บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 11/4/26

to go out there. There have been teams that have gone early and lost. There have been teams that have gone later in the week and have won. Um, chances are the better your team, the less it's going to matter when you leave. But you know, if it was me, I would do what Zach Taylor did. I'm sure he's going to be really happy to hear that and send the team on Tuesday. But, uh, you know, for, for now it's okay. Madrid and, uh, the, the, the atmosphere there and what awaits the team and the preparation and the travel and how do they knock off the cobwebs because of the travel and adjust to the time change. Um, But like on Sunday, this is another one, man. Like this is another one that they, I think, have to win because you got the Pittsburgh Steelers coming here off a bye a week from Sunday in a game that you may say is going to give us the AFC North champion. The shine from that game comes off pretty significantly if the Bengals don't take care of business on Sunday against the Falks, a game you'll hear live on ESPN 1530. and a game that we will watch on Sunday morning at Smoke Justice in Covington. Anyway, we'll go to Tony and talk about the game, the team, the travel, and his perhaps endless search for something he's willing to eat coming up at 4.20. 00:04:09 Speaker 7: I am off tomorrow. 00:04:10 Speaker 6: Pre-planned off day has nothing to do with my absences from earlier in the. 00:04:14 Speaker 7: Week, which, by the way, I feel great today. So thanks to those of you who have asked. 00:04:20 Speaker 6: But because I'm not here tomorrow, Lee Sterling's going to join us today, coming up in about 25 minutes, try to help us make some money on pro and college football. And it's hoop season, which means Rick Boring joins us every single Wednesday to talk Xavier and NKU basketball. He'll join us from somewhere in South Dakota where the Norse play tonight. We're getting closer to the trade deadline. By the way, the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Ravens, I think, have made a move recently. that signals that they feel like Lamar Jackson has a chance to come back. And I think a lot of us have shoveled dirt on the Baltimore Ravens. And I think as it relates to their division chances, that's fair. They're four and four. They're facing a two-game deficit against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They've lost head-to-head to Cincinnati. They've lost head-to-head to the Cleveland Browns. They don't have their two-time MVP quarterback. It ain't going well in Baltimore. The Ravens are not winning the AFC North. But I do feel like if you're a Ravens fan, and there's a very good chance if you're listening to me that you are absolutely not a Ravens fan, if the idea is to make something of this season, you look at where they are, they're 4-4. Look at the teams directly around them. Do you feel like your team can stay afloat and leapfrog the Las Vegas Raiders? who are right now also four and four. They're higher in the seating because of win percentage in conference games. Do you

feel like you have no chance if you could stay afloat and get Lamar back at the end of the year? Do you feel like you can leapfrog the Cleveland Browns? I'm sure you feel like you do. And then it's a matter of cracking the top seven, which I think for anybody is going to be pretty tough. But so they've reached terms, agreed to terms on a deal, I guess, with the Arizona Cardinals to get Jacoby Brissett. One of the more well-traveled, reliable number two quarterbacks in the NFL. And you're not making that trade if you don't feel like we've got a chance to get Lamar back. By the way, remember on Sunday, Jesse Minner said that it's possible that the thumb injury is season ending, not that it is season ending. And so, you know, that's kind of interesting, right? And it's kind of interesting because people have started to talk about what's going to happen to that game on New Year's Eve, which we'll spend some time on in just a bit. The Jacoby Brissett trade, which Adam Schefter says is expected to be finalized this weekend, is the latest pre-trade deadline deal that's been made by NFL teams. And the NFL and the trade deadline is a thousand times more fun now than it used to be. The NFL and the trade deadline used to be boring as hell. Like nobody did in-season trades. We didn't talk about it the way we do baseball now. I think you can maybe argue the NFL trade deadline is more exciting than the baseball trade deadline. Which brings us to the Bengals. So ESPN.com has done a rundown of every team and what their deadline goals are, who could be on the move, and who should they target at the deadline. And I'll read the Bengals here. With every team, they throw out a percentage. Every team's chances of making the postseason. For the Bengals, 96.1%. 96.1% chance of making the postseason. Which, frankly, sounds about right. 00:07:48 Speaker 7: I mean, come on. 00:07:48 Speaker 6: At this point, even though they don't have the lead in the division... It would be, I think, a relative shocker if the Bengals, as currently constructed, were on the outside looking in of the postseason. Now, things could change that if they go through a whole rash of devastating injuries, perhaps. But it's hard for me, maybe hard for you as well. With 10 regular season games to go, to imagine that the Bengals don't get to 10 wins, and 10 wins probably gets them into the postseason. Can they go 5-5 the rest of the way? In a schedule that has them right now projected to be favorites in every game, the answer should be yes. So, what's the deadline goal? Ben Baby of ESPN writes, potentially landing depth at linebacker or cornerback. Those position groups have needed to be fortified dating back to last offseason. Ben is absolutely correct. Who could be on the move? Jeremy Fowler of ESPN writes, Ed Shamar Stewart. Now, Jeremy points out that Zach Taylor has poured cold water on this, saying any talk of a Stewart trade is, quote, made up. 00:09:01 Speaker 7: And we'll see. 00:09:02 Speaker

6: We'll see how, you know, the Cassius Howell injury impacts what the Bengals may or may not do with Shamar Stewart. 00:09:10 Speaker 7: Who should they target? Aaron Schatz. 00:09:13 Speaker 6: Formerly of Football Outsiders, now ESPN, writes, Saints linebacker Pete Werner, 27-year-old linebacker, right in his prime, would help improve the Bengals' defense up the middle, good on blitzes, and against the run. Last season had a 70% run stop rate, meaning that 70% of his run tackles stopped the runner short of a successful play. 00:09:31 Speaker 7: Sign me up. We went through. 00:09:34 Speaker 6: You know, kind of the, the possible trade deadline acquisition big board yesterday and went through some of the guys that make a lot of sense. And on this show, at least Jonathan Taylor was not one of the names mentioned because he doesn't play linebacker corner or safety. There is only one lens through which to look at the trade deadline. And it's a, does standing Pat give us our it's is, are we best placed? positioned to win a championship as currently constructed? I guess that's the best way to put it. I was very clumsy in how I tried to articulate that. Are the Bengals as currently constructed and they're really healthy right now, but are the Bengals as currently constructed in a position to contend for a championship or are Can they inch closer to that by adding a piece from the outside? And is that piece a running back? Or is that piece somebody who plays linebacker, corner, or safety? I think we know the answer because it's the same thing we've been talking about now. As Ben Baby points out, it's the same thing we've been talking about now for a while. They've needed help at linebacker forever. That hasn't changed. Why should that not be a priority at the trade deadline or corner? So there's the question, can the Bengals win a Super Bowl if they don't do anything to their roster? And I don't know that I feel definitively strongly either way, because I think the AFC is very, very, very, very open, but I would feel better about their chances if they fortified something that's been of a weakness, something that's been a bit of a weakness. And what's been a bit of a weakness is linebacker and corner. We'll spend some time on that. as the afternoon unfolds. We are pretty wide open today. We've got some guests that later on this hour, 5, 1, 3, 7, 4, 9, 1530. We've got some FC Cincinnati stuff to get to in the five o'clock hour. Our buddy, Robert Weintraub is going to be on the show in the five o'clock hour, writes a weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati magazine. We are looking forward to that. Um, The college football playoff rankings came out last night. And as a lover of chaos, I love the college football playoff rankings reveal because there's something dramatic about it. And even if we all know deep down inside, like it's not worth losing your mind over after week one. 00:11:54 Speaker 7: Come on. 00:11:54 Speaker 6: Everybody still does. And I love

watching chaos unfold. And last night, as it relates to college football, chaos was unfolding. But I didn't look at the top 10. I didn't look at the top 12. I looked at the next 12. And I feel worse about what's going to happen next year than I already did. We'll get to that coming up in just a few minutes. 513-749-1530 can get you in. 00:12:21 Speaker 7: 866-702-3776 works as well. 00:12:24 Speaker 6: Bengals game plan is on after us starting at six o'clock with Wayne Boxmiller and Eric Thomas. You and I between now and then on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:12:33 Speaker 8: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 00:12:35 Speaker 7: Traffic. 00:12:38 Speaker 9: From the UC Health Traffic. 00:12:41 Speaker 8: The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:12:43 Speaker 10: ESPN 1530. 00:12:48 Speaker 7: That's us. 00:12:48 Speaker 6: 24 after 3. Lee Sterling is going to help us make some coin in 10 minutes. Rick Boring in about 20 minutes. On the Xavier Musketeers, we're back in action on Friday. 00:12:59 Speaker 7: And NKU basketball, which. 00:13:02 Speaker 6: Norse won their first game in Sioux Falls against UTEP, and tonight they're at South Dakota at 8 p.m. That match, match. That game is going to air on Fox Sports 13. They're playing a lot of hoop in a short amount of time. They're taking on Texas A & M on Friday and then right back at it to take on St. Louis on the road next Tuesday. So a lot of hoop for Darren Horn's team. Rick Boring on the road with them. We'll talk NKUN, Xavier Hoops in 20 minutes, the first. College football playoff rankings came out last night. And like most, the overwhelming majority of fans don't want the expansion of the field to 24. And there's a lot of different reasons for that. I really can't think of anything in sports that is going to happen that is being crammed down people's throats more that nobody really has an appetite for. 00:13:55 Speaker 7: And you can find exceptions. 00:13:57 Speaker 6: I'm sure we all know folks who think that having a 2014 playoff is going to be better than a 12 team playoff. 00:14:03 Speaker 7: And that's fine. 00:14:04 Speaker 6: Those people are allowed to be wrong. But just that is the lens through which I looked at last night. Like, I thought it was cool that Kentucky was going to be safely in the college football playoff. 00:14:15 Speaker 7: We'll see. 00:14:16 Speaker 6: We'll see what happens against Tennessee on Saturday. We'll obviously see what happens throughout the course of the rest of the regular season. There's lots of football to be played. Every year, if you look at the initial rankings versus what we end up with on Selection Sunday, there's major, major differences. There's tons of ranked matchups this week. So what the rankings look like in a week is going to be dramatically different than they look right now. But I was more interested in the bottom because that's what we're going to be doing next year, looking at the bottom. Tell me who's excited next year to see

At number 24, a team that's 5-3 with losses that have come by 28, 19, and 19 points. That's what we have this year with Florida. I have no reason to pick on the Florida Gators. 00:15:08 Speaker 7: I'm not a. 00:15:09 Speaker 6: Florida Gator hater, so to speak. Number 24, Florida, 5-3. 00:15:16 Speaker 11: 5-3. 00:15:17 Speaker 6: Pretty good bet to lose another game at some point, maybe two. College Football Playoff Selection Committee said that if this was next year's model, they'd be playing for a championship or in a position to play for a championship, I guess, perhaps getting bumped off because Boise State would sneak in and get that last spot. Boise State was ranked 25th, which is really neat. You might go, well, yeah, there's the group of five school. Oh, there's the little guy. There were four. There are four. One lost teams outside the power four, none of them ranked. And so the argument for the, you know, the 24 team playoff, one of the arguments has been, this is going to be more inclusive for the little guy. Well, the little guy isn't included really in the top 25 with the exception of Boise state. Who else do you see? Oh, you see a South Carolina number 21 would be pretty, pretty safely in the college football playoff. And again, we're looking ahead to next year, and you're looking at the rankings through the lens of, like, what would the playoff look like today? South Carolina. Five and three. At one point, they had a three-game losing streak that included losses by 41, 49, and 35. That would be a team in the field in a year, at least after the first rankings. That's what we're signing up for. That level of, meh. That level of mediocrity? Teams like that with those profiles? Playing for your sports national championship? Is there anybody excited about that? One of the great things about college football for my entire life, and for much of my life, the system has been very, very imperfect and completely worth complaining about. But one of the cool things about this sport that has made it unique has been It's exclusive at the top. You got to be great to have a chance to win a championship. And we've made it more forgiving and understandably and deservedly so. Now, everybody feels like their team has access to the championship. But do we want access to teams that have the profiles of this year's Florida or South Carolina? Again, nothing against those programs. 00:17:39 Speaker 7: Five and three teams. They've not just lost a lot of games. They've gotten destroyed in a. 00:17:44 Speaker 6: Lot of games. a sport that has long been defined by you having to be excellent. You have to stand out above your peers. 00:17:56 Speaker 7: Excellent. 00:17:57 Speaker 6: In order to have a chance to win a championship or compete for a championship, we're now going to allow teams to have a shot that have the profile of this year's Florida, South Carolina. Is there anybody who wants that? 3.30, ESPN 1530. I think there's really good news that I read this morning. We'll get to that a little bit later on. I'm going to make a little bit of a guarantee about a Bengals game later on this year. We'll go to Madrid in the four o'clock hour chat with Tony Pike. But next is our guy Lee Sterling. Help us make some money this weekend. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:18:34 Speaker 8: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 00:18:38 Speaker 12: Traffic. 00:18:39 Speaker 9: From the UC. 00:18:40 Speaker 3: ESPN 1530. 00:18:41 Speaker 2: Cincinnati's sports station. 00:18:44 Speaker 6: Sports headlines very quickly because there aren't a ton of them. A service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection, and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life. KelseyChev.com. Tee Higgins today. Named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for what he did on Sunday in the Bengals' 43-36 victory over Tennessee. 10 for 155 and a couple of touchdowns. 00:19:07 Speaker 7: He was awesome. 00:19:08 Speaker 6: This is his first AFC Offensive Player of the Week award. He is the fourth Bengals player this season to begin to be given a weekly recognition. Congratulations to T. Moore tonight on Bengals game plan starring Wayne Boxmiller and Eric Thomas. At 6 o'clock tonight on ESPN 1530, NKU Hoops, the Norse, on the road against South Dakota. 00:19:32 Speaker 7: That game can be heard on Fox Sports 1360. 00:19:35 Speaker 6: I have tomorrow off, but I didn't want to let a week go by without spending some time chatting with a guy who makes us a lot of money on pro and college football from ParamountSports.com. 00:19:47 Speaker 7: Lee Sterling. I appreciate you adjusting your schedule. What's going on? 00:19:50 Speaker 4: On i'm good well actually i'm a little rocked um and it affects the first game there's news out there that uh malachi tony may not be able to play for the university of miami so that's what's floating out there may have gotten hurt early in practice this morning so If that's the case, wow. I mean, the line's already risen. The line was five and a half, six. It's already at seven most places. And I really thought if he played, I thought it was one possession game. I thought that, you know, the last team with the ball is either going to win the game or have a chance to win the game. Miami's offense is just incredible. The defense has its moments, usually only rises against some of the better teams when they're You know, the game is tied or they fall behind. But, you know, Notre Dame at home is a tough out. The expected temperature is between 31 and 39 degrees. The only time they really played in cold weather last year, Miami, was at Pittsburgh. They played well. But notoriously, they're almost as bad as the Dolphins. uh, in cold weather, which I think gone something like 15, 20 years without a wind when it's below 32 degrees, but Miami's offense just so good. I think if he does play, so this is what you don't have to play it now. Wait and see what happens. If he comes out and it looks like

