because the first part of the week and from 4 o'clock on, it left me frustrated because it feels like that was one– they needed and should have had and didn't get. And I just don't like things that you miss an opportunity on because then it becomes the potential to be something you're going to have to chase and something that haunts you. I just think they should have won the football game on Sunday.
00:06:45
Speaker 2: Turnovers, special teams, disasters, missed tackles, and an offense that's still not looking like it's in full form. The missed tackles thing I think was... the most glaring, right? Because that seemed like it had been fixed all through camp, all through the first two weeks looked pretty good. I even thought, I thought even more so than that, just the inability to get off blocks at the second level was bad. And then the turnover situation that the special teams blunders is something that was bad as well.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it just, I got a vibe at times, it felt like we were flashing back to last season with the defense. And it just felt like the They were past that. And I have to keep reminding myself it's it's just three games in. And just because you start to know doesn't mean you're going to win a game like that. I think we tend to lose sight of the fact that every game is like one. There's 17 seasons. It's individual games. And what happened one week has no bearing on the next week.
00:07:44
Speaker 2: And it just.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: It. 2-0 had given us so many things to believe were different. And I'm not saying those were all wrong or they're a mirage. It just caused, at least it caused me to say, okay, pause. take a step back, now let's reassess this situation. It maybe isn't as good as we thought, but at the same time, by Wednesday, I think we have to understand it's not as bad as it may have felt at 4 o'clock.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Right, and this is a division matchup, and these are always going to come down to one possession or something late in the fourth quarter. These teams play each other so much, and I think a lot of the Aaron Rodgers' washed-up talk was obviously a little bit premature here. He came out and looked really, really good. So, yeah, then you combine that with just a couple mistakes here and some penalties, and we got what we got.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you're talking about it. We talked last week on the show, and the sense leading up to it was, man, that Steeler offense, there's not much there.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, one touchdown.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: Aaron had basically thrown Mike McCarthy under the bus during the week and basically said, I have to do a better job of explaining to our coaches what's not working offensively. Like, oh, well, there you go. A little passive-aggressive there. And then after all of that, they dropped 411 yards of offense on the Bengals in that first drive. It's boom, they're on the board, and I'm thinking... Wait a minute. They had one touchdown in 25 drives, and they've scored on the opening drive today and then scored on their second drive.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like off-tackle play, big run, big run, big pass up the sideline. Two minutes into the game, we're like, what's going on? Early in that game, I remember thinking about it looked like Aaron Rodgers was upset at the play call or the play call wasn't coming in. I'm like, they look like they're in disarray here until the ball was snapped. Everything was working pretty good.
00:09:37
Speaker 3: When we come back, I want to, because we're putting to rest Sunday, I've got three things I have to get off my chest. And I'm going to need you to, if not hold my hand, but just say relax a little bit. Because there's three things since Sunday that I've been unable to let go. And you know me. When when it comes to there, there are some things I can't let go. And when they're related to Zach Taylor, sometimes I really can't let him go. So we'll get into those and then we'll start looking ahead to the, uh, The game on Sunday. No drags this week. He's on assignment, we'll say. But we have Chad Brendel tonight from Bearcat Journal coming up at 7 o'clock. We'll get into things next. He is Rocky. I'm Lance. Hey, if you're out and about, what better place to stop by and hang out, enjoy dinner, and catch some Bengals football conversation than Longnecks and Wilder. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution. Powered by Toph Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilder on 700 WLW. All right, we're up and running on this Thursday night of the Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We're hanging out at Longnecks and Wilder. He's Rocky. I'm Lance. Thanks for being with us. A reminder, the show brought to you in part by Hawksworth Blood Centers. We love Hawksworth Blood Centers. Hawksworth donors save lives close to home. Who will you save in Everdry Waterproofing? If your basement leaks, call Everdry. It's not dry till it's Everdry. All right, Rock. Let me work through three things with you. This will be a little therapy session. I need to put it behind me and move on. But we'll address them in the form of our Hot Topic of the Week, brought to you by Hudson Oil, fueling champions on and off the field. We'll present it as coaching decisions on Sunday. First, the punt block call. Bengals are up 20-17, third quarter.
00:11:25
Speaker 2: They're up.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: Steelers are facing fourth and six at their own 41. And the Bengals... Darren Simmons called for a punt block and said Johnson was flagged for roughing the kicker. Steelers keep possession and go on to score and go up 24-20. To me, I understand the value of a punt block and being aggressive. I also think there has to be a time and place and the risk and reward. The Bengals decided to roll the dice on that play rather than simply take the ball when it was punted back to them and hand it to Joe and Jamar and T. It's the first time they had stopped the Steelers' defense on the day. The Steelers weren't backed up into their own end zone. To me, it just seemed like something, hey, we got a defensive stop. Our offense is rolling. They've scored in four of the last five possessions. Let's just double-team the Gunners. Let's do something to set up a return, and we're going to have Joe and the offense cooking down And Darren Simmons rolled the dice on a punt block, and it's a roughing the punter and possession to the Steelers and points from the Steelers. Is my concern valid?
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely. When's the last time the Bengals blocked a punt? Couldn't tell you. I thought I read it was 2013. That sounds right. Yes. Something like that. Look, to me it comes down to this. I think you want to be solid in special teams. It truly is a third of the game.
00:12:45
Speaker 5: But.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: If you have a– you use your return game if you don't have a powerful offense, right? To use an ancient example, right? We played the Bears in the Super Bowl, right, in 2006. Rex Groshen was their quarterback. They didn't have a great offense, so they needed to generate– yards and points via the special teams game. That's why they get Devin Hester and he does what he does. We have Joe Burrow and T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. Get them the ball. Safely get them the ball. We don't need to worry about a ton of returns. or punt blocks, or generating explosive plays in the special teams game when you have an offense as good as the Bengals have.
00:13:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, it just set up as the perfect scenario. Wow, the defense has gotten a stop. We're going to get the ball back. I'm thinking if I'm Zach Taylor and Joe's going to have the ball first and ten, And, again, time and place.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: I understand.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: There's moments. Hey, if the punter is backed up to the back end line and space is short, go try to block that thing. If you're trailing late, if you don't have anything going on, but it just seemed like the risk and reward was out of balance to go for the punt. And I, because I like numbers, Rock, I looked it up. And last year, there were... 1,958 punts in the NFL. Now, I have no way of knowing how many times a punt block was actually called on the play. I just know that only nine of 1,958 punts last year were blocked. That computes to, by my Butler math, 0.46% of the time a punt was blocked last year.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: Not a high percentage. Not a high percentage. And between that and then the muff punt, I mean, say it out loud. Joe Burrow and this offense get two less possessions.
00:14:26
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: Can't have it. Can't have it. More times than not, he's going to generate some offense when he gets more chances.
00:14:33
Speaker 3: All right, so first one out of the way. I put it behind me.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: That's good.
00:14:35
Speaker 3: You were very calm in keeping me calm, and I liked it.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Try.
00:14:40
Speaker 3: Number two. The game is tied. Bengals have it fourth and two basically at midfield. 739 left in the game. And Zach opted to punt. And he said, we were going to pin the Steelers deep and trust our defense.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: And my thought was, well.
00:15:01
Speaker 3: Wait a minute. What had the defense done to make you trust him at that. They'd given up almost 400 yards of offense that day. You have the ball at midfield. It's fourth and two. Earlier in the game on fourth and two, Joe went to Mike Gesicki for 25 yards and a touchdown. Earlier in the game on fourth and two, they went 21 yards to Jamar Chase. I would, again, back to trust, I'd have much more faith in Joe Burrow operating fourth and two at midfield than punting the ball back to the Pittsburgh Steelers and asking my defense to finally get a stop. Am I wrong?
00:15:33
Speaker 1: No.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: How much do you know? do the Bengals use analytics and the analytics book and all that?
00:15:38
Speaker 3: I know this. They've added to that aspect of the organization in recent years.
00:15:43
Speaker 2: Okay, because I feel like that scenario, right, fourth and two on your own 49, when I call college games, more times than not, they go for it. Yes. 20 years ago, they wouldn't. But now, more times than not, that fourth and two, 50-yard line, that is 100% green on the card of go for it.
00:16:01
Speaker 3: That's a great point because I have to believe whatever they were looking at said– on Twitter, there's this punt bot account, and it will show you after a decision is made what the probability was. I've got to go back and look at that because I would think the probability would say– Go for it at that point.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: It makes me think that they don't use it or he didn't trust it or, yeah, trust his defense.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: At that point, I trusted Joe more than my defense.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. Same scenario as I said earlier. When you have a powerful, and again, now this hasn't been the most explosive offense, but history has shown this is an explosive offense. If you have that.
00:16:38
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:16:39
Speaker 2: You go for it. If you have a lower tier, you've got a backup quarterback and you've got nobody to receive, okay, that factors into it. But, A, I will not believe that the analytics said punt that ball there. And number two, even if it did, you say, God, I feel pretty good about our offense. And to your point, I don't feel great about our defense the first two weeks, but not today. All right, one more.
00:17:03
Speaker 3: Might not be able to squeeze it in before the bottom of the air completely. I may have some residue left over on this. But the final drive, I don't know if you're like me, but I'm thinking when the Bengals get the ball back, I said, all right, for all that's happened today, Joe has the ball back with 2.14, 2.08 to go in the game.
00:17:19
Speaker 4: You know what?
00:17:20
Speaker 3: By damn, they're going to win this football game. And before they even run a play, you see Joe looking around demonstrative like basically what the blank is happening and time, have to call a timeout because after a change of possession, there was confusion on the personnel that Zach was putting on the field.
00:17:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just can't happen, right? There's so many reps and so much continuity there for that to happen in that moment. Can't have it.
00:17:56
Speaker 3: You have an opportunity coming off a change of possession. And you know, I mean, Zach, the offensive mind he is. You know, leading up to that, he's got to be thinking in his mind, we're getting the ball back here. Here's what we're going to do. And yet, I think it was Dante Myers ran initially, ran onto the field, and then it was kind of, oh, and then he turned and ran off the field.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: As you know, once you.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: Enter a substitution, then the ref pauses and let the Steelers kind of match with their substitutions. And by that time, the play clock is running down, and Joe's only option was to call the timeout or.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Now, I know it's wasting oxygen for me to even say this, but is this a scenario that could have been fixed if there was a set play caller instead of the head coach who's also worried about the game and management and timeouts and all that?
00:18:44
Speaker 3: I think that is a very fair thing.
00:18:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, a coordinator. I imagine Zach does as well, but he's got other things to think about.
00:18:53
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:18:54
Speaker 2: On third down of the previous series, he's like, we get the ball back, we're coming out with this play right here. Yes. Here's the formation.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: Here's the personnel. Let's go. All right. We got through that.
00:19:05
Speaker 4: Is that better?
00:19:06
Speaker 3: I do feel a little bit better. I might have a final thought to offer on the other.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: Side on it. So you haven't let it go at all. Maybe not.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: He's Rocky.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Longnecks and Wilder.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: 700-WLW.
00:19:22
Speaker 3: We're at Longnecks and Wilder. We do the roundtable show. This is the start of a three-week run for us here. It's all presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, and brought to you in part by our friends at Miami University. For today's students, become tomorrow's leaders. Visit MiamiOH.edu. And OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. All right, final thought, I promise, before we get into the defense.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: Oh, the last point.
00:19:49
Speaker 3: One, and this was rough, on that final drive, Rock, the, what, third play in, Joe throws, he's looking down, feel there's nothing there, he turns and dumps off to Chase Brown, and it's a four-yard loss. which at that point, I think, and I heard T.J. Hushmanzada say this, so I'll defer to him. He said, Joe's got to just throw it in the ground. You're not going to take a four-yard loss on that play. Just throw it in the ground and move on. Not only do they lose four on that play, 35 seconds tick off the clock before the next play is run, which to me, one is difficult enough, but you've lost four yards and you've lost 35 seconds on that drive, and that's just....
00:20:32
Speaker 2: It's hard to just understand how that happened, though.
00:20:34
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker 2: You know, this is, again, a unit that knows each other, has played a lot of football together. That's the thing.
00:20:40
Speaker 3: That's the great point. The continuity is supposed to be a plus for this offense.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: Right, yeah. It's supposed to show up in situations like that. You know, and less in, okay, you know, a receiver catching a ball and all that, but more of like, hey, we're on the same page here. And I just don't feel like, you know, Peyton Manning, that wouldn't have happened at Peyton or– or Tom Brady, or, you know, I'm not saying anything bad about Burrow, but I'm just saying, like, it's a critical situation in a game that already they looked kind of sloppy in. All right.
00:21:11
Speaker 3: I promise one final point because we talked about it during the break. The idea of the value of yards versus a timeout. And that initial timeout on the drive was caused by the play clock was running down.
00:21:27
Speaker 2: And Zach made a decision.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: They called the timeout to prevent the delay of game. So it would have been a penalty first and 15. He said, no, no, no, call timeout. The debate this week was the value you place on a timeout, having another timeout, versus... having to go five more yards on the drive, and the idea of, wait a minute, do you really want to burn a timeout here if it only means an extra five yards you're going to have to gain, meaning pocket that timeout. Don't burn it because you're going to need it later in the drive. How do you view that scenario at the value?
00:21:59
Speaker 2: That's a tougher one, but, I mean, if you just look at it this way, what's more valuable, a timeout of what you get three and a half or five yards, which you seemingly– can get easier than not. I would agree.
00:22:12
Speaker 3: Because once the timeout's gone, it's never coming back. You've got a chance to make up five yards. And if you're saying, do you feel Joe in this offense is capable of converting from a first and 15? I would say yes. I'll keep that timeout. I'm not going to burn it here. Because we're going to go to win this game, and there's going to be at least two opportunities I'm going to need a timeout, and they were only down to one.
00:22:36
Speaker 2: At that point. Maybe less in that scenario, but more time. I mean, take the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers. How many timeouts did he burn? Yes. Two or three on seemingly a first down play on backed up. And, again, I kind of follow the use your timeouts in the second and fourth quarter, not the first and the third. But– Yeah, that's... Okay, now.
00:23:01
Speaker 3: I'm officially done.
00:23:02
Speaker 2: Those were the.
