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get it going on this Monday night. It's Bengals Line on the first Star
Logistics Bengals Radio Network in seven hundred WLW. Lancemcalister, Dave Lapham three hours
unfolding tonight, the final Bengals line of the season. We've got a Bengals
win over the Browns thirty one to fourteen. To wrap up, we've got
to look ahead to a very interesting offseason. And Dave Lapham, there was
much debate during the week in some corners about what the meaning of this game
was and what their draft pick might be. Oh, I know is this
In the end, it was a win, it was a division win,
it was a win against the rival. And if I could quote HERM Edwards,
you play to win the game, right, and the Bengals go out
on a winning note, And I'll take it absolutely. I mean it was
a flip the script of the opening game in Cleveland. The Cincinnati Bengals did
not have a red zone snap in that game. In this football game,
the Cleveland Browns did not have a red zone snap. The Bengals were in
the red zone four times. They scored four touchdowns. The Cleveland Browns red
zone defense is a sieth. They were thirty first in the NFL coming in
almost giving up a touchdown seventy percent of the time. They're over seventy percent
now. The Bengals smoked them four times in the red zone. The Bengals
had the ball for eleven and a half minutes more than the Cleveland Browns did.
Just the reverse of the game up in Cleveland. I mean they built
a thirty one to nothing lead. It was a lot to a very little.
The Cleveland did score a couple of fourth quarter touchdowns to make it a
lot more respectable. But in the Bengals, I mean, the ones were
going against the smattering of players. The Browns had out there, and they
did have quite a few guys from practice squad playing. It was a no
contest when the Bengals substituted more liberally. In the second half, the Bengals
had fouts and it was a weird half, five to three and outs and
one drive fourteen plays ninety nine yards for a touchdown, I mean, over
eight minutes off the clock. So they had one significant drive in the second
half and five to three and outs. It was crazy. It was tailor
two halves. Let's pick up immediate reaction after the game. Here's day with
Zach Taylor coach. Heck of a football game. I mean, guys stepped
up. Yeah, I'm proud of the way that they finished it, you
know, and closed out the right way. And the key today was getting
on them early. And so I felt like going into a halftime twenty four
ninh and our guys did a great job controlling with the control of the first
half, coming out playing a really good third quarter, you know, holding
them scoreless and having a ninety nine er touchdown drive and then gave it gave
a lot of guys an opportunity to get in there and be rewarded for their
efforts. This season. Ninety nine yard touchdown drive. I think in my
whole career, I've only been on one of those, and it was like
fourteen to fifteen plays. It took like, you know, eight or nine
minutes, kind of just like this one. And the feeling that you have
is just unbelievable. You feel like you're on top of the world. Yeah,
I wish I could say it feels easy. It didn't feel easy,
I know, I Jin said earlier this week. I said the Callahan,
we haven't had hardly any backup drives this year, and of course we get
the ball on the Inchhart line, but the guy's managed the situation the right
way, drew them off side several times on the drive. Things that we
work really hard on that only come up once a year. That happened to
come up in the last game of the year. Our guys executed him well
and we're able to get us a bunch of first downs to get the ball
in the zim. What about Joe Mixon fourteen rushes one hundred and eleven yards,
He had five carries of ten yards and more Brown had two. Browning
had one. I mean that you're talking about eight carries of ten yards and
more in the running game. That's pretty explosive. It was a good job
by those guys upfront, those guys at the back position, good job on
the perimeter. You know, they blitzed us to some of the times you're
gonna have tough runs that aren't great, and sometimes we're gonna be able to
hit them, and so there was kind of a balance of that today.
But I thought it was good to get some explosive runs going. How about
Yosi Vash Five catches on the day, two of them are touchdowns. Take
forty percent scoring efficiency on five catches. That's a pretty good day. Yeahs.
Good job staying alive in the progression. You know, in some of
those touchdowns, I think one of them is kind of a half scramble,
and one of them was late in the progression, and so just a good
job staying alive and making contested catches. So the entire division finishes with a
winning record. That hasn't happened in the National Football League since nineteen thirty five.
