Full Transcript for 11-3-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hour 2

separate yourself by consistently looking different than you've been. And unfortunately, the Bengals brand for a couple of years has been, we're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. We're not going to block anybody from getting to our quarterback. But our QB and our two wide receivers are going to be capable of doing really cool things. And so we're going to be fine. And sometimes it works. Two years ago, they went nine and eight. Two years ago, they played a meaningful football game week 18. What was the MO that year? Maybe not by design, but it was We're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody, but our quarterback is awesome. Although Joe wasn't exactly awesome this past Sunday because of the picks, but our quarterback is awesome. And he and Jamar and T can do amazing things. And at the end of the day, that's going to be enough. I think we all agreed that could be fun weekly. That doesn't win you a championship. And so what I, we've talked a lot about like, all right, One of the Bengals is going to be taken seriously as bona fide contenders. I think we agreed if they beat Baltimore, that would advance the conversation. But Lamar didn't play in that game. Lamar's not going to be playing anytime soon. One thing you can do is not look like you've looked, especially when you're playing one of the bottom feeders of the NFL. And so I think you're being very fair if you walked away from that game happy that they won, maybe excited that they won, But apprehension about what they're going to be moving forward because they still at least haven't completely moved on from what they have been. which is a team that has all sorts of defensive issues. Now look, they have very good defensive players. Dexter Lawrence is sack, one of the plays of the season. He has been terrific. Dexter Lawrence has been as good as advertised. He's been worth what they've given up, but they still have issues in the back seven. They still have issues at linebacker. They still have issues in the secondary. They still have some problems as it relates to safety. Now Cash's howl is out, so maybe that compromises the pass rush a little bit, And we are going to talk about Shamar Stewart and it kind of being time for him to step up. But the frustrating thing to me about Sunday was I've seen it before. Now, they won the game, though. Yes, I've seen it work before. I've seen the Bengals win games like that. We have in the Borough era where he bails them out. But can you win the championship that way? We all agreed each of the last two offseasons the answer is no. When's it going to be rectified? Does it get rectified at the trade deadline? A couple of things about the trade deadline. They are, by all accounts, they've engaged with the Indianapolis Colts in discussions about Jonathan Taylor, who I would imagine a lot of teams are. Very good piece today written by Ben Solak of ESPN about what he thinks the trade deadline is going to look like at running back in particular. Tony Pollard, who evaded 1,000 tackles on Sunday against the Bengals, he's going to be dangled and probably dealt. Maybe Brees Hall by the New York Jets. By all accounts, Saquon Barkley, who you talk about trying to gut your way through a game, he did on Sunday despite a bad hammy. It feels like he's going to stay put in Philadelphia, but the guy at the top of that list is Jonathan Taylor. And the Colts are reportedly looking for something comparable to what the Panthers got from the 49ers a couple of years ago when they traded Christian McCaffrey to San Fran. San Fran sent it a two and a three, and the Colts are looking for even more than that. So there's a few different discussions about Jonathan Taylor as it relates to the Bengals. One, what are you willing to give up? Two, how high are you willing to go if there's a major bidding war? Three, are you making just one trade? Because the issues we saw play themselves out on Sunday aren't rectified by Jonathan Taylor. They're not rectified by breeze hall they're not rectified by tony pollard they're maybe not going to be rectified by any one player but they could be addressed by acquiring like zach bond from the eagles or we just saw him on sunday amani hooker or derwin james I hate to make it as simple as this, because I do feel like you should be looking to make upgrades whenever you can at any position. And yes, the Bengals have had issue at running back. They've had, at times, problems just simply running the football, and they've had problems at times with running backs not being able to hold onto the football. But if you have one deal to make at the deadline, is it for somebody who makes you better at what you're already supposed to be good at? or somebody who addresses a weakness. Here's my thing about Jonathan Taylor. Not that I don't want him. Not that I don't appreciate how good he is. But why lean into what you've been for a long time when what you've been hasn't worked? Like, let's just make it about Jonathan Taylor for a second. Trading for him, to me, it's leaning even heavier into what you've already been, which is stars on offense, money on offense, getting as many offensive weapons as possible, none of which any of us have objected to, and just sort of shrugging your shoulders as it relates to the defense. Now, again, it's not like the Bengals haven't tried to make the defense better. We were all alive this past offseason. But isn't prioritizing an offensive player, a star, even at a position where we've all agreed they need to get better, isn't that leaning further into what they've already been? And isn't what they've already been something we just saw on Sunday? We're going to score a bunch. We're going to count on our offensive stars to bail us out, but we're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. Getting Jonathan Taylor