00:23:03
Speaker 3: That was the hot topic of the week. Three different things.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: How many times, though, do you see in that scenario a team just take the yardage instead of calling a timeout? I feel like I don't see it. Maybe I'll notice it. Yeah, you don't.
00:23:14
Speaker 3: And I wonder how much of... I'd love to see what the... Like the analytic aspect of all that and weighing the value of the timeout versus the extra.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: But they have those things now.
00:23:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's... That's what I found very interesting. All right, to the defense. We'll name our defensive player of the game, and that is brought to you by our friends at O'Connor, Achani, and Levy. Attorneys you know, attorneys you trust, visit oal-law.com. We'll go with Jordan Battle, who came up with the interception off the deflection on Sunday, and that leads us into defensive conversation. Rock, it was concerning at the least to see.
00:23:51
Speaker 3: Time and time again, the Steelers get to the perimeter. I'd love to see the next-gen breakdown. They do graphics of where all the routes go and the runs go. To see the number of total yards the Steelers got on the perimeter and just time and time again. And I guess it makes sense because if you're the Steelers or any other team and you're watching the Bengals on tape, my eyes go right to the middle and say, I am not running at him. So it's like, no, go this way or go this way. You shouldn't be able to do it with the ease the Steelers did that got them onto the perimeter. Why does that happen?
00:24:26
Speaker 2: Well, it seems very simple when you look at it just like that. Like, hmm, where would I rather run the ball? Into the guy who's 400 pounds and a multiple pro bowl guy or try to run an off tackle?
00:24:37
Speaker 3: And is that ends crashing down and not setting the– The perimeter?
00:24:43
Speaker 2: It just looked to me that on the perimeter, there was some wide zone and some off-tackle plays. It just seemed like it was the Steelers' thought, and they were correct, that they could get better leverage on the linebackers from that position rather than trying to... You know, like an inside zone run where they're blocking the line and then walking up to the second level. But then, my wife does too.
00:25:03
Speaker 3: What is wrong with you?
00:25:04
Speaker 2: On the outside, they have better angles and a cleaner shot to get to the second level. Makes sense.
00:25:10
Speaker 3: Makes sense. Russ, do not podcast that last 20 seconds. I don't know what's happened to Rock. There's also this aspect that I will admit, this isn't a second guess. I wasn't even thinking of it until yesterday. Monday morning, when I get up on Monday morning, the first thing I do, I'm weird. On Mondays, I go to the NFL game book online, and I print out the snap count. They show you the game book of the entire game, drives, play-by-play. The final page is snap count because I'm always interested in who got what number of snaps, how they spread out the snaps on the defensive line. And I'm looking, and I'm writing down the ends and the interior on the defense, and I said, wait a minute. Shamar Stewart didn't get a snap.
00:25:50
Speaker 2: And then I said, all right.
00:25:51
Speaker 3: And I went back to the first page, which shows who started, who played, and then there's a line, and underneath it, did not play. And it was Flacco, somebody else, and then Shamar Stewart. And I'm thinking... wait a minute, Shamar Stewart was active and did not play a single snap one week after making his season debut, playing five snaps, he got a sack and two tackles, and I was stunned he didn't take a snap, and I don't, I don't, Zach's explanation was we've got a lot of good guys on that line and there'll be opportunities, but I find it hard to believe he didn't get a snap.
00:26:27
Speaker 2: It just seems, it goes against the whole mantra of, wow, the depth that we have on this defensive line. We ought to rotate guys and keep them fresh. And if you're going to have him active, why not use him? If you're not going to use him, don't have him active.
00:26:39
Speaker 4: 100%.
00:26:39
Speaker 2: There's got to be somebody else you could activate that might contribute to the game. Yeah, I don't know if that was, and it can't be an injury or else they wouldn't have had him active. Exactly.
00:26:49
Speaker 3: And I'll give him some credit. I don't believe that. Al Golden forgot about him. Like, oh, damn, I forgot Shamar was there. So I go back to, and I guess this is concerning, it must have been a decision that he truly wasn't one of the four best edge guys, five guys that got snapped. So then we're back to a bigger question. How is the former first-round pick, who came back and is healthy to play, how is it deemed that Cedric Johnson, a former sixth-round pick, Cassius Howe, a rookie this year, how is it deemed they got... 12 and 24 snaps and your former first rounder got none because that that to me then says a lot about how they view shamar.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: Stewart well and and that's fine but but then don't activate if you don't feel like he can play in the game then maybe there's got to be another position i mean you know you get 52 guys on game day like you know you got to really you know go in and look hard on who's going to contribute and maybe that's a guy maybe that's a linebacker that's going to get Six special team snaps. It's better than having a guy active and not standing there doing nothing.
00:27:54
Speaker 3: While we're on the defense, I think it's going to be interesting tomorrow with the next injury report because they've lost Jalen Davis, their slot corner, which means Dax has to go from outside in. DJ Ivy now takes over a starting spot on the outside. Brian Cook, the communicator and ringleader of that back end, is dinged up. Kyle Duggar is dinged up. Jordan Battle's a little bit dinged up. No matter who plays in what combination, I worry about communication because when you've got a lot of moving parts and guys in different spots, what can get lost is the communication and understanding on the field where everybody's supposed to be.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: Especially if Brian Cook's not out there. He's the main guy with all the experience and all that. And having so many guys, you can... If one guy's got to come out, you're out off about four names there.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:28:44
Speaker 2: That's concerning.
00:28:45
Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you this about Dax Hill from just a purely personal standpoint for Dax. Because you could argue they've kind of jerked him around in his time here. He's been outside. He's been inside. They're moving here, moving there. And he likes playing outside. Okay, that's great. You don't always get what you like. But he's better outside than he is inside. Because of the injury, he's going to have to be forced inside. He's going to be a free agent. There's more money to be had as the outside guy, and he's more comfortable being the outside guy. Take me inside the mind of a player, and I guess you just have to make the concession. It's not what I want, but it's best for the team.
00:29:26
Speaker 2: What the team needs. And somebody who might.
00:29:29
Speaker 3: Be looking at me on the outside is going to respect that I did it to do what's best for my team, maybe shortchanging my market.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: Value as an outside corner. See what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, the only way you can look at it, I would say the only way that's going to help you as a player in the long run is certainly isn't saying, well, I only play outside and screw you. But what you should tell yourself, whether you really believe it or not, is, hey, okay, I'm better outside than inside. But if I show I can play inside, that's another trait that I have. When it comes down to free agents. Flexibility. And they're like, we like this guy and that guy. But, ah, you know, he can do that too. He can do that too. It's not his best thing, but he can in a pinch. And you need that. You need to have multiple skill sets with him. you know the fact that these roster sizes on game day are so small you gotta be.
00:30:15
Speaker 3: Able to do a lot of things yeah i mean in reality if you mope about it and maybe you don't say i won't do it but if you mope about it and more go through the motions that's only going to show up on tape as somebody who is a red flag to.
00:30:28
Speaker 2: Any other team and that's a guy no coach wants that that gets back that gets talked about you can't have that all.
00:30:34
Speaker 3: Right this is good we're 47 minutes in i gotta say if i were listening to this show i think this was pretty damn good ain't bad yeah all right he's He's Rocky.
00:30:42
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:30:44
Speaker 3: When we continue, we'll talk about the significance of Sunday. I thought the O-line was pretty good.
00:30:49
Speaker 2: J.J.
00:30:50
Speaker 3: Wallace barely heard from on Sunday. And some other news and notes. He's Rocky.
00:30:55
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: Roundtable show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilders, the spot on 700 WLW.
00:31:06
Speaker 6: It's a big cat clash, and the Bengals are on the prowl for a win. To get one, they'll have to jolt the Jaguars. And trust me, fur will fly. You might call it a pounce-a-palooza. It's spot versus stripes. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. Coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on 700-WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
00:31:36
Speaker 2: If your front door creaks, your windows rattle, or your garage door opener groans like a haunted house. All right, heading.
00:31:43
Speaker 3: Down the stretch. About to put our first of three big hours in the books. Time for you to get here. We're at Longnecks in Wilder. Ask your server for a ticket.
00:31:52
Speaker 2: Fill it out.
00:31:53
Speaker 3: Drop it in the bucket up by our broadcast setup. We'll draw a cool shirt from Longnecks later. And then you'll be in the drawing in three weeks for the very cool T. Higgins print that is currently available. behind the bar. We take it till nine tonight. This show brought to you in part by Mel's Auto Glass, the clear choice for windshield repair and replacement. Rock, oh, I don't want to leave out the offensive line. We were talking defensive line in the last segment. O-line reduced T.J. Watt to kind of an afterthought. If you get a day where you kind of at the end of it.
00:32:24
Speaker 2: Say, oh yeah, I didn't really think about T.J.
00:32:27
Speaker 3: They must have been, and Going into the week, it was, oh, man, Orlando Brown Jr., you're going to have to help him and tight ends and chip and do all this. And they survived that, survived it until the final snap. Unfortunately, when Dalton Reisner admits it was his responsibility on the play that Let the defender in.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Harmon Joe.
00:32:46
Speaker 3: But on a day that many snaps against that line, they won more than they lost.
00:32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you'll take that every day of the week. That performance against, again, a great rusher and a great unit.
00:32:57
Speaker 3: All right, a couple of things to close the hour. One, this team suddenly has penalty problems. If anything, under Zach Taylor, they've been a very disciplined team. Starting in his first year, they have finished with the second fewest penalties, the fourth fewest, the second fewest, the ninth fewest, the third fewest. This year, the fifth most, 25 penalties in three weeks. And, Rock, here's what's really frustrating. Eight false starts, pre-snap penalties. Eight false starts. Four times we talked, they lined up offsides defensively.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: That's impossible.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Three holdings, two offensive holdings, delay of game. But, man, the pre-snap penalties are just killer.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: Are you looking at my notes?
00:33:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:37
Speaker 2: I'll recite what Jeff Fisher would always hammer. He said, we need to not have the penalties that are before and after the whistle. So that's eight false starts. That's defensive offside. Now look, okay, a defensive holding, you're playing hard, that's going to happen. Two offensive holding, that's going to happen. Delay of the game, you don't want. So, yeah, the ones before and after the snap, you just can't have them.
00:33:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, and 25 of them, it seems like they've eliminated, they've reduced what was going to be a touchdown drive maybe to only a field goal drive or no points or you keep the defense on the field. It's got to be cleaned up from that standpoint. Here's the significance of Sundays. and I said this earlier in the week, I think there is a sizable gap between how we're going to feel about the Bengals at 4-15 Sunday afternoon if they are 3-1 compared to if they are 2-2. Because let's understand, if they lose Sunday, that's two straight losses. It's a home loss, and it's another loss in the AFC situation. versus if you get to 3-1, I think we'd all say, all things considered, 3-1, let's go. I think there's a big shift in perspective on this team.
00:34:45
Speaker 1: Huge.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: And the Jags are a good team. I know we'll get into them later, but they're a real team. They're going to win the AFC South, if not a lot more, playing really well right now. And I think the Steelers' loss, it just hurts more because in your head, again, you're like, okay, Aaron Rodgers washed up. They've scored one touchdown.
00:35:05
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:35:06
Speaker 2: Defense looks meh. If they were the Chiefs or the Steelers of some years past, you could accept it, but it really feels like it was an opportunity miss.
00:35:15
Speaker 3: Because if the goal is, I think everybody thinks the goal is to win the Super Bowl, your margin of error, I just don't want this to be a game we're looking at too often in years past, whether it was week one against the Patriots a couple years ago, that loss. How many times do we say during the show, man, that loss is going to haunt this team forever? You hope that a game like this past Sunday isn't the difference between winning the division or not, or getting home field or not, or being the one seed versus the two seed, because ultimately, if that's the goal, then little things like this are the difference between being at the advantage to the disadvantage.
00:35:53
Speaker 2: And that's a good point, because most of the teams in the league, the goal was make the playoffs, and then everything else we'll figure out. We have more lofty expectations here, so it does come down to very important things like first round bye, home field, and yes.
00:36:08
Speaker 3: Can you imagine if one game ultimately is the difference between hosting Buffalo or going to Buffalo for the playoffs?
00:36:16
Speaker 2: Monster.
00:36:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, you look back and you go.
00:36:20
Speaker 3: That game with Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Don't get the roughy. Yeah, that's what it comes down to.
00:36:26
Speaker 3: Now, can I give you some mathematical numbers related to the playoffs?
00:36:29
Speaker 2: Because you know I'm in numbers. Yeah, by the way. Ready for these?
00:36:32
Speaker 3: These aren't mine. They're NFL numbers, but I love numbers. There are nine teams right now in the NFL that are 2-1. There's two tonight playing, the Browns and the Steelers. There's two on Sunday, the Bengals and Jaguars. Since 2016... Teams that go 3-1, start the season 3-1, make the playoffs about 72%.
00:36:54
Speaker 2: Of the time. That's a big number. Huge.
00:36:57
Speaker 3: But, but, you're going to ask me, but Lance, what if you're 2-2, what are your playoff odds?
00:37:05
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:37:06
Speaker 3: Rock, I'm glad you were going to ask that, because that number... 41%.
00:37:11
Speaker 2: Chops 30-something percent. From 72. Virtual certainty. To 41.
00:37:17
Speaker 3: Less than a coin flip. That's the significance of Sunday at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: That's big. Mighty big game.
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Rock everybody in the AFC North while I'm looking at it. Let's go ahead and cover the AFC North. Brought to you by Branstetter's Kangaroo. Hometown proud and family operated for 28 years. Visit GoKanga.net. They hop to it. We love Branstetter's Kangaroo. Right now, the AFC North, everybody's 2-1. Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, 2-1 with the Browns and Steelers playing tonight on Thursday Night Football.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: How about the Ravens?
00:37:52
Speaker 3: The Cowboys kick a field goal with seven seconds left to tie the game, and everybody's thinking overtime. The kickoff sails out of the end zone, and they bring it all the way out to the 35. Lamar, with one pass, throws it down to a 27-yard pass.
00:38:07
Speaker 2: It's caught.
00:38:08
Speaker 3: Lamar calls timeout. And the Ravens kick a 56-yard field goal on a seven-second drive to win the game.
00:38:16
Speaker 2: Good clock management, good play. The whole deal. That was big.
