Bengals Before and After
Two everyday Cincinnati Bengals fans, zero professional analysis, 100% honest reactions. Join us for pregame predictions, postgame reactions, and real fan conversations about every Bengals game. We record before kickoff, watch the game, then come back to share our immediate thoughts. Join us as we glory in victory or wail in bitter defeat. Who Dey!
Bengals Before and After
Bengals v Buccaneers - Sept. 13th, 2026
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The Bengals start the 2026 season with a W but, we split on if this win feels more like a loss.
Welcome. Welcome back, Bengals fans. Is it you say back when it's been this long? When it's been three years?
SPEAKER_01Is it welcome back? Welcome back. Welcome again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, forget the forget the past. It never happened. Um it's the Bengals Before and After Podcast. I am Jared. And I'm Aaron. And uh for those that know the podcast, you can tune out for a few seconds. And for those who may be discovering it for the first time, a quick little intro for who we are and what we do. First, neither one of us are or aspire to be intelligent in the sport of NFL football. Uh we are Bengals fans. We are diehard, lifelong Bengals fans. We talk about the Bengals like you and your friends do in your living room at the bar. If you're looking for Adam Schefter Scoops and deep X's and O's analysis, there's 400 podcasts and eight different TV networks and YouTube videos. Have at it. That's not this. You're not getting it.
SPEAKER_01But it's not this. You're not getting that kind of analysis here.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely not. You're gonna hear just complete falsehoods. You're gonna hear stats that are from the wrong gear, mostly from me. Uh this is this is this is two friends who are diehard fans talking about the team they love, and that's what it is. How do we do it? We break it down. We get on the mic and we record our thoughts and feelings before the game occurs. Today we are recording this live on Sunday, the whatever the date is. It's Buccaneers Day, first game of the team.
SPEAKER_01September 13th. I don't know if that's an open or not, Jared, but I hope so.
SPEAKER_00And that's I I hadn't thought about that, and now I'm instantly saddened. So we come in, we talk about it, we bring our enthusiasm, we bring our hesitation, then we go off mic and we go watch the game because we are Bengals fans first and foremost, and we're not gonna sit here and talk while the game is on. We're gonna go watch it. And then when the game is over, to the best of our ability, should the logistics gods smile upon us, we get back on the mic while the emotions are still high and fresh, and we let loose and talk about what just happened. Maybe we celebrate, maybe we commiserate, maybe we let forth a tirade of beat profanity, whatever we need to do uh as Bengals therapy. Uh within our here within the game here, we're gonna talk offense, we're gonna talk defense, and we're gonna talk special teams, but special teams for us just means the whatever didn't fit in the first two categories. So maybe it's Bengals related. Maybe it's not, who knows? Aaron. Yes, sir. Let's talk. Let's do it. Let's talk offense. Let's talk about the off-season and offense. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_01So, I mean, I can remember being a Bangles fan where going into an off-season, you had a list of things that needed to be addressed, right? You had a list and it covered all three facets of the game. There were holes, it seemed, everywhere. Um, and maybe it should be different for a team coming off missing the playoffs for the last three years in a row. But I really felt that the offense this offseason was really kind of not an afterthought, but I I feel like you could look up and down, you could watch the end of last year and see, you know, the offense starting to gel, right? The offensive line much better at the end of last year uh starting to come together. Um Chase Brown running the football a little better. You could see where this offense, I think, um, was not one of those things you said, man, we really need another offensive lineman. We we've got big questions at tackle. We don't have tight ends that are good. We have receivers that are unhappy and need new contracts. You know, none of that stuff has kind of bit the bangles, I feel like. So from the offensive side of the ball, for me, the biggest question still remains, and it has for the last since Joe Burrow has been here. Can they keep him upright? Can he stay healthy, man? I I I mean, I just as it we'll get to defense in a minute, but you know, the defense I think really carried the the the most question marks going into this offseason. The big one, the only one, the biggest one that matters is can our MVP quarterback play 17 games this year? Can we keep him upright? Can he get the ball to the playmakers like we know he can? He's he's one of the best players, if not the best quarterback in the NFL, in my opinion, but he can't impact the game when he's in a boot, when he when he's got a blown-up knee, when his when his thumb's broken, right? Like Well, he's on his back.
SPEAKER_00Even if he's healthy, if you're on your back for most of the offensive possessions, what are you supposed to do? And I don't care who you are. And you hit on something I'm glad you did, because it is the thing, even as I think about today's game against the Buccaneers, and watching the offseason on the offensive side of the ball, as you've described, I agree. We certainly had no questions about do we need new wide receiving depth? Like, we have a glut of talented wide receivers, although I do I am a little sketch on like Yoshivas and some of those cats that like the the Twitter heads and some of the analysts seem to be real high on. And I'm like, I don't know, man, maybe they're watching a different Yoshivas than I am. Um, but that's just me. What did we say at the beginning? What do I know? I'm just a fan. Uh, but the one thing, so we don't need like the running game, actually, when I saw the stats, this is the best part about being a fan. The stats were like, oh wow, we had actually a pretty productive running game last season. Didn't feel like it because I'm watching Joe Flacco all year uh and watching us score 30 plus points and routinely lose. Um saw a sp a stat yesterday at the UGA game where under Kirby Smart, when they've scored like 35 points and a half, they're 66-0. And I went, that's awesome for them. Like the Bengals last season scored 30 plus points on numerous occasions and mostly lost. Um lost those games. It was staggering. So all that stuff, like, oh wow, even the even the running game was productive. So yeah, like it's the O-line. It's the O-line. Like, I like you said, we're gonna talk defense, and we made moves there, and I think that was important, obviously. But for all the money you spent in keeping wide receivers, um and and in historically coming up to this point, the money you spent in the offense, right? Like all going all the way back to Joe Burrow in his first contract, you've invested heavily. You can't keep this man healthy or vertical, and that's the O-line. And I haven't I haven't seen us make any big moves. I was hoping in the offseason, much like we did the Dexter Lawrence thing on the D, I was hoping for some sort of big splashy O-line like improvement. I I don't feel like I saw that. And so I go into today's game very cautious. Like high-powered offense. I'm hearing like, you know, a better off-season, right? Like Burrow healthy the whole time, he's not rehabbing from something. Uh he's got an E-mindset, all the stuff we'll talk about it, but I'm still going. But but the defensive coordinators in the league know that that front line is porous. And we also know that Zach Taylor and his his staff don't scheme to fix it. Uh yeah. So yeah, that's my fear. Like on the offense today and in the offseason in general, can we keep Joe Burrow vertical most of the time and then healthy when he's when he is vertical? Can he stay that way?