I mean, you know, of course, having even numbers fourteen and
sixteen game seasons, there have been five hundred records, but not over five
hundred. Last year. It could have happened in the NFL East NFC East,
but Washington tied an eight and one record so since nineteen thirty five,
and that says a lot about the AC North. And you always talk about
how tough this division is. We're proud to be a part of this division.
You know, there's some pride that comes from that. Unfortunately, we
didn't do enough to get ourselves in the playoff hunt. That'll be our focus
next year, obviously, to perform better and do a great job in the
division and check off all of our goals. But you know, it is
a tough division, and I think it's pretty clear to everybody that that's the
case. You mentioned that you're going to have your players. Everybody wants to
go, everybody wants to finish this strong. There was no sign of anybody
wanting to tap out. That says a lot about how they feel about each
other and how they feel about you and the culture of established. I think
the way that these guys went on the road last week and competed at the
bitter end and gave their best effort today shows the character we have in the
locker room. And despite the adversity we faced this year, not once to
everyone point fingers at anybody else. Everyone always took accountability. And I'm proud
to be a coach of a locker room, right that, proud to represent
a coaching staff that's like that in an organization. And we'll be back.
We're gonna put in the work. This is a bitter taste in our mouth
to end it today and not be able to play in the playoffs. And
that'll not that we need any motivation, but we certainly want to get back
in contention to play for more meeting things. Do you remember being in a
game before where each team had an interception on their first possession of the game,
not not that stands out to the man. Yeah, I mean that's
that's rare. That's kind. But you guys compartmentalize put it away in three
straight touchdown drives. I mean how important was that? Just to move on?
It was good. You need and in a game like this, you
need to get the momentum eily, you know, And because they're they're playing
with house money, you know they're gonna have a lot of energy on their
sideline. This guys getting opportunity to play, and so it's important to get
on a team like that early and try to squash that hope, and our
guys did a good job of that and I think maximizing their opportunities today.
You came out of it really well physically too. I mean, it doesn't
look like there's anything significant that you have to worry about going into the offseason
physically. We tried to do a good job in the second half when when
we got control of it, you know, to try to get some guys
out and get some other guys some opportunities. Coach, thanks for a great
season, honestly. I mean, you know, it didn't work out the
way everybody had hoped, But I mean this football team gave every ounce that
they had, every single snaw up at every single game, and to me,
that's all you can ask for. And it didn't didn't work out.
The football gods weren't going to be as kind to us as they were to
others. But Appreciate the effort you guys gave. Appreciate you making yourself available
to us after the game every game like this, and your class act.
I appreciate saying that you guys are easy to work with. Appreciate your coach.
Thanks tav Zach Taylor. After the game, and David looking back on
it was an odd journey from the calf to the one and three start,
to then four straight wins and then the wrist and then a loss, and
there was a sense of doom and a lot of corners of where they go
in the final seven games. Then they reel off three in a row,
then back to back losses and then the win to end the season. There's
a whole lot of happened happening in this season and yet nine and eight and
a winning season. And I'm not sure many when Joe went down and Winston
the sidelines would have thought winning season was a possibility. Absolutely, And you
know you've got to give you gotta give Jake Browning a lot of credit.
I mean, he stepped up and one four, had a winning record four
and three the angles, one game over five hundred, Jake Browning one game
over five hundred and his starts, and he is really the story of the
season. I mean, he showed himself and Jake Browning has set himself up
for a much different arc of his career right now. And how that's going
to pan out, no one knows right now, but he is in a
much different place than he was when he was just a backup quarterback to Joe
Burrow, and nobody had seen what he can do. He has shown what
he can do and and and he's a he's a football player. He understands
the game and and guys respond to him, and uh, it was it
was really pretty pretty incredible to watch him. Now Pittsburgh had his number.