00:38:20
Speaker 3: It is the latest that a game-winning drive has started. Seven seconds left when they got the ball back. It's the latest a drive start to win a game began since 1978, Rock. And one more for you. It's the first time in the Super Bowl era that each team kicked a field goal in the final 10 seconds of a football game.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: That seems impossible.
00:38:45
Speaker 3: It was until Sunday.
00:38:46
Speaker 2: That's why the NFL is so great, and these games are so close. They come down literally to the wire, almost every single one of them.
00:38:53
Speaker 3: I will give Jim Nance credit for the line, and he can be a little bit cheesy, but when the kick sails through the uprights, they're playing in Brazil. He says, it's a trio in Rio. Three field goal, Rio did it.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: You know what? In every play-by-play guy in the country, you're like, damn, that was good. What do you think of that one?
00:39:12
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:39:13
Speaker 3: By the way, to close the hour, we've got a minute. I think we were all prepared to leave the Browns for dead and kind of mock them. And they go, oh, yeah, Deshaun Watson. And Deshaun Watson's playing good. And all of a sudden, Deshaun Watson leads a game-winning drive with 148 to go, and the Browns are 2-1. And building some confidence, they beat the Panthers.
00:39:32
Speaker 2: So who do you want to win tonight, Browns or Steelers? And no, both teams can't lose.
00:39:36
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a really good question.
00:39:38
Speaker 2: Let's see.
00:39:39
Speaker 3: The Browns are home to the Steelers. So I want the.
00:39:44
Speaker 2: And by the way, the Browns have not lost a Thursday night game at home since 2000, like, Whoa.
00:39:50
Speaker 3: Really?
00:39:51
Speaker 2: I want to say like the 90s. Whoa.
00:39:54
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker 2: All right.
00:39:54
Speaker 3: So, okay, now think about this because you put me on the spot with this. I guess I'd like the Browns to lose at home because it'd be a home loss. You'd like to think a good team would pocket home wins. If this is a loss, that hurts them more than a Steelers team going on the road.
00:40:11
Speaker 2: That's too complicated. I was looking for like a name, like a Steelers or Browns.
00:40:16
Speaker 3: So you're asking me to disregard analytics and just give you an answer.
00:40:20
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:40:22
Speaker 3: I thought much more of you, Brock. I thought you had quoted.
00:40:26
Speaker 2: Him early in the show. You know what I'm going to do?
00:40:28
Speaker 3: You know what I'm going to do? During the top of the hour, I'm going to make it a question on Twitter.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Can I do that?
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Do it.
00:40:35
Speaker 2: And then we'll get an answer. There you go. He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
00:40:39
Speaker 3: That's one hour down. I have no idea what's ahead. Casey and Kelly are sitting here going, we came here for this.
00:40:46
Speaker 2: We came here for this. Man, oh, man.
00:40:49
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon from Longnecks Wilder on 700 WLW.
00:40:57
Speaker 1: Brought to you in part by Honda East, your Cincinnati Honda destination. Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Achani, and Levy, attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit OAL-Law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers, visit rlc.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, 513-513-TOPH. And by your tri-state Chevy dealers, Chevrolet, the number one selling brand in Cincinnati for the past 10 years. Chevrolet, together, let's drive on 700 WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
00:41:48
Speaker 3: And away we go, second hour unfolding before your very ears. And if you're here, thank you. We've got a prize giveaway at the end of the show. Got to be here at 9. We've got raffle tickets. Drop one in our bucket list. We'll draw the winner for the cool shirt coming up at 9 o'clock tonight.
00:42:02
Speaker 2: He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
00:42:03
Speaker 3: We're at Long Necks in Wilder. The roundtable show is presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Toph Sheldon. Let's talk UC football. By the way, I've changed my mind on who I want to lose. I'll explain why in a second. Very analytically inclined.
00:42:18
Speaker 2: I changed my mind.
00:42:19
Speaker 3: I ran some numbers in my head, and I've changed my mind. I'll tell you in a second. Let's talk UC football. Down 10-0 and 17-10 at home to Kansas State. They win 31-26, now 4-0. They are in the desert to take on Arizona Saturday night. 11 o'clock kick right here on 700 WLW. For more on that, the man who will be all over this and finding ways to stay up late Saturday night, Bearcat Journal, Chad Brendel. How are you?
00:42:48
Speaker 4: Can we find a way for the Browns and the Steelers to both lose?
00:42:51
Speaker 2: No, I already took that off the table, Chad. I was trying to go there, too, but we took that off the table.
00:42:57
Speaker 3: That would be the perfect scenario.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:42:59
Speaker 3: All right, so a week ago when we were talking, had I said to you, hey, Chad, I think they're going to take Avery Johnson's legs away and I think they're going to make him throw like 50 times, you would have said I was crazy.
00:43:14
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what they did.
00:43:17
Speaker 4: Well, I would have said it was hard to do. I don't know what. Do you remember the Baylor game last year?
00:43:26
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:43:27
Speaker 4: When Baylor came in with the number one passing offense in the country and tried to run the ball?
00:43:31
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:43:31
Speaker 4: I kind of felt like that. They ran Avery Johnson six times. Like, if Avery Johnson's your quarterback and you only run him six times, I don't think you're trying to win.
00:43:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:43:42
Speaker 4: It doesn't make any sense to me.
00:43:45
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense when coaches make decisions where you don't do the best. You don't try to maximize the best attributes of your players. It doesn't make sense.
00:43:56
Speaker 4: Rocky, his footwork's terrible, right? He's at his worst when he's standing in a clean pocket, scanning down the field. He throws balls into the dirt. He sails the ball. That's all footwork, isn't it? Because his arm, he's got a great arm.
00:44:16
Speaker 2: And 50 pass attempts. Yeah, but you're right. For whatever reason, he's just better when he's running around scrambling Creed and then sitting in the pocket. And, look, I mean, give the Bearcats credit. They made him do that and made him uncomfortable.
00:44:32
Speaker 4: That's what Nate Woody did to him last year when they were at Army. It's what he did to him again this year. I mean, Nate Woody has played Avery Johnson twice. And Avery Johnson ran the ball nine times combined in those two games. And Nate Woody's team won both times. Like, that's not a coincidence. That's not an accident. They did a great job kind of just keeping him in the pocket. Keeping the pocket like he didn't have avenues to escape and run to open grass. They didn't get upfield and they didn't sack him, but they just said, we're going to keep you right here and we're going to dare you to throw a 50 times that team threw the ball 50 times.
00:45:10
Speaker 2: That's insanity.
00:45:13
Speaker 3: We talked about, um, It was a couple of weeks ago we were talking about the running game, and they go for 271 on the ground. Colt Tabb does it again. I marvel at the fact he's averaging 11 yards a carry, but I think you mentioned it, and I've really watched it since. Their wide receivers and their physicality in blocking down the field and breaking those, it's something to watch how well they block as a team to help that running game.
00:45:42
Speaker 4: I don't remember. I mean, we're four games in, so there's trends that are developing and things you feel like you can count on. I feel like I can count on these wide receivers blocking down the field, and that's the difference. If you watch, the safeties aren't able to come up and stop those runs at 7, 10 yards. They're getting wiped out, and all of a sudden, there's wide open field for Colt Tabb and Jabron Payne. Satterfield said something interesting Tuesday night. If you listen to the coach's show, he said that they didn't think Kansas State's corners wanted to tackle. So they have the wide receivers playing down to the safeties. And that's why all of those runs were so open 30, 40 yards down the field. You can go back to the first play of the game. They ran wide zone left. right at Kansas State's corner, and he was essentially unblocked and wanted no part of tackling Jabron Payne. The wide receiver gets down the field, takes out the safety, 30-yard run, 22-yard run, whatever it was, to open the game. That's kind of been their identity. I don't recall a team that has blocked... 30, 40 yards down the field and still running with their guy, like still blocking their guy 30, 40 yards down the field with the type of consistency this team has.
00:47:09
Speaker 2: All right. I was going to say, Chad, let's go ahead and spin it forward here. Bearcats 4-0, I think a place, you know, that a lot of fans before this season would be absolutely ecstatic about. And I think a couple of winnable games here coming up, a chance to maybe be 5-0 here. What do you see here out of this Arizona team?
00:47:29
Speaker 4: Noah Fafita's awesome. So if Noah Fafita throws 50 times, I don't think that's good for the Bearcats because I think he's probably going to complete 70% of them, and he's going to rack up a ton of yards. So they've got to get him uncomfortable a little bit. Now, he's good on the move, too. But he's one of the better, and it's amazing for his size. Lance, did you go last year and watch them?
00:47:54
Speaker 2: Yes. That game? Yes, he is.
00:47:56
Speaker 4: He's so small.
00:47:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:47:57
Speaker 4: He is so small, but he is so poised. And he'll take some sacks. They're one of the worst teams in the country at keeping him upright because he will stand in there and wait until the absolute last second for somebody to come open and deliver a ball. He doesn't have happy feet. He is not looking to get out of the pocket. When they call a pass play, he's looking to stand in there. And that's why he's one of the three or four best quarterbacks in the country on third down. He's thrown for over 300 yards on third down alone through four games, which is a remarkable statistic on third down.
00:48:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's six in the country at 56% on third downs going into Saturday night.
00:48:41
Speaker 4: That is my biggest concern in this game is getting him off the field on third down. They have had some problems there already, and Arizona is excellent defensively. converting third down. And it doesn't matter. Third and short, third and medium, third and long. He's going to hang in the pocket and make a tough throw and find a spot in your defense and move the chain. So that's really my key. If Cincinnati can keep them under 50% on third down, I think they really have a chance to win this game.
00:49:13
Speaker 3: All right. Then the other question, the obvious question coming out of Saturday night, JC Flacco. goes 8 of 13 passing how do you feel if he has to throw it more in a game which eventually he's going to have to how do you feel about that.
00:49:31
Speaker 4: Um i'm more confident now than i was at the beginning of the season Because I think he's making smart decisions. He has not been forcing the ball. I don't remember a pass that he's really put into a danger spot where it's like, oh, that thing should have been picked, even if they don't have any interceptions on the season. But as long as he continues to make the smart read, to make the right throw, and to keep the ball out of harm's way, I feel pretty good about where he's at. I.
00:50:04
Speaker 4: Do you want him throwing 35, 40 times a game?
00:50:06
Speaker 1: No.
00:50:08
Speaker 4: But if he's up to 25, 27 in a game, I don't feel terrible about that. And they're probably going to have to do some of what they did against Miami in the second half, which is using those sideline out routes and using some space to open up the run game because Arizona's got an outstanding run defense. And they load the box. They do a lot of– stunts and games and slides they bring a lot of guys and they they disguise it so there's going to be a lot of bodies in the box i wouldn't mind seeing them doing what we saw in the second half of the miami game and spreading that defense out by hitting gavin grover hitting isaiah johnson uh... hitting those guys on the sidelines on first down so you get five yards go out of bounds and you stay in front of the sticks And that should open up the run game a little bit more on a defense that they're crowding the box because their past defense, you know, they lost three guys to the NFL that are all really good already in the NFL as rookies. They're not as good in the back end, so they're loading the box. They're trying to make things difficult. They're disguising coverages. I'd like to see Cincinnati take advantage of some of that, pick up some of those easy yards, and then hopefully that opens up the run game. But to answer your question, 25, 27 passes, I feel J.C. French can handle that. 35, I get a little worried. That's too much for what this offense wants to be.
00:51:39
Speaker 3: All right, last question. You were filling in this afternoon on ESPN 1530. Talked with Jared Calhoun. Give me a Bearcat nugget or note you took away from that conversation that would interest listeners.
00:51:51
Speaker 4: I think the most interesting thing by far was I've never heard of teams doing this, Lance. Cincinnati and Ohio State scrimmage on Wednesday the 7th at the tennis center. Two weeks ago, Jared Calhoun went to an Ohio State practice And watched Ohio State today, three assistants from Ohio State were at Cincinnati watching Cincinnati practice. I've never heard of that. Two coaching staff coordinating with each other and saying, we think it will be best if you know what we're doing and we know what you're doing. That's how we're going to get the most out of this scrimmage. Coaches are generally... They're neurotic. They don't want anybody to know anything. These two coaching staffs are like, no, come on in. Figure out everything we're doing. You can write down all our plays. You can do anything you want to do, and we'll see you on Wednesday. I think that's amazing. I think it's awesome.
00:52:44
Speaker 2: Never heard of it.
00:52:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. All right.
00:52:47
Speaker 2: Well, good.
00:52:47
Speaker 3: For more on that and all things UC football, basketball, UC athletics, tell them what they're going to get, what they're going to find at BearcatJournal.com.
00:52:57
Speaker 4: We've got wall-to-wall coverage of the Arizona game, podcast, Keegan Nickerson, Austin Bass doing great writing on it. Keegan just put up an article with some of his thoughts from basketball practice today. You name it, we have you covered at Bearcat Journal. Football, basketball, Tim Adams and Jeff Gentle have been covering baseball, which is going through fall ball right now. So you name it, and you're going to get it at BearcatJournal.com.
00:53:23
Speaker 2: Love it.
00:53:24
Speaker 3: Always enjoy our conversation. We'll talk next week.
00:53:26
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:53:27
Speaker 8: Thanks, Ellis.
00:53:28
Speaker 4: Have a good one.
00:53:29
Speaker 3: Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com Still ahead.
00:53:33
Speaker 2: Oh, I know what I want to ask.
00:53:34
Speaker 3: When we come back, and we ran out of time with Chad, but UC went out today to Arizona. They're going to play at 11 o'clock on Saturday night and listening to Scott on his coach's show this week. They're going to keep them up later the next two nights and try to adjust their bodies that way. I want to talk with you as a former player and even the experiences over the years of trying to adjust to a different time zone and the best way to do it, going out early, going out right at the time.
00:54:02
Speaker 2: I've done both.
00:54:04
Speaker 3: All right, well then, perfect.
00:54:05
Speaker 2: Look at you.
00:54:06
Speaker 3: I thought I was going to have to ask Mike his thoughts on it.
00:54:10
Speaker 2: Or Fran. I'm not saying you're not going to get a better answer.
00:54:13
Speaker 4: If I didn't get.
00:54:13
Speaker 3: Anything from you guys, I was just going to ask Phyllis what she thinks.
00:54:15
Speaker 2: There you go. We'll continue.