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I mean, you know, coming out against the Buccaneers, and they've got a whole host of Pro Bowl via Vay and all the guys down there, a lot of young talent. I think it's I mean, it it's a good challenge, right? Um, you you hit on a little bit. I think, you know, Joe Burrow kind of threw down the gauntlet in the offseason, and you love to see the leadership from the quarterback position, especially in this Uber quarterback driven league, right? We it it is he spoke, they listened, they did what he asked. And, you know, as I said, I really think the Bengals offensive line played a lot better at the end of last year. Um reaching into the preseason, Joe got hit a little bit, and he got hit a little early, ones on ones. That doesn't um that doesn't make me happy, obviously, as a Bengals fan. Um but um, you know, I'm I'm gonna hang my hat on that when it's time to dial it up, when it's time to strap it on for real on September the 13th, against a defense that is very capable. I mean, Tampa Bay won a lot of ballgames last year. They just extended their quarterback, um, you know, made him one of the highest paid players in the league. These are all things Tampa Bay's got a lot going for. I know that um, again, you know, the pundits around the league are are are already putting this one in the Bengals column. But um, you know, offensively. Yeah, yeah. Offensively, yeah, I I I think the biggest thing is keep Joe Joe Burrow up line upright, give him the ability to do what he what he does best, and that's make decisions and make plays, right? Be capable enough that Chase Brown can run the football, take some pressure off him, and opens up a lot of things in the play action game and things that Joe likes to do, right? Um, but you know, I I I think that they've they they've got more versatility on offense despite not making the big splashy moves in the offseason than I think a lot of people give them credit for. Um and I don't know, I guess uh we'll we'll find out um at one o'clock today if that's all gonna you know kind of hold true, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, you're hanging a lot on continuity, and not just you. I I think the the organization's asking the fan base to do this. Like, hey, we've got continuity on the line. Like, you know, they've yeah, we had uh uh adversity in previous seasons. I also, to your point, maybe the O-line started playing well last season late, but my God, why do we have to let the season get so out of hand before these guys figure out, oh yeah, I should probably block this guy before he smothers the quarterback and debilitates the the you know the face of the franchise. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to, oh, did you oh the coach said something about blocking that guy before he smashed the quarterback to pieces? That I knew there was something. I had my I remembered my jersey. I had my lucky cleats. Uh I knew I was supposed to stand next to this guy and this guy. I got that right. I forgot the blocking thing. That's I knew it. I knew it. Don't worry, coach. I'll get it next game. I got it. This one, yeah, chalk it up as a learning, just warming up early, knocking the rest off. Sorry. Like, you can't do it. Other teams don't do it. I mean, how long have we been watching football and the other teams seem to do easy things? And this, I'll transition to another point that I'm interested in. I skimmed an article about. Uh, this team's inability to run an offense from under the center. Like, great success in shotgun formations. But in my opinion, I can't disclaim this enough for our listeners, I'm an idiot. So know that when I say, to me, you're running out of the shotgun because you recognize as as a as a uh a coordinating staff and a coaching staff, gosh golly gee, um, if I put Burrow too too close to those big men trying to sack him, they will. No, yeah, no one's gonna remember to stop him. So take a take a few steps back, sir, and operate from back here. That's great. But then you see other teams in the league do really innovative, nifty stuff from under center to get their big playmakers open. Uh there's versatility there. We all know that's the key. You can't let a D-coordinator just see you as one-dimensional and and not have to account for anything happening under center. So I worry about that too, as just a byproduct of a recognition of our O-line is weak. So we can't, there's a whole category of plays. We don't feel like we can run. I think there's also some criticism for, again, like Zach Taylor and his coaching staff on you you can't come up with anything creative from under center that that tries to compensate for some of your O-line weaknesses. Like it seems like that ought to be there, uh, and it's not. And so I find myself once again concerned about the O-line and their ability to perform, and what does that do to this team's ability to use all this glut of playmakers effectively?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I I I think it's a valid point. I mean, we've seen the Bengals offense predominantly when it's hitting on all cylinders in the past, operating out of the gun formation, out of the pistol formation, Joe Burrow not under center. Um, again, and in what world does this make sense that Aaron is the optimistic one on this podcast? It's usually very, very flipped here, folks. It's been a long time, you know, right? It has been a long time, right? So um, but you know, again, I think and I'm hopeful that this offense has found the versatility with the group that they have, that if the shotgun game isn't there, that they can go to a 12-personnel, put in a couple tight ends and run the football, right? And that's something, as you pointed to. I mean, we've seen it with teams across the league. When you don't have the ability to get under center and run the football, or get under center and at least have the defense threatened by you running the football, it makes the offensive side of the ball really, really tough. It makes Joe Burrow throw the football 40 times a game. And when a quarterback, Joe Burrow, any quarterback across the league is throwing the football 40 times a game, it's real easy for that defense to pin their ears back and come at you, right? And um, it doesn't get easier, right? I mean, you've got Tampa this week with capable defense that I think the offense has has got a chance and the lines really got a chance to kind of put a flag in the ground and make a statement. Hey, we're here. And oh, by the way, it doesn't get any easier next week going to Texas and the Texans, who have probably one of, if not the best, defense in the league, and they're gonna be out triple out. I mean, whatever that stupid rivalry is between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans, um, it exists. I don't know if it goes back to Jonathan Joseph and it's a good one. Oh, let me remind you going down there, but um. Hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_00I think I think there's some emotional trauma, and it is normal for the human brain to try to encapsulate traumatic moments and suppress them. Uh, unless my memory is defective, and it may be, was it not the Texans that not one but two consecutive years knocked us out of the playoffs in the Andy Dalton era? Yeah. Yeah, yours? You're right. Yeah. And they were that was a trash-ish version of the Texans at that time. Granted, we're in a we're talking playoffs, so they got that far, but they also had a garbage division, so whatever, they got there, and then two times consecutively knock us out. So, yeah, there's a rivalry there. And to your point, this isn't a trash Texans team anymore. This is a legit team. And they bring a strong what? Defense. And where do we see the biggest problem? At the O-line again. So, you know, my cortisol is spiking. Um, I'm I'm my anxiety is flaring, my heart rate is elevated. Uh, I am just terrified to get excited for uh what ought to be a high power Bengals offensive showing, and maybe it will be, uh, but it ends up being that way because Joe Flacco had to come in. And look, Sam Darnold, first one down, we're in the league, right? Starting quarterback, five plays, boom, out for several weeks. Please, football gods, let us let's let's actually, you know what? This is good. Let's start small. Let's just have Joe Burrough survive this game, win or loss, right? I'll consider that a win. You're right. We have totally switched personalities and outlooks. I'm like, hey, if he just doesn't die and we lose like by it to like an SEC score, right? But he's okay, I'll count that as a small W. Like we lost, but we won. But anyway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I I again, I don't think it's any any secret, um, you know, to kind of wrap up on the offensive side of the ball that, you know, as Joe goes, this team's gonna go, right? Yes, he's got more behind him now. Yes, we have continuity. Yes, everything looks good on paper. I'm excited about this football team. Um, and especially this offense, I think it's probably one of the best in the league, but it all centers around the man under center or in the shotgun, if you will, uh Joe Burrow. And if if he's not healthy, I think the floor and the ceiling are much closer together for this uh 2026-27 Bengals football team.