Uh, they he struggled with the way they bring their ends up the football
field, the angles that they bring their ends up the football field. There
was a little bit different, a little bit tougher dynamic for him, and
uh, you know, uh, that's that's something that he's going to have
to adjust to. But to get the win. They are now undefeated in
twenty twenty four. They go into the off season with one to ohero and
twenty twenty four and try to build on it when twenty twenty four season opens
up next year. They got the division win to get whitewashed. Oh and
sixth and division would be ugly. And so now with Tennessee's big upset,
every single AFC team had at least one division win. So that was good
to get off the schneid there and three straight winning seasons and you don't want
to lose three in a row and go into the off season, you know,
man on a downer on a boy, three in a row. That
what a way to finish. Man, We've under five hundre because we lose
renal. Now they win a football game and they finish over five hundred.
So there are a lot of things like in every season, but this season
in particular, a lot of things to build on. You know, their
self destruction was minimal, so that that's something that I think they can be
proud of. They didn't give football games away big time with multiple turnover,
stupid penalties, all those kind of things. They made teams aren't it,
and teams did. They could have won and probably should have won in hindsight,
but that's the National Football League. We are up and running. We've
got a lot to sort through over the course of three hours, players,
coaches, and more. Brian Callahan's going to lead off hour two for us
later on in this hour, more from Jake Browning, Joe Mixon, Jordan
Battle, Logan Wilson. We are loaded up and ready to go the wrap
up version of the Bengals line on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and
seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back at it on this Monday night.
The show is Bengals Line. We do it on the first Star Logistics Bengals
Radio Network and seven hundred WLW and Lance's time to Make the Right Call,
presented by the Law Offices of Blake Maslin. First quarter, Bengals up seven,
zip first and ten at their thirty three yard line. Joe Mixon off
right tackle. They did a great job all game long of angle blocking,
you know, trapping counters, pinning people, and Joe Mixon goes for forty
four yards on a five play, sixty seven yard touchdown drive that put the
Bengals up fourteen to nothing in the first quarter, and the game pretty much
was over at that point. Jake Browning on the day eighteen of twenty four,
one fifty six through the air, three touchdowns, one interception, quarterback
rating of one thirteen point nine. Here's Jake with Dave. Jake Browning.
Okay, the game starts off with the turnover, you compartmentalize, put it
away. You end up eighteen for twenty four. That's three out of four.
That's seventy five hundred and fifty six yards. Three touchdowns, one interception,
quarterback rating one thirteen point nine, two rushes for eighteen yards. Hell
of a day. Yeah, I would have liked to not start it off
with a pick, but kind of got tipped around and is what it is.
But yeah, I was it was good to finish with the win.
Uh, you know, I think it's make feelings because yeah, we beat
them, but I'd rather be in the playoffs and so, yeah, it's
good to finish with the win, but wish we're still playing. Kind of
sucks. What about your stretch. I mean, going into this football game
in the last six weeks, you have the best completion percentage of in the
NFL, thrown for the most yards in the NFL. I mean you haven't
just played good, you played great football man. Yeah, I think it's
a good thing to build off of for the offseason. Anytime you play as
much as I got to and got the opportunity, you know, I'll be
able to critique myself and what did I do well? What do I need
to do better? And I'll be a better quarterback next next year because of
it, And so yeah, it feels good to play well and get an
opportunity after a long time of not really playing a ton of football. So,
like I said, it's still just I think at some point I'll be
happy about that, but right now I'm just pissing on in the playoffs four
and three record in those seven games, it gives the Bengals a nine to
eight record, finished the season with a winning record three years in a row.
Now have a winning record the entire AFC Nord is a winning record that
hasn't happened in the NFL since nineteen thirty five. I mean, you guys
playing a hell of a tough division. Yeah, I mean every division game
is tough, but we need to find a way to win more. And
I think I just keep going back to it's mixed feelings where you finished strong
and it's good to go into a game that you know, we know we're
going to be done after and then everybody you know, worked really hard and
all that, but it's still just that feeling of like we were so close
to the playoffs and it just it sucks. Boy, I'll tell you.
Also, you had Joe Mixon a rush fourteen times from one hundred and eleven
yards in a touchdown. How big was it getting that ground game going huge?