doesn't help you tackle, doesn't help you cover, doesn't help you stop people. So it's not that anybody should necessarily be diametrically opposed to it, but if there are players who play defense available, that represent upgrades at positions where you haven't been good at, or you need more of, or you're dealing with injuries at, how do you not prioritize that just a little bit more? 513-749-1530 is our number, 866-702-3776. It is finally time for Shamar Stewart to do something. We'll get to that coming up in just a few minutes. You'll hear Scott Satterfield talk about making the transition from what happened on Saturday at Nippert Stadium to what needs to happen this Saturday in Houston. Next, 19 after four, Mo Egger broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:12:44 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN. 00:12:45 Speaker 3: Touchdown, Bengals! This week, the Bengals are going international as they make their way to Madrid to duel with the Dirty Birds of Atlanta, a game we hope will be known as the Running of the Bengals. Can the orange and black overcome the overseas trip, or will the Falcons swoop in for the win? Honestly, isn't the Falcon just an oversized pigeon? Remember to set your alarm. The game kicks off at 9.30 a.m. with coverage starting at 5.30 a.m. Sunday morning. Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:13:26 Speaker 1: This is Football in the Natty, brought to you by Belterra Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:13:38 Speaker 2: By the way, I don't do, for what it's worth, not that anybody was wondering, I don't do prediction markets. Not my jam. I like FanDuel. I like regular sports wagering. Those prediction markets, not my thing. But I got a note here from... Somebody with a prediction market, I guess, about where Joe Flacco is going to be after the trade deadline. And the prohibitive favorite would be the Baltimore Ravens. I feel comfortable saying this. There is a better chance of somebody coming to my house and offering me $ 2 million for it than the Bengals trading Joe Flacco to the Baltimore Ravens. I don't know why anybody would believe or think that. And I know the Cleveland Browns traded Flacco in the division last year. I think that was a little bit of a different scenario. I don't know why anybody would think the Bengals would have any interest in giving a life preserver to someone who is sinking like the Ravens are. I hate that it's happening because of injury, and there's other things in play as well. There's very interesting conversations about what Lamar Jackson's future is going to be But the Ravens seem, at least as it relates to winning the division, they seem dead. I don't know why anybody would be interested in providing them relief, giving them a life preserver, or however you'd want to put it. Honestly, and Taryn and I were talking about this before the show, there's teams that would be interested in Joe Flacco, I'm sure. It's one of the best insurance policies in the NFL. We're not yet midway through the season. I like Josh Johnson a lot. I If you're trying to win this year, Joe Flacco is a very good asset for this year. They should have less than zero interest in trading him. Let's get to the UC football game on Saturday, which was profoundly disappointing in the fact that it got away from them before halftime. Utah's offense, extraordinarily efficient, extraordinarily well-run. You knew that going in. You couldn't give up two Utah defensive touchdowns, but the Bearcats did. Here's Scott Satterfield earlier today talking about the emphasis on moving on from the Utah game completely as they get set to take on Houston on Saturday. No, we should do. 00:15:53 Speaker 3: That every week. 00:15:55 Speaker 4: You really should. If you go back and look, what you've done up to this point doesn't really matter. You have to go out and play this game. This game has to get our full attention and focus. I think It's human nature to go back and look, see where our record is, and see what we've done against this team and what they've done. And I think the outside world, that's great to talk about. But as players and coaches, we should never do that. We should focus on everything we have on Houston and how can we get this game done. It's the same thing throughout a game. You shouldn't be scoreboard watching either in a game, whether we're up or down. You should just be playing every play the best of your ability. But, again, human nature steps in. And I think that's what we have to guard against. I think as our team, you know, as you go out throughout this, I mean, look at everybody right now where they're sitting in the league and throughout the country, and there's four games, there's a lot of ball left. You start doing that and focusing on that, man, you'll let these games just slide by. And so we have to do a great job of focusing on this week, today, Tuesday practice, and doing everything we can to be the best we can be today. And I think the teams that do that the best this next month is going to be The teams, when they look back at their record, I'm like, man, okay, this team, they were focused. 