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna say right now, if we end up with another Joe Flacco season, these podcasts are gonna be very short. Quite quite short. Really short. Well, nothing against Joe Flacco. Like, just as an aside, like, shout out to Joe Flacco for playing decent quality football at 77 years old. Uh, that is impressive. Um, you know, he's got his glucosamine chondroitin supplements to keep his limbs loose, right, in his advanced years. Uh, it's cool. I am glad that he that he stayed. It's nice to have a dependable backup given all of the uncertainty we've been talking about. As a Bengals fan, I think there's a degree where you go, okay, if it happens again, do we at least have somebody who's a backup who makes the season worth watching? Whereas, you know, in in years past, when the backup had to come in, as a even as a fan, at least it's for me, I'm like, I'm doing Sunday investment calculations. Like, how much of my time do I invest to this cat out here stumbling and bumbling? And you know, like I'll just check the scores and read the anyway. Let's not I don't want to put that in the universe, right? Okay. Offense, we all know the story. Let's see if they can bolster my confidence, prove you right, assuage my anxiety, go out and hang 40 plus points on the Buccaneers and win it. Um, and that brings us to the defense because that's how that happens, where you don't put up 40 plus points and still lose. Let's just let's just talk about the thing that I'm most interested to see in real life, and that's Dexter Lawrence. Complete like DNA change for the front office. I s Duke Tobin can still get bent. I'm not a fan. Uh, and I I don't like that they put him on camera more because he's ugly. Uh he's an ugly person and he's an ugly soul, right? In and out. Okay, I'm not just I don't like to judge people on their appearance, Aaron, but for the years of ugliness that he's put out, then to put him on camera and he's just as outwardly ugly as he is internally, it's unfortunate. But, but either he or somebody else in that organization, maybe it's the janitor, somebody got in somebody's ear. It was probably Joe Burrow. I think we all know that. And they were like, you must do something to produce a defense next year. That must happen. And so they said, watch us trade away a first-round pick for a seasoned veteran like Dexter Lawrence. Dude's disruptive. I'm actually hopeful thinking about tying it back to offseason. I mean, fingers crossed, maybe I'm too optimistic. I think it should be beneficial for our O-line to have played against a guy at his caliber and intensity. And even in the preseason, it'd be like, wow, this guy is a monster. So then when you meet like the dude whose name I can't hope to pronounce on the Bucks, like you you've been practicing against a guy of that same caliber and intensity, but I am I'm super excited to see because the defense was so bad it can only get better. So that's where I'm actually optimistic. I'm excited to see what this improved defense can do. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, um, it's I think rare when you're talking about the notable guys that left this organization, you know, Trey Hendrickson and in his performance over the last four, five, six years, Geno Stone, Cam Taylor, Britt. I mean, these are household names, not only in Cincinnati, but around the NFL. And, you know, normally in a season where you have that kind of talent, walk off of your defense that is already was not a great defense last year. We know that. But I think the big story is this year is the upside of this defensive unit, right? And you know, a headline by Dexter Lawrence in a trade that I don't think any Bengals fan saw coming, very unlike this front office, as as you noted. But um, you know, they really invested in this side of the ball, right? They short up the defensive line, a couple of really big signings. Um, you know, they've sure up the secondary um with Cook and that signing. Um, you know, it's again, Joe Burrow in a quarterback driven league, said, Hey, Hey, you guys need to do something. We need to compete, not next year, not the year after. We're not, I'm not looking for you to draft three guys and build them into, you know, high quality talent uh on the defense. We need we need defensive talent. We need it now. And and and they responded. And I think, you know, they have a really high upside. This defense on paper is really, really good. Um, but and there's always a but, how does it translate to Sundays, right? How does it translate into winning football games? We can't continue to score 30 plus points in a game and have that game get away from us. Those have to be wins. And for the Bengals to be successful this year, that's gonna have to translate, right? We've we've we've gotta we we've gotta be able to get the other offense off the field. We gotta get more possessions for Joe and the offense on our team and give them the opportunity um to score more points and not have to be perfect, right? I think that was the the big thing last year is the offense had to be so perfect every single time out. There was really no mistakes that were were going to be allowed because as soon as the other offense got a crack, the defense was just a sieve and couldn't stop anybody, and it bit us time and time again last year. So can these big offs offseason additions, you know, pin the defensive line, get pressure when it matters. I'm not talking you're up 30 points, down 30 points, and Trey Hendrickson comes up with three sacks in the fourth quarter that don't matter. I'm sorry, Trey, I know you know you don't listen to this, but if you do, um captain garbage time sacked, man. I mean, you almost led the NFL, and I would say in garbage time sacks. You know, it's they don't break it down like that on TV, too.
SPEAKER_00You're right. Like they don't talk the stats. They'll be like, oh, leads the league in this, and it's not just Trey Hunter's like a lot of players. But you know, you'll talk garbage time points, right? The offense, they'll highlight that. But like, what about the garbage time defensive performance that then props a guy like him up and lets him throw the temper tantrums that he threw, and you know, like now we'll get we'll get to see him uh two times a year for at least until he while he's playing. That'll be interesting. Woof. Um but again, I don't know, man. Like it guys that as a fan, you go, oh, I can't believe they let him walk, uh, and then they go somewhere else, especially like a hated rival, which that burns you just because the knowledge he brings, but uh of of what goes on in our locker room and in the playbook. But on the flip side, remains to be seen. Like, does he show up in the as the same Trey Hendrickson? Does he play us with a chip on his shoulder, or does he go and get exposed, right? Like, not for nothing. I've been it's been I've been caught up on this when you said the man's name, Geno Stone. Like, didn't didn't the Bills just cut him in the preseason? Am I thinking of that right? There's yeah, like he can't tackle to save his life. Prack about can't, you know, n not needing to be perfect, but like that was one where I was like, yeah, household name because you're screaming it at the TV every Sunday as to who missed that obvious tackle, right? Oh, it's Gino Stone again. Look at him. He f he forgot like our old lineman forget. Okay, I got I got my helmet, my mouth guard, uh, I got six or seven necklaces on, I got my lucky socks. What am I forgetting? Tackling, that's what it is. I'm supposed to use my arms. Um, just really, I just thought if I just gently caressed him with my shoulder, he would politely step out of bounds, and that should have been that. And it just turns out they don't listen. I'm not it's not that I was forgetting. Okay. I I digress. Good written. Goodbye, Gino Stone. And then he went off and ran his mouth about the organization. Oh, I just want to be a part of a winning organization. Keep keep looking, bro. Because the Bills were like, nah, no thanks. We're gonna go ahead and just let you walk on up out of here and uh see if you can find another winning organization that doesn't need it. They need someone to not tackle.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, and I mean, not to bring it up again, but you know, I how often do we hear same old bangles? Oh, same old bangles, same old bangles, especially living in this city uh again, and then, you know, being around it every A. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of the you know hesitation, I think, from folks about same old bangles, same old bangles. The narratives out there, it's been out there for since we were kids, right? About the the way the bangles do it and you know, um how again, how can you not have a small amount of respect for the organization that heard their franchise quarterback, heard one of the biggest stars in the league when he said, let's go compete now, today, this season, let's go try to win a championship. And especially on the defensive side of the ball, man, they, you know, they've kind of they they've come, they've they've come to the table with that, right? They're giving Joe, if you will, let's call it Dexter's defense. They're giving Dexter more pieces on the defensive side of the ball to work with, to um, hopefully, again, today'll today's the first one, right? Against a capable offense, right? Baker Mayfield's happy. He just got his time track, right? Yeah. He wants to go, he wants to go out and lay some points down. They've got a pretty potent offense. Um they won the they won the South last year, right? And don't get me started on how woeful that division is, but I mean, I wish we could have the Falcons in our division after spending 10 years in that city. Uh how how bad are they, right?
