It's the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Score early this
NFL season with Fan Duel, America's number one sports book. Right now,
new customers get one and fifty dollars in bonus bets with any winning five dollars
money line bet. That's one hundred and fifty bucks if your team wins.
If you've been thinking about joining Fan Duel, there's no better time to get
in on the action. The app is super easy to use. There's a
wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders,
and more So. Visitfanduel dot com, slash locked on and kick off the
NFL season. Fan Duel, official partner of the NFL. Cincinnati Bengals lost
DJ Reader early on Saturday, so we got a sneak peek at what they
might do to adapt their defense without him. Let's get into it. You
are Locked On Bengals, Your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked
On Podcast Network. Your Team Day, Bengals fans, and welcome to another
episode of the Lockdown Bengals Podcast. I'm your host, Jake. Let's go
join today by Mike Santagat as we review the film from a long time ago.
Now Saturday, the Bengals played the Vikings. We're going to get into
some of the adaptations we might see from the Cincinnati Bengals on defense and on
offense if Jamar Chase misses this week. But with the status in the air,
we are going to start on the defensive side of the ball. Today's
episode brought to you by the Game Time app, where you can use promo
code locked on NFL to get twenty dollars off your first purchase of last minute
tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And Mike wants to talk about on the defensive
side of the ball, including Mike Hilton fantastic day, Miles Murphy continuing to
trend in the right direction. Some things did go well for this defense,
despite Nick Mullins putting up twenty four points, despite some of the things that
didn't go so well, and despite losing DJ Reader and the run Dee was
not one of the things that for the most part in this game was very
good. They had to change the way they were approaching run defense without DJ
Reader, though, what were the big changes we saw from lou Ana Rimo
when DJ reader was to clear down essentially wholesale philosophical changes on how you defend
the run, where with Reader in they will slow play everything. I mean,
but that is guys are controlling their gap. A lot of gay Reader
is going to be two gapping or gap and a half. Sometimes they have
Hill doing that as well. And you're gonna go slow. You're not going
to try to get penetration. You're going to try to destroy this block and
be able to clog everything up so that these are all one yard games.
They tried that for a little bit after Reader went down, but the guys
weren ale to do it because he's kind of the key cog there, he's
the nose. He's taken up both A gaps tupau. Whoever they had in
there wasn't going to be able to take up both a gaps. And actually
they were getting kind of driven off the ball a little bit, so they
switched it. And the first thing is that they started kind of stunting a
little bit or sending some pressures, and that is going to be playing fast.
And there are two different plays. They spiked the end and that is
that end is in the C gap and he's just gonna slant inside to the
B gap And usually cross the face of the tackle, and outside of that,
you still need a ce gap defender. So out goes a linebacker,
and that linebacker is going to come free most of the time because the tackle
goes, oh crap, I gotta take this guy so that he's not a
free runner. And now, well there's a different free runner. So that
happened to get Logan Wilson a free tackle. They got a few run stops
doing that, but it becomes a very volatile way to play run defense.
You'll probably get more tea because you're trying to penetrate, you're trying to slant
get guys free, but at the same time, you're probably also going to
leave some stuff available for these backs to take advantage of when something doesn't work,
because now instead of slow playing and letting it, you know, clog
everything up and don't allow any holes. While when you're playing fast sometimes those
holes get created. And you can kind of think about how teams played the
Bengals not this week but the last two weeks, which the Vikings do fast,
but that's a whole different thing. They're way different than any defense.
But like the Jags, they took advantage of Jags. They want to play
fast, they get penetration, so let's just trap that guy. So now
you have to be able to lookout for those type of things where they weren't
trapping the three techs in the Bengals defense very often because they're like, well,
that guy's not getting up field. He's reading run, play run,
then pass instead of play pass then run, or at least get penetration versus
try to hold your gap. It does lead to a more aggressive style of
defense. You saw, for example, on the first play of the second
half, where DJ Turner just needs to make the tackle on the edge.