00:54:18
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tove Sheldon. Longnecks and Wilder, the spot 700 WLW. 725-700-WLW, The Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We hang out each Thursday night for the next three weeks at Long Necks Wilder.
00:54:38
Speaker 2: He's Rocky, I'm Lance.
00:54:39
Speaker 3: It's all brought to you in part by Hawksworth Blood Centers, Hawksworth Donors Save Lives. Close to home, who will you save? Everdry Waterproofing. If your basement leaks call Everdry, it's not dry till it's Everdry. Boy, it is a big night tonight. Tom Horan's here, but even bigger than that, Mike Duell from Overhead Door in Northern Kentucky. Where'd he go?
00:54:55
Speaker 2: Oh, there he is.
00:54:56
Speaker 3: Oh, he's talking to my son.
00:54:57
Speaker 2: Right there.
00:54:58
Speaker 3: It's good to have him in the house. Going to be contacting him about some Overhead Door stuff and some things on the wall in my garage and all that. Details to follow. Big stuff going on. Big stuff going on. All right, now, one, I've changed my mind. I ran the calculation in my head, and I've decided now, because the Browns aren't going to be very good ultimately, and the Steelers are going to be better than them, I want the Steelers to lose tonight. Because the Browns, at best, maybe six, seven wins. I think the Steelers maybe are more of an eight, nine, maybe.
00:55:28
Speaker 2: Get to ten.
00:55:29
Speaker 3: So I want them to lose because I think. they've got a better chance of being a factor than the Browns are of being a factor.
00:55:35
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? That's what I thought the whole time. And you're going into, like, you know. Why didn't you just stop me? Home field and, like, what, the wind calculations and all this nonsense. I'm like, look, say it out loud.
00:55:45
Speaker 3: Did you just call analytics nonsense?
00:55:47
Speaker 2: I'm just saying. Say it out loud. I want you to say that.
00:55:50
Speaker 1: During your broadcast.
00:55:50
Speaker 2: The better team at the end of the year, the Steelers or the Browns?
00:55:54
Speaker 3: I want you on your broadcast on Saturday right in the middle of the show with you. What's your guy, Clay Matvick?
00:55:59
Speaker 2: Clay Matvick. I want you to say Clay.
00:56:01
Speaker 4: Clay.
00:56:01
Speaker 2: Analytics are, what did you just call them? Ridiculous? Worthless? It was ridiculous. I just wanted.
00:56:07
Speaker 3: To say, Clay, the reality is those analytics we just put up on the screen, they don't mean squat.
00:56:13
Speaker 2: They don't mean squat. And I want his reaction. Shut up.
00:56:20
Speaker 3: I looked at the very scientific poll question I asked on Twitter, at Lance McAllister. The question was, for Bengals purposes, which team would you rather see lose tonight? Steelers or Browns?
00:56:33
Speaker 2: And?
00:56:33
Speaker 3: 84% say Steelers.
00:56:37
Speaker 2: See, the people.
00:56:39
Speaker 3: Sometimes it just comes down to who you hate more, and I can't stand the Steelers. I really don't care about the Browns. I hate the Steelers.
00:56:44
Speaker 2: Right. Which is probably where a lot of it is.
00:56:47
Speaker 3: So wouldn't doubt just pick against the team you despise?
00:56:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just feel the Browns, even though they're playing pretty good now, ultimately are still more dysfunctional. Then the Steelers, and they came down to something, you know, I would take them over the Steelers.
00:57:03
Speaker 3: The analytics would agree with that. All right. So UC flew out today. They play Saturday night, 11 o'clock Cincinnati time, 8 o'clock Arizona time. In listening to Scott Satterfield paraphrasing, they decided to go out early. to start making the adjustment. They're going to keep their guys up later the next two nights to try to adjust the bodies. Take me through the dynamics of all that and the body and the adjustment and the best way to try to do it.
00:57:30
Speaker 2: So this is basically the opposite approach that McVay tried, right?
00:57:34
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:57:34
Speaker 2: We're going to just fly in and just play the game and get out.
00:57:36
Speaker 3: Off the tarmac and out of the field.
00:57:40
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm sure you know if there's some historical analytics on that. More analytics? Jeez, Rod. Here I am. Talking on both sides of my mouth here. Yeah, I'm trying to think. When I was with the Chiefs in 08, we played. Again, they were central times. It wasn't like some big thing, but we played a game, played Chargers. And we went out a day early. For that same thing, the, like, kind of acclimate kind of thing, because it was a noon game, which would have been, you know, whatever. Yeah.
00:58:19
Speaker 9: Anyway.
00:58:20
Speaker 2: It was a noon. It would have been a 1 p.m. Eastern game, so it would have been 11.
00:58:23
Speaker 4: Anyway.
00:58:24
Speaker 9: So.
00:58:25
Speaker 2: And I thought we played good, though, so I don't know. I don't know if every team is different.
00:58:30
Speaker 3: And Scott even admitted they ran the numbers, and it's going to cost them more, obviously, another night in a hotel.
00:58:35
Speaker 2: That's part of it, too.
00:58:36
Speaker 3: They just waited as being worth it was worth doing and spending the money to put them in what they thought would be the best position to be ready to play Saturday night at 11 o'clock Eastern time.
00:58:46
Speaker 2: I just feel as a player, just mindset-wise, I'd rather get out there a little early and Nothing too extravagant, but I think I'd rather get out there early and kind of adjust. Although I will say, any more, man, like if I travel and do a game in Central Time or West Coast, my body clock stays on Eastern.
00:59:08
Speaker 3: All right, we've reached the midway point.
00:59:10
Speaker 2: Of the show.
00:59:10
Speaker 3: Still ahead, Daniel Kuhn checks in, high school football tonight show. He's in for Greg Shoemaker. Dan Klaskens has the fantasy football fix. 8 o'clock hour, we'll get a little preview and a scouting report on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Remind me to ask you about pro football focus grades and maybe a little bit on the Joe Burrow narrative this week about clutch, all of that, and Dante Moore's injury as we continue. He's rocky?
00:59:37
Speaker 2: I'm Lance.
00:59:37
Speaker 3: Are we going to have time to get all that in? We better hustle. Let's check news. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon from Longnecks in Wilder on 700 WLW. WLW, we're hanging out at Long Necks in Wilder, the first of a three-week run after we had three fantastic weeks at their Hebron location. This is the show we call the Roundtable Show. It's presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, Lance McAllister, alongside is Rocky Boyman. Each week at this time, we turn to the high school football scene. In most weeks, it's Greg Shoemaker. He's on assignment, we'll say again tonight, but ably filling in. We enjoyed talking with him last week. He's back to talk with us again this week. You're talking high school football tonight show. You're talking tristatefootball.com. We must be talking with Daniel Kuhn. Daniel, how are we doing tonight?
01:00:28
Speaker 9: Good. How are you, Lance?
01:00:29
Speaker 2: Excellent.
01:00:30
Speaker 3: Let's get into this big slate tomorrow night. Let's go one by one here. Let's start with what could be, I guess, the GCL South title to be decided Friday night. Give me thoughts and storylines on Elder and Elder taking on Moeller.
01:00:47
Speaker 10: Yeah, out at Welcome Stadium in Dayton tomorrow night.
01:00:50
Speaker 11: This is going to be a big game, as is every game in the GCL South. But this is for the GCL South title.
01:00:56
Speaker 10: If Moeller can take care of business, they'll be an outright champion for the fourth time in five years. With a loss, they'll be sharing the title with Elder and possibly St.
01:01:05
Speaker 9: Axe.
01:01:06
Speaker 11: That'll be the first time that's happened in over 10 years.
01:01:08
Speaker 10: Moeller's 13-1 in the GCL South games for the last four years. Their only loss came to Elder last year. I mean, this game's really going to come down to what most GCL South games come down to, and it's going to be in the trenches. I mean, we're going to win this game in the trenches and run the football effectively to be able to take care of this game.
01:01:27
Speaker 11: You look at what Elder happened to them last week with St.
01:01:29
Speaker 4: Ag.
01:01:29
Speaker 10: They gave over 100 yards rushing to Aiden. to Aiden Graham for St. X. And Muller's got a really, really good running back at Juice Club of Brown. So the Crusaders are going to look to get him rolling on Friday night. Hunter McLaughlin has been the big story for the Crusaders. They were really strong at the beginning of the year in terms of offense, and he's really kind of come in as a soft and sparked that Crusaders offense. You know, 560 yards passing, six touchdowns, no interceptions. But, of course, on the other side, Elder has a phenomenal quarterback in Tayden Eastep. I mean, he's averaging over 320 yards a game. He's got 19 total touchdowns. And truthfully, Lance, I saw them play on Friday night last week against St. X.
01:02:07
Speaker 11: He's their entire running game.
01:02:09
Speaker 10: The Panthers don't really have a true running back, so Eastep is their running game as well as their passing game. And, of course, the big storyline last week was with Adrian Flyman and whether he would watch as he is playing tomorrow night. It will be the final week of his two-week extension on his eligibility issues.
01:02:26
Speaker 11: So keep an eye out for him. Have another nice night, and it should be a great one tomorrow night at Welcome Stadium.
01:02:31
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff, Daniel. Let's move on to number two, Lakota West, sitting at 5-1 at.
01:02:38
Speaker 2: Number nine, the Middies from Middletown. What are you seeing in this one?
01:02:42
Speaker 10: Yeah, this has been interesting. I mean, Middletown had a really hard, tough start to the season, playing two really good teams in Elder and Princeton. They gave up a ton of points in this matchup, 63 between the.
01:02:51
Speaker 11: Two, but they've only allowed 41 total in the four games.
01:02:55
Speaker 10: They really struggled on offense and trying to get a rhythm in the beginning of the year. Gavin Nolan, who was a transfer from Centerville, came in and he's done really well or did really, really well last week against the Sycamore team. That really kind of, I think, gave many his confidence on offense. I mean, they're like they're not only averaging about 85 yards a game and just three yards per carry.
01:03:14
Speaker 4: On the ground.
01:03:15
Speaker 10: So he certainly helped them out. And Lakota West has just been outstanding. The only blemish they have is that loss to Princeton, which is understandable. But Kenyon Norman has been as advertised for the Firebirds this year. Carmelo Jordan is another one that you want to keep an eye on. He's been really good to them in the passing game. He's actually the only one with a touchdown receiving all year. He's got six of them. And then, you know, outside of Norman and his, you know, 1,000-plus yards, no other player has more than 86 yards on the ground. And then Wakota West, I mean, as with the Tom Bolden coach team, have a phenomenal defense. They're only allowing 12 points per game. And they only have five sacks. So they've just been really, really good at keeping team offense, opposing offense behind sticks and putting their offense in position to go out and win them games.
01:03:58
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to Northern Kentucky then. Highlands at Cubcats. Let's get it on.
01:04:05
Speaker 4: Big one on North Kentucky.
01:04:06
Speaker 10: I mean, these are the two probably most set teams out in North Kentucky right now. Highlands has been rolling over everybody. They had a tough loss at the beginning of their season. Bounced back really nice. Cubs have had the one loss to Beachwood, which obviously Beachwood is.
01:04:20
Speaker 11: A very, very good program. So no heads hanging there. I mean, this is a rivalry.
01:04:24
Speaker 10: Highlands has won three of the last four. And Cubcat won nine in a row prior to that, and then the Highlands won 14 in a row prior to that. So whoever's going to come out on top has a good chance to continue that streak. I mean, Bluebirds are averaging almost 50 points per game.
01:04:40
Speaker 11: I mean, they're so.
01:04:42
Speaker 10: Good offensively and have so many good weapons to spread the ball around to. 19 different Bluebirds have receptions. No player has most.
01:04:49
Speaker 2: Of those catches.
01:04:50
Speaker 4: Dang!
01:04:51
Speaker 10: Bryce Armstrong is really the catalyst for how good that offense is. I mean, there's a lot of, you talk a lot about Tate and Lorenzen, but Bryce Armstrong flies under the radar.
01:05:01
Speaker 11: It's so impressive.
01:05:02
Speaker 10: 13 passing touchdowns, six rushing touchdowns, and he also leads the team in rushing. And then on the other side for the Colonels, Kian Miller, he's only a sophomore, but I had the pleasure of seeing him play early this year.
01:05:13
Speaker 11: He's the real deal. I mean, over 500 yards.
01:05:16
Speaker 10: Sorry, over 600 yards this year, 15 touchdowns at such a young age. He's already blossoming into a real big star. And certainly, if you're keeping up on sports, keep an eye on this.
01:05:26
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on. Talawanda sitting at 5-0 versus undefeated in number 25, the Northwest Knights. What do you see?
01:05:36
Speaker 10: Well, listen, this is a game between two schools that don't get a lot of.
01:05:39
Speaker 11: Love in terms of media.
01:05:41
Speaker 10: Not a lot of people know about either one of these programs, but I'll tell you this. Talawanda is notorious for having physical teams, and Northwest likes to beat you with explosive plays. So it's kind of like the immovable force meets the unstoppable object in.
01:05:53
Speaker 11: This game tomorrow night.
01:05:54
Speaker 10: Northwest is 6-0 for the first time in over 13 years. They're only allowing eight points per game. Jordan Lilly is impressive. He's got four.
01:06:04
Speaker 11: Touchdown performances last against Mount Healthy. He can spread the ball around with his arm.
01:06:08
Speaker 10: He can beat you with his feet. He and his teammate Ethan Dixon are both averaging more than 100 yards on the ground, so keep an eye on Dixon to pound the rock. And then you look on the other side, you have Talawanda, like I said, big physical team. They're only allowing 4.3 points per game. They have 16 sacks and a whopping 43 tackles for losses this year. And Talawanda also, you know, they can pass the ball. They like to run the ball, but they can pass it. They have more than 300 yards passing in 2026. I mean, they, so let me rephrase that. They have 300 more yards passing this year than they did last year. And that is a very stark contrast. And listen, it's one of those games where it's just old school, hard-nosed football. And if you love classic football, this is the game for you.
01:06:55
Speaker 3: All right, Daniel, give us a preview. It's going to be a big night tomorrow night. Lay out a preview of that high school football tonight show.