he's going to come out with the first unit, you can play it live and the line's going to drop down to probably five and a half, six. If he doesn't play, uh, then I think Miami's probably in trouble and the line could rise up is probably as high as eight, eight and a half, nine points and maybe. 00:21:28 Speaker 3: Look at Notre Dame. 00:21:29 Speaker 4: So I hate to, we've never done a segment where I said this, but if Tony starts, I think Miami's to play. If he doesn't, I think they're in trouble, and they lose by double digits. 00:21:40 Speaker 6: All right, so pay attention as the rest of the week unfolds. Lee Sterling from Paramount Sports. Let's go to Houston. We talked about the Bearcats last week. Laid a major egg against Utah. It doesn't get a lot easier. It doesn't get any easier. Now they go on the road, take on Connor Wegman in Houston. The Cougars laying a big number. 00:21:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, Cincinnati's lost 3-4 after being 4-0. Houston was off the bye after losing to Utah in a 13-7 fourth-quarter league. 00:22:06 Speaker 3: I Connor Wegman is one of those guys. 00:22:08 Speaker 4: Looks great against average and poor defenses when the moment's the biggest, just has no awareness in the pocket. I mean, they can line up seven, eight guys and he drops back just like it's a normal drop back. Doesn't see his blind side. I may not have been a good quarterback, but I can tell you this, never got blindsided or someone was hitting me from the blind side. I was spinning out or ducking and he just has no awareness. So that's one of the reasons he probably won't go in the first or second round, but Against Cincinnati's defense, he should have some success here. Overmeyer, his top receiver, was pronounced good to go after being hurt at Utah. So I expect plenty of points. I think Houston wins and covers 42-27. 00:22:50 Speaker 6: All right, let's talk about the Buckeyes, who play this game against Oregon as favorites, yet with no margin for error. 00:22:58 Speaker 4: No margin for error, but I think you're going to see a bounce back here. Luke Fahey's Ohio State debut kind of went as expected. He wasn't great, but he didn't sink them. I think the defense and falling behind, that was the biggest problem. They never seemed to have the ball. I think it'll go differently here. You know, teams usually play better the second time a new starter settles in here. And except for last week, Oregon has done nothing on offense here. So I expect the Ohio State defense to bounce back here also. I think they win in cover here 30-21. 00:23:34 Speaker 7: Lee Sterling from ParamountSports.com. All right. 00:23:37 Speaker 6: The Bengals on a neutral field in Madrid. These games are always weird. They're laying a field goal against the Falcons. 00:23:45 Speaker 4: Yeah, and if it's bad weather, they can end up putting the top up. 00:23:49 Speaker 3: And a. 00:23:51 Speaker 4: Little rain never hurt anybody, right? Well, except for Michael Penix and the home dome Atlanta Falcons offense in Tampa last week. So Mother Nature couldn't have magnified Tampa Bay's inherent matchup edge there, the good rushing offense versus a really soft rush defense. Cincinnati has not run the ball well, and now they have run more play action lately, They've got to run the ball, and Atlanta's the perfect team to feel better if you can do that. I just think it's a better matchup here for Atlanta with the dome being closed if they end up seeing some rain here. Michael Penix will probably bounce back. I hate to say it, but I like Atlanta here. Just don't see the urgency in the Cincinnati team unless they fall way behind Atlanta 28-24. 00:24:38 Speaker 6: Holy sterling. ParamountSports.com with a midweek dagger. 00:24:43 Speaker 9: All right. 00:24:43 Speaker 6: Well, speaking of daggers, the Baltimore Ravens have taken plenty tomorrow night on a Thursday. Heavy underdogs. For a while, I thought they were going to have to call Kyle Bowler or Vinny Testaverde to play quarterback. Do they stand a chance against the Jags? 00:24:59 Speaker 4: Yeah, Testaverde, I hear, still can throw the ball like he's in his late 50s, early 60s. He probably would have been your best option here. 00:25:08 Speaker 3: Who knows? 00:25:08 Speaker 4: Maybe Philip Rivers is available also. He just doesn't have an arm, if you saw the last year. But if you want the game, is it going to be a Jags blowout like they had last week? 00:25:18 Speaker 3: It was our 50-unit playoff. 00:25:19 Speaker 4: NFL game of the year, or can the Ravens keep it close in the defense, you know, keep them in this game. So first five callers get Jags. 00:25:27 Speaker 3: And Ravens on me, 800-400-9741. 00:25:28 Speaker 4: And we've won nine to 10 weeks. Looks like we have another 40 to 50 unit max wager. So you want to get involved. We don't call it November here. 00:25:39 Speaker 3: We call it November. 00:25:40 Speaker 9: You get every game through the end of the month, normally 497. 00:25:43 Speaker 4: Use coupon code SAVE100. Just $ 397. 00:25:49 Speaker 3: One place, ParamountSports.com. 00:25:51 Speaker 6: I can't thank you enough for adjusting your schedule for me. Love having you on, and we'll talk at the normal day and time next week. 00:25:58 Speaker 4: Sounds good, Mo. 00:25:58 Speaker 3: Feel better, buddy. 00:25:59 Speaker 7: Thank you. 00:25:59 Speaker 6: That's our guy, Lee Sterling. ParamountSports.com. Bengals lose to the Falcons. 00:26:05 Speaker 7: Imagine that. 00:26:06 Speaker 6: After the uneven performance, at least on defense, against the Tennessee Titans. You then talk about a desperate, dire, straight sort of situation. That Steelers game a week from Sunday night. 00:26:18 Speaker 13: Oh, boy. 00:26:19 Speaker 6: That Falcons team strikes me as tough to play because of how well they run it. They do have Jesse Bates still, but you got to go win that football game. 00:26:34 Speaker 7: We say it every week. 00:26:35 Speaker 6: And maybe this is a reflection

of like the expectations for this team. We, we, we put so much importance on every single game in a year where we're like, you know, it feels like Superbowl or bust difference between six and two and five and three feels to me to be pretty, Massive. 00:26:50 Speaker 7: 17 away from 4 o'clock. 00:26:51 Speaker 6: On Sunday, we're going to be watching that game at Smoke Justice in Covington. So get up, hang out, have some breakfast, maybe get a Bloody Mary. 00:27:00 Speaker 3: Good. 00:27:00 Speaker 7: Does that sound right now? I'll be honest with you. 00:27:03 Speaker 6: That sounds amazing to me. You know what was amazing? Xavier's performance on Monday night. Rick Boring, MusketeerReport.com. We'll talk XU and NKU hoops with us next ESPN 1530. 00:27:19 Speaker 12: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:27:23 Speaker 5: From the UC Health Traffic Center, lung cancer screenings save lives through early detection. Schedule yours with the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center at 513-584-LUNG. There's an accident on eastbound 275 block. 00:27:38 Speaker 7: Helps to turn your microphone on, Mo. Been in broadcasting almost three decades, and I sometimes forget to turn the microphone on. 12 away from 4 o'clock. 00:27:48 Speaker 6: This is ESPN 1530. Mo Egger, thanks for listening today. On Wednesdays during the hoop season, we're joined by our guy Rick Broering, musketeerreport.com. You'll hear him tonight on the NKU broadcast on Fox Sports 1360 as the Norse. Take on South Dakota coming off their season opening victory in South Dakota over UTEP. Embedded in South Dakota. He's been there for like a week. Our guy Rick Broering from musketeerreport.com is there. 00:28:12 Speaker 7: What's up? Are you in Sioux Falls? Is that where you are now? 00:28:16 Speaker 14: It's day 53 from Sioux Falls, I believe, Mo. We're hanging in there. I feel like I'm in some sort of apocalyptic movie or something. I don't see anybody. We're just like going back and forth between a hotel and a basketball gym every few hours. 00:28:28 Speaker 3: It's weird. 00:28:28 Speaker 7: I've never been to South Dakota. Is this your first visit to South Dakota? 00:28:31 Speaker 15: Yeah. 00:28:32 Speaker 4: It is. It is. 00:28:33 Speaker 14: We're not near Mount Rushmore or any other site, so don't ask me about that. We just go between a basketball gym and a hotel, and we don't really see anything in between. 00:28:40 Speaker 7: That's it. Nothing else. You haven't gone anywhere or seen anything or done anything. 00:28:44 Speaker 16: A Chili's, a Texas Roadhouse, a Chick-fil-A. It's chain heaven out here, Moe. It's good for us. 00:28:50 Speaker 7: I like Chili's. I do Chili's. Don't look down your nose at Chili's. Chili's is okay. 00:28:54 Speaker 16: I'm a three-for-me guy. That's my type of people. 00:28:57 Speaker 17: Yeah. 00:28:58 Speaker 7: All right. We'll get to the Norse here in a second. 00:29:01 Speaker 6: I've watched hundreds of college basketball teams play their season openers, and I feel like most of them, there's some good, some not so good. It's sometimes kind of clunky. I don't know what wasn't good about what Xavier did in the first game on Monday night. 00:29:18 Speaker 16: Yeah, I mean, what could you really nitpick from that? 00:29:20 Speaker 14: I guess Mike Nuoco's foul trouble, which I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about during this segment. But aside from that, and even him, when he was on the floor, he played well. There wasn't much to be worried about. When you're winning by 35 points at halftime, you have a 45-point lead in a game. And the biggest thing was, Mo, after they had that massive lead, they never really had an extent period where they let the foot off the gas i know richard patino said they had a stretch there in the second half through the middle portion where they didn't play the right way and they got a little sloppy and selfish but they never let mount saint mary actually cut into their lead at all and they kind of just kept beating the beating them down the whole game. 00:29:55 Speaker 6: You mentioned, and I don't want to dwell on this, but you brought it up, Mike Nwoku, and you wrote about it in your game recap. He had like a thousand fouls against Dayton. I know that's an unofficial tally. He had five and 10 minutes against Tennessee. He fouled out in 16 minutes in the game on Monday night. So, I mean, it sounds simple, teach him to not foul, but that strikes me as easier said than done. 00:30:18 Speaker 14: Well, especially because it's not like this is his first or second year of college basketball. He's not making a jump up in levels of competition. There's not something new that's being thrown at him here that he hasn't seen. He's been told the same thing at every place he's been, whether it's Miami or LSU or now Xavier. You've got to be able to play defense without fouling. I think he's really trying hard. You can see how frustrated he was with some of the calls where He thought he was doing the right thing, shuffling, showing his hands to the officials, not reaching in or things like that. 00:30:45 Speaker 16: But I mean, these are obvious fouls. 00:30:47 Speaker 14: He's like throwing his hip out in front of every ball handler every time he's defending a ball screen situation. And he's slamming into guys when he's coming over to cut them off along the baseline. It's not hard calls for the officials. I don't think they're missing calls and he's getting a bad whistle or anything like that. So he's got to figure it out. And at this point of his career, against a team like Mount St. Mary's, who was completely overwhelmed by Xavier in every way during that game, if he can't stay out of foul trouble in that game, you've got to start to wonder if it's ever really going to happen consistently for him. 00:31:17 Speaker 6: Well, and it's worth talking about because you saw on the other end all the different ways that he can contribute. 00:31:24 Speaker 16: Yeah, both sides of the