00:17:07 Speaker 2: They did a great job. 00:17:08 Speaker 4: And the other teams, maybe not. 00:17:10 Speaker 2: So that's what we have. 00:17:11 Speaker 4: To guard against. 00:17:13 Speaker 2: Utah was awesome. I've had a chance now to see the Bearcats play against Texas Tech. I've had a chance to see them play against Arizona. Texas Tech beat Arizona this past Saturday. I had a chance to see them play against Utah now. We'll see Houston up front on, uh, up close on, on Saturday. None of this means that Utah is going to win the big 12. Utah is the most impressive team I've seen in person against Cincinnati this year. Here's Scott Satterfield on what his team learned during that game at Nippert

stadium. 00:17:41 Speaker 4: Yeah, they were six for six in the first half on third down. I mean, you got to get off the field that, you know, it's like that in second half of West Virginia as well. We didn't get off the field on third down. Um, You know, it's a little bit of everything, really. When you go back and look at all these games, like when we're really good on third down on defense and you're getting off the field, it gives a great chance and opportunity to win these games. You know, and I think a little bit of it is not getting enough pass rush at times. You know, tighter coverage. You know, if you get loose coverage, then those guys can catch it. And, you know, obviously right there at the sticks to get the first down. You know, I think– Sometimes one-on-one matchups, we got to win, and we've lost a few of those. But the second half of this past game, they did a really good job on third down. We got off the field, and then fourth down as well, because these teams are across the 50. They're going for it on fourth. We held them twice on fourth down this past week. But I do think it's a little bit of both. I think this week will be imperative. I think first down will be critical this week against Houston. They're so efficient. They do a great job. If you go back and look at them, they don't have many negative plays. So if we can try to knock them off a little bit on first down to make that third down a little bit longer. These offenses these days, when it's third and three or four or less, they can do everything, run, throw, whatever, and it makes it a lot more difficult to stop them. If you get them in that long yardage scenario, then obviously you get a little bit better idea about how to get off the field. 00:19:10 Speaker 2: Satterfield talking with the media earlier today, UC and Houston on Saturday. At 3.30. Sports headlines next. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:19:21 Speaker 1: You've been listening to Football in the Natty. Brought to you by Red Key Express. On ESPN 1530. The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:19:38 Speaker 3: ESPN 1530. Cincinnati's Sports Station. 00:19:43 Speaker 2: Sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection and Guarantee Credit Approval. from their family, the yours for life. KelseyChev.com. Bengals made it official. Zach Taylor announced this yesterday, but cash as hell goes on IR after having a wrist surgery. No corresponding roster move announced. Bengals taken on the Falcons in Madrid. Sunday morning here at 9.30. Pre-game coverage starts at 5.30 Sunday morning on ESPN. 15.30, Bengals playing their third international game in their history, looking for their first victory. I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to, I like morning football. It's a little weird. It's a little, the international games are always kind of weird. Like this game Sunday scares me for a few different reasons, not the least

of which is just those international games, they just, feel weird and one of the mitigating factors and both teams will deal with the travel, like who handles the environment better. Zach Taylor has talked before about when the Bengals played in London in 2019, they were 0-8. And he talked about how the practices out there were some of their best and most spirited practices. Now, maybe that's not saying all that much because that team won two games. We'll see. 9.30 Sunday morning. Again, live on ESPN 1530. Bengals leaving for Madrid today. College football tonight. Thank God for this. If you're going to be posted up watching television and you're not going to watch like a streaming service, but you need something to watch, Maction. Miami taking on Buffalo, the Red Hawks, a win away from bowl eligibility. That