01:07:03
Speaker 10: Well, I will be on it this week, so I wasn't on it the last time we talked last week, Lance, but I'll be on it tomorrow night. I forget who I'm going to be on with, but we're going to have a great time. We're going to be breaking down all the games across the tri-state. Well, I don't know if it's Greg or if it's LaFawn. They didn't really tell me. We're going to go run with whoever we're with. And, you know, we're going to have a great time. We're going to break down all the games. We're going to talk to some head coaches. And we're going to give you that high school football fix and catch you up on anything you might.
01:07:30
Speaker 11: Have missed if you really want to find out everything that happened across this tri-state.
01:07:34
Speaker 2: Excellent.
01:07:35
Speaker 3: Always good stuff. Hey, appreciate you filling in tonight. Excellent job again.
01:07:38
Speaker 2: And thank you.
01:07:40
Speaker 4: Of course, Lance.
01:07:41
Speaker 11: Thank you. Thank you, Rocky, as well.
01:07:43
Speaker 2: You got it. Thanks, Daniel. Great stuff, buddy.
01:07:44
Speaker 3: Daniel Kuhn checking in, filling in for Greg Shoemaker tonight. The High School Football Tonight Show, tristatefootball.com. That'll start at 6 tomorrow night, I believe, on both ESPN 1530 and Fox Sports 1360.
01:07:56
Speaker 2: And then that St.
01:07:57
Speaker 3: X game, 645. The guys are back after the game with the nightly wrap-up, which is fantastic. They talk with coaches, be it on the bus or wherever they may be able to track them down.
01:08:10
Speaker 2: And reaction to the.
01:08:11
Speaker 3: Night that was in high school football tomorrow night.
01:08:14
Speaker 2: All right, let's do this.
01:08:15
Speaker 3: Around the corner, Dan Klaskens has your fantasy football fix. The 8 o'clock hour, we'll delve into those Jacksonville Jaguars and hear perspective from Jacksonville.
01:08:26
Speaker 2: That is ahead.
01:08:26
Speaker 3: We're rolling until 9 tonight. 9 o'clock would be Dan Carroll time, but plenty of ground to cover between now and then. He's rocky on Lance. Roundtable show brought to you in part by Miami University. Where today's students become tomorrow's leaders, visit MiamiOH.edu. And OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. We're at Longnecks in Wilder. The Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution and powered by Toph Sheldon on 700 WLW. Full hours this week, always presented by Cincinnati. Tax Resolution and powered by Tope Sheldon. Don't forget, if you're in the house or if you're on your way here, get a raffle ticket from your server, fill it out, drop it in the bucket. Coming up at 9 o'clock, we will draw. We've got a very cool long-neck Bengal shirt to give away, and you'll be entered in the drawing box. in three weeks for the excellent T. Higgins print behind the bar currently. Got to be here to win tonight. Got to be here to win three weeks from tonight. We'll do those drawings at the end of the show coming up at 9 o'clock. All right, let's talk fantasy football. Our next guest, host of Fantistics Insider Football, Sirius XM Fantasy Insider Football.com. That would be Dan Klaskens.
01:09:40
Speaker 2: How are you?
01:09:42
Speaker 7: Lance, how are we doing tonight, my friend?
01:09:43
Speaker 2: Very well, very well.
01:09:44
Speaker 3: Fired up for football tonight, AFC North Clash.
01:09:47
Speaker 2: You know what? I'll ask you what I ask, Rocky.
01:09:49
Speaker 3: Are you in agreement? From a Bengals perspective, you'd rather the Steelers lose tonight.
01:09:56
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? Would you go with that?
01:09:58
Speaker 7: From the Bengals' perspective and from my betting perspective.
01:10:03
Speaker 2: Well, that's all settled. There you go.
01:10:05
Speaker 3: That's the deciding factor, absolutely.
01:10:08
Speaker 7: But I hear you, fellas. We're not flushing the Browns down tonight.
01:10:11
Speaker 2: There you go. There you go.
01:10:13
Speaker 3: All right, let's start here. Let's start with the struggling stars. Some guys, owners are probably pulling their hair out playing for their teams. Take us through some of the struggles.
01:10:21
Speaker 7: Yeah, I got a little mini all-star team here, struggling stars. We'll start at quarterback with Drake May. The overall numbers haven't been catastrophic, but The high leverage play has been bad. Third down, just 52% completions, 12% interception rate. Inside the red zone, just 37.5% completion, 20% sack rate. I'm not panicking three weeks in, but Buffalo is a tough place to expect a breakthrough. Right now, May's more of a QB2 than a QB1. Saquon Barkley, he's the running back on our struggling Stars team. The volume's still there. We're just not getting the fantasy profile we drafted for it. One reception in each of his three games. He had 82 rushing yards against Chicago, but 73 came before halftime. So you're obviously starting Saquon, but we're just waiting for the difference-making fantasy production that came at that premium draft price. Brian Thomas Jr., he's our wide receiver of struggling stars, one of the bigger disappointments at the position. This week could be a nice opportunity for a rebound. A 51.5 point total in this Jacksonville and Cincinnati game. I like it for fantasy. We'll see. And then Kyle Pitts, he'll round out our team. Here we go again. Target shares through three weeks.
01:11:28
Speaker 4: 4.7%, 9.6%, 8.6%.
01:11:29
Speaker 7: He hasn't even commanded 10% of Atlanta's targets in a single game. The talent's never been the issue, but at some point, opportunity has to matter more than potential.
01:11:39
Speaker 3: Yep.
01:11:40
Speaker 2: All right, Dan, let's go to injuries. I see some big names on this list here.
01:11:45
Speaker 7: We'll try to get through them quick, Rocky. There are some big names, and that running back is where we're going to start. Devon Aitken, buzzkill there for his managers and the Miami Dolphins.
01:11:54
Speaker 2: He's moving.
01:11:55
Speaker 7: They're going to be moving forward without him. ACL injury. Jalen Wright practiced in full today. I like him over Alvin Gordon in the long term. It's not a situation I'm crazy about. Brees Hall, the Jets running back, out multiple weeks here with the quad issue. Braylon Allen becomes legitimate RB2 as he sits. Travis, ETN, HN, whatever we're calling him. We're calling him on the IR as of today. Four games at least, plus in week 8-5. We're talking week 9 in play before fantasy managers get him back in action. Rico Dowdle in tonight's game, just like he was last week versus the Bengals, out. Jalen Warren going to get that big workload. I'm a little concerned coming off the short week here, so... Not expecting quite as big of a day as we saw last week, but still very fantasy-friendly. That receiver, good news. Lots of good news here. Puka Nakua practiced in full today, trending towards a return in Week 4. Nico Collins, he was limited with his hamstring, but too straight. I'm optimistic he's back in Week 4. Justin Jefferson, he was not spotted during Thursday's practice, so we're going to have to keep our eyes on him tomorrow. And Devontae Smith at his hamstring did not practice again. The Philadelphia Eagles are preparing to play without him. I think fantasy manager should as well. We'll keep our eyes on Liam McCotty, Mike Evans, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels back in the mix. And Baker Mayfield out.
01:13:06
Speaker 2: For a few weeks.
01:13:07
Speaker 7: So we're talking Jalen Daniels for the Bucs. It's looking pretty scary. Downgrade all of those Tampa Bay wideouts.
01:13:14
Speaker 3: No doubt about that. All right, how about our weekly studs, duds, and sleepers?
01:13:19
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's start with the studs. I'm not trying to pick on the Bengals. I'm just all in on Jacksonville. I've been that way since the preseason. And Trevor Lawrence is the reason why. He's my first stud this week. As I said, a great fantasy environment. Him and Joe Burrow, both in my top four at quarterback. But I love, since the start of 2025, Lawrence has accounted for 21 go-ahead touchdowns, 16 through the air, five on the ground. That's the most in the league. He's a lock this week, as is Matthew Golden. The week three breakout, it could have been even bigger than it was. He's getting all the action. I really think that he is legitimate. I'm treating him as a weekly starter for the Packers on the dud side. We're sitting Ashton Gentry. Still starting in most leagues. I'm just really lowering expectations, really. We're not going to bench him, but Kansas City, a strong defense. I don't like the game strip. Volume keeps Gentee viable, but I'm not counting on him as an RB1 this week. Labney Conkney didn't practice again today. He was already on my dud list. Let's sit the Chargers wide up. How about L.A.? The Chargers, fewer than 17 points in each of its first three games. I'm sitting most everybody on that. And then the sleepers, I'll give you a couple. Hopefully you guys listened to Marcus Mariota last week. He ended up being a top five quarterback. This week, I don't know if he's going to get that good, but C.J. Stroud's on the bounce back. The Texans' offense has been ugly, but this Dallas matchup gets my attention. I love the healthy 48-point total here. And with Nico Collins back, I think he's going to have his best Sunday of the season. And my final sleeper, Jawan Johnson. The Saints are playing the Falcons on Monday Night Football, and the Saints have been getting him in action. 77% of the routes he has ran on passing plays. And, guys, that's just opportunities. I can't say enough equals things. And Jawan Johnson's a top-ten tight end this week for me.
01:15:01
Speaker 3: All right, Dan, we love talking about and highlighting stuff going on with the DAV. You've got another way for listeners to get involved. Tell them about the DAV 5K and how people can participate.
01:15:13
Speaker 7: Yeah, Lance, thank you for that. DAV 5K is a great way to get moving, get back to Americans, veterans. You can walk, roll, run, ride.
01:15:21
Speaker 2: You can help.
01:15:21
Speaker 7: DAV continue providing free programs and services to all their families. So grab some friends, get your family involved, join us. It's November 8th at the banks here in Cincinnati or anywhere virtually. You can learn more at DAV5K. org.
01:15:33
Speaker 2: Love it.
01:15:34
Speaker 3: Always enjoy the conversation, and let's do it again next week.
01:15:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
01:15:38
Speaker 7: Yes, and I'm with you guys.
01:15:40
Speaker 2: I'm rooting for the Browns tonight. All right, very good.
01:15:43
Speaker 4: Thanks, Dan.
01:15:43
Speaker 2: Thanks, Dan.
01:15:45
Speaker 3: Dan Klaskens for our fantasy football segment each Thursday night at this time. Right before the top of the hour, let me take a look at the Kelsey Chevrolet college football weekend preview, and we'll hit a couple of the area teams. UC Bearcats 4-0 visiting the Arizona Wildcats. As we mentioned earlier with Chad, Bearcats 4-0 for the first time Since 2021, they are outscoring opponents in the second.
01:16:06
Speaker 2: Half, 107-27.
01:16:08
Speaker 3: Cole Tabb of the Bearcats leads the country in rushing. 11.1 yards per attempt. 11.1 yards per rushing attempt. We referenced with Chad, Arizona's quarterback, Noah Fafita. He's thrown for 84 touchdowns in his career and 10,314 yards. That is currently ranked first and second in each category among all active FBS quarterbacks. The Wildcats fell in a 14-point hole last week. Bearcats fell in one as well. Wildcats found a way out. They're converting 56% on third down, sixth best in the country. Ohio State 4-0 is set for their first Big Ten road game of the season. They visit the Iowa Hawkeyes. 3-30 kick. It is the 70th time that Ohio State is featured in the ESPN College Game Day matchup. The most of any team in the country. Jeremiah Smith on pace, Rock. 121 catches, 2,385 yards, and 26 touchdowns.
01:17:10
Speaker 2: Did you say 2,300 yards?
01:17:11
Speaker 3: 2,300 yards receiving. The Hawkeyes 4-0 for the first time since 2021, and that defense, the Iowa Hawkeye defense, leading the nation, allowing just eight points per game. Miami opens back play, hosting Bowling Green. Miami's 2-2, Bowling Green 0-4, coached by the former Ohio State and NFL great Eddie George. The Falcons have a defensive end, Miles Bradley, who had four and a half sacks last week. He's the reigning defensive back player of the year. And the Redhawks have a quarterback, and David McComb currently leads the nation at 17.3 yards per completion. 17.3 yards per completion, Rock.
01:17:47
Speaker 2: He's slinging it.
01:17:51
Speaker 3: For the Miami Redhawks and the Kentucky Wildcats. Travel to South Carolina. Kentucky's 3-1, South Carolina 2-2. The heat's certainly on. Shane Beamer, the hot seat, getting a little bit warmer. The Gamecocks riding a seven-game SEC losing streak, and Dylan Stewart suspended. They'll be without their star defensive end. Kentucky coming off a game with the first time in program history they had three running backs rush for 100 yards or more.
01:18:18
Speaker 2: And their win over South Alabama.
01:18:20
Speaker 3: That is your Kelsey Chevrolet College Football Weekend Preview. My guy Josh Wilking passed along that Kelsey pre-owned deal of the week this week.
01:18:28
Speaker 2: It's a 2024 Chevrolet Trax LS with only 23,000 miles.
01:18:29
Speaker 3: Price just reduced to $ 18, 999. which is $ 2, 000 less than average for a Trax on the market. It is a super deal. I would be there in the morning and test drive it at Kelsey Chevrolet. Tell them I sent you. You can check it out now on my blog at 700wlw.
01:18:47
Speaker 4: Com.
01:18:50
Speaker 3: All right, two hours in the books. Just like that. One more to go. Let's talk Jacksonville Jaguars and Joe Burrow and the Bengals and more as we continue. It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tove Sheldon. Long necks in Wilder, the spot, and on 700 WLW.
01:19:07
Speaker 1: Skyline Chili, feeling good, it's skyline time. O'Connor, Achani, and Levy, attorneys you know, attorneys you trust. Visit OAL-Law.com. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit orthohealwaterproofcast.com. R & L Carriers, visit rlc.com and make R & L Carriers your global transportation provider. Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon, 513-513-TOPH. and by your tri-state Chevy dealers. Chevrolet, the number one selling brand in Cincinnati for the past 10 years. Chevrolet, together, let's drive. On 700 WLW, home of the best Bengals coverage.