floor. 00:31:25 Speaker 14: I mean, he is a force on the offensive end, and defensively, he gives you a presence. He's not the best defender in the world, but certainly, at least on the defensive glass, he gives you 6'10, 260 and athletic. I mean, that is a real force to be contended with in the paint that when he goes out of the game, you don't otherwise have. So I think it's something they'll be dealing with all year long. Some nights are going to be better than others. And the nights that he can stay on the floor for extended periods, he's going to be a real difference maker, I think. 00:31:53 Speaker 6: Was there anything about that performance on Monday night that surprised you? 00:31:59 Speaker 14: I don't know that there was anything that surprised me other than the defense was really good. 00:32:04 Speaker 16: And I think a big part of that was probably Mount St. 00:32:06 Speaker 14: Mary's just being one of the worst teams in college basketball, quite honestly, and not at all at the same level of Xavier and able to give. 00:32:13 Speaker 16: Them a contest. 00:32:14 Speaker 14: But at the same time, this is a team that if you're trying to nitpick and you're trying to poke what holes they have in their roster before the season, you're going to point to defense. They have a lot of guys that were more offensive-minded players coming in. 00:32:26 Speaker 16: Not known for their defense. 00:32:27 Speaker 14: They have some lateral quickness issues in terms of their defensive ability. And they look fantastic defensively in this game. 00:32:33 Speaker 16: They were aggressive. They forced turnovers. They held Mount St. 00:32:36 Speaker 14: Mary's without more than a field goal for like the first 13 minutes of action or something like that. 00:32:41 Speaker 16: It was, it was a ridiculous stretch there in the first half, the way they played defensively. 00:32:44 Speaker 6: They play Eastern Michigan on Friday. And you and I both know this when Eastern Michigan comes to Cincinnati, throw out the records, almost anything can happen. And so I would imagine that Richard Patino is going to have a, have his hands full getting his team to make sure they don't let their guard down because Eastern Michigan, this is a November powerhouse. 00:33:04 Speaker 16: You know that a little bit better than I do. 00:33:06 Speaker 14: Um, well, One thing I would say about this is I think Xavier feels much better about the fact that they don't have to face sincere Harris who has left the Eastern Michigan roster. You know, had he still been there, that might've just left the Eastern Michigan roster. You know, had he still been there, that might've been a bigger concern, but. 00:33:23 Speaker 16: He's no longer there. 00:33:24 Speaker 14: So I think they feel okay about this matchup. 00:33:27 Speaker 7: NKU beats UTEP in South Dakota. How good of a win was that? 00:33:33 Speaker 16: Man, it was impressive. If nothing else, he got to travel. 00:33:35 Speaker 14: I mean,

just a crazy travel day on Saturday and, You're way out here in the middle of nowhere, and you play a team that's ranked 60 spots ahead of you. 00:33:42 Speaker 16: And Ken Palm, certainly a heavy favorite on the betting line. 00:33:45 Speaker 14: And you kind of were in control of the game the entire game. There was only a brief stretch there where UTEP had the lead, and NKU answered right back. But one thing that I'm interested to see after a while. watching this NKU team against UTEP and how dynamic and athletic their guards were off the dribble, their ability to get into the paint and get to the rim. South Dakota, watching them against an NAI team that I know you know very well, Mount Marty, Mo. Their guards didn't look the most athletic in that game, and they kind of play a style of defense where they want to guard you one-on-one. They don't want to allow any three-point shots. They're very analytically driven, so they stay home defensively, and it kind of allows you to go one-on-one as a ball handler and try to beat your man defensively. That's what NKU excelled at against UTEP with their athletic backcourt. So I'm anxious to see how that part of the matchup works out. 00:34:31 Speaker 6: Norris will then go to Texas A & M. So you're headed to College Station. Do you leave tonight or is there one more day or evening in Sioux Falls? 00:34:40 Speaker 14: Yeah, so we'll stay in Sioux Falls tonight. We travel to the airport at 6.30 tomorrow morning. And to throw a little wrench into all this, Mo, my wife is due on Sunday. So I am just making sure that I'm constantly checking my phone, trying to make sure I don't have to fly back from one of these places to Cincinnati. 00:34:55 Speaker 6: So we could go back into the late 2000s sports talk radio archives and use that as a topic. Should Rick abandon his teammate, Jim Kelch, to go be there for the birth of his second child? 00:35:06 Speaker 14: That was a much debated topic. And some people, you know, on this trip have told me I should not be here right now. But look, the due date was Sunday. If you start predicting and expect it to happen early, you can miss half the non-conference and then the baby gets born on time. 00:35:19 Speaker 16: And now what do you do? 00:35:20 Speaker 3: You know, so. 00:35:21 Speaker 6: Well, I was going to say, because I'm looking at experience Sioux Falls dot com. For instance, tonight is the Augustana Band Festival finale concert at the T Area High School Performing Arts Center. I don't know if you can maybe catch the first half of that before you you go to the basketball game. 00:35:36 Speaker 14: You know, Mo, I had checked into getting tickets for that, and won't you believe it, they were all sold out. 00:35:40 Speaker 16: So I think I'm going to miss that. 00:35:42 Speaker 6: That's too bad that this past weekend you didn't check out the Autumn Festival and Arts and Crafts Affair at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. 00:35:48 Speaker 7: You and Jim. 00:35:48 Speaker 16: Didn't have any interest in checking that out? 00:35:51 Speaker 14: When Jim Kelch got to the Enterprise desk, the only thing that the guy said to him that night when he was handing out the key was. 00:35:58 Speaker 16: There's nothing to do here, man. I mean, nothing. 00:36:00 Speaker 14: And he looked like the type of guy who had a budding career in the rental car industry six months ago and was all excited to get shipped out to Sioux Falls until he got here. And now every twinkle of hope has been stripped from his soul. 00:36:14 Speaker 6: Well, I wish you would have. I wish they got breweries and wineries here. You can go to Luke's Beer Company and Sioux Falls looks like it's got actually a few nice places you can go grab a cold one. 00:36:25 Speaker 7: More than just Chili's. 00:36:27 Speaker 14: Hey, the Chili's has worked fine for me. Again, I'm not here to besmirch Chili's. I don't know if they're a sponsor of yours, but I'm here for it. 00:36:33 Speaker 2: I like Chili's. 00:36:35 Speaker 6: I've eaten many a fine meal at Chili's over the years. I'm a fan of variety. Sioux Falls, if you go to experiencesiouxfalls.com, there's coffee and bakeries. There's only in Sioux Falls. Let's click on that. 00:36:49 Speaker 16: I stopped at a place called The Fat Shack yesterday for lunch, Mel. 00:36:53 Speaker 7: That sounds like it's up my alley. 00:36:55 Speaker 16: It said in under. 00:36:57 Speaker 14: The headline, it said, we take late night food seriously. 00:37:00 Speaker 3: Yes. 00:37:01 Speaker 7: That's my type of spot. Absolutely. 00:37:03 Speaker 6: Now I might break off a summer trip next year to Sioux Falls. 00:37:07 Speaker 7: I'm all in. 00:37:07 Speaker 16: I'll see you at the fat shack, baby. 00:37:09 Speaker 7: Have a great call tonight. 00:37:10 Speaker 6: Best of luck with your wife this weekend. 00:37:13 Speaker 7: And we'll talk to you next. 00:37:15 Speaker 6: Unless like next Wednesday is the due date and you're still waiting, then feel free to say, Mo, I'm good. 00:37:21 Speaker 16: No, I mean, at that point, we've got. 00:37:23 Speaker 14: A C-section scheduled for Monday, so it's coming out one way or the other. I'll be good on Wednesday. 00:37:28 Speaker 7: Very good. 00:37:28 Speaker 16: I'll be a new dad by then. 00:37:29 Speaker 6: I'm sure your other half is elated that you put that on the radio. It's a nice job. 00:37:33 Speaker 3: All right. 00:37:34 Speaker 7: Hey, it's part of the game. 00:37:37 Speaker 16: We're all out here. She knows it's all for content. 00:37:39 Speaker 7: That's right. 00:37:40 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:37:40 Speaker 7: All right, Rick. Thanks so much. Have a good call tonight. Rick Boring. 00:37:43 Speaker 6: You'll hear him tonight with Jim Kelch, NKU and South Dakota. It's on Fox Sports 1360. Bengals game plan will air from six to eight here on ESPN 1530. And of course, make sure you check out musketeerreport.com. If you are a, if you're a Xavier fan, chances are you're a

musketeerreport.com subscriber. So really Rick is getting nothing out of this and we're getting all the good content and Best of luck to Rick and his lovely wife as they get prepared to have their second child. It's coming up on four o'clock. Rick is in Sioux Falls. Tony Pike is in Madrid. 00:38:19 Speaker 7: Very similar. Very, very similar. 00:38:22 Speaker 6: Some have called Sioux Falls the Madrid of South Dakota. So we're going to we're going to call Tony in Madrid. I just you know this. If you listen to this radio station, Austin was talking about it today. My nine-year-old daughter has a more expansive palate and is a more daring eater than Tony Pike is. Like my guy eats like a four-year-old. And so I have been concerned this entire time that he's not going to eat anything in Madrid. He's not adventurous. So I'm as interested in what he's found to eat. We'll ask him at 420. It's coming up on four o'clock. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:39:13 Speaker 7: I'm Christine Lisi. 00:39:14 Speaker 18: A lot of quarterback news on this Wednesday. Let's begin with the Ravens without injured starter Lamar Jackson and backup Tyler Huntley. They're finalizing a deal to acquire QB Jacoby Brissett from the Cardinals. ESPN NFL analyst Jason McCourty. 00:39:27 Speaker 19: He can go into any situation. He's going to be a leader in the room. He's gonna understand what's going on. Obviously moved to third string in Arizona. Great opportunity for him, a chance to play for this Baltimore Ravens team. 00:39:38 Speaker 7: Obviously, they'll figure out Lamar and. 00:39:40 Speaker 4: All of that. 00:39:40 Speaker 19: But Jacoby, that's my guy, former teammate. He's gonna get in there, he's gonna throw the football around the field. 00:39:45 Speaker 9: That's the one thing you know he can do. 00:39:47 Speaker 18: Baltimore starts Joe Fagnano tomorrow versus Jacksonville. Brissette could start as soon as Week 10. The Eagles benching Tanner McKeon will start Joe Milton Sunday against the Giants. Seattle's Sam Darnold out Sunday against Arizona with a quad injury. He's week to week. Seahawks plan to start Duloc on Sunday. The Browns place Deshaun Watson in concussion protocol. If he can't start, Shador Sanders in line to get the call against the Saints on Sunday. Star receiver Malachi Toney uncertain for top-ranked Miami against No. 11 Notre Dame in their marquee matchup on Saturday night. 00:40:20 Speaker 15: Hey, it's Michelle Swellman, and coming up Thursday, my Packers head to New England. 00:40:23 Speaker 8: To take on the Patriots. 00:40:24 Speaker 10: I'll tell you why a win against Drake May will finally make the doubters, like Evan, believers. 00:40:29 Speaker 7: It's on Sportsman Life, 6 a.m. Eastern, right here on ESPN Radio. 00:40:31 Speaker 8: ESPN2, and ESPNU. 00:40:37 Speaker 3: Stop. 00:40:38 Speaker 7: Thank you, Seth. 00:40:39 Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, we got the thing. 00:40:40 Speaker 10: Tonight at 6 o'clock on Bengals Game Plan on ESPN

1530, Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:40:48 Speaker 6: Could you ask for a more putrid looking day outside? 00:40:52 Speaker 4: Yikes. 00:40:53 Speaker 6: The way it looks outside is how I felt from like Wednesday until. 00:41:00 Speaker 7: Like late Monday night. On the up and up, though. 00:41:06 Speaker 6: We're going to go to Madrid in just a few minutes. Tony Pike is there getting ready to have dinner. He'll be on the call Sunday with Dan and Lap Bengals and Falcons with pregame coverage beginning at 530, 530 on Sunday morning. I do not know who's been roped into going on the air at 530 on Sunday morning, but it ain't me. And I'm OK with that. Let's take a phone call or two. 00:41:30 Speaker 7: Why not, right? 00:41:31 Speaker 6: This show works best when other people call it. 513-749-1530 is our number. 00:41:36 Speaker 7: Mike, go ahead. Mike, that means you. 00:41:41 Speaker 3: Go ahead. 00:41:44 Speaker 6: See, the guy, he calls when we don't put him on. He'll sometimes send me a note asking why we didn't have a chance to put him on. I'll do it one more time. 00:41:53 Speaker 7: Mike, go ahead. Mike is not there. Well, that's just 513-749-1530 is the number. 00:42:01 Speaker 6: Now, if you call the show, and we appreciate anybody who does, trust me, when you wait on hold, it would help all parties involved if you would be ready to go with whatever you have to say. I think I'm pretty good at giving folks an open forum to get whatever is on their chest off of it. 00:42:21 Speaker 7: But we do ask that you be ready to go when. 00:42:27 Speaker 6: When we go to you, thank you very much. Hopefully that works for Tony in Madrid. Robert Weintraub is going to be on this show as well at 5.05. Obviously, we typically have him on Thursdays, but I am out tomorrow. Ross Smith from Apple TV in the 5 o'clock hour as well as FC Cincinnati. A lot on the line in their final regular season game after clinching a playoff berth. And good for them for doing it. 00:42:50 Speaker 7: This was. 00:42:51 Speaker 6: I've seen people on social media debate whether or not this was Pat Noonan's best coaching job, and I don't know. But there were many times this season where it felt like this may slide out of control and end up with FC Cincinnati not in the postseason. Unfortunately, they've avoided that fate and still have a lot on the line in their final regular season game. Ross will join us at 535, and we are looking forward to that. 00:43:16 Speaker 7: I had one other Bengals thing I was going to get to. But I don't know what I did with it because I am an absolute disorganized mess. So instead, let's talk to somebody else. 00:43:29 Speaker 6: Josh, you're on ESPN 1530. 00:43:32 Speaker 7: What's up? 00:43:34 Speaker 15: Moe, where's the effing linebacker, Edgar? 00:43:37 Speaker 3: How are you? 00:43:38 Speaker 7: I'm doing well. What's up? 00:43:42 Speaker 3: Listen. 00:43:44 Speaker 15: You've been harping for months and months on linebackers, and when Pete Werner