Huge? I think you know, I think when you come into a
game like this, you want to be able to establish the run and have
everything off of that. And you know, when we're able to establish the
run, we're a pretty efficient offense. And so I think that's just in
general for offense, this is when you can be two dimensional. Uh,
it's it's a big part of the success. I know your offensive lineman,
love you as a former offensive lineman. I get in huddle with you any
dame. I man, I appreciate it. Thank you, Jake Browning,
and I loved your your line at the end, you'd you'd want to play
for him, block for him. Take us inside that the connection to offensive
lineman, uh and quarterback and what what you like? What what is it
that makes Jake Browning somebody who all those offensive linemen have really embraced it and
appreciated playing for Yeah, I think he's real. You know, there's no
funniness to him. I mean what you see is what you get with Jake
brown He's not trying to be somebody that he's not. I think that you
you appreciate his level of being prepared. I mean it's as high as it
can be. And and you saw that going on while he wasn't playing.
You know, I was like, man, Jake, if we have to
go to Jake Browning, we've we've we can trust Jake Browning. We know
what he has put into preparing for this football even if he doesn't play a
snap, And you know that's hard to do. Every week. It's like
go through that process again, nothing, but you know, you know it's
part of your job, and he does it at the highest level. And
when they needed him, he was more than ready to answer the bell mentally,
physically, spiritually, you know, emotionally, every way possible. And
I think that bond then grows big time with the offensive lineman David. I
think it'll be interesting in the off season. And Jake has said he feels
as though he's one of the top thirty two quarterback starting quarterback in the NFL.
We know that teams are always looking for quarterbacks in the NFL, and
maybe there's some this team could use some draft currency with the roster decisions that's
going to have to make. But on that scale of well, if we
get a draft pick, good, But man, we've we've spent so much
time looking for and now we've developed a capable winning back. It's a nice
security blanket to have it, sure is. I mean, you know when
you put your backup quarterback in there and it's like, you know, we're
gonna be able to finish the game. Hell yeah, not only can be
able to finish the game, He's gonna go win games for you. He's
gonna go win more games than he loses for you as a starting quarterback.
You know, and this is his first opportunity to start. And like he
said, you know, there are things he can work on and repetition breeds
excellence performance, he can get better. I asked Phil Simms a podcast with
Phil Simms that will be coming out soon, and I asked him, I
said, Phil, is Jake Browning put himself in that scenario where he's one
of the top thirty two quarterbacks. Other thirty one other quarterbacks better than Jake
Browning. He goes, I don't think he's necessarily a starting quarterback in the
NFL yet, because all this is a very strong quarterback draft class and the
teams need quarterbacks. Is going to try to draft and develop their own.
But he's you know, in my mind, he's number thirty three. If
he's not one of the top thirty two. He's the guy, He's the
next guy. So there's unbelievable value there and it'll be interesting to see what
the Bengals may say. Look, we know you're under contract this year for
another year. Why don't we We want to keep you on the contract for
that year, but we want to give you a little bit more. Give
you a kiss for what you did. Wouldn't shock me, wouldn't shock me,
But I don't think it'd be crazy because you know, they do have
cap dollars, but they've got a lot of things they have to take care
of with respect to those cap dollars. All Right, we're up and running.
We've got a lot to get to tonight over the course of our three
hours. Up next, we'll hear from Joe Mixon later on, Jordan Battle
and Logan Wilson in our first hour, three Big Ones Tonight unfolding. Thanks
for being here. It's Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network
and seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're moving right along on this Monday night
edition of Bengals Line, wrapping up the season looking ahead of the offseason.
We do it each week on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network in seven
hundred WLW A Lance Bacallister and I do it with David Lapom. Yes,
Sir Lance and the Cincinnati Bengals. Twenty twenty three Walter Payton NFL Man of
the Year nominee is Ted Karas. Could not be a better choice To vote
visit NFL dot com slash Man of the Year or on x formerly Twitter using
hashtag WPMOY challenge plus Caris. Voting ends January eighth, and as of January
fourth, Ted is leading the fan vote and that's worth thirty five chee skis
to his Marici, the charity that he's supporting, the housing for you know,
people that need help. I mean that would be that's big time.