Logan Wilson gets a free run through, but the running back is able to
react in time and bounce it and everybody's playing fast, like you said,
and he's able to try to cut it off of a tight end block that
seals dack Hill inside and he has one on one with DJ Turner and makes
DJ Turner miss and there's nobody behind it. There's no help. And you
did see that from both safeties and linebackers playing more on the perimeter. You
saw the linebackers trying to, like you said, trying to feel faster,
trying to find those run throughs, and it does lead to some of those
really nice tackle for losses, but also opens you up to some things.
On a scale of one to ten, how worried are we about the run
games of the next few opponents? Obviously Cleveland has some injuries on their offensive
line and that's a few weeks away, but has presented a tough run game
all Kansas City and Pittsburgh in the next two weeks. Though, what's your
concern level on a one to ten scale for just runs up the middle essentially
for those teams? Uh? Eight? Yeah, I was already concerned,
but at least I thought like, well, they won't be able to attack
the a gaps with Reader there. I was like, well, they could
kind of attack a lot of places right now, but you could probably sell
out a little bit against the Steelers. It's Mason Rudolph. It might be
it was a limited participation for Kenny Pickett apparently on Tuesday. Okay, well,
whoever, it is not that I'm worried about Kenny Puckett. Whoever it
is. It's not a passing offense that you are praying that you're able to
stop. It's more so kind of the oes we can't stop that, which
I guess that did happen last Pittsburgh Gay. But the Chiefs. I feel
like the Chiefs I have more concerned though, just because they do have a
really good interior than Creed Hump for Joe Toney and Trey Smith. They also
are going to worry you enough in the past game that even though the pass
game isn't what it has been, I feel like you're never really going to
sell out to stop the run against the Pat Mahomes led Andy Reid led team.
Yeah, probably probably still going to try to play a little umbrella,
keep everything in front of you situation. So I've got quite a bit of
concern there. And then the Browns game is like that's their entire offense,
I mean, and play action, Joe Flacco underthrown deep ball, pass interference,
and sometimes they'll actually hit him apparently this year, but we'll talk about
that game in a few weeks when we get there. Mike Hilton stood out
for a really fantastic game on defense. You only had three tackles, I
think in this in the stat book, but successfully defended a screen, successfully
carried Justin Jefferson on a post that was almost kicked off because Mullin's underthrew it.
Had a few really good plays as a blitzer, particularly against the run,
a number of plays right at the line of scrimmage. He also blew
up the little throwback pass by getting into Jefferson's face on that little trick play
the Vikings ran, forcing him to rush his process and throw it into the
ground. Mike Keilton can help you, and if he's going to play like
that, that could be something that if they need to get more aggressive,
more creative with how they're playing run defense. Mike Kelton a guy that is
willing to do it both from the slot corner alignment and even from you know,
a linebacker alignment. We saw even a couple of times in this game
he had a run through the linebackers. It was exciting. But also they
ran more saw pressures than we've seen, and that is typically the pressure you
see whenever you see Mike Keilton make some tackle them back. And the saw
pressure is both sides, so Sam will saw Sam and Will are coming and
so both sides pressure coming. It's actually fun that in a few weeks or
next week, Spagnolo, that's what he's known for, are these saw pressures.