dropped out of your mouth today, I was like, yes, a thousand percent. Let's go get Pete Werner. 00:43:55 Speaker 3: My goodness. 00:43:56 Speaker 15: That would be amazing. 00:43:59 Speaker 6: Or Zach Bond. Or, I'm sort of doing this off the top of my head, like Jordan Brooks. It's not that unlike free agency. Like in free agency, there was a long list of dudes... you know, that they could have signed. And my take was pick one, anyone, sign one of them. Make sure they're living, make sure they're breathing, make sure they're here on their own volition, pick one. I feel the same about linebackers that could be had. Diane Haley is, or Diane Haley is somebody that somebody, that many have suggested from the LA Chargers. Like there's a few out there from teams that are looking to unload, pick one, and they probably represent an upgrade from what we're seeing at that position right now. 00:44:40 Speaker 15: And I don't think they're that expensive. And I've got to say, you know, I keep hearing about Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor. So it seems like what the plan is, is let's just make the offense completely unstoppable. And then we're okay admitting that the defense is just kind of But isn't that like. 00:45:09 Speaker 7: Isn't that leaning in Isn't. 00:45:11 Speaker 6: That leaning into Why they haven't won for the last three years Yes You know I mean Jonathan Taylor Is a very good player if you add him To your team he makes your offense better But Watching the game on Sunday, it felt like this is who they've been. Hey, we're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. We're not really going to protect our quarterback. But Joe, Jamar, and T are going to do some awesome stuff, and we'll skate by. Well, I think we all agree that formula is not going to work. To me, yes, it's one more very good offensive weapon, but that just leans more into what we saw on Sunday that was so troubling because it was such a reminder of something that we agreed doesn't work. 00:45:57 Speaker 15: I think people forget, too, in 21 and 22, that defense was better than a lot of people give it credit for. I mean, there were some real... The linebacker play those years was stellar. We certainly had better linebackers than we have now. Jesse Bates, that was when the wheels really started to fall off when they let that guy disappear. And they haven't been able to replicate that position. It's been a who's who in the back seven, you know, and The pass rush is wonderful, and we're certainly... You knew it was going to take more than one offseason to fix this defense, right? We all knew that. We can all acknowledge that. If you have the record you have now, the offense. 00:46:38 Speaker 17: Is as great as it is. 00:46:40 Speaker 15: You can double down and make the offense better, but I think the smart play here is to use a piece of draft capital. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. And, you know, go get a linebacker, go get a corner. I think that's what the fans are, you know, wanting. There's very few fans that I see out there that are actually excited about the prospect of Jonathan Taylor. 00:47:01 Speaker 7: Yeah, it just, to me, and again, it's nothing against him as a player. 00:47:04 Speaker 6: It's nothing against, and maybe, you know, maybe the excitement over Jonathan Taylor or the possibility of him has been quieted a little bit by the fact that Chase Brown ran the ball effectively now that we're still fumbling issues. So maybe the concerns have been eased about whether Chase is going to be able to contribute over the final 10 games of the season. But yeah, I think Jonathan Taylor is the ultimate luxury piece. You've got issues at positions that came back and nearly cost you a game against a bad team. And instead your one deadline move is to go get an offensive guy who doesn't help you with all those areas that almost came back to cost you one of your worst losses ever. 00:47:47 Speaker 7: Doesn't make a lot of sense. 00:47:49 Speaker 3: No, no, it doesn't. 00:47:51 Speaker 15: But I mean, I don't, you know, these beat writers, I don't think they're making this stuff up. So I, I don't know where they're hearing it or what. I think at the end of the day, you still have to have a championship caliber defense. Now, does one guy change that? 00:48:10 Speaker 3: No, but it helps. 00:48:13 Speaker 4: Correct. 00:48:14 Speaker 7: Correct. 00:48:15 Speaker 6: I mean, you mentioned 2021 and 2022. I think people forget in 2022, which for my money is the best team they've ever had. They were six in the NFL and points against. Now there's obviously lots of other advanced metrics that sort of illustrate how good or how bad a defense is, but again, They were six in the NFL. That team could win a game with its defense. That team you counted on for the most part to get stops. That team won 10 consecutive games, including a playoff game on the road against Josh Allen. on the strength largely of its defense. That team that season had to play a stretch without Jamar Chase. That team had to play a stretch where they weren't really good at running the football. That team played with a bad offensive line. They had to lean on their defense. And the playoff run to the Super Bowl in 2021, that was a quintessential league average defense, but they forced a lot of turnovers and they made a lot of plays. Uh, in the post season, I'm still not to the point. I trust extra Lawrence to make plays. I trust boy, a mafia to make plays. I trust them to consistently get after quarterbacks. I don't trust them on the second level. I don't trust them to tackle opposing running backs consistently. And I know they're a week and a half. removed from doing a very good job against Derrick Henry. And you might argue that I'm overreacting to that game against the Tennessee Titans. But what it was was such a snapshot of what the Bengals, I think, have been for the last couple of years that then when you

advance the conversation to the trade deadline, it's I don't know, man. Jonathan Taylor doesn't help you in a game like the one they played against Tennessee, and I don't think he helps you in a game like you're going to have to win in December and January when you've got to lean on your defense a little bit more. 00:49:47 Speaker 15: Yeah, and I'm no cap expert either, but I mean, I don't even know the money. I don't even know if they can afford Jonathan Taylor. 00:49:53 Speaker 16: There's been a lot out there about what he's owed. 00:49:56 Speaker 15: Yeah, I just don't see a guy like Zach Bond or Pete Warner or who's the the DB and LA that they're talking about dangling out there. Those guys make a lot more sense. I don't 20, isn't he on $ 20 million the next few years? 00:50:15 Speaker 7: It's like 2020. It's like 21 and then 20. 00:50:18 Speaker 17: Yeah. 00:50:19 Speaker 15: Yeah. That says that we didn't even have that kind of cap. You'd have to go to Joe again and be like, Hey man, can you, I'll go. 00:50:28 Speaker 6: Back to like, let's, let's go back to March. Let's say in, in early March, you know, knowing the Bengals had to make all sorts of upgrades on defense, let's say that their first move would have been to trade for Jonathan Taylor. 00:50:41 Speaker 7: We would have laughed at them. 00:50:43 Speaker 6: We would have laughed at them and said, wait a minute, you just were on the outside looking in for a third consecutive year with a historically bad defense, and your big move is to go get Jonathan Taylor. 00:50:52 Speaker 7: They didn't do that, right? Because that wasn't the move instead. It was edge. It was safety. 00:50:57 Speaker 6: It was, you know, obviously Dexter Lawrence, defensive tackle, Jonathan Allen, defensive tackle. 00:51:02 Speaker 7: What has changed? 00:51:04 Speaker 6: There is, there is good offensively as advertised for the most part. No, they're not a great running team, but I think we've all sort of shrugged our shoulders and said, as long as they're okay running the football, which they should be, they're going to be fine. They still have a gaping hole linebacker. They still need help at corner. They're still not good up the middle. They're still not a great tackling team. They're still not a great up the middle coverage team. They've had their depth tested. Like I, I just, I cannot imagine how it would feel to see them use one move at the deadline and on a guy who would essentially be a luxury piece. 00:51:37 Speaker 13: I'm totally with it. 00:51:38 Speaker 4: No, you're the best. 00:51:39 Speaker 7: Josh, thank you. 00:51:39 Speaker 13: Thank you so much for taking my call, and I'm glad you're feeling better, man. 00:51:41 Speaker 6: Thank you very much. I do appreciate it, and I'm getting there. 18 after 4 o'clock. I like Jonathan Taylor a lot. It's just, I don't know, maybe it is a simple overreaction to how they played against Tennessee, but what was, I don't know, so profound about that performance was we had seen it before. Yes, Joe, Jamar, and T bail them out because Joe, Jamar, and T are awesome. But games like that reveal a lot about who you are, a lot about your personnel, a lot about your warts with a deadline looming. 00:52:14 Speaker 7: I don't know, man. 00:52:17 Speaker 6: Maybe there are no deals to be had. Maybe there's nothing they could do. Maybe nobody wants whatever they're willing to offer. Maybe the fact that Cassius Howell has gotten hurt means they've got to play Jamar Stewart and so they can't dangle him. 00:52:30 Speaker 7: I don't know. 00:52:32 Speaker 6: I don't subscribe to the belief that, hey, they did what they did with Dexter Lawrence. That was their big splashy move, so they're not going to do anything now. That doesn't mesh. That doesn't make a lot of sense. But if you have one move to make and you go get a running back, it would make their offense otherworldly. But I thought we have spent years talking about how Your otherworldly offense is useless if you can't count on the other side of the ball to get stops. And I don't know. Well, they certainly have had their moments and that's undeniable. How about in January, man? How about when they have to get stops against Josh Allen? How about, I know he's maybe not vintage Patrick Mahomes. How about when you have to get stops against Patrick Mahomes? 00:53:17 Speaker 7: I just, I don't know, man. 00:53:21 Speaker 6: Making your priority a running back is leaning into something that I think we all agreed doesn't work. If the idea is to win a championship, this is a playoff team, and I find it really hard to believe they're not going to be a playoff team. 00:53:35 Speaker 7: They would have to, I mean, just. 00:53:39 Speaker 6: Execute one of the greatest gag jobs in Cincinnati sports history, and that's saying something to be on the outside looking in. That's a statement about their schedule. It's a statement about the quality of their team. So what inches you closer to winning a championship? Is it a running back, even as one as good as, you know, and others have been talking about Tony Pollard's probably going to be traded. But is it a running back even as good as Jonathan Taylor? Is it Brees Hall? Or is it best available linebacker? You know, the offseason is productive, as exciting as it was. I think we all said, like, to a man, like, man, I just, I wish they would have gotten a linebacker. We said that in July and August. How do you not say that now? Way late, 21 after four. 513-749-1530. 00:54:33 Speaker 7: Tony's going to join us in 15 minutes from Spain on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:54:39 Speaker 8: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 00:54:40 Speaker 4: Traffic. 00:54:43 Speaker 9: From the UC Health Traffic Center. 00:54:46 Speaker 10: This is Football in the Natty. Brought to you by Modern Office Methods. On ESPN 1530. The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. T. 00:54:59 Speaker 6: Higgins named AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Ravens

are going to trade for Jacoby Brissett. Folks online today have been fretting over the possibility of the New Year's Eve game being flexed. Or maybe hoping it gets flexed. Just for the record... I hate flex scheduling. 00:55:15 Speaker 7: It inconveniences people. 00:55:16 Speaker 6: I don't like what it does for ticket holders. I don't like what it does for people who are trying to plan their lives. There's certainly a lot of us for whom the Bengals schedule, your favorite team schedule, your life during the season revolves around it. 00:55:32 Speaker 7: That's not everybody. 00:55:34 Speaker 6: And so I generally detest flex scheduling. And I admit, like as a viewer, sometimes I'm grateful that they'll slide a better game into a higher profile window. 00:55:44 Speaker 7: But I know what it does to people. 00:55:46 Speaker 6: The Bengals had a game that was going to be on Thursday night a couple of years ago that got flexed. 00:55:49 Speaker 7: And it screwed people. 00:55:50 Speaker 6: It screwed people who made plans around the game being on a Thursday and suddenly it's being played on a Sunday. I'm going to assume this. So they would have to make the decision by December the 10th. I'm going to assume that game is going to matter to at least one of the two teams, frankly, more likely Cincinnati. I would find it hard to believe that regardless of how the rest of the season unfolds, that over the next eight games, That they get to a point before they play Baltimore that their playoff seating is set or that they're officially eliminated. Like, they're going to be playing for something. And I feel like especially with, I don't think, I think the NFL is a little bit more sensitive to flexing out those large, high-profile games on the holidays than others. 00:56:39 Speaker 7: This isn't, you know, the third Thursday in October. This is New Year's Eve. 00:56:44 Speaker 6: And so I'm going to go ahead and assume that as long as the game has meaning for one, that they're not going to move it. We'll see what it means for Baltimore. They've frankly got bigger issues than playing a game on New Year's Eve. They have to figure out a way to survive and even give themselves a chance against Jacksonville tomorrow and then implement, you know, Jacoby Brissett into what they're doing. Hope that Lamar Jackson comes back. I think if we get to the point where it looks like that game's going to mean nothing to either team, and again, you've got to make a determination for that game by December the 10th, so that's three weeks away. I think it's impossible for me to imagine that by December the 10th, someone will look at that game and go, it's not going to matter to either. 00:57:29 Speaker 7: I'll go ahead and do it. 00:57:33 Speaker 6: I'll plant my flag. I make very few guarantees in life. Bengals Ravens on New Year's Eve night. And by the way, mark the tape, 429. I've been wrong about a thousand things on this show just this year. They're going to play that game on New Year's Eve night. I've heard rumors of a large musical act being a part of the game, and I guess you can move that to another city. But I think the NFL is going to be really, really, really loathe to moving a game that's planned for new year's eve night i think as much as they have thrown up a middle finger to fans when it relates to flex scheduling. 00:58:10 Speaker 7: They're i. 00:58:12 Speaker 6: I think they're cognizant of the collective pushback they would get for doing that again so i i hate that we do this i wish here's when the game is going to be it's not moving that that that toothpaste has been out of the tube for quite a while I find it hard to believe that on December the 10th, they're going to look at Bengals-Ravens and go, nope, that game means nothing to nobody. You got the Hendrickson thing with him coming back. I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't worry about it. 00:58:39 Speaker 7: And things may change. 00:58:40 Speaker 6: Maybe Baltimore between now and then never wins another game. And they just don't want to put that on television. But it's not being guaranteed that Lamar doesn't come back. That could be the night he returns. Bengals and Ravens, I feel pretty comfortable in saying, will play on New Year's Eve night. And I still think that night is going to be absolutely awesome. Madrid, is it awesome? Tony Pike will tell us. He joins us from there next. All right, we're going to Madrid. Our boy is there, boots on the ground. You'll hear him on Sunday. Bengals, Falcons in Madrid kick off at 9.30 our time. The first question I have has nothing to do with football, and I'm not the first or last person to ask, but people have asked it of me. Since you've been there, have you eaten anything? 00:59:41 Speaker 3: Well, Mo, I'm getting ready to. 00:59:43 Speaker 17: You know, this is Dinner time over here is like 10, 11 o'clock is the sweet spot I'm finding out. 00:59:50 Speaker 3: And we were. 00:59:50 Speaker 17: Told that the best way to go about this time change is to stay awake as long as possible tonight. And hopefully the body adjusts as we go forward. So I really branched out and had McDonald's earlier. And I am now terrified because McDonald's did not taste like the McDonald's I had. 01:00:13 Speaker 3: Have known to grow up with. So that's where I was getting a few minutes. 01:00:16 Speaker 7: Yeah, go ahead. 01:00:18 Speaker 17: Well, here in a few minutes, we're going to go try this place called oven mozzarella. 01:00:22 Speaker 7: Okay. 01:00:24 Speaker 17: So I, after the McDonald's was a little dicey today, I said, I'm going to at least try some new places while I'm here. 01:00:33 Speaker 3: So that's what we're going to do. 01:00:34 Speaker 7: Okay. 01:00:34 Speaker 6: So I've had overseas McDonald's. I, I had it in actually in all places, Amsterdam, uh, And it was atrocious. 01:00:42 Speaker 7: It didn't taste at all like the McDonald's. 01:00:43 Speaker 6: So what did the McDonald's in Madrid taste like