SPEAKER_00But it'll be a nice little occasional, like just uh, you know, bone thrown to us. Like, oh, Falcons are up. Okay, we can win this one. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01A very capable, I think, Tampa Bay team. Um good first, uh a good first game for us. I think, again, they've got the pieces on both offense and defense. They're they're an NFL football team. I think, I think they're well, they're they're well coached. They've got they've got playmakers on both sides of the ball, but can our defense that is and should be much improved, can we finally come to the table and say, hey, again, let's put it out here on a Sunday. Let's put all this same old bangles, same old BS, let's put it to rest. Let's go out and win football games that we're supposed to win, be competitive, and get this thing over the hump. I mean, it cannot, we cannot go four years without a playoff appearance. I mean, it just we've lived through this, Jared. We've lived through the dark times where the Bengals were an afterthought and 5 and 11 was a good season, right? Um, it it's gotta change. And if it's gonna change, yes, I think you have questions about the offensive line and and and the protection, but holy, if it's gonna change, this defensive unit has to be much improved. They have to be able to stop offenses and get offenses off the field, give the ball back to Joe and the people that can score, and let's do it. And on the question.
SPEAKER_00Let me ask you a question. Yeah. How many games do you give the defense? We're just gonna keep it on the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, I was just gonna say you give them to demonstrate. Like if they go out there today and it's nominally better, but the defense is still not performing, and they get carved up, do you panic? Or do we say, hey, we got a lot of new new veteran leaders, they need some time and some real game action to to gel and all the other words that would people like to throw out about how these guys work together? Or do you have a higher tolerance? Is it like two games or three games? Like, how do you how what's your gut tell you?
SPEAKER_01Um my gut tells me this team has to be better in September, October at football games. They're great in November and December, but championships are gonna be won in these early games, right? We can't you can't get into you lose this one today, Jared. You're looking at a very, very tough Texans team on the road. And if that one doesn't go our way, you're looking at 0-2 start again on this team. And you cannot, we cannot continue to start slow and have to crawl your way out of a hole every single season. It's absolutely debilitating for your team. Again, and then I think you're putting a lot of pressure on the offense. And, you know, again, it's early. We haven't seen a bunch, you know, any really of this defense playing against, you know, high-caliber offenses and in in game situations. But the feeling, and on paper, you have a defense now that can steal you one, two, maybe three of these across the season, that's what you need, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, the offensive league we know they have a benefit that defenses around the league would kill for in that they don't have to be elite, right? Other teams have have won championships purely on the elite performance of their defense. And I mean, Joe Flacco now sits on our side, but he rode that wave all the way to the Super Bowl, where the offense could have some splash plays, but all they had to do was be decent because the defense was unstoppable. This defense has two great things going for them. One, last year's defense was abysmal. The only way to be worse was to not take the field and just let the other team take the points. That's the only way you could have been worse. So they they can only go up, right? Or be as bad. So, okay, you can only be as bad or better. That's a win. And you don't have to be elite. You need to have a few key stops. You need to stop your opponent from scoring once or twice so that it is not a tit for tat offensive shootout where it's who has the ball with the with you know with the uh one more point and zeros on the clock, and that's the only way to win. They only have to be good enough, right? Because the offense on paper and historically is so powerful and so uh proficient that they're gonna take care of it if you give them the chance. They demonstrated they can put up 30 plus points on a regular basis against opponents. So now this defense, this year, all they have to do is make a few key stops, get a few, like they don't even have to be three and outs. I mean they love that, but just force them to kick rather than get the six, right? Get a couple of punts where last year they would have driven right down the field and scored. And now it's back on Joe Burrow or Joe Flacco, one of the Joes, to go out there and answer quickly, right, and try to rack up the score. So that what a what a luxury. Imagine if you went to work and you didn't have to be any good. You just had to be decent occasionally because the people around you were elite, and all you had to do is like not get to send the status report, which is auto-generating. All you have to do is click send, read it and send. And if you do that, everybody else is gonna deliver the sales, deliver the project, deliver the whatever. What a luxury they have. I think to some degree they parlay that into playing loose, playing fun, when you can take the pressure off of anybody, but especially like an offensive or a defensive unit, like they play better. We always talk about it with offense when they run up the score and now they're able to kind of be a little bit more flexible and creative because the the imperative to fight and go answer uh for every score is there. We see like guys have fun. And we see crazy performance. We see great stuff. Maybe the defense, I don't think they would ever, this isn't the kind of locker room hype chat they would want is you guys don't have to be elite. You just have to be decent enough most of the time. Let's get them, right? I doubt that I doubt Dexter Lawrence is that's how he's gonna like get his team up. But you know what? Aim small, miss small, man. Like if he wants to scream at them to be elite and they deliver, amazing for us as fans. Like it'll be so much fun. But if he's screaming to be elite and this is we're gonna stop him and this is a new day and all the whatever, and they're just like mediocre, that's a huge improvement from last season, and it should show. And we should see in the record. Okay. Agree. Let's go special teams, and I am curious, and I will freely admit, normally by this time, I will have I have sat down and looked at our schedule and did my you know wins and losses and created my prediction. I haven't. So I'm just gonna spitball something. Um, let's throw out a record. What do we think? Uh, where do we think the Bengals end? Let's do two things. First, we've got to talk about a prediction for the game. Wins win or loss today, and yeah, then let's just throw out a number for the season, right? So you go first. Do we win or do we lose today against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the 13th of September?
SPEAKER_01I think it's a win today. I do. Um, in my heart of hearts, it's a home opener. Um, like I said, being back in this city, there is a lot of excitement around this Bengals football team. And I think it's well deserved. I think we've improved on the major sides of the ball. Special teams remain solid. Um I I I think you go out today and I think you get a win. I don't know that it's as big as everybody wants. Again, I think Tampa Bay's a capable football team. But I think uh I think we win this. Um and on the season on the season in this division, man, this is gonna be a tough division. You've got a Ravens team that is really, really good. You have a Steelers team that if they found find a quarterback and somebody plays well up there, and they always seem to be a good football team, right?
SPEAKER_00So with the cold sore, they just somehow show up in the playoffs at the worst possible team.
SPEAKER_01Every year.
SPEAKER_00You're like, I thought I cured this thing. I thought this was the year of no cold sore, no Steelers come back anyway.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. So um without making a huge prediction, you absolutely got to get to 10 wins in this division. I think um, if I'm being honest, and I don't know that I really want to, I think it might be plus one or two to win this division, right? You're talking about having to get 13 wins to win your division against um some other teams that are that are really, really good. And I would expect to again have two AFC North teams in the playoffs. Um again. So, you know, I I think that if you want to sniff it, you got to get at least to 10 wins. If you want to take it, you're probably talking about 13 wins um to get this out. And, you know, that it uh it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for mistakes, man. You don't have a whole lot of places where you can misstep and lose to a team you're supposed to beat. You start off at home, it's 90 freaking degrees here in Cincinnati today with about 9,000% humidity. It's gonna be hot. So, you know, the Tampa Bay is gonna be lathered up, the Bengals are gonna be lathered up, but I think we see improvement on the offense. I I I think they run the football well today. Um, I think they protect Joe. Um, and I think the defense plays well, uh, well enough to win uh this first this first contest of the season.
SPEAKER_00All right, I like the take. Uh I also think we win today. I can't articulate why I think that. Uh, because in my mind, uh empirically, I'm real, real nervous on all fronts. But I am going to lean on my fandom. I'm going to lean on history on Joe Burrow. I'm going to lean on the fact that I got a new jersey this season. I got a number one Chase uh jersey because my borough jersey.