And now it feels like Ruma's gonna have to lean on those a little
bit, and they almost got caught with one. This is kind of a
cool play from Logan Wilson. They almost got caught on one because they brought
a saw pressure in the Vikings. Perfect answer, let's start a screen out
there because it's two on one for the Vikings not the Bengals. That is
a bad situation to be in. But Logan Wilson recognize what was happening so
fast. Oh no, he's just gonna sprinting out there, and he makes
a stop for like one yard. That's fantastic player. You're gonna need those
plays, and you're gonna need Mike Hilton playing well all to make up for
this because they're gonna be sending more stuff and they're gonna be sending me saw
pressures. The linebacker's got to have a quicker trigger. But yeah, anyway,
they're gonna send more saw pressures because that's at least I think they will,
because that's what they did in this game than they have in the previous
few weeks. And all that means is, hey, we might see some
Mike Hilton TFLs. It's exciting. It does lead to defensive lineman dropping into
mostly like spot drop zones as well, because they're generally dropping guys out when
they send those. They're not to sending like zero with the corner blitzes,
for example, a couple of Okay, I mean I know that they'll run
straight zero for sure. Like the Wilson play was a five man pressure,
so they weren't in a zero situation. It was I think it was a
fire zone situation. A couple other guys, and we're not gonna have time
to talk about in a great deal of depth. But Jordan battle not perfect,
but I thought was pretty good, particularly in run dye. I think
he was there where he was supposed to be. Again for the most part,
there's one play that we talked about before we started recording where he jumps
into the wrong gap that's exploited a little bit, but continues to play physical
and willing to play and getting to the right spot in the run game,
which is a welcome change of pace, and Miles Murphy continuing to trend in
the right direction with a couple of really nice plays against Christian Darisa. In
this one, we'll continue the conversation about adaptations and get into the offense a
little bit, as Jamar Chase might miss some time coming up next. This
episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Prize Picks, the largest daily fantasy sports
platform in North America. The easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy
sports. It's just you against the numbers instead of battling thousands of other players
pros Sharks, the spreadsheet Warriors. You just pick more or less on two
to six player stat projections and when you win, you get your money out
real easy. There are a ton of different ways to play with Prize Picks
as well. Love that you can combine multiple sports. You can go NBA
NFL crossovers. They have a reboot policy, so even if one of your
players gets injured, your entries can stay in play, and that occurs.
If your player exits a game in the first half doesn't return in the second
half, that player is rebooted. It's an insurance policy. The only daily
fantasy sports platform that has one of those right now at prize picks dot com.
Slash Locked on NFL you can use promo code locked on NFL forty first
a posit matchup to one hundred dollars again that's prizepix dot Com slash Locked on
NFL promo code Locked on NFL for a first a POSA match up to one
hundred dollars. Prize. Pix is Daily Fantasy Sports made easy. What's up,
everybody, It's Joe Marino, host of the Lockdown Bills and Lockdown NFL
Scouting podcast, and folks, if you like using debit over credit, I
just learned about something that's definitely a game changer. Discover cash Back Debit.
It's a checking account that rewards everyone with cash back on everyday purchases, which
means you can get cash back on tickets for the game, snacks, team
merch all with no fees, making this season a total win. Check out
eligibility in terms at Discover dot com Slash cash Back Debit, Discover Bank member
FDIC Mike, Let's switch gears talk offense and there's a lot to talk about
in this game with Jake Browning that we can get to. The First thing
I want to talk about is how they adapt if Jamar Chase has to miss
time, because it's one thing to not have Joe Burrow and it's incredibly impressive
what Jake Browning has done instead for Joe Burrow and in Joe Burrow Stead the
last few weeks, and they've done it multiple ways. You credit the offensive
coaching staff as well, obviously for things that we've talked about the last few
weeks, be it screen game, be it changing up the running game this
week, finding dagger as a consistent answer. I think every single time either
team ran any variation of dagger in this game, it was successful. But
more notably so I think for Jake Browning in the Cincinnati Bengals, but Jamar
Chase leaves a game to Bengals obviously still do enough to win, but Jamar
Chase misses twenty snaps in this game and might miss against the Steelers. And
if there's a place you're pointing to on the Steelers where you're thinking we can
exploit this, it's probably in that secondary. How do the Bengals go about
doing that or what signs do we see from them last week against Kings that
you can see them go back to if Jamar Chase has to mess I do
think they have an understanding of what Browning is most comfortable with, and like
you mentioned, dagger, but not just dagger, but also the wrap ends
on rays, spools, whatever you want to call that. It's also part
of the Cobo concept. But they got to that a lot. They got
to a lot of intermediate middle of the field stuff and is typically some type
of twelve yard in or fifteen yard in that they just hammered these guys with.
And Jake Browning is good on that. I think they're learning that Jake
Browning is not very good with the pick aside type reads where they cut it
down the middle. It's like millfield open, this's middlefield closed that way.