relative to the McDonald's that you love more than anybody I know in the U.S.? Terrible. 01:00:52 Speaker 3: Awful. You know, I worry. 01:00:54 Speaker 17: Now I worry because I guess that the McDonald's over here, that's what like a healthy burger should taste like. And I'm not a fan of healthy burgers. So now I'm second guessing every McDonald's burger I've ever put in my body. 01:01:08 Speaker 4: All right. 01:01:09 Speaker 7: Well, good luck. So when did you guys get in? 01:01:14 Speaker 17: We got in about 9.30 a.m. 01:01:16 Speaker 3: This morning. 01:01:18 Speaker 17: We flew out around 8 o'clock last night. The travel's been awesome. I mean, the plane was great. They had a Jeff Ruby dinner, a 14-ounce steak on the plane for us, a steak and potatoes, which I think allowed everyone to rest a little bit on the plane. So yeah, You rest as much as possible. You land, and it takes probably an hour and a half from when we landed to when we got through customs. 01:01:44 Speaker 3: So a little bit of a holdup there. 01:01:46 Speaker 17: We got here ahead of our luggage, so you're just kind of waiting around for that. After that, we knocked out a couple things for the game itself. Did some show prep. Did a hit with Dan Hoard. And the players, which I think is interesting, they've, they've essentially canceled the team dinner in the hotel for the next three nights. And normally when you go on the road and you travel in the NFL, you're at the team hotel the night before the game, you just. 01:02:13 Speaker 3: Have a dinner. 01:02:13 Speaker 17: Well, they just gave the players per players per diem for the next three days to allow them to get out and see a little bit of, of Madrid, uh, hang out with teammates, do things like that. So, uh, I think it's really cool how they've done that. I also think it helps getting out here a couple days early because not only can you see the city, but these guys can also get acclimated to practicing out here on a normal time. 01:02:35 Speaker 6: Can you imagine playing a football game right now so soon after, you know, coming wheels down? 01:02:40 Speaker 17: It was the first thing I thought of when we landed and got off the plane. And I was talking to Joe Dannemann, Jeremy Rau, Fox 19, we're on the bus. 01:02:49 Speaker 3: I said, can you. 01:02:49 Speaker 17: Imagine going and having to work a game? right now, let alone play in a game right now. Like it had to be when the Rams landed and got off the plane, they had to know right then and there, they were screwed. There's no way they could have felt good getting off the plane. I'm shocked that that is the decision they made. And, you know, I think Zach alluded to it a little bit earlier this week of, you know, the last international game, the Bengals played and they went out on Thursday and he talked about how kind of rushed it felt, no routine. You didn't really get to enjoy where you were at So I think coming out here a little bit earlier, I think does help and will help the Bengals a little bit. 01:03:29 Speaker 6: Is the city all dressed up for this? Do you see NFL stuff everywhere? Do you see Bengal stuff anywhere? What's that like? 01:03:37 Speaker 17: Udeole is what they're saying over here. 01:03:39 Speaker 20: Wow. 01:03:41 Speaker 4: It is. 01:03:41 Speaker 17: They've got a bunch of activations all throughout the city. Madrid's an actual... It's a really. 01:03:47 Speaker 3: tight, walkable city. 01:03:49 Speaker 17: So you can walk to a bunch of different things. They've got some pop-up shops. They've got a. 01:03:54 Speaker 3: Fan zone, which is really cool. 01:03:56 Speaker 17: There's going to be a bangle party on Friday night. I'm shocked at not only all the bangle stuff, but just NFL jerseys in general of how many people are here seemingly for the game. I talked to Dan about it earlier. It's unique in a sense that there are probably folks this will be the only time they might ever be able to watch the Bengals live. And that's just not here. There are people from all over the country that watch this team at all different hours of the night and morning when, when the Bengals are playing at a normal schedule. So to see the excitement around this and being here and bringing football to Spain is pretty cool. 01:04:34 Speaker 6: Should my excitement for this game on Sunday be tempered by the struggle that we saw the Bengals go through this past Sunday? 01:04:42 Speaker 17: It's, I think 50-50, because on one hand, you can still argue this team's yet to play anywhere near a full game, and they're 5-2. On the other side, there are things that this team has given up that when I look at Atlanta's roster, especially on the offensive side of the ball, I'm terrified. B. John Robinson, I think Drake London's one of the best wide receivers no one talks about, and call it what it is. I mean, it's not just Kyle Pitts himself. You can name any tight end that the Bengals are going to play, They're having legit troubles covering over the middle. Those three, if Michael Penix is anywhere near capable, those three can give an opposing defense fits. And I assume that Joe Burrow will have to at least complete one pass on Sunday to beat this Atlanta Falcons team, unlike Baker Mayfield. 01:05:30 Speaker 6: Tony Pike with us from Madrid for another minute or so. Beyond Bengals activities and stuff you're doing for work, is there anywhere that you're going to try to go, anything that you're going to try to see, anything that you've been told by somebody who's been before that you need to go do? 01:05:45 Speaker 17: So our guy, Dave Yeti Armbruster, was talking on the plane about about really wanting to go see a bullfight. 01:05:54 Speaker 3: Yes. And I was, I was all in. 01:05:57 Speaker 7: Yes. 01:05:57 Speaker 3: On going and seeing a bullfight. 01:05:59 Speaker 17: Unfortunately, they're not fighting over the next couple of days, but you can still go to the arena where they're held and do tours. 01:06:08 Speaker

3: So we're going to go do a tour. 01:06:10 Speaker 7: Hell yeah. 01:06:12 Speaker 17: I keep putting this out there. 01:06:13 Speaker 3: I said it to Austin earlier. 01:06:15 Speaker 17: And I think the more people I tell the more people it, will make me help hold accountable to it. I'm going to try to actually try some new foods while I'm here. I'm not saying I'm going to like them. I'm going to try. I'm going to at least go try them. There was also a real Madrid game tonight. 01:06:30 Speaker 7: Yes. 01:06:31 Speaker 3: Apparently that's a big deal over here. 01:06:34 Speaker 17: I looked at some solo tickets and the solo tickets were upwards of about 900 to a thousand dollars. So we didn't get to make it to real Madrid. I know that's a big thing here. But just seeing the city, I think seeing some of the activations over the next couple days is going to be really cool and probably what I'm looking forward to most. This is my first international travel outside of the International Bowl. 01:07:00 Speaker 4: Right. 01:07:01 Speaker 17: So this is new to me and something I'm kind of picking up as I go and definitely excited for. 01:07:07 Speaker 7: Is there anywhere they've told you to not go? 01:07:10 Speaker 3: No. 01:07:11 Speaker 17: Now, maybe they told the team that. I don't think I'm high enough on the totem pole. to get those types of warnings but uh no like i said it's it's cool everything seemingly is like a 30 minute walk max if you want to go that far everything else is is really condensed everything's right here in this area um you said you walk the streets and you see players walking around you see staff members walking around you see a ton of bangles fans with gear. 01:07:41 Speaker 3: On So it's cool. 01:07:43 Speaker 17: It's a really cool setting and looking forward to the next couple of days as well. 01:07:47 Speaker 6: You're going to go eat food that you're not going to like. But beyond McDonald's, is there anywhere else that you think, OK, if trying new cuisine doesn't work out, there's an American version of this or a Spanish version of this American place, and maybe that'll be my fail safe? 01:08:02 Speaker 17: Oh, there is essentially a food court about a half mile away. McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC, Popeye's. Uh, there's a Krispy Kreme. 01:08:11 Speaker 7: When I walked. 01:08:12 Speaker 3: By, the light wasn't on. 01:08:13 Speaker 4: The hot and. 01:08:14 Speaker 17: Ready light was not on. So I, I avoided that. Um, but no, I will, uh, I'll continue to try, but I have a fail safe with about a 10 minute walk away where I can go and at least probably get something close to what I'm used to. 01:08:28 Speaker 6: Well, uh, I can't wait to find out more. Um, who, who will have proven to be in worse shape you this Monday or me this past Monday? 01:08:36 Speaker 20: Well, you had to miss a Bengals pregame and then you missed a UC basketball game. Knowing you, I don't know that there's any shape I could come back in that would have to be worse than something that would cause you to miss those things. So you may have to drag me through Twin Peaks on Monday, but I'll give that one to you because I know it had to be killing you for you to miss that stuff. 01:09:09 Speaker 3: It did. 01:09:09 Speaker 6: Well, have a blast, and I can't wait to find out more when you get back. Have a great call, obviously, on Sunday. Can't thank you enough. Go have fun. 01:09:16 Speaker 1: All right, Mo, thanks. 01:09:17 Speaker 6: That's our guy, Tony Pike, boots on the ground in Madrid. He'll be on the call with Dan and Lap Sunday, 9.30, kickoff Sunday morning on ESPN 1530. Hey, the Reds have a new pitching coach. Joe Torres has been named the Reds' new pitching coach. He will enter his sixth season on a major league coaching staff, his 11th overall as a pro pitching coach. He was the assistant pitching coach of the Cleveland Guardians for the last five years, where he obviously worked for... Terry Francona in 2022 and 2023. 01:09:50 Speaker 7: He will be on the. 01:09:52 Speaker 6: Reds Hot Stove League show tonight on 700 WLW, which will air from 6 to 7. Also, Terry Francona himself will be on that show at 6.15. Joe Torres will be the Reds' new pitching coach, replacing the departed Derek Johnson. Congratulations to Joe. What else do we have? We have a break. 01:10:11 Speaker 7: 12 from 5, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:10:14 Speaker 12: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 01:10:18 Speaker 7: Traffic. 01:10:19 Speaker 9: From the UC Health Traffic Center, lung cancer screening. 01:10:22 Speaker 6: I don't think anybody did, right? Not to my knowledge. Seven from five. Bengals game plan on at 6.05 tonight with Wayne Boxmiller and E.T. 01:10:33 Speaker 7: Eric Thomas. 01:10:35 Speaker 2: Live from Buffalo Wild Wings in Westchester. 01:10:37 Speaker 6: B-dubs in Westchester. Go see Box and E.T. Eric Thomas, one of the great kickblock artists. in NFL history and also a terrific cover corner. And also like one of the nicest human beings. 01:10:51 Speaker 15: Of all time. 01:10:52 Speaker 6: That's it's hard when you're with box, because he's always like, if you're, if you're with Wayne box Miller, you're automatically not the nicest person at the table. So if you're like, man, I want everybody to know how nice I am. Forget it. If you're with Wayne box Miller, because he's the nicest person there. If Wayne box Miller wasn't at Buffalo wild wings tonight, Eric Thomas would be the nicest person there. But box is there. And I've said for years, like first team, all nice guy. He's got a spot like somebody. Others can maybe be cut. 01:11:24 Speaker 7: Not box. 01:11:25 Speaker 6: That's at six o'clock tonight on ESPN. I was going to ask which players are there, but those guys are all in Spain. 01:11:32 Speaker 2: Marvin Lewis is on the show. 01:11:33 Speaker 7: Marvin Lewis is going to be, is he going to be there? Is he going to be on the show on the show? He's not going to be calling in.