Love to see Ted Carris get that dough, no doubt it has been fantastic.
A lot of momentum built around that and the good work he's doing.
And congratulations to him and thanks to everybody for the support as well. Let's
let's talk Joe Mixon. Let's talk the running game. Big day for Joe
fourteen carries one hundred and eleven yards. He averaged seven point nine yards a
tote of the football long of forty four, a touchdown rushing, a touchdown
receiving. Here's Joe with Dan Horde. Joe and ended out a great note
for you, a one hundred yard rushing performance, a one thousand yard season.
How did you feel about the way the season came to an end.
I felt like we went out in a a great fashion. Obviously it's not
the outcome that we wanted, but at the end of the day, we
ended this season with a bang, and that's all we wanted to do coming
into this week. Late in the game, they showed on the video board
that you topped one hundred yards rushing and the fans went bananas. I think
your relationship with them has been awesome for the last seven years and they showed
you that luck. Yeah. Man, that's one thing about them fans that's
been in there in that stadium, whether you know it was my first year
to this last year, they always been very supportive of me. And you
know, I can't I can't thank them enough for all the love and support
that they showed me and give me. I mean, it's one of the
best feelings ever, you know what I'm saying. And I never take that
for granted, and I just you know, I appreciate, you know,
the love and support that they showed me, honestly, and you know where
really can't describe, you know, the feeling how they make me feel as
a as a person and player. Man. So I'll try to just try
to do whatever I can to you know, connect with them in any way,
shape, form or fashion in general, man, like you know,
playing like throwing the ball with them before the game, or you know,
trying to make a little kid's day by giving them a high five, or
you know, throw them the ball or give them some gloves or a hat
or whatever. And it's been a it's been a great feeling and great thing,
man. So I'm gonna just you know, do whatever I can to
you know, keep embracing it and just keep you know, giving them the
love and support that they also give me. Man. So it's a great
thing. Joe, you are climbing a lot of the Bengals all time list.
You're now number two in rushing touchdowns. You're about I think thirty yards
away from James Brooks in career rushing yards. You're closing in on Pete Johnson's
record for combining touchdowns, rushing and receiving. He had two of those today.
How much does that stuff matter to you, if at all? I
mean, obviously, it's definitely a great achievement. I never really looked at
I never looked playing this game about like stats. I always just wanted to
be the best player, you know, possible that I can be. And
you know, really reflecting over these seven years, man, and you know,
knowing where I'm standing in history books, it's definitely a blessing. And
that's something that you can never take for granted. And you know, it's
always been the best feeling, you know, knowing that you know, one
day you obviously have to walk away from this game, but your name will
forever be left to hand. So I just hope, you know, I
could do whatever I can and keep climbing if possible, and just keep taking
the blessings, man, And that's all I can do, and keep thinking
the football guys for allowing me to play this game nine and eight and a
winning record. Was that what you were striving for at the beginning of the
year, obviously, But it is an achievement. I mean, to get
through an NFL season when your quarterback misses seven games and finish up with a
winning record. How do you feel about that? Obviously, like I said,
it's not the season that we wanted, But at the end of the
day, I mean, it's definitely a blessing to be able to say that
we walked out with a winning record and we finished the season on a on
the right note. Man. So we're just gonna keep on doing whatever we
gotta do to stay connected as one and try to do whatever we can,
you know, and let our presence be felt with each other through these next
twenty four hours and do whatever we can and enjoy my teammates. Awesome finish
for you. Congratulations on a great day and another one thousand yard season.