game will kick off at 8 o'clock tonight. There are two Maction games. So if you need a sporting event, to watch tonight amid all the election coverage. There's the MAAC for you. MAAC football, baby. Miami, Buffalo. The other game is OU and Akron. That game starts at 7 o'clock. College basketball tonight. Kentucky takes on Manhattan in the season opener. Tip-off at 7 p.m. on ESPN 1530. Pre-game coverage will begin at 5.30. And one other college football note. It's a big one. The initial college football playoff rankings of 2026 will come out tonight. Everybody will overreact and pretend like those rankings are final when there's still a month to go in the season. But nonetheless, a lot of fun. Tonight, if you're a Kentucky football fan, I think it would be a shocker if the Wildcats weren't ranked in the top 10. Now, that doesn't guarantee anything. And UK still has a lot of obstacles in front of it. 00:22:30 Speaker 4: But. 00:22:31 Speaker 2: still a very big deal for that program tonight to see its name on the screen ranked, but like ranked where they would be in the playoff. If the playoff began tonight, none of that takes away from the stakes of Saturday's game against Tennessee and Knoxville, which is massive. But I could tell you this as a UC football fan and granted Cincinnati's name is not going to appear on the screen tonight. It's not unlike seeing your team's name pop up on the screen for the first time in forever on Selection Sunday. When you root for something, a program that's not a traditional college football power, and there's all the big boys, there's all the traditional powers, and then there's your school, that's pretty cool. And so Kentucky's name is going to pop up on the TV tonight. I think there's a lot of things interesting about the rankings. I think what they do with Ohio State, because of the quarterback situation now coming off a loss, is interesting. I don't think anybody believes the Buckeyes have been eliminated, but certainly the margin for error is now razor thin for Ryan Day's team. How does the committee sort through all the two-loss SEC teams? What do they do with Utah? What do they do with BYU? Because of

how unevenly BYU has played since beating Notre Dame. That is tonight at 7 o'clock. Scott Satterfield radio show tonight at 8 p.m. on 720. WLW it is put up or shut up time for Shamar Stewart and if there's one thing that has maybe happened this week as it relates specifically to the trade deadline it's I don't think we're going to be talking about Shamar Stewart being traded anymore because well of the injuries up front specifically to Cassius Howe I feel bad for Shamar and folks will say like this this was his own doing last year to a degree was but You know, he was still there for the beginning, for the beginning-ish. He got to training camp kind of close to the beginning, ended the holdout early. Then he gets hurt, has kind of a lost rookie season. I think everybody was excited to see what a clean slated Shamar Stewart would look like in 2026. And then he gets injured on the first day of training camp. And, you know, he's had games obviously this year where he's been a healthy scratch and ain't going to be a healthy scratch on Sunday. And if he is, then there's a whole different set of problems. It's a year and a half. Team needs you. You're surrounded by dudes at your position. You're on a defensive line that has Dexter Lawrence, who has proven to be at times almost impossible to block. Shamar, like, it's time. If you're going to make anything of your second NFL season, this is it. And we'll see. We'll see if he's capable of doing that against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. 20 minutes away from 5 o'clock. I will admit to being a little torn. And even a little hypocritical when it comes to international games. Because there's... And I talked about this when the Bengals went to London 10 years ago. There's a part of me that looks at the international games through this prism. Just from a Bengals perspective, and I know this is not a home game for them, but there's been billions of dollars spent by taxpayers on NFL stadiums. Billions around this country. And to me, there's always been kind of an implied deal. You build us a stadium... We'll stage all of our home events there. This is one of my basic problems with the baseball lockout. This is not the players going on strike. This is the owners saying, we're not going to have games in these stadiums that in many cases they didn't pay for. And I think there's a basic agreement here from that perspective. Like, all right, we'll build you a baseball stadium, 81 home games, give them to us. And then we get to enjoy all the ancillary benefits. I think there's something similar in the NFL where it's like, We paid for these stadiums, so the games should take place in those stadiums, not in Madrid, London, etc. At the same time, I went to both London games. I'm hypocritical there. I think the games when they're played overseas are sort of fun. And I always get such a huge kick out of finding people on social media who are fans of the Bengals. We did this with the folks in London, Houdet UK folks in 2016.