01:11:38 Speaker 4: Wow. 01:11:39 Speaker 7: It's pretty cool. I do think. 01:11:44 Speaker 6: That the time has softened how a lot of people feel about Marvin Lewis. And I think that's a good thing. I think all of us were ready to move on in 2000. I think a lot of us were ready to move on in 2016, 2017. Definitely by the time it was over, ready to move on. But like, I'm old enough to remember when for a while, Marvin Lewis owned this city. That is a thing. Now, that's before he started losing playoff games, but I still, when his name comes up, the first thing that comes to mind, as far as I'm concerned, is fondness. Fondness for what he did when he came here in 2003. So that's cool. He'll be a part of the show tonight. We're giving away a kegerator. Monday is the day, so you have some time. A kegerator from Big Red Appliances and Mattresses. I am begging you to know what a kegerator is. If you're in my audience, I'm going to assume that A, you know what a kegerator is. It's a refrigerator for a keg, and B, you want one. And if you don't want one, that's cool. You're going to give everybody else a better chance. So don't sign up. But Big Red Appliances and Mattresses, which has two locations in Florence and Milford, they have given me a kegerator to give away. So what you have to do is go to the contest page at ESPN1530. com. Or if you go to my social media, which I do Twitter and I do Instagram mainly. I've also put one on my personal Facebook page. I've kind of given up on my professional Facebook page, to be honest with you. But go find the links. We're also not just going to give away a kegerator. We're going to toss in 500 bucks from the party source, which you'll be able to use to buy anywhere from two to three kegs. So we'll announce the winner on Monday, 535 in the afternoon on the Tony and Mo football show. You can't win if you don't sign up. So sign up now. contest page at ESPN1530. com or let's just make it simple. Go to my Twitter feed. I've pinned it. You're good to go. Robert Weintraub is good to go. He joins us next to talk Bengals on ESPN1530. We just had Tony Pike on from Madrid and it sounded like I was calling him at his house in Sharonville. Thousands of miles away, like what, a third of the way around the globe. We call Tony and it sounds like he's in the next room. And then we'll call people like in Florence or in Hyde Park, or they'll call our show and they're zipping past our studios on I-71. And it sounds like they're calling from the other side of the moon. It is remarkable. So Tony is having fun in Madrid and can't wait to find out about his entire trip as the Bengals take on the Falcons. It's weird with it being a Wednesday. Wednesday is typically a very newsy day. Got the injury reports, got the press conferences, all that sort of stuff. And because of the travel yesterday and they're going to kind of get rolling tomorrow. None of that stuff today, tomorrow, there will be a lot coming out of Madrid. Uh, this show tomorrow will be hosted by Jason Williams. Uh, the, uh, Cincinnati inquirer sports columnist. He is going to fill in for me. This, the, the off day tomorrow has nothing to do with why I was not here on Monday or any of that. 01:15:04 Speaker 7: Tomorrow was a, a planned off day and one that, uh, Kind of looking forward to it. 01:15:09 Speaker 6: Because we're not here tomorrow, I still wanted to chat with Robert Weintraub, who we have on every Thursday. He writes a weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. You can read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com. 01:15:22 Speaker 7: He's with us now. How are we doing? 01:15:25 Speaker 21: Well, I'm doing better than it sounded like you did over the weekend. You're back on the. 01:15:31 Speaker 3: Air, and you're okay. 01:15:32 Speaker 21: I was definitely worried. Somebody's had stomach issues of my own, especially. Glad to i'd hear you back in uh fight and trim. 01:15:40 Speaker 6: The bangles are 1 and 0 when i watch it from the er at christ hospital and so i've already called to see if i can get a room on sunday morning. 01:15:48 Speaker 22: Superstition is by far paramount in these cases i uh for the second they're 2 and 0 when i go to visit my daughter and don't watch the game live oh. 01:15:57 Speaker 21: She's at college and i didn't see sunday's game live i. 01:16:00 Speaker 22: I highly recommend by the way, watching the game in full after you already know that the Bengals have. 01:16:05 Speaker 21: Won, it makes it much, much easier on your blood pressure. 01:16:09 Speaker 22: You don't throw the remote control all over the place when things go wrong early and you can just take it all. 01:16:14 Speaker 21: In and kind of, you know, Have a nice homeostasis, as Joe Burrow would say. 01:16:19 Speaker 7: Yes, yes. 01:16:20 Speaker 6: So the game itself on Sunday felt familiar because we've seen the Bengals have to employ the script, right? We're not going to stop anybody. We're not going to tackle anybody. We're not going to cover anybody. Really not going to block anybody. But we've got Joe, Jamar, and Tee, and they'll do a bunch of cool stuff and we'll be okay. So is that back to being who they are with Sunday and Outlier against a bad team? 01:16:42 Speaker 22: You know, for a team that wears orange and black, they have some pretty weird and shady performances on Halloween. 01:16:47 Speaker 7: Don't they? 01:16:48 Speaker 21: A couple of days around it. There was that Mike white. 01:16:50 Speaker 22: Game in 21 and the Browns game in 22. 01:16:53 Speaker 21: But, you know, listen, the important thing was that they actually. 01:16:56 Speaker 2: Won this time. 01:16:57 Speaker 6: 2013 Andy Dalton. I think there was a safety, a walk-off safety, right? 01:17:02 Speaker 2: That's correct. 01:17:02 Speaker 13: Right. 01:17:03 Speaker 7: Yes. 01:17:03 Speaker 21: I didn't want to go that deep into the reservoir, but well done. Uh, Well, listen, I kind of had a feeling, and I wrote about. 01:17:11 Speaker

22: This last week, that the Titans game is going to be tough. Every time they play in Baltimore, the week after, they expend so much emotion and energy in those games that they were 1-5 in the Borough Era in games after the at-Baltimore fixture until this Sunday. 01:17:31 Speaker 21: So I wasn't that surprised. The Titans are feisty. They're not tanking. That was their fifth loss. 01:17:35 Speaker 22: By you know, one score out of their seven, they were tough, but you know, that thought the Bengals were going to be a little flat. It was inevitable, but you know, I do think obviously there's a lot of problems with their back seven in particular. I mean, you don't need to be a Paul Brown to know that and to see it. I don't necessarily think it's going to be like it was the last couple of years where they just, you know, go into a free fall and have this kind of game every single week. I mean, they are, I think, Not as good a defense as they showed maybe against the Texans when they held them to six points. 01:18:06 Speaker 21: And they're not quite as bad as they were on Sunday. Somewhere in between is true. 01:18:10 Speaker 22: And that's what we've been looking for over the years, right? 01:18:12 Speaker 3: Just be average. 01:18:14 Speaker 22: And, you know, that's sort of where they are right now. 01:18:17 Speaker 3: They have weaknesses. 01:18:18 Speaker 22: They play a certain style that's very much, you know, we think of boom or bust as being an offensive term. 01:18:23 Speaker 21: But it's kind of how they. 01:18:24 Speaker 3: Play on defense. 01:18:25 Speaker 22: They just want to get enough big plays, turnovers, sacks, splash plays, whatever you want to call it. Uh, like the safety and, uh, the Dexter Lawrence game winning sack, you know. 01:18:34 Speaker 21: They get enough of those, they'll beat you. 01:18:36 Speaker 22: And if it's by outscoring you in a 43 36 manner, or if it's, you know, a more normal score or whatever, as long as. 01:18:43 Speaker 21: They get the W because they made a handful of ways and just enough plays on defense, they'll take it. 01:18:47 Speaker 22: And I know I will too, having, a you know, seen a lot of losses in this kind of game over the past few years. 01:18:53 Speaker 6: The Falcons just lost a game where the other team didn't complete a pass. 01:18:57 Speaker 7: It's not 1941. 01:18:58 Speaker 6: I mean, that's a thing that happened in 2026. And yet they feel like they're hard to play. And then you add to it just the weirdness of Madrid and the travel and those overseas games are always sort of wonky. So how dangerous is Sunday? 01:19:16 Speaker 22: Well, you put your, you know, anything that's unpredictable and crazy is dangerous, right? 01:19:20 Speaker 2: I mean, I, I live here in Atlanta. 01:19:23 Speaker 4: Okay. 01:19:23 Speaker 21: People are thinking the Bengals are kind. 01:19:25 Speaker 22: Of a rollercoaster ride because they have these, you know, quarters or halves of poor play. 01:19:32 Speaker 21: The Falcons are the most schizophrenic team in the league. 01:19:34 Speaker 22: And they've been that way for a while. 01:19:35 Speaker 3: They're unbelievable. 01:19:36 Speaker 21: I mean, lana based mo eggers on the radio you know they don't know whether or. 01:19:41 Speaker 22: Not to predict a deep playoff run or uh blow the whole team up it changes every week sometimes every segment i mean it's unbelievable yeah they're definitely dangerous i was really hoping they would beat the bucks because that's when you want to play them just when they're feeling good about themselves is that's usually when they throw in. 01:19:56 Speaker 21: A stinker or two uh. 01:19:58 Speaker 22: They're nine and four in prime time standalone games over the past couple years so that's where they play their best kind of the Speaking of Andy Dalton, they're kind of the reverse Andy Dalton team. They're terrible Sunday at one, but otherwise they can be dangerous. Obviously, they have Bishan Robinson and Drake London, very good players. 01:20:17 Speaker 21: That can take advantage of where the Bengals are weak. 01:20:20 Speaker 22: And they've managed to cobble together some decent defensive play when they needed, even last Sunday when they were not allowing a pass completed upon them. 01:20:28 Speaker 21: They were still making some plays. Jesse Bates, our old pal in particular. 01:20:32 Speaker 2: So they'll be hard to play. 01:20:34 Speaker 21: You know, Kevin Stefanski, the coach, is very familiar with us. 01:20:37 Speaker 22: And like you mentioned, you're going to play at the Estadio Bernabeu, where the greats of world football have tried the grass there. 01:20:45 Speaker 21: So from Zidane to Puskas, as you well know, and now Kylian Mbappe. So hopefully Joe and Jamar and Tee will join those legendary names and the Bengals will pull out a victory over this wildly unpredictable Falcons team. 01:20:58 Speaker 6: They will play the Falcons and then they'll have the trade deadline. And I, I know I asked you some trade deadline stuff last week. If you, if you could execute one trade on behalf of the Bengals by Sunday afternoon or by Tuesday afternoon, what would it be? 01:21:14 Speaker 22: Yeah, Matt, Matt, I was going to say, if I could trade for killing them, Bob, maybe they come and play with us in Madrid. 01:21:19 Speaker 3: That'd be good. 01:21:20 Speaker 22: Um, Well, I guess, I mean, are we talking about, you know, future contracts. 01:21:25 Speaker 21: And costs be damned? 01:21:26 Speaker 22: I mean, if there was a way to, you know, get Max Crosby for far less than he's been, you know, ordered, rumored to be traded for in the past, then obviously somebody like that would be nice. 01:21:36 Speaker 21: You know, I think more. 01:21:37 Speaker 22: Realistically, boy, it'd be great to get a guy like Tuli, Tuli Polioti. I have such trouble pronouncing their Samoan names. I've actually been to Samoa. 01:21:47 Speaker 4: That's great. Yeah. 01:21:49

Speaker 21: He, somebody like that who. 01:21:51 Speaker 22: Can really help whether you're already strong, you know, I mean, they're winning games with their pass rush, even if they added a safety or a cornerback, which I would like to see them do, but I don't know how much, you know, overall huge impact a guy like that would have. I mean, a long coveted Buddha Baker of the Cardinals would be great to get him in. They always love to get guys who have played well against them. So obviously Imani hooker is number one on their, on their list now after Sunday's game, but, I mean, another safety would help for sure, but I. 01:22:21 Speaker 21: Don't know if he'd have the overall impact that a. 01:22:23 Speaker 22: Guy like Tooley would have who could really bend the edge, fill in for Cassius Howells now on the IR, and just make what already is a strong unit really strong. 01:22:32 Speaker 21: And we've seen teams that win the Super Bowl with their defense in particular, where do. 01:22:37 Speaker 3: They do it? 01:22:37 Speaker 21: They do it in that front for the pass rush. 01:22:40 Speaker 22: That's something that just takes over games and really prevents your back seven from being the weakness it can be if the quarterback gets time to throw. So, I suppose he would be my ideal. I'm not so sure the Chargers are. I don't even know if they have a phone right now going. 01:22:53 Speaker 3: Working in their GM office. 01:22:54 Speaker 9: I don't know what they're doing. 01:22:56 Speaker 22: They might just fold up shop and, you know, float out into the Pacific. But if we could get anybody, it'd be him. 01:23:02 Speaker 6: If the Chargers made any trades, would anybody in Los Angeles even notice? 01:23:08 Speaker 22: There'd be a big, uh, you know, bonfire in San Diego, Los Angeles. They're like the 47th most popular club playing there behind the couple of MLS teams and Pepperdine volleyball and some. 01:23:20 Speaker 21: Other things in California that they are definitely not. 01:23:23 Speaker 17: Yeah. 01:23:24 Speaker 21: A drawing card right now, especially knowing that. 01:23:27 Speaker 6: Robert Weintraub, uh, Bengals writer for Cincinnati magazine, read his pieces at Cincinnati magazine.com. I look on the internet and it feels like everybody wants the Bengals to trade Joe Flacco somewhere. Um, I think the internet mostly is stupid. I don't know why you would trade away one of the best insurance policies in the sport. 01:23:45 Speaker 7: You're with me, right? 01:23:46 Speaker 21: Oh yeah. The internet, what are they doing out there? What's that guy thinking? 01:23:52 Speaker 7: That wacky internet. 01:23:53 Speaker 14: Yeah. 01:23:53 Speaker 8: Yeah. 01:23:54 Speaker 21: Never, never listened to the internet. That's a, that's my policy. 01:23:57 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:23:57 Speaker 21: I mean, well, we're seeing it all over the league, right? I mean, you know, the, the. 01:24:01 Speaker 22: Ravens just lost two guys there. They had to play Lou Ferrigno or whatever that guy's. 01:24:05 Speaker 21: Name was on Sunday. And just straight up. 01:24:12 Speaker 22: It looks like in Cleveland this weekend, you know, I think we're up to close to 50 quarterbacks now having to play. And obviously with Joe Burrow's history, I mean, the split second you would actually trade Joe Flacco, you know, that he would come limping off the field. And we'd be like, why in the heck did we do that? And just think of how, you know, how excited everybody was back in the summer when Joe decided, Joe Flacco decided to stay in Cincinnati and be the backup. We're like, thank God we have a reliable insurance policy. And the guy we know, you know, God forbid he has to come in and play, can keep the offense humming. Maybe not to Joe Burrow levels, but certainly good enough to win games and score a lot of points. 01:24:49 Speaker 3: So I'd, Again, if the. 01:24:53 Speaker 22: Raiders for some reason said, here's Max Crosby for Joe Flacco, maybe I'd think about. 01:24:57 Speaker 21: It in that scenario. Otherwise, that's just idiocy to me. You've got to keep that policy like you said. 01:25:02 Speaker 22: Backup quarterback is one of the most important positions in the league, and the Bengals are for once actually set there. You don't want to undo that for any reason. 01:25:11 Speaker 6: I say this as somebody who keeps his show as apolitical as possible. I'm not sure beyond the GOP anybody's had a worse week than the Baltimore Ravens. I've even seen folks suggest, well, the Bengals should trade Flacco to Baltimore. And I go, that's just idiocy. Why are you giving them a life preserver? But what do you make of the situation there, which is certainly not good in the short term and cloudy, I think, is the way I've seen it described most often in the long term. 01:25:39 Speaker 21: Yeah, I mean, it's tough for them. 01:25:40 Speaker 22: It's not like I'm crying about it, but, you know, it also brings me back to the point where I've seen over the past three years people, you know, complaining about the Bengals. 01:25:50 Speaker 21: They can't make the playoffs. And, you know, the defense cost. 01:25:53 Speaker 2: Them this and that. 01:25:54 Speaker 22: And really, in two of those three years, the reason they didn't make the playoffs, the reason they haven't been where they wanted to go is because Joe Carroll was. 01:26:01 Speaker 3: Hurt, as we all know. 01:26:02 Speaker 2: And now the Ravens are facing. 01:26:03 Speaker 21: It, too, and they've faced it in the past as well. 01:26:06 Speaker 22: In fact, when Lamar has lost for the year. 01:26:09 Speaker 21: The Bengals tend to win the division. So in that sense, you know, we should probably be celebrating. You hate to see a guy like Lamar get hurt. 01:26:16 Speaker 22: And like I pointed out at many times over the years, he's a guy who does not like to, you know, risk himself physically without an absolute guarantee of money coming in for doing so. 01:26:29 Speaker 21: And,