01:19:52
Speaker 3: And away we go, 8 o'clock hour underway on a Thursday night at Longnecks in Wilder. Lance McAllister, Rocky Boyman, The Roundtable Show. here for the next three weeks. We take it until 9 o'clock tonight. That'll be Dan Carroll time. The cast of characters here tonight, Mike Mills, our trusty engineer on hand, Russ Jackson back in the studio, just about gave me a heart attack like 90 seconds ago. I think my pacemaker fired. Fran and his lovely wife Phyllis are here. So big tonight, so big tonight that Casey and Kelly were here. It was good to see them. It was good to see them. Everybody tonight, appreciate them hanging out with us. We'll do the giveaway coming up at 9 o'clock tonight. We have Bengals and Jaguars to get to in this hour. Let's do a little bit on Jacksonville. I was struck by a couple of things I heard last night on Bengals game plan down the dial on ESPN 1530. Dan Hort and Wayne Boxmiller each week. They talked with Mark Long, who covered the Jaguars for the Associated Press. Brock, here's what he said about that Jaguar defense. They returned 10 starters. They've got their defense coordinator back, Anthony, I think it's Campanilli, and they certainly have continuity. They led the NFL in yards allowed on the ground, fewest yards per carry last year, and they're among the best this year. Here's his assessment, Mark Long, of that Jacksonville defense the Bengals offense will be facing on Sunday.
01:21:15
Speaker 4: It starts with Devon Hamilton.
01:21:17
Speaker 12: He's not the name on the defensive side of the ball, but he is really their best player, their best player against the run. He's a nose tackle who's just a complete handful.
01:21:26
Speaker 4: He is their.
01:21:28
Speaker 12: Version of Dexter Lawrence, a little bit different body style, doesn't quite get the push, but, man, is he tough to run on. And then they're in.
01:21:37
Speaker 4: You know, they set the edge.
01:21:38
Speaker 12: Josh Heimdall and Trayvon Walker, not over-the-top fantastic pass rushers, but very good at setting the edge and not letting people get outside them, being able to stop the run. So for them, that's where it starts. They can wreck games, and they're a handful up front. I believe if you go back to last season, Cincinnati versus Jacksonville, Trayvon Walker really kind of had his way with– Amarius Mims on the right side.
01:22:07
Speaker 4: So it'll be interesting.
01:22:07
Speaker 12: Amarius Mims has made huge strides since that Week 2 matchup last year.
01:22:12
Speaker 4: So it'll be.
01:22:13
Speaker 12: Interesting to see what that matchup head-to-head looks like in Year 2.
01:22:28
Speaker 3: He only has 10 catches. It's not only, but I'd like to see him catch a little bit more. But of his 10 catches, he's only averaging 3.2 yards a catch, which is way below his career average. And I just think he's a guy I'd love to see them get him in space screens. They rarely run screens. I just think there's something there with... With Chase Brown's elusiveness, you get him out there and set him up with a screen and get some blocking in, there's no reason he should only be averaging 3.2 yards per catch.
01:22:54
Speaker 2: To your point on screens, I have a coach that tells me, and they do a ton of screens, and the reason is, he said, there's a limited amount of practice time during the week, and the smallest amount of time you devote to something the offense does is the screen games. That's why you practice. It is deadly when run... But, no, that would be a great way to get him in the ball more.
01:23:17
Speaker 3: On the other side of things, Trevor Lawrence coming to town. Trevor Lawrence is in his fifth season, and now it finally feels like in his second season now with Liam Cohen, the head coach, that it's really started to click. He's still only 26 years old, quarterback rating 107.2, and Mark Long last night kind of laid the path he's taken and just the difficult situations coaching-wise that kind of derailed his first season. three-plus years in the NFL. Here's Mark Long, the Associated Press, talking about the development of Trevor Lawrence.
01:23:51
Speaker 12: You know, this is exactly what Trevor needed for his career. You look at a guy who was drafted first overall in 2021 by Urban Meyer, and that was a complete debacle. We all know how that started. Week four in Cincinnati, Urban decides strangely to stick around after that game And ends up at his restaurant there in Columbus. Gets in all sorts of trouble. And it really was the beginning of the end for Urban Meyer. But that just ruined Trevor Lawrence's rookie year. Then he looks like he's going to turn the corner with Doug Peterson. But that turns into a debacle because you had offensive coaches. pointing the finger at each other, offensive coaches not even talking during game planning, or Doug Peterson decided to give up play calling. All of that affects the young quarterback.
01:24:43
Speaker 1: And it did.
01:24:44
Speaker 12: And finally, in year five for Trevor Lawrence, he basically gets saved here.
01:24:50
Speaker 4: With Liam Cullen.
01:24:51
Speaker 12: And Liam, fantastic mentor, played the position, so he knows what he's talking about. And he's really found.
01:24:59
Speaker 7: A different level for Trevor Lawrence.
01:25:02
Speaker 12: And Trevor's got it all. He's got it all hands down. He's figured it out.
01:25:08
Speaker 3: Last night on Bengals Game Plan, Mark Long talking about Trevor Lawrence. And, Rock, as I heard him say that last night, there's a lot of young quarterbacks. And so much of quarterbacking is the situation you're put into. In most cases, quarterbacks go high. You're going high to a bad team. And there's some quarterbacks who get in bad situations who never get out of them. Maybe no fault of their own. It's just because of the coaching turmoil and turnover. And, you know, a guy like Sam Darnold went through a lot of bad situations before he got to a good one. This seems like the situation that's bringing out the best in Trevor Lawrence.
01:25:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Liam Cohen wasn't a name on a ton of people's radar. Man, he's been absolutely fantastic. And you're right, there's so many quarterbacks throughout the years that just go to a bad organization, an organization that doesn't have an offensive-minded kind of coach, and they get kind of stuck.
01:25:56
Speaker 1: Yep.
01:25:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sam Darnold is the best example of that. When he finally catches on with the Seahawks and McDonald and all them, look out.
01:26:04
Speaker 3: Now, a name you've no doubt heard of for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis Hunter, who has at times served the dual role, offense, defense. We know what he did in his time at Colorado. He had his first career interception last week. He was asked last night about how much they're using him on offense and defense, if his offensive days are done or how it's being managed at this point. Here's thoughts on Travis Hunter.
01:26:33
Speaker 12: He missed half of last season with the injury. He missed all the offseason with the injury. So they're bringing him along slowly. And I think they overwhelmed him last year by bringing him in. as the second overall pick, throwing him in on offense and defense and letting him learn both. Well, trying to learn both, he really never mastered it either. And that was a problem, and I think they saw that midway through the year that he didn't know where to line up.
01:26:58
Speaker 4: He didn't know where to line up on offense.
01:27:00
Speaker 12: And he really didn't know where to line up on defense. And even to this day, when you look at him out there, he still turns probably 60% of the time after the huddle on defense and even off it. He has to be told where to line up and reminded of what they're doing. There is still a learning curve for this guy. They do like him on defense, and they think he can be a Pro Bowl cornerback. He's much better in man than zone. That's the other thing, and they're kind of a zone defense right now. So it would be interesting to see if they switch that up this week and maybe give Travis Hunter a lot of man opportunity on Jamar Chase, or if they bracket Jamar, do they put Travis Hunter on T. Higgins and take their chances that way?
01:27:42
Speaker 3: You know, Rock, I think Mark brought up a great point of last year, basically putting too much on his plate. I mean, you know how difficult it is as a rookie, your head's spinning. They were asking him to learn things on each side of the ball each game, and that's a lot to process.
01:27:55
Speaker 2: Well, it's not just that. I mean, offenses and defenses are so complex anymore. I mean, even since I've been playing, it's otherworldly, just in terms of, I mean, defensively, the pictures and the rolling of the coverages and all those sort of things on both sides of the ball. And, yeah, as a rookie, it's just... Not a lot of time. He had the injuries. So I think it's better that, yeah, have him focus on one side of the ball. And, yeah, maybe you get a couple plays. Yeah, a little package. Yeah, absolutely.
01:28:25
Speaker 3: One more perspective on the Jacksonville Jaguars, the running game that comes to town, led by a name that might not be a household name, but it's certainly putting up big numbers, Basial Tootin. He's a fourth-round pick out of Virginia Tech two years ago, or last season. He's 5'9, 209 pounds. He's averaging 4.7 yards a carry. Here's Mark Long on the Jaguars running back.
01:28:50
Speaker 12: He's got great vision and a great cutback ability, and then we haven't quite seen it yet, but great speed. This is a guy who ran 4.28, I think, at the NFL Combine. That's one of the things they loved about him is they just thought.
01:29:03
Speaker 5: He was a home run hitter.
01:29:04
Speaker 12: So they haven't gotten him. He hasn't quite gotten that home run hit yet, and so they're kind of waiting on that, but they think it's coming.
01:29:12
Speaker 2: He's had a couple.
01:29:12
Speaker 4: Where it's like.
01:29:14
Speaker 12: Q-string tackle here, arm tackle there. Just one move, one step away from breaking one. If you're the Bengals, you're hoping it doesn't happen this week. But if you're the Jags, you're kind of fingers crossed. We think he's going to break through at some point. And the sooner the better for the Jags as far as they're concerned.
01:29:35
Speaker 3: Brock, I've got an amazing number on Trevor Lawrence if you're ready for this. Yes. And prior to Liam Cohen's arrival, Jacksonville had lost 18 of 23. Since he's arrived, Jacksonville has won 15 of 20. But here's the dominance of Jacksonville of late. Going back to last season, they've won 10 of their last 11. In the last 11 games that Trevor Lawrence has played, He has been pulled early because they had such a commanding lead seven times in the last 11 games.
01:30:07
Speaker 2: It never happens.
01:30:08
Speaker 3: It never happens. In the Chargers game, he left with eight minutes to go, six minutes to go against the Titans, seven against the Colts. He left with 13.51 to go in the Jets game last year. They were up by four touchdowns. 13 minutes and 17 seconds to go against the Titans. They were up by 31 late in the game versus.
01:30:27
Speaker 2: Our third quarter.
01:30:28
Speaker 3: He did not finish the third quarter against the Browns when they were up by 24 and eight minutes to go last week against the Patriots. That is unheard of. I couldn't tell you. I was jotting that down from Daniel Griffiths, one of the beat writers for But that's what I thought of. I said, man, the number of times I've thought it even tweeted, why is Joe Burrow still in the game? I've never heard of an NFL quarterback being taken out of the game because a team is such in control in seven times in 11 games. They've won in this stretch of those seven games. They've won by 29, 22, 17, 28.
01:31:02
Speaker 1: 34, 24 games.
01:31:08
Speaker 2: That just doesn't happen in the NFL.
01:31:09
Speaker 3: They've been a juggernaut over the last 11 games going back.
01:31:12
Speaker 2: To last season. Well, now you're making me nervous about this weekend. Darn right. You and your statistics are there. All my analytics.
01:31:19
Speaker 3: Take a time out to continue to talk a little Joe Burrow and more.
01:31:22
Speaker 2: He is Rocky.
01:31:23
Speaker 3: I'm Lance. It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Long Necks in Wilder on 700 WLW.
01:31:37
Speaker 2: Let's keep it moving.
01:31:38
Speaker 3: Thursday night, roundtable show. Hanging out at Long Necks in Wilder. The roundtable show brought to you in part by... Miami University, where today's students become tomorrow's leaders. Visit MiamiOH.edu. OrthoHeal, the cast that keeps kids moving. Visit OrthoHealWaterproofCast.com. And Mel's Auto Glass, a clear choice for windshield repair and replacement. Braves and Phillies are underway, scoreless in the first in a game three winner take all. The other three series were sweeps. This one is going the distance. Tonight, Braves and Phillies. All right, Rock, there was much conversation this week around Joe Burrow. Some narratives created and spun. Some were ridiculous. Some had some merit. The whole early in the week, the tweet, I don't even know who it was.
01:32:30
Speaker 2: One in 35.
01:32:31
Speaker 3: One in 35, one in 34 when the Bengals in the fourth quarter trailing with eight minutes to go. And my head hurts. I'm not even going to attempt to explain how silly that stat was. But there are some things that are very valid points about Joe Burrow and the Bengals late in games. There's no doubt. ESPN this week noted that Dating to the start of the 2024 season, Joe Burrow is tied for the NFL lead in lost turnovers in the fourth quarter or overtime. He's had eight interceptions and four fumbles in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2024.
01:33:06
Speaker 2: But I say all that to say this.
01:33:08
Speaker 3: I find it hard to believe that anybody who is a Bengal fan looks and says, the problem with this team is Joe Burrow, and I'd much rather have fill-in-the-blank quarterback in the NFL right now.
01:33:20
Speaker 2: Do you think that's what people are saying, or is it just kind of saying, hey, this guy gets a lot of credit but needs a little more criticism?
01:33:27
Speaker 3: I think there is something to that. That was going to be my next point, and I'm glad you brought that up because I think lost in all this, to me it's become– it's kind of like society. There's no middle ground anymore. You really like something or really hate something, and it's black and it's white.
01:33:40
Speaker 2: Well said.
01:33:42
Speaker 3: There's the group and some of our trolls who just want to say something to get people stirred up. But then I think on the other hand, to your point, I think there is an element of because Joe is viewed as the savior of the franchise. that you can't question Joe because if there's questions about Joe, then there's questions about the validity of the Bengals and the franchise and how good they are. And I think it's fair to say that Joe shouldn't be leading the NFL since 2024. in the most turnovers in the fourth quarter and in overtime. I think it's fair to say on Sunday, he had no business throwing the four-yard pass to Chase Brown. That was a four-yard loss. He should have just thrown it into the ground. And he's got to have better ball security on the play he fumbles on to effectively end the game. I think those are fair. That doesn't mean anybody hates. I don't hate Joe Burrow. You don't like Joe Burrow. But I think that would be talked about with any quarterback in the NFL if you're being fair about the situation.
01:34:41
Speaker 2: You did nail it, though. There is a lot of just bro, total apologists. And no matter what he does, it's not his fault. It's everyone's fault. And I'm not sure where that stems from. But, you know, yeah, I think you can say he's a great quarterback, a franchise quarterback, maybe one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. But, God, talk about a– That hurtful stat, you know, turning the ball over in the fourth quarter, that's a major, that's something to, you know, it's fair criticism. It absolutely is.
01:35:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love him. I wouldn't trade him for anybody else, but I think it's fair to say, just as anybody else on the team. You can't make mistakes. And when you're the quarterback, part of the drill, the quarterback gets all the blame, everything falls on his shoulders. But part of it is if you make mistakes, you're going to be questioned.
01:35:32
Speaker 2: And to his credit, he never tries to deflect and say, well, not really. He always says, hey, that was on me. I've got to get better. And I enjoy that about him.
01:35:41
Speaker 3: It was two weeks ago he said he thought I was very average in the game and had to be better. Absolutely.