What he is good at is hitting all this stuff in the middle of field.
But what he's even better at, I think, and this has actually
got him into trouble, is how he threw the pick. But he he
is very willing to throw an alert and what that is is basically a lot
of times it's something that quarterbacks kind of just skip past, like the deep
ball on something that's really just designed to clear something out. But then Charlie
Jones Charlie Jones, and that's why I was I said this in our post
game, so I was incredibly impressed with the read from Browning there to make
that throw. Because we've seen Joe Burrow pass that throw up a number of
times. Yeah, and the first throw of the game, the Higgins deep
ball that he dropped. That was also the alert on the plane. It's
like, typically not something that you're gonna throw, but you know, he
kind of hangs there. He's like, if it's there, I'm throwing it.
Type of thing where I feel like a lot of especially backup quarterbacks,
are kind of terrified of doing that, Like, no, I need to
run the offense exactly how it's here so that I keep a job. Browning
doesn't really have that. Running has kind of like a whatever, man,
I'll just toss the deep ball. They'll be happy when it's his hands.
So I like that. I like that they're finding what works best for him.
I think maybe we just cut out smash concepts. Well, so let's
let's stay on topic here. What we're talking about first is what they did
and what they can do in the absence of Jamar Chase. Okay, well,
I think you get to that. I think you still get to the
rap ed, you get to the dagger concepts. You work intermediate, middle
of the field, high low reads. It's what he's been the best at
his entire time here and that's like the wrap stuff. That's the dagger stuff.
That's everything. Whether it's three levels, two levels, it doesn't matter.
Maybe they work some drive concepts in there as well. This past week.
I don't think they really did much with them, but I feel like
drive would be the outside receiver is going to run kind of like a drag
underneath shallow route quick and then the guy inside of him is usually going to
do outside release, go for about ten yards and then cut in and just
what you're thinking. Hilo linebacker stays on the comes down and tries to drive
on that shallow route. You can hit the ind behind them. They stay
back because they know that's cheese. And then you just take the underneath thing
and then usually try to get somebody that can actually run as the underneath guy
in there, so that you know it's not just three yards you can go
create, but working all this stuff that he feels comfortable with. That's what
you're going to have to do against Pittsburgh. Is what they didn't know that
they could do against Pittsburgh last time they played, because they had him go
out there in empty and run dragon line, which is a Burrow loves that
Burrough loves dragon line slant flat plus double slant. I know exactly where I
need to go, and he knows leverage and you know, middlefield, open,
millfield, clothes whatever. There was a very specific example that they ran
that, and Browning starts on the wrong side in this quick game, so
you kind of have to go throw something over there, like I can't reset
completely and go to the other side because the offensive lines thinking this ball is
coming out in two seconds, so let me just get this ball out Turfit.
Now you're not seeing that as much because he's more comfortable with the stuff
that they're trying to run. So you kind of hit that with or without
Chase. I think the one big change you're going to have is, well,
let's talk about two changes. One. I don't think the Steelers are
going to like play a lot of too high coverage with Chase, even though
Higgins is a great receiver. I think they're going to sell out to stop
the run, kind of like they did the last time they played. That
feels bold to me. When you're missing your two starting safeties, probably I'm
kind of expecting it. Well, one thing I talked with Luke about in
the crossover last week was something that the Vikings hadn't seen a lot when they
send these blitzes is when a quarterback's hot is throwing the vertical. The Bengals
did that a couple of times. It didn't always work, but Jake Browning
willing to push the ball down the field, and I think that that was
their mentality. Like you think about the quote that you know, Browning said,
Callahan told him before the game, I think you're going to throw for
five hundred yards. Like their approach to that game was They're going to be
aggressive and Jake Browning is going to find a void his zones and throw to
them. And I think somebody had the stats like against pressure, Browning had
a dot of like eighteen yards. Yeah, yeah, I think that was
Nate Tice or Robert Mays, one of those guys on the up Play Show,
the Athletic Show podcast. But yeah, like I think that. But
if I was guessing what the Steelers did, like what were we successful with
last time? Keep it eight in the box, stopping the run, making
that guy throw, And maybe they're not ready. They're probably gonna watch film
and see some of the stuff, so maybe they're gonna try to take away
some of the middle of field stuff and that gets into the whole chess game.