you know, he's entering his last year of his deal. 01:26:32 Speaker 22: There's a very much, I feel like a lack of trust between Lamar and the organization, generally speaking, and he's long cast an eye, it feels like, toward returning to his home in Florida to play. It's definitely a possibility that that was his last snap as a Raven. I don't know that we can say that for sure, but like you say, it's a murky future at best for the Ravens right now. 01:26:55 Speaker 21: They kind of felt like. 01:26:57 Speaker 22: They wanted to go all in this year in a weird way, even with a new coach and new staff in place, because they knew that Lamar long-term was not a guarantee. 01:27:07 Speaker 3: And here we are. 01:27:08 Speaker 21: And, you know, they don't even get this year now out of it either. 01:27:10 Speaker 3: So, you know, they're in a tough spot. 01:27:12 Speaker 22: We'll see if Jacoby Perced can be for them what Joe Flacco was for the Bengals last year and at least, you know, keep them afloat so that maybe he can come back at the tail end of the year and give them a possibility of a playoff berth. It seems unlikely, but, you know, Baltimore's worst Cincinnati in the last. 01:27:32 Speaker 3: Couple of years. 01:27:33 Speaker 22: And, you know, all we have to do now is I don't want to get political either, but if we can get that other white. 01:27:38 Speaker 3: Man, Aaron Rodgers, out off the field, maybe Bengals will. 01:27:41 Speaker 22: Really have a great chance to capture the AFC North and go to the playoffs. 01:27:46 Speaker 7: Yeah, I hear you there. New column tomorrow? 01:27:50 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 01:27:50 Speaker 21: Coming out, CincinnatiMagazine.com. Look forward, as always, on Thursdays. 01:27:55 Speaker 9: I'll read it. 01:27:55 Speaker 7: We'll talk to you next week. Thank you so much. 01:27:58 Speaker 3: All right. 01:27:59 Speaker 17: Vamos! 01:28:00 Speaker 7: Vamos! Yes. 01:28:02 Speaker 21: Let's do it, baby. 01:28:03 Speaker 3: Well done. 01:28:03 Speaker 9: Thank you so much. 01:28:04 Speaker 7: It's our guy. Thank you. 01:28:05 Speaker 6: Robert Weintraub, CincinnatiMagazine.com. See, we called Spain, right? We called Tony in Spain. Not a hiccup. Crystal clear. We called Robert down there in Georgia, like a seven-hour drive away. 01:28:16 Speaker 7: All sorts of issues. I don't get it. 01:28:19 Speaker 2: Well, certain parts of Georgia, the own backwoods, terrible connection. 01:28:23 Speaker 7: But he lives in Atlanta. He's not in the backwoods. I mean, I don't know where Robert lives. 01:28:27 Speaker 6: He might live in suburban Atlanta, but he lives in a major metropolitan city. We're not calling Stone Mountain. The Stone Mountain is the only... Stone Mountain may be very populous. 01:28:37 Speaker 3: I don't know. The only. 01:28:38 Speaker 6: I know Atlanta... i know macon i know savannah marietta athens marietta and stone mountain you know why i know stone mountain taryn rick flair jake the snake roberts is rick flair from stone mountain too. 01:28:53 Speaker 2: No no but he used um that in his promos. 01:28:56 Speaker 6: Oh, because when, when they, when Jake, the snake would come out, they would always say from stone mountain, Georgia. And I, as a kid, I was terrified of snakes. So I was terrified of Jake, the snake, and I'm still terrified of snakes, but I would always remember like stone mountain. That's, that's a cool sounding name. 01:29:10 Speaker 3: No way. 01:29:10 Speaker 7: That's real. 01:29:11 Speaker 9: I guess it is. 01:29:11 Speaker 7: Maybe, maybe that's where Robert lives. 01:29:13 Speaker 6: I don't know, but we can call Madrid sounds crystal clear. We call Atlanta little dicey 21 after five. 01:29:21 Speaker 3: 5-1-3-7-4-9-15-30. 01:29:21 Speaker 6: FC Cincinnati has a lot riding on decision day. They're in the playoffs, but they're trying to avoid the wildcard round. Ross Smith from Apple TV will join us in 15 minutes on ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:29:35 Speaker 8: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 01:29:37 Speaker 7: Traffic. 01:29:40 Speaker 9: From the UC Health Traffic Center, this. 01:29:42 Speaker 10: Is Football in the Natty, brought to you in part by Skyline Chili on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:29:53 Speaker 6: Get out of bed on Sunday morning and come watch the game from Madrid at Smoke Justice in Covington. If you can't make the trip to Madrid, Covington's a. 01:30:04 Speaker 7: Pretty nice option. 01:30:05 Speaker 2: Good breakfast at Smoke Justice. 01:30:06 Speaker 6: Very good breakfast at Smoke Justice. If you haven't had the breakfast at Smoke Justice yet, Sunday's a good time. They've got like a special coffee bar. If you're a big coffee head, go for it. Or if you just want to get started, Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Tequila Sunrise. Ain't nothing better than a breakfast cocktail. Like, I mean, like that is that is my maybe my favorite part of vacation because it's You know, during the work week, it's kind of hard to go, hey, I'm going to start today with a breakfast cocktail, though I have been tempted often. But like on vacation, breakfast cocktail, not like, you know, nine of them. Okay, sometimes like nine of them. Maybe Sunday like nine of them. Now, Uber or Lyft would be the preferential way of getting there and getting home. But come have a breakfast cocktail with us on Sunday. Bengals and Falcons, the game at 930. Standalone window. 01:31:01 Speaker 2: I have one every time the Bengals score. 01:31:04 Speaker 7: There you go. Have a different one. 01:31:05 Speaker 6: Go bloody. Go mimosa. Go tequila sunrise. Go morning screwdriver. My late, dearly departed grandmother would do a breakfast Tom Collins every once in a while. And then she would do a lunch Tom Collins. And then she would do a dinner time Tom Collins. She liked to drink Tom Collins. We were always told as kids, don't go into that pitcher of lemonade because it ain't lemonade. Anyway, we'll see you at Smoke Justice on

Sunday. The game is at 9.30. It's going to be a blast. We look forward to. 01:31:40 Speaker 7: Seeing you there. 01:31:44 Speaker 6: Anything you might have missed on this show, you can go find on the iHeartRadio app. Anything you might have missed, including this week's Tony and Mo football show that did not include me because I'm sick. T Higgins named the AFC offensive player of the week 10 for one 55 and a couple of touchdowns. He was awesome. Led all NFL players and receiving in week eight, 10 catches tied for the third most. He is having a ridiculously good season, seven 26 on the season, averaging 103.7 receiving yards per game, both second in the NFL behind Jackson Smith and Jigba Smith is the only player with 140 or more receiving yards in three games. It is his first, uh, first AFC Offensive Player of the Week award. We talk about this all the time with Tee Higgins. Everybody loves Jamar Chase. Everybody should love Jamar Chase. I am enjoying this season where Tee Higgins statistically stands out a little bit more than Jamar Chase. 01:32:43 Speaker 7: Again, Jamar on Sunday was awesome. 01:32:45 Speaker 6: They don't win the game without Jamar Chase. Might not have been awesome on that first pick that Joe Burrow threw. But I've said for years, I don't think there is a more beloved player than Tee Higgins. I think a large reason for that is, you know, you love players who play a position where you typically don't associate players with willingly taking a backseat. Tee Higgins has done that here. And he's extraordinarily well compensated. Like, Tee Higgins will be fine. 01:33:18 Speaker 3: But I. 01:33:19 Speaker 6: There's just something extraordinarily likable about him. And it was funny on the TV broadcast on Sunday. Chase Brown drops a pass. And Jamar Chase drops a pass. And the announcers are like, throw the ball to number five then. And the Bengals did. And it kind of felt like it got the offense going. And it certainly got T. 01:33:42 Speaker 7: Higgins going. 01:33:44 Speaker 6: And now is the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. FC Cincinnati is going to postseason. Can they skip the wildcard round? Well, they can if they win on Saturday. It's going to say Sunday. 01:33:53 Speaker 7: Saturday, decision day. Ross Smith from Apple TV is on the call for that match against Nashville, and he joins us next. 01:34:02 Speaker 10: You've been listening to Football in the Natty on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:34:12 Speaker 8: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 01:34:14 Speaker 6: Traffic. 01:34:17 Speaker 4: And you're listening to the Home of the Bengals, ESPN 1530. 01:34:21 Speaker 6: FC Cincinnati has one more regular season match, a decision day, easy for me to say, decision day and appreciation tilt on Saturday against Nashville. 01:34:33 Speaker 7: That game's going to start at 4 o'clock. 01:34:36 Speaker 6: The Orange and Blue is postseason bound for the fifth consecutive year, but still lots to play for. The Nashville game has a lot riding on it. Playoff seeding. They have a chance to get as high as six on the table. When would guarantee a place in round one's best of three series? It would mean that FC Cincinnati avoids the wildcard round. So they're in, but still a lot on the line on decision day. MLS coverage on Apple TV will obviously include FC Cincinnati and Nashville on Saturday. Ross Smith, the great Ross Smith, joining us from Apple TV. There were times during the course of the season where I thought we'd get to early November and we would be kind of putting a bow in the season instead of talking about what may lay ahead. 01:35:16 Speaker 3: Yeah. I felt the same. 01:35:18 Speaker 13: And I know you and I have chatted, which by the way, thanks for having me on again. 01:35:21 Speaker 11: I love coming on your show, but you and I have chatted a few times throughout the year and it's been, I felt the same. 01:35:26 Speaker 13: It just didn't seem to click. 01:35:29 Speaker 11: And for all that Pat Noonan was trying and putting players in different positions through all the injuries that they've gone through. But man, oh man, it's starting to come together. And I still feel there's a little bit of work to be done, but defensively, Cincinnati have come a long way despite the injuries over the last few games. And what a time to hit this run of form right now. And especially the back-to-back games against DC United. I mean, that was make or break it time. And I did DC United last weekend and they were down and out. They were deflated because Cincinnati put them to the sword. So that was a big changing moment. 01:36:03 Speaker 3: And now they've got momentum. 01:36:05 Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, you and I, we talk about the tactics, and I think along with that is the psychology. I went to the match against Columbus. It was on a Sunday. They played poorly. It was a 2-0 final score. When Columbus scored their second goal, you just, you knew they weren't going to come back. And I was ready to shovel dirt on them. And so I just think psychologically, something changed from that night to what we've seen over the last four matches. 01:36:30 Speaker 13: Defensively is a big part. 01:36:32 Speaker 11: And I think Pat Noonan trying to find the balance with getting Evander in advanced positions to be able to be with Kevin Denke, getting Evander back in form, that's a big part of it. 01:36:43 Speaker 3: And I love it when a manager. 01:36:46 Speaker 13: Tries to strategize his. 01:36:47 Speaker 11: Team around their best players. I'm amazed by sometimes when there's clubs in MLS that they bring in a top player and then they don't play their team around it. Unless they have other areas of strength as well, right? But I just feel Evander is so talented. You gotta get the best out of him. And I think Pat Noonan now with the defensive system, it means that Evander doesn't have to run. 01:37:10 Speaker 3: His legs off. 01:37:11 Speaker 11: In order to go and chase