SPEAKER_01On the cameras, I know nobody is, so I'll just throw that out. I still don't trust season enough to put my Burrow jersey on. We'll talk in week four or five about that.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm leaning on the new jersey to deliver a W today. Uh I'm excited to see what Jamar Chase can do, what T. Higgins can do. I was at the grocery store and I already had somebody that I was wearing the jersey, and they're like, I got T. Higgins in my fantasy team. I need him to cook. And I'm like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, me too, but I don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, like, yeah, tell me about it. I don't know. I have no Bengals on my fantasy team this year. And I'm like, yeah, I need them all to cook. Like, hey, I want to be, I want it wouldn't it be amazing if uh Mr. Yoshibas uh becomes the second coming of football Jesus and somehow uh puts up a million touchdowns and just goes off. I'll take it. I don't care. Um but regardless, you can see I think we win. I don't know why. My my my brain tells me to be cautious, but something tells me we win. On the season, I'm my now my cautious optimism creeps back in. I I don't like to say 10 and 7, or it's it's like you said, that's a squeaker with other teams being as good as they are, uh, even in our especially in our division, but you know, if we let ourselves drift beyond, and what does the rest of the conference look like and who we'd have to contend with to show up in the Super Bowl again? I I don't know that unless it's a real hard fought 10 and 7, and like these are great teams that we lost to and and beat, uh, which not all of them are. Um yeah, I don't know. Maybe give them 11 wins. Maybe I just skew towards optimism and say 11 wins on the season. I'm sitting here looking at the schedule and I'm like, I see winnable games, and there are other people on the internet talking about they're gonna lose to the commanders and they're gonna lose to the Jags. I'm like, no, come on. There's talent there, and like last season was a different tale, but like this is a different team in some key spots. Talk to me at uh when the game is over today, right? We're gonna watch, we're gonna watch the team play, and who knows? We may come back on here thinking we're gonna go undefeated and win the Super Bowl. Um we may come back on here after the game and be defeated.
SPEAKER_01So partner, I hope that's not the case today. Uh for sure.
SPEAKER_00All right, friends. Uh we thank you for rejoining us. It was a quick break, just a small three-year break, no big deal. What's three years between friends and fans? Uh we're gonna we're gonna shut down these mics and go watch some football. Who date? Hoodet!
SPEAKER_02Get the points up on the board and win the game for the head.
SPEAKER_00Welcome back, Bengals fans. Those of us who survived uh whatever that just was. Uh I'm gonna get right into it. No pessimistic.
SPEAKER_01So pessimistic and defeatists over here after a win, sir.
SPEAKER_00How has a I've never had a win feel so much like a loss. I don't understand it. I'm supposed to be excited, and and I was, for certain. Uh in the in that first half of football, like the energy was incredibly high in this household. There was a lot of celebratory yelling and screaming and clapping and chanting. The fight song was sung. And then by the end of it, we come away. It's a win. But I am exhausted. I am concerned.
SPEAKER_01You act like this is your first week with the Cincinnati Bengals.
SPEAKER_00Every year, every year is the same newness. It's like it just resets.
SPEAKER_01Hey, um, if I didn't interject a little hope into this, right? This is the NFL. You played a really good Tampa Bay team today, right? Offensively, defensively. They're a good they're a good club, right? But after week one in the NFL, you're one and oh, right? That was the goal, right? Be one and oh, right? Yes, it wasn't the best. Jamar Chase, four targets, 15 yards, 12 yards, something like that. Not great, right? T. Higgins, um a non factor until he was the biggest factor i in in in in the game, right? But I think we saw glimmers. Today of what this team can be, right? I think as we go throughout the week and we look back and we look a little deeper, right? On the surface, again, I I get you, man. I'm with you. It was not a clean football game. The offense definitely didn't look crisp. Um, but you know, your defense shows up big, right? Your investment, we talked about it another before, your investment on that side of the ball. I think today you can say, hey, it paid off, right? We caused four cornovers, right? Um the offense at least in the first half. And how many times have we talked about Bengals football, Reds baseball, right? Early in the season, your offense is a little lagging, right? The offense, it takes some time to get that gel and to get the jive. And, you know, like it or not, Chase at the end of training camp with the knee, you know, maybe it's a factor, maybe it's not, right? But, you know, you just didn't seem in sync. But I think the important thing here is it feels a little greasy, it feels a little grimy. I think we all need probably to sit down with a uh with a malops and a glass of water and kind of expanding games. But we're one and oh. We're one and oh after week one, right?
SPEAKER_00All right. So here's here's the yes. So, but but here's what I'm struggling with. So so first the good stuff that is just uh so the the f I mean a tale of two halves, first of all, which I just don't understand, and like Bengals Twitter seems to agree. The first half of football, the defense, like we talked about before the game, like just annihilated my expectations. I had no clue that this new defensive unit was capable of what they were doing. I mean, they made the Buccaneers look just absolutely embarrassing on the surface, and I want to come back to that. But it was just phenomenal to watch. Great defense. And I was willing to forgive an offensive uh sort of motion in the first half that was doing what you kind of expect to do. Like I even was was was just chatting with my wife hey, this is what they do. You got Chase is gonna be double-teamed, they have to account for Higgins more so than just a one-on-one. So now they you you've got these other guys they're gonna feature. And I'm like, I expect to see that. I expect to see Gaseki getting a ton of targets and whatever. I was like, that's what you do in the first half of football. And then when the D-coordinator and his team make their adjustments, now they've got to go, hey, we got it, we can't just let Gosaki just stay open at all times. We got to account for him, and that's where you should see your star power start to show up because now the defense is just spread too thin. And then we get to the second half of football, and I watch a defense that seems to have decided that they had already won the game. And here's the other thing in that in that space that caught my eye. The first half was about turnovers and forcing them, and that's amazing. That's what you want. But I watched that second half of football, and I don't think I saw a pass broken up or well defended at all. Like every pass that Baker Mayfield was tossing was being caught. And for good chunks of from anywhere from like 10 yards to 20 plus yards. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Like I think even at the halftime reporter was talking to like Todd Bowles and basically like, hey guys, like we're moving the ball. If we just stop making mistakes, like we're good. And I'm like, he's right. So the defense had a big, splashy, showy turnout today with turnovers and points scored. But what worries me going forward is the fact that I saw Baker Mayfield and his offensive team just being able to toss the ball around without any sort of I saw a lot of flashes from last year's defense. And I like, you know, we won, and I want to be super excited, but I'm like, okay, I I I've seen this before. I saw running established, I saw good passing, I saw, you know, missed tackles. It's game one. I'm trying to be forgiving because again, we did win. They got it done, right? Good teams find ways to win, blah, blah, blah. And then I saw the offense in the second half not do any of that crap that I was predicting. You didn't see Chase get involved, you didn't see Higgins get involved. Man, Bengals Twinner was all up in arms in the first half. Oh, this is P S defensive pass experience on Chase. Who cares? Right? Like, fundamentally, like, I gotta be that guy right now. Like, normally I'm the guy, but I'm like, Revs can't just drop the. But at some point, okay, that was one pass. Where was any other targeting for these two guys? Like, T. Higgins got a little action, had a cool mid-air catch with a guy in mid-air holding him. That was cool to see. But like, in the in the second half, I didn't see anything manifest. And that to me, when I was texting you during the game, I didn't realize this until it came up on the screen. Both head coaches were also calling the offense. And I'm like, hey, Zach Taylor, you are not normally you ever be Todd Bowles or other head coaches that have done that successfully. You are terrible at it. You have a long track record of being terrible at it. You remain terrible at it. What is it gonna take for this man's ego to ratchet down and say, I'm the head coach, not the offensive coordinator. Let me get a specialist to do their job. Because I'm not good at it. I I may have a vision, but I can't execute it. And I'm being my ass is being saved year after year after year by like, Burrow finds a way to do it. In a couple years ago, the defense might find a way to do it today. But my God, my God, I I can't tell you how much time I spent screaming at my TV. Screaming at Zach Taylor with his tiny little little tiny teeth and his slits of a mouth that just your arms want to jump through and choke him. Stop like you gotta stop Zach Taylor. Yes, yes, you took this team to the Super Bowl once. But let it go, right? Let it go. Release, let go and let the OC. Anyway, so that it was all just like I guess my hopes are so high for this season that even though we won, and that is to be celebrated, and we should enjoy that. We get to go into the into the work week with our heads held high. But I saw a lot of stuff where I'm like, if they don't fix this, like we said in the book before, there are other good teams that now have one, they got one dictate to go watch and and adjust.