But if I was, if I'm them, I'm kind of kind of
thinking and confident of like, yeah, let's stop the run and make him
throw because that's what they did last time. It's like, yeah, we
trust our guys, So I think they're not gonna get as much too high.
We'll see, but I think they're going to sell it to stop the
run. And then the other part of not having Chase is you might not
try to run so much isolation stuff. For say, haven't done a ton
of that's more of a Burrow loves doing that because he's so good on like
back shoulder balls and turns those fifty to fifties into eighty twenty whatever you want
to talk about. So maybe you're not going to see a ton of that.
But at the same time, they are going to have the opportunity if
they do play a lot of single how to just toss the balls up to
Higgins if they want to. But that's what I'm thinking is just the two
things here are we're going to probably try to work more true drop back conflict
concepts versus try to work isolation concepts. And they're probably going to have to
have stuff that's going to beat a lot of single high plus one in the
box stuff. That's a small thing, but they also lose some of the
Jamar Chase motion gravity stuff that they like to use to move defenses and kind
of set stuff up away from that motion or even they try to go to
him. They also lose some of the quick you know, RPO alert or
RPO access stuff that they would run with Chase, where they just get chase
the ball at the line of scrimmage. Maybe there's a blocker over there to
help, or usually there's a blocker over there to help, and you're trusting
him to make a guy miss because he's very good at that. They might
still try to do that a little bit. That hasn't been as big a
part of the offense in recent weeks second level, so they can still hit
those if they want. Against Jacksonville, they could, but that's something they
went away from, and I think that's such a game plan specific thing.
That's why I struggle to draw too many long term conclusions from any individual game,
because they are very defense reactive. Right now, they're changing what they're
doing on offense I think quite a bit to account for what they're expecting to
get in a matchup perspective. In that chess game aspect is quite interesting.
But one thing that is encouraging is how well Browning has been distributing it to
a ton of different targets. You go look at the number of players that
had catches, a number of players that had targets against Minnesota, and even
really for his entire tenure playing quarterback for the Bengals, he's pretty comfortable throwing
the ball to anybody, and so you do lose some of the individual dynamism
and playmaking from Jamar Chase. But maybe that's a sign of sustainability. We'll
talk signs of sustainability. What else we've seen from this offense in Jake Browning
that could lead you to buy in a little bit to finish up the show
coming up next. Today's episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by the game Time
app, the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets to a Bengals game.
If you're trying to get in for that last home game of the year,
or any event via music, comedy, theater, whatever your taste, game
Time has something for you, or your wife or your partner who knows they've
got killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat,
and a best price guarantee to take the guest work out of buying tickets.
No more stressing about whether you're going to have an instructive view or whether you're
going to be able to see well enough from your seat. They'll show you
exactly what you'll see, and if you find tickets in the same section in
row for less elsewhere, game Time will credit you one hundred and ten percent
of the difference, So you can take the guestwork out of buying tickets with
the game Time app to just download it, create an account and use promo
code locked on NFL. You'll get twenty dollars off your first purchase. Again,
create an account with game Time redeem code locked on NFL l O c
K E d O n NFL, you'll get twenty dollars off. Download the
game Time app today. Terms apply, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
This episode is brought to you by Filo. I'm David Harrison on the
Lockdown Commanders podcast. Do you remember when cable was a affordable Of course you
don't, because it's been so long since it was. There's nothing better than
unwinding and watching a little TV, But the hassle of finding what to watch
and where to watch it just isn't worth it these days, and that's why
I cut the cord. If you love TV, if you love saving money,
then Filo is your solution. Filo has shows, movies, and live
TV for just twenty five dollars a month. You can even try it for
free with their seven day free trial. No contracts, no commitments, no
hassles, just a better way to watch TV. Plus, Filo also has
unlimited DVR for one year, and Filo allows for multiple profiles and multiple streams,
so you never have to fight over who gets to pick what to watch
again, never miss a minute of shows like Tyler, Perry's Sisters and Yellowstone.