01:35:46
Speaker 2: All right.
01:35:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if we can do this justice in the four minutes before the bottom of the hour. Maybe we'll start the conversation. I subscribe to Pro Football Focus, and that subscription is $ 110 a year. And that gives me access to player grades and the whole thing. And I do it not for me, because honestly, I look at the numbers and they don't make any sense. I don't know how they're graded. I'd love to be in there when they're grading. I don't understand how pro football focus and take a player like an offensive lineman and say his grade is 71.3. I have no idea how somebody could explain to me the difference between an offensive lineman with a grade of 74.2 and a grade of 71.3 and what they saw in grading that they took off 10th. So I do it honestly because my listeners seem to be interested in it. and I post the stats each week.
01:36:39
Speaker 2: And it's a way to quantify something that was never quantifiable.
01:36:42
Speaker 3: Yes, and I think that if there were something else, the reality is they jumped into the market and they cornered the market, and they're the only ones who really make it available to you to see a number that quantifies a performance. But I wonder sometimes why I'm subscribing to it because I don't understand much of it, and I think some of it is ridiculous, and yet, I understand listeners and fans want to see a number next to a player's name to say he's good.
01:37:11
Speaker 2: Or he's bad.
01:37:12
Speaker 3: There seems to be a thought right now that Pro Football Focus doesn't like Amarius Mims because his rating is so low, despite the fact he hasn't given up a sack or a pressure hit this year. And yet, I think they factor in penalties. He's had some penalties. And they also factor in his run game grade. But I wonder, just in the circles you run in, is pro football.
01:37:33
Speaker 2: Focus talked about?
01:37:35
Speaker 3: Do you, as a former player, do you understand where I'm coming from when I.
01:37:39
Speaker 2: Say, how did they... I'll give you another example. I'm on a roll here.
01:37:43
Speaker 3: I don't know how anybody sitting in that room at pro football focus... can grade because they don't know what the intent of the play was originally or the responsibilities of those.
01:37:54
Speaker 2: Or the check or the audible. Yeah, isn't that fair? 100%, and which is, you know, and I think it's great. I think you can overall get an idea of how a guy's playing by his general grades. Yeah, but at the end of the day, you've got to trust your eyeballs on something like blocking. Like, to your point, Marius Mims. You know, my eyeballs over three games say, you're doing pretty good, right? You know, that's kind of how you have to say, but it is, especially I think for, you know, a more casual fan that doesn't understand the ins and outs of, offensive line play. It's a way to quantify something. But do I put a ton of credit in it?
01:38:35
Speaker 6: No.
01:38:35
Speaker 2: I also think just in general, a lot of those analytics stats, especially in baseball, it's like a number.
01:38:42
Speaker 4: I'm like.
01:38:43
Speaker 2: What does that mean? I can't, you know, like RBIs, you batted in a lot of runs. The high number is pretty good. That's easy to understand. But some of the other ones is like, if I don't know what it means, like how worthy is it? But again, it's a way to get some sort of, because it is hard to describe RBIs. how an offensive lineman played, but if you can put a number on it, then that makes it a little easier.
01:39:08
Speaker 3: Yes, and from that, I do like having a number next to it. I think you raised a great point, and maybe a little bit more on this when we come back, because there's two numbers that, while I may understand them, I reject them. War in baseball, and a big buzzword in the NFL is EPA, expected points. I want to get into just a tiny bit on that, and then we'll do some college football, and I want to talk to you about Dante Moore today.
01:39:31
Speaker 2: Sound like a plan?
01:39:32
Speaker 3: All right, man, it's already 8.30 tonight.
01:39:34
Speaker 2: He's Rocky. I'm Lance.
01:39:35
Speaker 3: Roundtable show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. Longnecks Wilder, the spot, 700 WLW.
01:39:44
Speaker 2: News, traffic, and weather.
01:39:46
Speaker 1: News Radio 700 WLW, Cincinnati.
01:39:51
Speaker 13: Rain on the way. It's going to be here in the morning. This is the 830 Report. I'm Matt Reese. Potential rescue for all that brown grass scorched by the sun and missing the occasional rainfall. 90% chance of rain in the tri-state tomorrow. Storm system headed this way stretches from Texas up to Michigan.
01:40:11
Speaker 8: 30 million from Texas to the Midwest are under the gun as powerful storms wreak havoc. In Fort Worth, cars, trucks, and even a city bus got swallowed by floods near Arlington Heights High School just as students were arriving. One woman seen being carried from her car by a firefighter. Others guided to higher ground.
01:40:32
Speaker 13: That's ABC's Alex Perez reporting from Dallas. Radar here in the Tri-State all clear right now. That's going to change tomorrow morning. Right now, we check the latest traffic and weather together. And on this Thursday night, seeing a lot of delays out there, and it's because of construction. Miami-town area, 275 at I-74. You're going to run into some delays there. Got an accident right now. Looks like southbound 75 just passed Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway, and that's in the construction zone. That's double trouble tonight. Also seeing some delays on northbound 75 at the Lachlan split. And been seeing some slow traffic on 275 in the five-mile area, Anderson Township, because of some construction there.
01:41:24
Speaker 1: Here is the latest weather forecast from News Radio 700 WLW.
01:41:29
Speaker 5: In the tri-state weather, it's cloudy skies and a chance of rain by daybreak. A 7 a.m. temperature of 67. Otherwise, a rainy Friday and a high of 70 with temperatures falling in the afternoon. At night, a few showers and then becoming mostly clear, a low of 52. From your severe weather station, I'm 9 First Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Raleigh.
01:41:52
Speaker 3: News Radio 700 WLW.
01:41:54
Speaker 13: We're at 72 degrees right now in Cincinnati.
01:41:58
Speaker 2: Radar all clear.
01:42:00
Speaker 13: Game day forecast built by TLG Peterbilt Cincinnati. Keeping customers for life. Bengals at home Sunday against Jacksonville. And it'll be mostly sunny and a high of 71.
01:42:13
Speaker 2: A very nice day.
01:42:16
Speaker 13: Police say road rage led to the gunfire on 275 in Springdale overnight near Princeton Pike. Suspect in a black Ford 250 pickup fired a shot into a car and the driver of that car injured by the shattered glass. Police know who the pickup driver is. No charges have been filed yet. We are a week away from a huge event in Cincinnati that goes on for several days.
01:42:42
Speaker 2: It's blink.
01:42:43
Speaker 12: Thanks to the work of the Chamber of All of our partners and the passionate artists who contribute to this festival, we are once again set up for a magical weekend.
01:42:53
Speaker 2: And there will be something for everyone. Please come and check out Blink.
01:42:56
Speaker 13: Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Light Festival. He is expected to draw more than 2 million people over four days beginning a week from today. Blink will cover downtown Cincinnati and OTR, Over the Rhine and the Banks and Covington.
01:43:12
Speaker 9: Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel and it was torturous.
01:43:17
Speaker 13: She would be dead right now if the execution succeeded, but it didn't. Instead, Krista Pike is in the hospital. She received two doses of a legal drug, but survived it. Her legal team wants a commutation. This is Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey.
01:43:35
Speaker 2: Krista is alive.
01:43:37
Speaker 9: Right now, we don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment. But we do know that she is alive right now and receiving life-saving medical care.
01:43:52
Speaker 13: So the state of Tennessee is stopping executions. Pike's attorneys say she was still breathing and snoring after receiving those two potentially deadly doses.
01:44:05
Speaker 2: Her history... She.
01:44:06
Speaker 13: Was convicted of a 1995 murder when she was 18 years old, confessed, but says her traumatic childhood and years of abuse played a role in her actions. In a couple of days, President Trump is stopping in three states as the midterm election draws closer. Texas today, the president toured the Peterbilt Motors plant, and tonight, president is in Oklahoma for a rally tomorrow.
01:44:35
Speaker 2: He'll be in Alabama.
01:44:37
Speaker 13: And in the Dayton area on Saturday, the president is going to be holding a rally at Butler High School in Vandalia near Dayton. And on Wall Street today, the Dow added 20 points to close at 50,926.
01:44:49
Speaker 2: S & P 500 up 14. NASDAQ up 10.
01:44:50
Speaker 9: 835.
01:44:50
Speaker 7: Next news at 9 o'clock.
01:44:51
Speaker 2: Matt Reese, NewsRadio 700 WLW. Real people. Real talk. Real messy. 700 WLW.
01:44:53
Speaker 13: Guaranteed human.
01:45:10
Speaker 4: 836-700-WLW.
01:45:11
Speaker 2: The music is for us, Rock.
01:45:27
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon. We're at Longnecks. Still time to get here. We're going to do our drawing coming up in about, well, exactly 24 minutes when the show ends.
01:45:39
Speaker 2: Here's the drill.
01:45:40
Speaker 3: Each week we hit a location for three weeks. We started the year at the Hebron location. They're brand new. That is fantastic. And they took care of us. And thanks, guys, at Hebron. Each of the stops in our second one is now Wilder, the first of three weeks here. And we are giving away a Barleycorn's Bengals shirt at the end of the show. Each server in the place tonight has a raffle ticket. Ask him for one and drop it off in the bucket. We'll draw it.
01:46:08
Speaker 2: Nine o'clock. Got to be here to win.
01:46:09
Speaker 3: And then in the grand scheme of things, after our third show, we will give away the Bengals print behind the bar right now. It's a really cool print of T.
01:46:17
Speaker 4: Higgins.
01:46:18
Speaker 3: Got to be here to win in each instance. instance each week. All right, before we get into a Dante Moore and the, uh, the hit on Saturday night, uh, final wrap up you were talking about, and we were discussing quantifying numbers and pro football focus. And again, I subscribe to pro football focus and, and I, uh, I like the fact that there's somebody out there who, who does, and for the people who don't like it, I say, well, what is your alternative? What else do you have to look at? And maybe that's Maybe that's like a backhanded compliment. There's nobody else to look at, so you have to look at them, but that's the reality. They were the first in the market, kind of cornered the market, and it may drive people crazy, but they figured out a way to quantify a number. I always say when the people, when I will post the information through my social media, and they say, well, what about this, and why is this, and why is this? I don't believe this. I say, well, what else do you have to compare it to? I say, you may not like the number, but if you're only going by your eye, your eye test, maybe that's, what you're going by, but somebody sat and graded this, whether you agree with the grading or not, that's another question. But to the point of quantifying numbers, baseball has war, and war is wins above replacement. And, Rock, that's a number that means if you have a war of five, that means you are worth five wins to your team above a replacement player. If your team lost you and had to bring in an average replacement player, that term, just an average replacement player, you would be worth five wins per season above the average replacement for you, which sounds.
01:47:49
Speaker 2: Good in theory, but... Man, that's a stretch.
01:47:53
Speaker 3: I don't know how you quantify over 162 games in over, say, on a good team, 90, 95, 100 wins, how you quantify and assign a number to a player. And a war can be like... 3.2. So again, down to the decimal. I don't know how you, over 162 games, over a player who has 600 plate appearances, how do you tell me the difference between somebody who has a 3.3 war and a 3.5?
01:48:20
Speaker 11: War?
01:48:22
Speaker 3: When you say it out loud, it doesn't make any sense.
01:48:25
Speaker 2: And is everybody calculating that obscure number on the same scale with the same parameters? It's the same thing with the PFF. It's like five different People are watching these NFL games. Is it the same scale? And maybe I'd like to know if you make that more transparent, like how they're grading people.
01:48:43
Speaker 3: And I'll give you a number along these lines. Not a new number, but it's used a lot. EPA, which is expected points added, described by definition an advanced analytics metric that measures the value of an individual play based on how much it increases or decreases the team's likelihood of scoring.
01:49:04
Speaker 2: So you could have a passing play.
01:49:05
Speaker 3: The EPA on that play was 2.7, which was it increased the scoring percentage of that play 2.7, which I don't know. It just gets into the weeds of can it really be broken down into that small of a number and a decimal point? And you know me, I love numbers, but. EPA and war just seem too minuscule.
01:49:28
Speaker 2: Too obscure.
01:49:30
Speaker 3: See, I like to make it simple because I'm a simple person. I would think, in theory, if you hit a game-winning home run three nights in a row, your war could be three because you won three games. I mean, in reality, your home run won a game three consecutive nights three Yet war wouldn't look at it that way over 162 games. Maybe your war winds up only being two and a half, but I would say, well, what about those three nights in a row you had the game-winning hit? See, it just makes me nuts sometimes.
01:50:01
Speaker 2: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
01:50:03
Speaker 3: There you go. All right, something more tangible. Give me your reaction to the much-debated... hit on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore Saturday night. He is, I will let you describe the play because I think your point is the way he approached the play and ultimately executed the play and then the hit. But you set up what happened and how it looked.
01:50:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the USC player comes and as Dante Moore is getting ready to take a slide, he comes and just, I am always a defender most of the time of the defensive players saying, hey, it's good. He did kind of go at his head.
01:50:41
Speaker 3: Quarterback is sliding. Quarterback is sliding. And the defender is a missile right.
01:50:47
Speaker 2: And even more so, it was how he behaved afterward. You know what I mean? Celebrated. Celebrated. Separated himself from everybody else. Look at me. Now, he was wrong in that instance. But I do think there's a good conversation going on right now about, You know, how to treat the quarterback and the running quarterback. And sometimes these quarterbacks, there's a big case being made. I know Lamar Jackson does this. He always goes forward. He doesn't do the slide thing. A, because you get more yards, right? And B.
01:51:20
Speaker 3: Because when you go into a slide giving yourself up, it's the instant where your foot sticks in the ground for the slide.
01:51:27
Speaker 2: That's where.
01:51:28
Speaker 9: No.
01:51:28
Speaker 2: It's the instant you start to drop. I see what you're saying. The instance you go to give yourself up, it's right there. Gotcha. So a lot of times a quarterback will slide, but the spot is actually two yards behind that. But I just think that the defenders, I think there should be some onus or some punishment on a quarterback that then will run the ball and... deliver a hit, knowing that the defender's like, do I tackle you? Do I not? You see Patrick Mahomes do it. I've seen some videos this week where he goes and lowers his shoulder to a guy, and the guy's getting ready to tackle him on the sideline. So I think there needs to be some conversation of the responsibility. of the quarterback, and is there a penalty? I don't know exactly.