SPEAKER_01For sure. For sure. Yeah. But you know, it's it's week one and you came away with a win. That doesn't mean things don't need to be cleaned up. Um but you know, I think you saw on display today just how many weapons the Bengals have, right? Um a lot of guys who you you don't know their names. I I was impressed with the Myers kid out of the CFL looked really good today. Yeah, I mean it's a great story. Uh coming up big in big spots, right? Uh Gazeki had a had a had a great game. And you know, Tampa Bay and their defense is very good. And it's week one. These guys have been able to prepare defenses for this game for six weeks, seven weeks in training camp, right? It's kind of it's one of those, you know, like you've got all the time in the world. We can we could do a lot here, right? And going back to the fact that, you know, offense has always seemed to be a little behind the defense early in the early in the season, whether it be timing or people, you know, offensive weapons being nicked up coming out of training app, whatever it is, it just always seems to flow that way. And I think we can all agree here the offense wasn't, you know, clicking on all cylinders today. You know, um Joe, I I I I I think Joe does what Joe does, right? He distributed the football well, he hit the open man, but even Joe Burrow, not flawless today. The big six the pick six was was a big small. I mean, it was bad, right?
SPEAKER_00Like a rookie move. That you just wonder what was going through his mind right there. Like, or very bad, right? I mean, go blank. Like it happens to all of us sometimes. You're in the big presentation, you know what exactly how you want to open, you get there that day, and you just like bam. He's he must have stood up the line. I was nervous when that play was starting, too, because I saw him go to his wrist strap, you know, play menu and change the entire play. And something about it, I was like, I don't feel like this works out well often. Yeah. Right? Like, I just I like the he's had moments where he could change the offense, call the offense from the line, and do good stuff with it, or make magic happen. But he's had other times where it's like, uh-oh. Like, is he gonna make the right call? And he shifted that offense, and I was like, I don't know what's about to happen. And then boom, next thing you know, just a just an easy pick six. Yeah, which seemed to have just the offense never even fully recovered from that. Now we got McPherson. I mean, thank God for McPherson, not to hate on the man.
SPEAKER_01Money Mac, man, hitting 51 into 55. Hats off to the guy that has him on their fantasy team, which would be this guy with two thumbs that scored 16 out of the kicking position. Thank you, Mother Mac. But, you know, uh, you know, just going on it, you know, yes, I will agree with you. There is there's a lot of things. I was with you and the the folks that I'm with, I mean, two state championship-winning football players here in the great state of Kentucky, um, blatantly saying, We're getting held like several times the offensive linemen, tackling defensive lineman, no call. I thought there were two instances where the defense gets there early on our receivers, and you know, just flat out not called. Um, you know, call that what it is. I'm never gonna throw a game at the refs or try not to at least, because you got to make the plays that are there. But again, I think as this week goes and the sloppiness, uh, especially on the defensive side of the ball, called off for lining up all sides four times in the first half. These are these are mistakes we got to clean up, right? I I don't think anybody absolutely just makes you want to rip. I I don't have any hair, neither you, which is good because I wouldn't have any hair left after today. But, you know, these are things that I think, you know, we we see those things. They need to be cleaned up, right? But as we get a little further away, um, I mean, listen to the postgame, which I did, and you know, you you start to realize there were some bright spots here. You know, Tampa Bay is a good defense, and I think everybody around the league agrees that Tampa Bay is a very good football team. This was not playing the Cleveland Browns coming out where everybody's like, that squad is an absolute dumpster fire, right? Where you should have walked them by 50 points, right? But at the same time, you know, I think that there's definitely things we need to clean up, but areas of the areas of the ball, areas of the game that looked good. The offensive line, by and large, look good all day. They gave they gave Joe the pressure or the time that he needed against a very exotic blitz defense, right? Zone blitzes, zone reads, all that kind of stuff. We we hear other stuff kicked around a lot. I was actually pretty impressed with how well the offensive line play, gaping holes, especially in the first half, less in the second, but you had a lot of running room for Chase Brown, which was good, right? That that gives you some positive stuff to hang your hat on. Joe Burrow under center, right? Didn't running plays coming out, which was good to see. We talked about that before as well. How much shotgun will we see? How much under center? I think they ran the offense okay out of under center here, right? Um, the defensive line, again, I'll go back to you made your investment. You asked these guys to step up, you paid them the money. There's a lot of money in that defensive line right now, and they were in the backfield all day long, creating havoc, turnovers, pressures, sacks. I mean, it was good. I mean, it as good as you want to be, Dexter Lawrence shows up. Um, the other guy whose name we can't even want to pronounce shows up, two sacks, two fumbles forced. You have your back end of the secondary, and you know, you know what we didn't hear a lot of talk about today? Our cornerbacks. And why? Because they weren't getting beat like drums on the outside, right? You've got some very capable receivers on that Tampa Bay offense, and we didn't hear a lot of talk about the cornerbacks, and that's really, really good, in my opinion, because it means your guy didn't we he wasn't running his back to the football a whole lot of the time because he wasn't getting beat deep. So um, again, I I think that do you have reason for concern for sure, but I think there's also a lot of bright spots that again, week one, we're one and oh, we can move on. You know, the team you play next week, supposedly one of the better teams in the league, they gave up 38 today, right? To a Bills offense, and everybody's kind of like, who are they? What are they gonna be? I know you got Josh Allen, but you know, what's going up there on up there in Buffalo? So, I mean, I think there's a lot that we can kind of build off of here. Now it becomes the great, how do we show up week two, week three, right? Can we take some steps? Can we clean things up? Can we make this better? Because there are definitely I'm the first one, positivity. I don't know where it's coming from. There's right spots out there, but there's also some things where you scratch your head and say, guys, we got to clean this up if we're gonna be a competitive football team for the rest of the year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, Derek Henry and the Ravens put up like 144 yards and three touchdowns today. Like, and I'm not even sure who they played, but like that's just a man who we already know is a monster. We've got him to deal with. I feel a little bit better about the opponents that we're gonna face in our in the run game defense because that D-line, I really don't have anything bad to say. Like, just that was my bright spot is watching. They looked good all day, man. Looked just chaos. Baker Mayfield never was comfortable. He did what he does, which you'd expect any kind of NFL like mid to upper caliber quarterback to do under pressure. Like he got the ball out and he's got good receivers, but he wasn't having a lazy day today. Right. Obviously not. And that's that's amazing. That's all you could ask, and that's something we didn't have last year. I'm still second half just push shown a giant bright light on it. I'm not seeing receivers, you know, uh be interfered with, you know, not in a penalized sense, but like where their completions aren't happening. They're catching the ball. Yeah, bigger midfield. Yeah, they're good receivers. But and I look, if I got to find a bright side there, it felt like, again, I don't have stats, and