Yes, Air, I appreciate it. Joe mixing with Dan Horde and Dave
what a what a way to wrap it up for Joe, And so many
feel goods yesterday performance wise, and sobody flashes up like vintage Joe Mixon and
and there's there's ways to look at all the guys on this roster and what
their season has been like. And I think that the one thing about Joe
is we've never there's never been a moment where he wondered is he giving it
his all and there's never been a moment. We talk about the aspects of
a player you want to be able to count on him. The consistency that
to me is everything that Joe makes. It has been with this team absolutely
And I got himself one hundred thousand dollars bonus with those two touchdowns yesterday,
So that was a nice little payday right there. But the effort bucket,
Joe empties it, empties it every single snap. And you know, people
say, you know, that's what you're supposed to do, you're a professional.
Well that's true, but the human nature a lot of times does not
allow that that to take place. And when I say he's emptying it every
single snap, he's empty it at a high level every single snap. I
mean, Joe, everything with Joe is his effort is is so like I
mean just startling, you know. I mean, he's like he's like the
horse out there in the wild that you're trying to team, you know.
I mean, he's just a wild buck out there man broncing away. He
is something else. And uh, I think he feeds off his energy.
His teammates feed off his energy, and he brings it. That's a good
point because we're gonna play the game ball presentation at the end like we always
do after a win. And Joe finishes it up and tells the guys how
much he appreciated there, the effort they put in and their work, and
said he loved him and his his voice has beg as he's grown and matured
and become more of a longer standing player in his locker room. It seems
though his voice has grown and the respect has grown around around him. I
agree with players, you know, teammates, coaches, organizational members. I
mean, uh, Joe Mixon loves the game of football, loves to play
the game of football. Feels fortunate, you know, to be in a
in a scenario where he can play the game of football. Doesn't take it
for granted that he's playing the game of football. And I think all of
that he just it oozes out of him. It'll be interesting to see what
that running back room looks like next season. Joe. Of course, they
restructured his deal this year. They drafted Chase Brown. Chase has shown flashes
that that we we've talked about, that combo of thunder and lightning, and
be interesting to see how that looks if it changes any next season. Yeah.
And interestingly, you know, you look at Chase Brown and and he
is explosive, but he's not as big a body as Joe, and he
gets nicked up. I mean, he's like he's he misses practices with you
know, less than half the carries that Joe Mixon is. Joe is a
battering ram man. And Joe always answers the bell. Joe. You never
see Joe on the uh you know, on the list mispractice because of this
misspractice rare rare, and and he's always answering the bell every week for games.
When's the last time Joe Mixon missed a game due to injury? And
he takes a pounding and he wants to take a pounding. That's the way
he runs the football. It's gonna be IM running you over unless you can
hit me hard enough or I don't run you over, dude. And that's
what it's all about. Still ahead, in this hour, we'll talk with
one of the young guns, one of the rookies this year here from Jordan
Battle. As we continue, it's Bengals out of the first Star Logistics,
Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred doublw Hey, we are rolling right along in
this Monday night, wrapping up the Bengals season, looking ahead of the offseason,
doing all of that over the course of three hours, and doing it
on Bengals Lot to the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven HUNDREDLW.
Well, it's time for the Kettering Health Practice Fields Recap presented by Kettering Healthy,
official healthcare provider of the Cincinnati Bengals and Paid Course Stadium, providing the
best care for the best fans. And this is when we talk injuries.
And the Bengals came out of that football game pretty unscathed. I mean they
took it to the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland Browns can't say the same thing.
I mean they had players going in the tent, They had players going in
the locker room early, they had players that were concussed, they had players
that were injured otherwise. And you know that's why they didn't want to play
their their stars as such, they are big time contributors, but they didn't
want to nick up their their you know, support system like they did.
So the the Bengals did some damage to the Cleveland Browns here going into the
UH into the playoffs with respect to injury, but Bengals came out of it
pretty darn hole and I think they're gonna go into the offseason in pretty good
shape from an injury standpoint. We've talked offense for the first portion of the
show. Let's flip the flip the script talk a little defense for this portion.
Jordan Battle the rookie had it interception yesterday. Nice play along the sidelines.