and get behind the ball. There's other players doing it. But you also have to have the buy-in from other players. And I think players understand, look, I'm going to run these extra yards for Evander as long as Evander is banging it in the back of the net. 01:37:24 Speaker 13: So, you know, that for me. 01:37:25 Speaker 11: Has been a difference in the setup defensively, what Pat Noonan has done. 01:37:29 Speaker 13: And look, Nick Hagelin, I'm I can think of one bad ball he put. 01:37:34 Speaker 11: In the last game. 01:37:35 Speaker 13: But other than that, I thought, okay, there you go. 01:37:38 Speaker 4: I know he's long in the tooth. 01:37:39 Speaker 11: I know he may not be as quick as what he used to be, but- he's he's got instructions in him and Nick Hagelin is so different than when he first came in the league now I could see him pointing at guys he's commanding players to get in the right position if he's organizing and keeping the structure right. 01:37:54 Speaker 13: Then let Evander go win the game. 01:37:56 Speaker 11: Let Kevin Benke go win the game and you know it's worked in the in this run of form. 01:38:00 Speaker 6: Can that formula that they've used in the run of four translate to success in the postseason. 01:38:06 Speaker 11: It can, I will say, as long as they avoid Nashville. 01:38:12 Speaker 7: Nashville, they're the outlier. 01:38:14 Speaker 13: They're so good. 01:38:15 Speaker 11: And I think I've watched just about all 34 games of Nashville this year. I've covered them a lot. I've been on the training ground to watch B.J. Callahan work. And Pat Noonan and B.J. Callahan were once colleagues in Philadelphia, so they understand one another. And it's interesting because there's similar characteristics. The guys don't mind the grind, but they also have star power in their team. But Nashville, they have it right the way through the team. You know, you can highlight one player. Honey Mukhtar is the obvious one. Honestly, Mo, I could go through all 11 players in the assembly. for nashville and give you a case of why they should be best 11 this year they are. 01:38:51 Speaker 6: That strong and trying to establish a new mls points record after already having wrapped up the supporter shield a while ago and so i i guess for for saturday you know mechanically as it relates to the postseason fc cincinnati has a lot more riding on it what do you expect from nashville in this uh decision day tilt. 01:39:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, front foot. 01:39:10 Speaker 11: Front foot from the start. They're one of the teams that's starting quickly, and you have to be ready for it. And I look at that front four, Sam Serge, Hany Bukhtar, on the right, Christian Espinosa, which is one of the best off-season signings. And then on the left, they've got this player, Elias Saad, who came in during the summertime, and that completes their fourth. 01:39:29 Speaker 13: They've got everything. 01:39:30 Speaker 11: Their movement is a nightmare to deal with. So

from the start, even though Cincinnati are at home, which you don't often say this, they need to weather the storm. 01:39:38 Speaker 13: They need to weather the storm. 01:39:40 Speaker 11: And the last game that Cincinnati played in Nashville, I barely called Evander's name. 01:39:45 Speaker 3: I thought he went missing. 01:39:47 Speaker 11: And Evander, and that's the hit on him that goes missing in big games. he needs to show up big time so for all the defending that i think cincinnati will do when they get the ball they need to make sure that van there has a standout night one of the best nights of the season for him. 01:40:00 Speaker 6: Yeah that should be a lot of fun uh afternoon match decision day lot riding on it fc cincinnati trying to avoid the wild card round uh i'm just i'm stoked that they're in because For sure. I'm stoked that they're in and I'm stoked that they didn't have to beat Nashville in order to get in. So they, while you do want to avoid the wildcard round, you do have the safety net of it because I'm looking at the last game of the season thinking if you have to play that team for your playoff lives, forget about it. 01:40:27 Speaker 3: For sure. 01:40:28 Speaker 13: And look, Columbus still have to go to Chicago. 01:40:29 Speaker 11: And Chicago, not the greatest run of form, but man, you got Robert Lewandowski. They want to get things right before going in the playoffs. So it's not like Columbus have an easy game for the final match of the season. 01:40:40 Speaker 7: No, you're right about that. You said the evil C word. So, you know, that's going to end. 01:40:44 Speaker 3: Sorry. Sorry. 01:40:48 Speaker 6: I hope we can catch up during the post season. Always love having you on Ross. Thanks so much. 01:40:52 Speaker 7: Thanks a lot. 01:40:53 Speaker 2: All the best to you. 01:40:54 Speaker 6: Saturday, four o'clock fan appreciation at the soccer venue on the West end of Cincinnati, FC Cincinnati can get as high as sixth. They can still drop to the wild card round. They would like to avoid that. Obviously kickoff at 4 PM against a Nashville team. that won the supporter shield by 15 points, or has clinched, I guess, the supporter shield. They have a 15-point lead over Inter-Miami, and again, trying to establish a new single-season record for points. Even if they get a draw, they will set a new MLS single-season record for regular-season points. Uh, reds have a new pitching coach, uh, and you'll hear him tonight on the reds hot stove league show, which starts at six o'clock down the hall on 700 WLW. Uh, he is a guy who has worked with, uh, Terry Francona before his name is Joe Taurus. Uh, and he has been the assistant pitching coach of, uh, the Cleveland guardians for the last couple of years. Uh, he will enter his sixth season on a major league coaching staff. His 11th overall is a professional pitching coach, uh, Worked under Terry Francona in 2022 and 2023. Guardians finished in the top 10 among their major league counterparts in ERA in each of his five seasons on the staff during, of course, during a time of which, of course, the team captured four AL Central Division championships. 01:42:14 Speaker 9: So there you go. 01:42:16 Speaker 6: College basketball tonight. NKU was on the road against South Dakota. That game's at 8. You can find it on Fox Sports 1360 with Jim Kelch, and Rick Boring. That on top of the Tee Higgins AFC Offensive Player of the Week news would be your sports headlines, which are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection, guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life, KelseyChev.com. Bengals game plan coming up in 20 minutes. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:42:46 Speaker 12: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 01:42:51 Speaker 7: Um, six. This is ESPN 1530. Trying to squeeze a phone call in or two, huh? James, thank you for your patience. Good afternoon. How are you? 01:43:03 Speaker 4: I'm good. 01:43:03 Speaker 3: How are you, Mo? Wonderful. 01:43:04 Speaker 7: What's going on? 01:43:07 Speaker 23: So, everybody's talking about how they want to trade for a linebacker, and I keep looking around the league, and it's like all the good teams have good records, and all the bad teams have bad records, but they're in bad divisions where they're still technically able to still make the playoffs. So it makes it feel like they're going to have to wait till Sunday to see who loses to see who was willing to punt on the season. Because realistically, you know, like if the Browns were two and six, like everybody expected them to be this year, I think the Bengals could have a, you know, a chance of trying to like trade for Carson Schlesinger because That's what the Browns. 01:43:54 Speaker 3: Do is weird things. 01:43:56 Speaker 23: But, and it's like, even with Tampa Bay, like Tampa Bay has a really bad record and we should be able to get one of those linebackers. But because that conference or that division is so. 01:44:08 Speaker 3: Bad, they still might be able to make the playoffs. 01:44:11 Speaker 4: Sure. 01:44:11 Speaker 23: So it's like, I don't, I don't, I feel like the Bengals are kind of stuck in no man's land because they're waiting for somebody to say, Like the Colts or, you know, the Chargers where they're like, hey, we're going to punt on the season. But if you look around, everybody is either so good in their division or so bad in their division that they still have a chance to make the playoffs. 01:44:35 Speaker 7: Yeah, but I think you have to like Philadelphia. 01:44:39 Speaker 6: Philadelphia felt to me like when they lost on Sunday night to Washington, that was it. Because it's not just the record. It's who they don't have. It's all the injuries. And, you know, I know you could say, well, they're in the NFC East, which isn't very good. I think there, especially Howie Roseman is, is realistic enough to say, okay, we maybe mathematically we can play ourselves back into

it, but, but this just isn't our year. It's time to get a jumpstart on what's next. The, the LA chargers are not making the post season. The Miami dolphins are not making the post season. The Indianapolis Colts have already decided we're not making the post season. I think that's a fair assessment of, of the New York jets. I think there's still a lot of teams, you know, like, Atlanta, this game on Sunday could very well determine how they approach the trade deadline. Maybe Dallas is in a similar spot. Perhaps Tampa Bay is in a similar spot. Maybe the Saints are in a similar spot. I still think there's enough teams that either have decided we have no chance of winning this year or could be compelled to go ahead and trade off a part if you gave them a good reason to do so. 01:45:47 Speaker 3: Do you think the Bengals will. 01:45:48 Speaker 23: Be willing to trade for Aziz Alshair? 01:45:53 Speaker 3: Sure. 01:45:53 Speaker 23: I know he just signed a massive contract, but I also know if they trade him, I think his debt cap is $ 26 million. And then if you look at his total contract, that's not that much to eat to put on the cap, so to speak, for the. 01:46:08 Speaker 3: Next three years. Yeah. 01:46:09 Speaker 6: Now, are the Texans a team that's willing to say, you know, we're punting on the season? 01:46:19 Speaker 4: I mean, they should be. 01:46:20 Speaker 3: Should be. 01:46:20 Speaker 5: Yes. 01:46:20 Speaker 3: As bad as it's been. Right. 01:46:22 Speaker 23: You know, but, like, again, they're in a division where really, realistically, the Jags are running. 01:46:28 Speaker 3: Away with it. 01:46:29 Speaker 23: But, you know, because, you know, of our division, you know, where everybody's over 500. 01:46:35 Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. 01:46:37 Speaker 23: But you don't believe that everybody's going to stay over. 01:46:40 Speaker 3: 500 by the end of the year. 01:46:41 Speaker 22: Yeah. 01:46:42 Speaker 23: You know, like, obviously, the Ravens have their own situation. Everybody doesn't believe in the Browns. 01:46:48 Speaker 6: I would say this about, I'm sorry to interrupt. I would say this about Al Shayer. He's, he's going to be 30 by the end of next year with three more years left and a hefty cap hit. Like, I don't know that the bill, the Bengals, I think they might be willing to take on a year. Are they going to be willing to take on more than that? Cause you get him for the rest of the decade. 01:47:10 Speaker 23: Well, I think it depends on what the dead cap would be or what, what money he has left guaranteed. 01:47:16 Speaker 3: After, you know, after this year. 01:47:19 Speaker 7: Dead cap 2027-43, drops to 21, potential out 7.1 in 2029. 01:47:27 Speaker 17: Yeah. 01:47:27 Speaker 7: Hefty. It's hefty. 01:47:35 Speaker 6: I do think there's a lot of teams that have either already made a show of how they feel about their chances, like the Indianapolis Colts, or who I think would, and again, I think Philly's the primary example, where on one

hand, you could say, God, it's the NFC East. You're a couple of wins away from being in it. You still have a lot of games in the division, but you don't have Jalen Hurts. You've had a, you know, Cam Juergens, you've already traded him. They don't have Lane Johnson. Devontae Smith has been hurt. You've got injuries all over the place. Barkley's not 100%. Like, we're not going anywhere this year. And so, yeah, mathematically, maybe we've got a shot, but realistically not so much. And so let's put some, some guys out there and go ahead and get a jumpstart on, on 2027. 01:48:14 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:48:14 Speaker 7: So yeah, I just, and, I am in agreement with. 01:48:20 Speaker 24: You, but I just, I feel like there's not enough teams that have been like, you know what we're putting on the season. I felt like because their divisions are so either so good or so bad and where they stack in them. 01:48:31 Speaker 6: And I think that's, I think that's where you can, I think that's where you can make a really good case, especially because we've added a game in recent years of making the trade deadline later. Like the trade deadline is going to occur. So the Bengals have had their buy. So this is week 10, right? Uh, there's still 44% of your season in front of us. The baseball trade deadline happens, and this is not apples to apples, but the baseball trade deadline is when there's a third of the season to go. I would be a proponent of pushing the trade deadline back a couple of weeks just to allow for a little bit more clarity. Teams can still decide to trade players. You don't have to wait to the trade deadline. But I do think there's a fair argument in favor of moving the trade deadline back a to give teams more time to play themselves into clearly being in contention or. 01:49:23 Speaker 7: Not so much. James, I got to run, man. Thanks so much. 01:49:26 Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Mo. 01:49:27 Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, I've heard that argument before and I haven't thought about it a ton, but I think there's still too much of the season. Teams can make trades whenever they want, so you don't have to wait to the trade deadline, but I do think there's a fair argument to be made about, you know, the deadline this year, it's going to be on November the 10th, after week 10, what would be the harm in moving it to two weeks to the 24th? So there's just a little bit more time for teams to figure out, are we in it or are we not? And I think as a league, you want teams to make the best in, you know, the best decisions. And the way you do that is by giving them the most information and games provide information for those teams. 01:50:10 Speaker 7: We will see. 01:50:10 Speaker 6: But I do think Miami, Philadelphia, the Chargers, the Titans, the, I would say Philadelphia. You know, we talked about Pete Werner before the Saints. There's a lot of teams who aren't going anywhere this year. There's a handful who might hold out hope that this weekend they could use a win as a springboard to something better. But still a lot of teams that I think you could you could sift through their rosters and and find. 01:50:36 Speaker 7: Help at the position. The Bengals need positions. The Bengals need help. We got to go. I am off tomorrow. 01:50:42 Speaker 6: Our buddy Jason Williams from the Cincinnati Inquirer will fill in from three to six. Looking forward to that. And then the Tony and Mo football show. Tony fresh off a plane on Monday, Twin Peaks and Westchester. I am really stoked about that. 01:50:59 Speaker 3: We're done. 01:50:59 Speaker 7: Show's over. 01:51:00 Speaker 6: I got to host the I don't have to. I get to host the Jared Calhoun radio show tonight. So if you want to talk some UC hoops. Either see you at the original Montgomery Inn, or I'll talk to you at 8 o'clock on 700 WLW. Here, Bengals game plan is next, ESPN 1530.