Filo has more than seventy channels like b E, T, MTV,
and AMC. Try it yourself with their seven day free trial. Sign up
today at Filo dot tv that's Philo dot tv and use promo code NFL to
get fifty percent off your first month. Again, that's promo code NFL at
Filo dot tv for fifty percent off your first month. Mike, let's stay
on the offense, finish up the show here, and if there's anything that
we need to revisit on the defensive side of the ball, they're always happy
to do that. But the big topic for me that I've been thinking about
that a lot of people have been thinking about. I mean, look at
the volume of Jake Browning analysis videos on the internet this week from Underdog,
from JT. O. Sullivan, the airtime that the Bengals are still getting
on the Athletic Football Show, and those are the ones that I ingest.
So if you're one of the people out there watching cable, watching NFL Network
and watching ESPN, I don't know how much they're talking about Jake Browning there.
I don't really care, but I do care about how sustainable things are.
They're not playing the best teams. They're playing backup quarterbacks. That continues.
They're playing flawed offenses. That continues even with the Chiefs. But at
three games now of pretty good play from Jake Browning, not perfect by any
means, but he's shown you his ceiling, I think, or that he
you can reach a pretty high ceiling at least. What are the things that
look sustainable for you after three weeks versus what are the things that you think
still need to be cleaned up or give you some pass. I thought this
game gave you a little bit of the uh, a little bit more feeling
of sustainability because he worked a lot of drop back and that was one of
the big concerns before this week, where he's always ahead of sticks. You
know, he's always got the run game. Almost everything is play action two
man concept type stuff, and I don't know if that's sustainable. What about
when the run game's not working. It's not that the run game didn't work
this past week. It was perfect, but I thought it it wasn't as
bad as what it was against Pittsburgh earlier this year. Well, and they
got way behind on the game script. Yeah, that's a huge problem.
They fell behind the game script, and that asked the question, Okay,
can you drop back and pass when they know you're going to pass? And
they were able to. Now is it going to carry over week to week?
I feel like that is there's a sample size question here. There's also
a question of can he get through a game without throwing the interception that it's
like, nah, it's Nick Tice. Once. I've talked about how his
feet are tell like Josh Allen's feet will tell him no one something. He
throws it anyway, and you do see on that play is in the side
of Jake Brown kind of like shuffle shuffle throws it anyway. It's it's like,
I know I need to move off this read, but it is what
it is. Can you get through that he did it without Chase. There
are questions about it, but I do think that it has looked fairly sustainable
the past three weeks. I think you're looking at different ways to win against
different defenses, against some one very difficult defense. In the Vikings, they're
running as they have a lot of the tenure of a healthy of a healthy
Joe Burrow is a lot of you know, solid concepts that makes sense and
work. A guy that is in Browning doing his best in terms of getting
to the right read, working, you know, with what's given, finding
the open guy, and then a little bit extra sometimes with like how he
hangs on alerts a little bit and was willing to throw those and probably does
a little too much stunt double stuff where he's trying to run around crash into
people. But overall it looks sustainable. It's just a question of can it
be consistent? Can it work week to week? And now you're facing the
team that really made this not look like it's gonna work. Can you go
and into Pittsburgh and do that against them? I think that's a big question.
And you hope the second time around with Pittsburgh helps. The offensive line
has been playing way better. You hope that helps. You hope that that
continues. They against Minnesota, Browning talked about took the responsibility of setting the
protection off of Jake Browning and let Ted Carris do it. Yeah, maybe
they've been doing that all along, but it was notable that Jake Browning took
time this press conference to shout out Ted Carris for handling a lot of that
work. And if Ted Carris can do that again, it lets Jake Browning
think about other things. He doesn't have to worry as much about setting the
protection. He has to hear the protection call so he knows where he needs
to be hot and all those things, of course, but it gives him
the opportunity to think more about what's the defense showing me, what are the
things they like to get to out of this look against the Vikings. You
never know what they're going to play based on the pre snap look. Like
that's the thing about the Vikings. If you go watch these ex quarterbacks Colt
McCoy and JT. O. Sullivan breaking down Jake Browning's tape this week,
what impressed him so much was how he was able to deal with pre snapost
snap decision making, and how he was able to get the ball to the
right place against these very exotic and difficult to figure out looks pre snap.