I I'm not gonna go look them up. I got stuff to do. But it felt like yards after the catch were contained in a way that we didn't see last season. So yeah, guys are hitting 20 yards a catch, 15 yards a catch. That's infuriating, especially if it's like third and three, third and four, third and five, where it's like, would have been great to see a huge defensive stand and get some three and outs, like, uh, or or even some key third down stands to force more punts. It was a very low punt game. But when completions were made, there there were orange jerseys on the receiver. So that's a that's a plus. Were there just a tail of two? Did anybody punt? Yeah, there there were punts. Like uh, we punted. I mean, our first offensive uh our first offensive um uh what cycle was uh three and out and we punted. So like it was just there you go, okay. But it was low, it was low. It was not a not a lot of punts in this game, for good or for ill, right? Like that kind of means different things. And when we are not receding a lot of punts, you know, it's either first half, it just felt like a lot of razzle dazzle. Like, yes, you you force these plays. This is what they're not just gifts. You had to make them fumble and you had to be on the ball. Like, that's all to the good. That's all to the defense's credit. But it feels like somebody who got rich with some scratchers, uh, right, and bought a huge house that they can no longer afford to pay the taxes and upkeep on, versus somebody who has sound and thoughtful investments that pay dividends and allow them to grow their wealth consistently over time. Right. I feel like that would be that just came to me. Like, that's how I feel the Bengals won today is like Mima got everybody scratchers for Christmas and a couple of them hit. And they were geeked, and they all went out and bought cars and houses, jewelry, and for vacations, and went to the strip club and just burned the cash. And the second half of football, they're like, uh, we keep scratching, and uh occasionally we're getting win a new ticket, right? And that's it. We didn't get another multi-million dollar, you know, luck of the draw, right? Yeah, sure. You you scratched the ticket, you bought it, good for you. You you wouldn't have won if you hadn't done that. But a lot of it was like, you know, luck. Some of that was Tampa Bay, making mistakes, making stuff, and you capitalize. That's what worries me. I yeah, you said it, and I will concede it, I will allow it. This is the first game. We won first. Joe Burrow's healthy. And then before I said, I'd take it if we lost, like, you know, humiliatingly, and is he's healthy. So we didn't lose, and he's healthy, so that's a win. And I just hope in the spirit of things we've that the Bengals have done this year, including the offseason, that we've not seen before, hopefully, we'll see something else that I feel like we haven't seen in a very long time, Defeber. Like thoughtful adjustments to the way they play, to look at the film and go, hey, all these procedural penalties stop, have to stop. You get one free clean them up. You cannot do that. Nobody here is such a rookie that they don't know how to line up at on at the line. That's stupid. And another team's gonna make you pay, like, dearly for those mistakes. You know, Joe made a terrible decision with that pass, like, whatever. It ain't great. He ain't perfect. He's gonna beat himself up harder than anybody else will, so um he'll figure that out. I mean, does Zach Taylor go home and sit in front of a mirror and uh and really dig into and some introspection? And no, we know that no, ego's too high, but what what pivots is he gonna make? Like, how do you not how do you not steem to have Jamar Chase and T. Higgins feature prominently in your passing offense? Like, yay, Mike Gosecki, and Yoshivaz for a couple, and right, the new kid. Like, that's great. That's great. You want depth and weapons. That's important. You gotta have that stuff. Keith's defense is honest. But look around the league today, and in other teams, the stars that you expect to see making plays are making big plays. And we've got, yeah, there's no question about the talent. It's the scheme, it's the it's the coaching, it's the design. It's always been a weak spot, and that's not gonna change. We just have to hope somehow that like Zach Taylor gets with like Chat GPT and comes up with some new play design or something, right? Like just spend some time with AI and figures it out. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Um I it it feels good to me, but I'm just I'm nervous.
SPEAKER_01I agree. I I I think at times, especially as a fan and as a guy that kind of peers into the football behind the fandom a little bit more, I I can say that the football looked unimaginative. Especially in the second half, right? It looked a little lackluster, right? Where you're trading field goals for touchdowns, and that's never a spot you want to be in, right? Um but again, last year we couldn't count on the defense to win us a game, and today we did. We talked about before maybe they steal you one, two, three games today. Well, it maybe I didn't want it to be the first one, but it looked like the defense kind of stole us this one, right? Kept Baker Field, Baker Mayfield just in check enough in that Tampa Day, Tampa Bay offense to say, hey, we're gonna come out of here with a W in week one, which is good. I would rather be one and O than O-1. Uh, I would rather be one and O with my quarterback healthy and everybody on the field, no major injuries, than 0-1 with a busted up Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, any of them guys, right? Um, but you know, regardless of the scheme that gets thrown against you, at some point this year, Jamar and T and Joe are gonna have to pick up the yoke and win a ball game or two, right? And at this point, early as it may be, I think the question is still out there. Can we, do we have the ability when I need to throw Jamar Chase the football? Do I have to play where I can say, I don't care, the ball's going to Jamar, and Jamar's gonna get it because we need Jamar Chase, the best receiver in the NFL, to catch this ball and get us a first down, score us a touchdown here, put us in in range for an Evan Mack field goal, right? Whatever it might be. And I think that question's still there, right? Is today when you felt like it was time for what Of those big guys to show up. Now, late in the fourth quarter, T maybe a game-sealing catch over the middle, right? Um, and that's what you want from T. Higgins. But I think just the lack of Jamar Chase in this offense this week is a little concerning to me. And as you go forward, like you said, there's a there's a million things, the procedural crap that's got to get cleaned up. But one of the big things is where is Jamar in a big game when you need to find the Jamar Chase button to throttle? How do we get there to hit it? And I think going into week two, that's still a question for us, right? It didn't show up week one. We weren't able to scheme him open. Yeah, I'm sorry, your name's Jamar Chase, you're the best receiver in football. You're gonna see a double team every week. They're gonna bracket coverage you, right? That's it's how it's gonna go. So, yes, I love the fact that we got other people involved and that Joe's able to spread the ball around and the offense doesn't quote unquote stall, but in the second half, we felt stuff in the mud. Like we needed to push. And at some point this year, we're gonna have to reach back. That push has got to be Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, and Joe Burrow, right? And I didn't see it like I wanted to today. It felt like when we were at the point where we could go in for the kill, um, it it just that that kill switch wasn't there. We didn't have the ability to get the ball into a big play maker's hand to say, this is the Cincinnati Bengals football game. Tampa Bay, you're done. And welcome Jamar Chase, welcome T. Higgins, welcome Joe Burrow. Here's the foot on the neck, the nail in the coffin. So I think that's still a concern as we go into week two. Hopefully, that's a question that we that we can answer quickly here in this season.