01:52:14
Speaker 3: Well, I've seen quarterbacks do a little fake-a-roo, like a fake slide, and that causes the defender to momentarily freeze because you say, okay, he's giving himself up, and then he doesn't give himself up.
01:52:26
Speaker 2: Right. How much the quarterback is protected, and maybe rightfully so, is really confusing for a defensive player.
01:52:38
Speaker 3: I saw this yesterday. This was pretty cool. I don't know if you've seen this about the UCLA coach, Bob Chesney. He reached out to the Oregon coach, Dan Lanning. And Dante Moore is still in Los Angeles. At least he was yesterday, I think, still being evaluated. Bob Chesney, the UCLA coach, reached out to Dan Lanning and said, Hey, I'm in town. And if you need me to check in on him or because Oregon had gone back on me. So if you need me, if I can help in any way, just stop by and say hi to him, see how he's doing, pass along anything.
01:53:16
Speaker 2: Which I thought about that. I said, well, that's actually.
01:53:18
Speaker 3: Kind of cool that he would reach out to Lanning and say he's in our city. And if there's anything I can do, let me know, which I applaud. That was very cool.
01:53:27
Speaker 2: That was cool. He's a good guy. Let's do this.
01:53:31
Speaker 3: Let's take a timeout and come back. Let's figure out what we've left out to this point, and then we'll do your Rocky's Road. I want to ask you about Jaden Mays.
01:53:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about that? And more. He is Rocky. I'm Lance.
01:53:45
Speaker 3: It's the Roundtable Show presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Toph Sheldon. We're at Longnecks and Wilder on 700 WLW.
01:53:56
Speaker 1: In 1804, Lewis and Clark set out on a western expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Tensions ran high once Lewis lost cell service and could no longer bet on hockey games, forcing Clark to silence his partner. And you'll hear another great American moment when you listen to Bill Cunningham tomorrow at 12 noon on 700 WLW.
01:54:24
Speaker 2: When our kitchen needed.
01:54:25
Speaker 3: An upgrade, Kelly and I chose Stone Statements from their huge selection of stunning naturals. This Thursday night, Lance McAllister, Rocky Boyman. We're at Long Necks in Wilder, the first of a three-week run. Braves and Phillies on, and the Braves have struck for three in the second in this winner-take-all. Loser goes home, 3-0 Braves over the Phillies.
01:54:50
Speaker 1: And.
01:54:52
Speaker 3: Let's see, New Mexico State leading Western Kentucky, the Hilltoppers, 6-3.
01:54:56
Speaker 2: I got both of those teams coming up here. By the way, I.
01:55:02
Speaker 3: Thought that ball was hit pretty well. It was going out. Just a quick, totally unrelated note. Did you happen to see the college game day kicker kick the field goal for a million and a half this week?
01:55:16
Speaker 2: I didn't see this, and I saw the one a week before.
01:55:18
Speaker 3: And he did it barefoot. Back-to-back weeks, barefoot kickers.
01:55:23
Speaker 2: I feel like you're going to have to start making that harder, because two weeks in a row, giving away a million bucks.
01:55:28
Speaker 3: This kid, and Peyton Manning was on the scene, because it was before the Texas-Tennessee game. But this kid misses the first one barefoot, and then, of course, the crowd goes crazy. And one more try, one more try. So for a million and a half, barefoot, he nails right down the middle. And wins a million and a half. And the one you saw two weeks ago, that was good from, I mean, distance, like straight down the heart of it.
01:55:54
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable. I should have looked this up, but who's the last kicker in the NFL to kick barefooted?
01:56:01
Speaker 1: Oh.
01:56:01
Speaker 3: Because that used to be kind of a thing when I was young. And there were barefoot punters, too.
01:56:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:56:09
Speaker 2: You know what?
01:56:09
Speaker 3: I need to look up.
01:56:10
Speaker 2: It's a shame they don't make a device where you can plug it in and ask a question. Well, hold on here.
01:56:19
Speaker 3: I want to say Russell Erksel. I don't think Russell Erksel was a barefoot kicker.
01:56:22
Speaker 2: Here we go.
01:56:24
Speaker 3: I was going to say Tony Franklin. Russ drops in. Tony Franklin, who kicked for the Patriots, I remember. History of barefoot kick. Tony Franklin, popularized the trend. Entered the NFL in 1979 with the Eagles. Famously earning the nickname the Barefoot Kicker. Kicked a 59-yarder. Rick Carlos, full-time barefoot kicker for the Broncos during the 90s. Mike Lansford of the Rams. Jeff Wilkins as well. And then he goes on to talk about the style disappearing as well. But, yeah, barefoot for a while. But back-to-back weeks, 1.5 million for those kicks. All right, now to the really serious stuff. Your last game was a Friday, which intrigues me. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the game and players you met, How often has ESPN, or have they, done a regular season Friday afternoon 4 o'clock college football game? And why did it happen in this instance?
01:57:21
Speaker 4: Never.
01:57:21
Speaker 2: And the reason is, and think about this, the power of ESPN. ACDC had a concert the following Tuesday, and they said they needed to get in on Saturday into the Lincoln Financial Field to be able to set up properly for a Tuesday concert. The power of ACDC moved an entire college football game. How did I not hear that? That's a great story. It's amazing, right?
01:57:48
Speaker 4: Wow.
01:57:49
Speaker 3: So could this be... Based on reaction, could this be something that ESPN says, light bulb, maybe we should do this more often?
01:57:58
Speaker 2: Funny you should ask this because I just got the internal numbers today. That game did 800,000. The analytics say? That game did 800,000 for a 4 p.m.
01:58:02
Speaker 9: Game.
01:58:02
Speaker 3: So you bet your patootie that that's.
01:58:10
Speaker 2: They're going to consider that 4 p.m. window on the front. Now, you know, a lot of people are probably watching on the back end, and it was a close game. Some more people came in. But, yeah, I mean, it's a chance to get on national TV on ESPN1.
01:58:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:58:25
Speaker 2: Albeit at 4 o'clock.
01:58:27
Speaker 3: And there's a uniqueness to it for the football fanatic who says, wait a minute, you're telling me there's a college football game on a Friday afternoon?
01:58:34
Speaker 2: I'll watch. They could call it something. Early Friday, something like that. Give it a nickname and get a whole thing behind it. Happy Hour Football.
01:58:44
Speaker 3: Tune in to ESPN. Happy Hour Football, Friday afternoon at 4.
01:58:48
Speaker 2: I'm going to steal that idea and give it to my bosses and claim all the credit.
01:58:52
Speaker 3: And I would think, man, if you're a broadcaster like yourself, you get a Friday game, that means your weekend's clear to watch your kids play and everything else.
01:58:59
Speaker 2: Dude, it could have worked out better. It was also nice because, you know, it's... Usually you get back to the hotel, it's like 11.30 at night, and this time it's like 7.30. It was great. Oh, that's beautiful. Back home, the whole weekend at home.
01:59:12
Speaker 4: Wow.
01:59:12
Speaker 2: It was great.
01:59:13
Speaker 3: All right, so the really cool thing, among many things I want to ask you about this game, tell me about your connection to Jaden Mays. Your tweet and the photos were fantastic.
01:59:26
Speaker 2: Amazing, right?
01:59:26
Speaker 3: Explain the back story to all this.
01:59:27
Speaker 2: Okay, so... Right when I got out of the NFL, I'm trying to figure out life and what I want to do and what direction and this and that. I'm trying a million things. But one of the things I did was I started my own football training academy, the Rocky Boyman Football Academy, where I trained young athletes of various ages on football and drills and all that sort of thing. And in 2000, I guess I started that in 2010. So 2011, one of my first seasons doing that, I was able to train this young kid named Jaden Mays. And he played for Fairfield Youth. Unbelievable. Great athlete, you know, and just like the sweetest kid in the world. And his mom, Kelly Hutchings, she made like a picture book, and I have it, of like all of me training him and all this stuff. And some of his, you know, it was fantastic. And I followed his career. He went to Fairfield High School, did well, wound up going to Army, but I never had an opportunity to call an Army game. Well, lo and behold, I get this game, kind of a last-minute thing. So I reach out to her and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I get to talk with Jaden before the game. Oh, how cool. And honestly, the week before, he had given up a pretty critical play kind of thing, and I know he's probably down about it. Well, he had the game-sealing problem. fourth down pass breakup to win the game and i'm like going nuts up there like going crazy for my guy right because he's such a great kid i mean again he's that army like i mean just a it's an awesome awesome kid that's very and then even better man so you know the game ends right then we're you know we kind of you know do a few things and get off headset and walk go down the you know the stair go down the elevator walking out as i'm you know, kind of walking out to go out of the stadium inside the bowels of the stadium. He comes around the corner after being on the field, big hug right there. I mean, it was, it's just, it was the best and just such a wonderful, awesome young man, great football player, great family. Just, Just amazing. It was so cool.
02:01:32
Speaker 3: Now, I watched parts of it, but not all of it. Was that story part of the game storyline on the broadcast? Did they detail your connection or pictures or anything?
02:01:41
Speaker 2: It should have been. It wasn't because I had sent it. It just didn't make it in. And I thought that right at the end there. Because I had the picture that I posted of me and him when we were eight years old, right? It didn't make it in. Whatever. That's fine. It would have been cool. Just a really, really neat kid and future leader of this world. He made a great play. That's excellent. Congrats.
02:02:11
Speaker 3: We were talking before the show. The only connection I have to that game, I've interviewed Tyler Walker, who is the Temple offensive coordinator who has connections to Hamilton and was the quarterback at Hamilton High School and walked on, I think, at Miami and may have been a grad assistant for Chuck Martin. Long story short, was at Montana State as a power as their offensive coordinator. And when the Temple coaching staff was being assembled with his new staff, he left to become their offensive coordinator there.
02:02:44
Speaker 2: I did a Montana State game two years ago, and I'm sitting in a coach's office in Montana State and It's him, right? And it's like, you're from Cincinnati, too. How the hell did we both get here, you know? It was pretty cool. He does a great job.
02:02:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a power. Montana State has a heck of a program. What do we have? We have the Steelers taking the lead, 7-0 over the Cleveland Browns.
02:03:07
Speaker 2: Steelers. Oh, no, something good has happened for the Browns.
02:03:11
Speaker 3: The Browns, they must have picked off Aaron Rodgers.
02:03:16
Speaker 2: Maybe a fumble. Oh, sacked, yes.
02:03:18
Speaker 3: I've got to check my poll question to see what the results are of the question I asked earlier.
02:03:26
Speaker 2: Let's see.
02:03:26
Speaker 3: We were debating for Bengals purposes, which team would you rather see lose tonight? This is a very solid number.
02:03:34
Speaker 12: 85%.
02:03:34
Speaker 2: 85% say Bengals.
02:03:38
Speaker 3: You'd rather see the Pittsburgh Steelers lose tonight in Cleveland. I would agree with.
02:03:42
Speaker 2: The– I'll take that as the final answer. I would have guessed that result.
02:03:45
Speaker 3: Final answer, yeah. I wonder why it's not 100%. So you are, let's see, with– you had the Friday game. You don't have a game this weekend.
02:03:52
Speaker 4: No.
02:03:52
Speaker 2: I mean, I got 10 days off, so I have no game this weekend. So the next, like, what, four or five weeks, I go to just midweek games. So I will have the– Tuesday or Wednesday, stand-alone ESPN 2 game.
02:04:05
Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
02:04:06
Speaker 4: Cool.
02:04:06
Speaker 2: So we get a nice audience. So this coming Tuesday, it's Southern Miss at Troy. But, again, it will be on ESPN. Troy won the Sun Belt West last year. All right.
02:04:20
Speaker 3: By the way, I just thought of a random note about Tony Franklin, our barefoot kicker. Do you remember the legendary snowplow game? The story behind it? Tony Franklin is the one who kicked the game winning. When Ron Myers, the Patriots coach, told the guy who was the prison worker who runs the snowplow, go out there and play.
02:04:39
Speaker 2: Snow, he couldn't see anything. And nobody knew what was going on.
02:04:43
Speaker 3: And Ron Myers said, hey, go out there and plow a spot for us. So they run the snowplow out onto the field, clear a spot. And I'm sure it was Tony Franklin barefoot, I believe. Russ, look that up if you could find it. I believe that's right. Tony Franklin kicked the game-winning field goal after the snowplow had cleared the spot to win the game over the Dolphins. And Don Shula, who was on the NFL rules committee.
02:05:05
Speaker 2: Just blew a gasket.
02:05:07
Speaker 3: That they were allowed. The referee said, oh, yeah, sure, break the snowplow out, Clarissa.
02:05:12
Speaker 2: I got to say, that's one thing with the NFL becoming so big and so corporate and so commercial. Something like that would never happen. I was thinking the other day, too, about the famous Sam White's, you don't live in Cleveland. Could you imagine Sean McVay grabbing the house mic?
02:05:27
Speaker 4: No.
02:05:28
Speaker 2: It would never happen anymore.
02:05:30
Speaker 3: Oh, it was John Smith. All right, the story's not nearly as good. It was not Tony Franklin. Would have been a much greater story. We should have just left it there. See you later. But that moment, it's just to see, and I'm sure the guy in the snowplow was working on prison release. They put in a few hours snowplowing the field.
02:05:51
Speaker 2: Like, come on. And Don Shula was so ticked. Oh, the ground scored.
02:05:59
Speaker 3: Oh, we don't like this trend. We don't like this trend at all. All right, we're out of time. Thanks to Russ for producing tonight. Thanks to Mike for taking care of us. Thanks to Fran and his lovely wife, Phyllis, for hanging out with us. It was good to see Casey and Peyton and everybody else who was here tonight. We'll do it next week, and we've got a drawing to do. This has been the Roundtable Show, presented by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon from Long Necks Wilder on 700 WLW.
02:06:26
Speaker 2: News, traffic, and weather.
02:06:29
Speaker 1: News Radio 700 WLW, Cincinnati.
02:06:33
Speaker 13: What's next for the death row inmate they couldn't kill? This is the 9 o'clock report.
02:06:39
Speaker 7: I'm Matt Reese.
02:06:40
Speaker 13: Krista Pike survived what's being called a botched execution attempt last night in Tennessee and is hospitalized tonight. She's been on death row in Tennessee for a murder back in 1995 when she was 18 years old. Two doses of a lethal drug were not