And Pittsburgh doesn't do as much of that. I don't think anyone does as
much of that as Brian Flora's defense in Minnesota. But where Pittsburgh challenges you
certainly with their pass rush and making things uncomfortable for you in the pocket,
but without the safeties in Pittsburgh, the weakness clearly to me is in their
back seven. So if you can protect, can Jake Browning settle in?
Can they find that rhythm for him earlier in the game, because that's really
what it is, right, It took them so long to figure out where
those plays needed to come. Some of the plays they could have had early
in the game. You have the Charlie Jones slow down on the alert ball
that we talked about earlier. We had the t Higgins drop on the other
alert pall that we talked I guess there's a couple of alert balls. The
cunt receivers off guard and Browning wasn't seeing things great. I messaged you during
the game that it felt like he was treading water. It felt like he
was drowning a little bit, until suddenly he wasn't, And so you got
to get to that suddenly he wasn't a little bit earlier in the game,
like more of the Colts game and find the right time to pull those levers.
The other thing that's going to be interesting is how the run game continues
to involve, because it did feel very different as we said it would.
Against Minnesota. They didn't do as much of the trap wham toss punished opposing
defense for getting upfield. They did have a pretty successful toss play Jase Brown's
best run of the day, but it was a lot more of the mixing
kind of game. The patient, set up your blocks, bounce it outside,
and they do need to run the ball better. Against Pittsburgh. I
think it's noteworthy that they got it back on track with Jake Browning being a
drop back passer, more pure progression stuff, not splitting the field in half
like you talked about earlier. But they did it without running the ball.
They didn't establish the run. They got some solid workout of the run as
a game went on, but they got back into the game throwing it with
Jake Browning. But if you have a run game going the way it was
going against the Steelers, that does make things harder because then there's I mean,
they got nothing against the Steelers that needs to be better. What changes
can they make there? Do you think schematically to help the run game have
more of it? Shot? Yeah, I think, well, one,
you're just going to be better execution, because I thought a lot of the
concepts that they kind of dialed up against Pittsburgh made sense to me. They're
trying to run long trap, they're trying to run counter. They're trying to
and if you watch the Bill's Cowboys game, it was almost all long trap
and some counter stuff, and they're playing a similar idea. They're playing an
odd front. They're playing five guys up front, and well Pittsburgh was playing
two and sometimes a safety walk down to make three guys eight guys in the
box and Dallas is kind of the opposite. They had five guys on the
line and one guy behind it. But still you're in a situation where those
angles line up so that that play is going to work. Your guard will
be able to get to that end outside linebacker whatever you want to call him,
and open up a hole. But you need everybody else to kind of
work out on that because those concepts that they're getting to aren't really concepts where
most most of the guys on those concepts can't completely fail their block. You
can lose the block, you can lose it slow, you could lose leverage,
but you can't lose so bad a guy crossed your face and you don't
even have a hand on him anymore. So that felt like the big issue
against Pittsburgh last time was that Alex Kappa would lose across his face to Keanu
Benton. The tight ends and wide receivers didn't give him anything in the run
blocking department. Which I also think that the Higgins is probably their best blocking
receiver and he missed that game, so he'll be in this one. So
maybe you can use him to dig some guys out that they weren't able to
do last time. I probably even without Chase, try to throw on a
little bit of motion, sprinkle ins, a little bit of eye candy in
there. Yeah, just go away from that. You have to, just
because I don't think that the spine, especially the linebackers and safeties for Pittsburgh
are going to be a strong suit. So you give him a little something
to look the wrong way. They might take it, especially without Minca,
like Mink would be a guy like I don't think he's going to fall for
that. But now the other guys, yeah, and Minka might not even
play, so I think, well, I think that he's been I think
sure, I think it would be very surprising if he plays. Okay,
But you know, let's mess with their eyes. Let's hit the angles.