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, look, this stuff's not new, man. Like Jamar's been getting double teamed since he entered the league, and the problem's been the same. Zach Taylor, and I'm putting it on him because if he wants to play dual role and he wants to be that guy, then I'm gonna focus my frustration at his ace. You steen to get these guys open. You know he's gonna be double teamed. That's not new. And I feel like Zach Taylor's approach is, no, well, that's okay. That's cool. That's what we want. He'll he'll take two defenders' attention away and then we'll work with what's left. And it's like, no, man, the elite teams with elite talent don't, they don't just aren't just, you know, satisfied by this incredibly talented receiver draws two defenders, and that's his job now. I don't care if he ever sees the ball so long as he's double-teamed. They find ways to deal with that reality. Hey, fact is he's getting double-teamed. We know that going into it. So let's sit down at the whiteboard and let's rack our brains and find some nifty, clever ways to get this man open. And for the love of God, no old school AJ Green era, like hand him hand it off to him, you know, 10 yards behind the line and hope for a miracle. Like, there are better ways to get after it. I guess I just get really frustrated. Again, first day, first week of football across the league and hitting red zone and seeing things happen, seeing these teams find ways to get these receivers who are equally talented and equally double-teamed. The ball, it's it's just puts, it just leaves me in a state of like, we won, but uh it feels like it's a shallow win. If we'd have closed out after the first half, dude, I would be over the moon just homering it up. But we were so far ahead and so dominant in that first half, it felt like it should have just been, shut the door, we're done. Like all you have to do is keep playing like this. And you're gonna blow them out and send there's your message to the league. Like, hey, Tampa Bay's a good team that arguably got better in the offseason, and we humiliated them. Welcome to Cincinnati Bengals football this year. But we didn't. We didn't. We did a lot of the same, it must be in the concrete and steel where there's an Indian burial ground underneath where these stadiums are built, because it's the only thing I can come up with that how does it happen no matter who's who's quarterback, who's coach, it doesn't matter. Maybe the only consistent part is Mike Brown. Maybe he's according to X on the whole team for some reason, but like to see the same things, the same tendency to like forget there's a second half of football. Like, I want to go sit with these guys, but like you guys have been out of college football for a long time. This isn't, you know, again, Georgia playing WKU and it's 45-0 at the half, and you can legitimately put in the third string across there because they have no chance of coming back. This is the NFL. If you let a team hang in, they might very well win. And there's tons of examples of that. And I felt like that's what I was watching. And that's why I feel like this is a weird, soul conflicting win. Like, I want to be happy and excited, but I saw so much that felt like we eked it out and we scratched, we got lucky on our scratcher. And I'm like, that doesn't, you don't win championships that way, you don't win divisions that way, just by dumb luck, right? Sometimes you you take advantage, everybody gets lucky, and you've got to capitalize. I'm not discounting that. But you have to have like the fundamentals and the in place to the to be the wise investor, right? That you know you could get returns on on your on your investments and not just wait for Mimol's next round of stocking stuffers. You know what I'm saying? Like, so yeah, it's I'm gonna I'm gonna try to like keep my head up. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. Say you, not imaginative play calling. I I counter with randomly trotting Joe Flacco out for a hard count. Is imaginatives.
SPEAKER_01That is if that that gets my head scratcher of the week. Um, you know, uh to to try to trot your backup out um to get to try to hard count it. Like they didn't even let him run the football. Like I give you maybe you don't maybe Joe is you don't want him running a QB sneak, whatever. But you know, to swap out Flacco, I I didn't I didn't understand it. Um I would love to to hear what the reasoning was behind that. We never will, obviously. But um if if there was a play where I was like, man, that was real dumb. Why did we just do that? Why did we just change I everybody in the room that I was in said, what's wrong with Joe? Why isn't Joe Burrow on the field for this? And I was like, I saw that. There was no way Joe Flacco was taking that snap. By the way, I thought they would.
SPEAKER_00I thought they would. I legit was like, okay, it's third and short. They are deep in the red zone. Like, if I remember correctly, like this is gonna be okay. We're gonna get some wackiness, right? They're gonna pull the veteran in and let him run a play and like blow defenses' minds. When they're like, wow, they legit put their backup in and ran a real play. Like, I was ready for it. I'm like, what did they draw up? What did they scheme up for this? And it just went out to do a hard count, didn't get them, and then just went back to the sideline. And I'm like, wow, that is innovative. Really keeping them on their toes, Zach. Never you never know what old Zach Taylor's thinking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I um I scratched my head there, but um again, I think my feelings on this game are much maybe a little more muted than yours, but um I'm hopeful. I think we saw some bright spots today. Um I wasn't completely enamored with the offense of play calling. I thought the defense was was really good today. Um and week one. We come out with a W. Um, that's a good thing. You've got a tough game next week. I think these first four are gonna be a really tough stretch for the Bengals. You come out of this two and two, three and one. I think you're looking really good. And you're gonna have to win one, you're gonna have to win a few of these uglies, right? And, you know, I I I agree. I I wanted to stomp throat punch, whatever you want to say, you know, first win. But today wasn't that day. It was a little uglier, it was a little grittier. I don't think that anybody is jumping up and down and saying, hey, you know, we're this is absolutely what we thought it was gonna be. We're we got the Super Bowl locked up already. A lot of questions still out there, but I don't know. I I I can't be too upset at a one-on-one start um for these these 2026 Bengals, um, you know, in the grand scheme of things.
SPEAKER_00At the end of the day, we won. It's a W with the it's a it's a W in the win-loss column. Um we felt it. We talked about it, we delivered, and I'm gonna I'm gonna go try to I'm gonna try to dig deep and and find the glory in this W. It feels it feels weird. It's a weird one, but it's a win nonetheless. Um excited to be back doing the pod. Excited to uh recover from this week, excited, looking forward to next week. I think that'll be where some some things we really get, some tells. We can really get a we'll have two data points. We can start to draw a line. Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01So I I absolutely think so. Next week's uh, you know, you gotta you got another really good football team. You're on the road, which is always hard in the NFL. Uh you're gonna come off a team that is pissed, man. They're mad. They didn't want to go to Buffalo and lose, and they did. Um so, you know, they thought their defense was all that. They gave up 40 points damn near today. Um, so I I would expect that you're gonna you're gonna come out against a route up Texas team uh tomorrow or next week. And I think um it's time to answer the questions. Do the stars show up? Do they shine out? Can we find Jamar Chase, uh put him on a milk cart and something? Let's get him to that game because I think he he becomes a factor, regardless of how good this defense is going to play the rest of the year. Um if you can't find Jamar Chase from you need to find Jamar Chase, I think you've got bigger problems as a Bengals. But like you said, next week's another opportunity. We'll go to second data point. We can start to draw some lines. Even us stupid fans will be able to draw some lines after next week. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00All right, my friend, who day, another uh well, the first of hopefully many W's, uh another roller coaster of being a Bengals fan, because nothing can ever be easy, far be it from us. Uh, but we won. So with that, we can sign off. Hoodé, my friend. Huday, who day, sir. Huday, who day.