Here's Jordan with Dan Horde. I am crouching in front of Jordan Battles
locker where there is a football on the ground and that football is the one
that you intercepted in the first quarter for your first NFL I n T described
that play and how it felt. I felt great just seeing the ball,
seeing the ball in the air, or seeing a single receiver by the spit
out and seeing the quarterback eyes take it. The quarterback take his eyes to
the senior receiver. UH, all the way through the progression of the the
catch. UH. From the from the start of the play, I knew
where he was going to the ball, and then when I broke, I
just knew I had to catch the catch the ball and keep my feet and
bounced and It was a great feeling. After I caught the ball getting my
first career interception, I said on the radio at the end of that interception,
you looked like a wide receiver right foot down, left foot toa drag.
That was impressive. Yeah. Yeah, I worked on that in practice,
so I had to get it down in the game. Jordan, that
wasn't the only highlight. You also had a sack today. A great way
to finish your rookie season. Yeah. Yeah, a great way to finish
the rookie season. But you know, like Joe said, not the way,
not the way we wanted, not the way he wanted it to be,
but the outcome of the game was what we wanted, you know,
to end with a positive record, go nine to eight on the year.
Obviously we know that that wasn't the standards, but just to come out here
and put in the hard way throughout the week, to come out here on
Sunday and dominate and have that positive record by at the end of the season
is a great feeling for us. How far do you feel you came during
the course of your rookie year. Uh, yeah, I came. I
came a long way just from you know, having my first start after the
Ravens, after the second Ravens game, from even before and then before then,
just coming in, you know, when I came in, and you
know, just trying to make an impact as soon as possible, and you
know, just from what I've got from when I started getting on the field,
just the guys, you know, rallying me, rallying me in,
welcome me in, and guys like GP, guys like Logan, guys like
Mike, guys like Cam, you know, and just bringing us rookies in
who played early and you know, just just building that chemistry throughout the year.
Obviously there were some ups and downs, giving up exposive plays and everything
and a deepend but we know that's something we have to work on and we're
gonna continue to get better at that. Nobody is going to complain about a
thirty one to fourteen win, But you had a shut out going in the
fourth quarter where you're a little bit bummed when you gave up a couple of
late tds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, obvious. So you know,
we don't we didn't want to give up any touchdowns. We wanted to in
the in the game with a with a doughnut on the on the on the
scoreboard. But the biggest thing is we got a dove, and uh we
couldn't be any any more excited then. Uh for for going positive. In
the season, you played on great teams at Alabama SEC championship games, college
football four team playoff games, et cetera. But this season, your rookie
year in the NFL is really long in comparison to that, probably anything you've
ever done in your life. Uh, how does it feel to to make
it through and now you know, get ready to to train in the offseason
and then come back for year two. Yeah, it's just it feels great.
Obviously, you know from the end of the my last from the last
college football game, uh, you know all else, and now I didn't
really have a break. Uh you know, you got pre draft teams.
You gotta you gotta work out after after the draft. So this really,
this is gonna be my my first time really being off since since like I
don't even know, since last summer, and uh, it's gonna be It's
gonna be fun. Uh, you know, obviously, try to chain with
some of the guys in the offseason, you know, be a professional and
uh, come back ready to you know, get that swoot balls in a
year two. Congratulations to a great finish on a very good first year.
Thank you, Thank you Jordan Battle after yesterday's game and interception along the sidelines,
and David He's he's one of the rookies. Have got a lot of
snaps this year. And we know that certainly the issues in the secondary throughout
the season, but those snaps, a significant number of snaps to get under
his belt as a rookie leads you to to think, man, that jump
is going to be exciting to watch with Jordan Battle. Yeah, it really
is. I mean, Jordan Battle stat sheets stuffer. You know, had
had his share tackles, He had a quarterback sack, he had two tackles
for loss, he had the interception. Uh, he had two more passes
defensed. I mean he was he was immense. And Louis an Arrumo will
use him in multiple ways. He'll keep him back as a true safety,
He'll put him in a box as a safety slash linebacker type guy because he's
a he's a bigger, physical player. And I'm excited to see how the
secondary as a whole comes back after an off season to reflect that. You
know, they were. They were making mistakes and simple coverages. And I'm
not talking about Jordan Battle. I'm talking about others, you know, Dax
last week going the wrong way and those kind of things. Loui and Rumo
was like, between the rock and a hard place, how simple do I
make it? And if I complicated, how many errors are am I gonna
you know, have to endure? And then it's like, even though it
was simplified because they had they're still making errors on the simple because they hadn't
run enough reps of the simple stuff over and over and over again. So
it's one of those catch twenty twos. I think with an off season to
reflect, an off season to understand what lou and Rouma wants on a more
consistent basis, an off season to improve their bodies and their minds. Y're
one to year two. It's gonna be interesting to watch that back end.