Let's kind of work this so that it's the angles work out. Your running
back is going to have to find reads on a lot of these plays,
so you can use brown or mix, and I think more brown would make
sense in this game to just try to generate an explosive in there. For
if this all hits, he's hitting open field against the backup safety and he
might be able to make that guy miss and go for a huge game.
One of the most impressive plays for Chase Brown, and I mentioned this I
think on the post game show was running through the cameraon Binden tackle on the
screen early in the game personnel too, that was two running backs. Just
just love seeing that power from him because I didn't really see a ton of
that in his game prior to the last couple of weeks, So nice to
see that element coming along. The last thing I'll say then we're going to
get out of here is I've been really impressed with the coaching staff the last
few weeks, finding answers, finding the right levers to pool at the right
times, and that includes on the defensive side of the ball. That includes
on the defensive side of the ball against some vikings. I thought that Luna
Room for the most part, not always because you're not always going to be
right as a defensive coordinator, but I thought he mostly called a pretty good
game and then just didn't really get the execution he needed out of some guys
on the field at some times. And then justin Jefferson just went berserk at
times where you know, Mullins would float a ball out there to Jordan Addison
that turned into two touchdowns that were two of the stupidest touchdown passes I've ever
seen, and some of that's execution right, Like you have a chance to
make plays on the ball or to at least make a tackle there for Jermaine
Pratt and for DJ Turner, and DJ Turner had a game that he's going
to need to learn from and improve from. But I did think that on
both sides of all the coaching staffs have found some pretty good answers and have
called some pretty good games lately. But that's going to do it. For
this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. You can find Mike at Bengals Underscore
Sands on Twitter on It's always Game Day in Cincinnati the podcast. Until next
time, Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Who
day, and have a good one. Are you tired of purchasing tickets for
your favorite events being so stressful? If so, the game Time app is
for you. It's the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all sports,
music, comedy, and theater events near you. Forget planning and advance.
Game Time has deals on tickets right up to the day of the event,
and you can get exclusive flash sales on those tickets as well. Plus
the game time guarantee means that you'll always be in for the best price.
So if you find tickets in the same section in row for less, game
Time will credit you for one hundred and ten percent of the difference, and
you get images of your seats before you buy, so you know what to
expect when you arrive. And you can buy tickets in a matter of seconds
with just two taps and then you're all set. Download the Game Time app
Today, create an account and use the promo code locked on NFL for twenty
dollars off of your first purchase terms apply again. Create an account over at
game time and redeem the code locked on NFL for twenty dollars off. Download
game Time Today, last minute ticket's lowest price guaranteed. James Allen dot com
is the online destination to easily design a customized engagement ring and save up to
fifty percent compared to traditional stores. You pick a diamond, whether it's lab
created or Earth created. James Allen has over two hundred thousand conflict free stones.
Then you pick your ring setting and metal, and if you need some
help, they have real time diamond consultations available where an expert can walk you
through it all. Get twenty five percent off your order at James Allen dot
com code locked on. That's James Allen dot com code locked on. Playoffs,
talk about playoffs. That's right. The Cincinnati Reds are talking about playoffs
in twenty twenty four, but they've got to do some things to make that
a reality. What's up? This is jeffcar from the Lockdown Reds Podcast,
and I would love for you to join me and my co host, Steven
Offenbaker every day this offseason as we look at the Cincinnati Reds, what they
are spending, what they are doing, who they're training to make the team
a playoff team in twenty twenty four. We've been looking at this year as
the year that the window opens, and the way that they played in twenty
twenty three has led me to believe that that is still the case. However,
things need to be done. We're going to cover that on a daily
basis. All the rumors, all of the rumblings, all the grumblings about
what the Reds can do to be a playoff team in twenty twenty four.
That's the Lockdown Reds Podcast. We are wherever you get your podcasts, come
join us every day