finding fans in those cities that teams are going to who get a chance to see a team they typically root for from like a third of a world away, and they get a chance to see them up close. And not just a chance to go to the game, but a chance to sort of be a wash in all things Bengals. I mentioned the London trip, and this was, I think, a little bit more so the case in 2016 as opposed to 2019. But what was so cool to me was getting there And when you have an NFL team in your city, maybe you kind of take them for granted. You get a chance to see them every week. You can go to a game if you want. They're just kind of part of your life. The cool thing about those people in London, it was a big deal that these Cincinnati Bengals were going to be playing in their country and in most cases, their city. They were stoked. So we found some folks in Madrid who feel the same way about the Bengals coming to Madrid. And the gentleman, the day that we found out the Bengals are going to London, we found a guy on social media who essentially runs the Bengals fan club in Madrid. And so this guy was stoked then. I can't imagine what this week is going to be like for him. He's going to join us coming up in just about 20 minutes, and I'm looking forward to that. And maybe if you're making the trip, and I know there's a lot of folks who are headed out tomorrow or on Thursday, if you're making the trip, he'll give you some do's and don'ts. That'll be fun. Coming up at 5.05. It's 16 from 5, broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:28:45 Speaker 1: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 00:28:49 Speaker 2: Traffic. From the UC Health. 12 from 5, ESPN 1530. Mo Egger, if you've missed anything on this show, or if you missed me not being on this show, like yesterday, the Tony and Austin football show, which I appreciate Austin for pinch hitting. Everything's available on the iHeartRadio app. Entire shows, interviews, whatever it is, you can find it. iHeartRadio app, podcast of this show. As always, a service of Long Neck Sports Grill. Long Neck Sports Grill has three awesome locations in northern Kentucky. You got Wilder. You got Hebron. Brand new location in Hebron. Brand new. I think they started in March, February. Regardless, it's still new-ish. Opened this year. And of course, Richwood home of the Roundtable show, Longneck Sports Grill, as they rotate between the three. Each one of them, 4K TVs all over the place. Each one of them, game day specials. Each one of them, a great place to post up and watch pro and college football. Longneck Sports Grill, we love them. Hopefully they love us. Want to be loved. Want to be loved. Look on the Bengals trade thing. It's This is not an overreaction. It is a reaction. I don't think it's an overreaction to how they played on Sunday. How they played on Sunday was familiar. How they played on Sunday was... It looked like it was representative of a formula that the Bengals haven't intentionally put together, but that they've had to use in the past. which is we have an amazing quarterback. We have two ridiculously good wide receivers. We can score a lot of points. We're never out of a game because of who we are on offense. We can make mistakes on offense. Our quarterback can throw three picks, and we can still be okay. But we're going to have to bail out our defense. We're going to have to find ways to win in spite of the fact that we're not a great tackling team, that we have issues at linebacker, that we have issues in the back end of the defense. I don't know why you prioritize leaning into that. In an ideal world, if you're really going for it, then you could trade for Jonathan Taylor, but you could also upgrade your defense. And maybe that's what the Bengals do. But as we focus on running backs, and I know Jonathan Taylor is not the only one that's out there, making that your priority to me is just leaning into what you've already been. And if we were on board with what the Bengals have already been, then why were we so excited about acquiring all the guys the Bengals got on defense this offseason? I think if there was one thing most of us could agree on at the end of the 2024 season and then at the end of the 2025 season, it was the way they're built and the way they have to win is not sustainable, especially if the objective is to legitimately compete for a championship. It can't be Burrow escapes again. And Burrow, and by the way, he got sacked three times. He was hit a bunch on Sunday. He was under duress a lot. So that's also been a part of the formula for a while here. And again, not an intentionally used formula, but we're going to have a tough time protecting. We're not going to be great at tackling. We're not going to be great in coverage. We're not going to be great in the middle of the field. We're deficient at linebacker. I don't know, man. This whole linebacker thing At the end of last season, we talked about, like, man, the Bengals need to get some other linebackers. Not swap out the linebackers, but other linebackers. And God knows, Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter have certainly had their moments, not the least of which was the safety, which was a huge play in that game on Sunday. But haven't we seen enough at that position to kind of feel like it's time to make an addition there? Like, if it's... trade deadline or bust or running back or bust at the trade deadline to me that's just it's leaning into what you've already been and what they've been for a while hasn't worked i've made the playoffs since 2022 so it i i love some of the players at running back that are talked about but there's a the athletic has a big board it looks like a draft board but it's it's players who either could be traded or are likely to be traded between now and next Tuesday, and it's been updated with some of the moves that have been made around the NFL, I can go through it and find players that solve problems a lot more than the running

backs do. I don't understand prioritizing leaning into what they've already been when what they've been for a while has just simply not worked. And as I look at the current playoff field, which... I'm sure this wager is out there somewhere. The seven teams that occupy playoff spots right now in the AFC, will they be the AFC's playoff teams? You could probably make that wager somewhere. I feel like it's very relatively at least easy to identify who's going to be in the postseason. You kind of start to talk about like, all right, getting the best possible record, winning a division, winning that game next Sunday against Pittsburgh, getting the highest possible seed, contending for a Super Bowl spot. Are you doing that with this defense that's currently constructed? There's good to the defense. Pass rush has been terrific. Unfortunately, they're not going to have Cassius Howell, but there's nothing to not like about that guy. There's obviously nothing to not like about Boye Mafe. There's nothing to not like about Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen and what they have up front. They're deficient in the middle, and they're deficient on the back end. And that's been a theme of the last number of years. How... How you then talk about adding a running back, more than anything else, I don't. And look, I've talked about adding Jonathan Taylor because of the lack of productivity, relatively speaking, from Chase Brown. But man, I think you have to find ways to, I don't know, address longstanding deficiencies that again popped up on Sunday. And that to me was the troubling part of why that game was harder than it should have been. It wasn't a good team at home should beat the Tennessee Titans handily. You shouldn't let a team like that hang around. It was really independent of the opponent. It was, wait a minute, we're doing this again. We're going to give up a bunch of points and then ask Joe, Jamar, and T to bail you out. Asking Joe, Jamar, and T to bail them out for quite a while has simply not been a championship formula. It hasn't been a playoff formula. And now we've got to start talking about what's a championship formula. What we saw on display on Sunday was, frankly, the exact opposite. 513-749-1530 is our phone number. We're done early because of the UK basketball game. The Wildcats are taking on Manhattan tonight, so we're finished at 530. We are broadcasting from The View in Mount Adams. And right now, with some clouds rolling in, we have behind us an enormous window that looks out into downtown Cincinnati and Covington and Newport. And so we're looking due West this time of day, this time of year, the sun is going to set behind us. Some clouds have, uh, obscured the sun a little bit. This is a gorgeous setting for any kind of event that you would be having. And so go to a delight more.com, look for the view in Mount Adams and, uh, I think you're going to be thoroughly, thoroughly impressed. The Bengals are on their way to Madrid. We're on our way to Madrid. Not like they are, but, you know, using modern technology. We're going to chat with, like, the biggest Bengals fan in Madrid. He's going to join us coming up in just a few minutes. It's coming up on 5 o'clock. I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.