How much of proving through is I think there's going to be a lot.
I think they're made of the right stuff and as we know Lance, they
can all run and that's a recoverability. Speed is a nice little additive to
have, no doubt, take a time out, head down the stretch,
or hear from Logan Wilson as we continue in our first of three hours tonight
of Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred All
right down the stretch we go in our first hour of three tonight, the
wrap up edition of Bengals Line of the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and
seven hundred WLW on Lonce Bacallister. He is Dave Lappo and Lance Shop the
Bengals Pro Shop find the best selection of Bengals merchandise anywhere. Visits Pro Shops
seven days a week located on the north side of pay Court Stadium, or
shop online at Bengals dot com. Let's stick with the defensive side of things.
To wrap up the hour, here's Dan Horde with Logan Wilson. Logan,
congratulations on finishing the season of the pick your fourth of the year,
the eleventh of your career, and one that you didn't have to work all
that hard for in this case, like I just said there, that's about
as free as they get, and I'll take it. Tell me about the
way you guys approach this game and how it feels to end the season on
a positive note. Yeah, I mean it was weird because none of us
had really ever been in this position where you're up, you're fighting for the
playoffs up until really this last week. And you know, really what we
talked about was just trying to play for the guy next to you, trying
to find a way to get get a win and kind of pe this moment
going into the offseason, and I was just kind of what we talk about
all week and we were able to do that today. Was it big to
you to beat Cleveland considering that they've been pretty dominant head to head in recent
years? Yeah, I mean the team, Yeah, I know, Like
I mean, I wouldn't even say the bet team. They just weren't playing
their guys and rightfully so they were locked into the five seed and you know,
they got the playoffs next week, and so it was it was anyway,
we just wanted to get a win at the end of the day,
regardless of who was playing. Guys had a shutout going until the fourth quarter.
Was that a little disappointing to see them get on the scoreboard late.
Yeah, you want to keep a goose egg as long as you can,
but it is what it is. Some young guys in there learning from mistakes
and that's that's just part of it. Jordan Battle finished the season with an
interception and a sack. One of these young guys that obviously took his lumps
as a rookie, but that whole group hopefully learned a lot from this experience.
Yeah, I hope they will. I know they will. We all
we have a lot of work to do as a defense coming back this offseason.
Guys understand that and know that. You know, when we come macro
Tas, we need to hit the ground, run and pick up where we
left off and just continue to grow. I think if somebody had said Joe
Burrow is gonna miss seven games and the Bengals will finish with a winning record,
in some ways, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment. Yeah, I mean,
there's there's there's a blessing in his guys. I guess you could say
that we found a way to get some wins. Obviously it wasn't good enough
at the end of the day, but you know, we still ended up
with a winning season. It's not the standard we want it to be,
and so we got we got to continue to get better. Congrats, I'm
finishing with a win. Enjoy the off season. Thank you very much.
Logan Wilson with Dan Horde. Logan Wilson and that's his eleventh interception since he's
coming to the league. That's more than any other linebacker in the National Football
League. Plus he took that interception back twenty six yards two and a half.
First down is the offense didn't have to worry about nice, very nice,
perfect capridor. First hour, Hangtight, Second Hour, headlined by Brian
Callahan, asked him about the offense and the off season ahead. We'll hear
from Joe Burrow later on in the show, and so much more. Thanks
for being with us tonight. It's Bengals Line, the first Star Logistics Bengals
Radio Network and seven hundred WLW East Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals
Radio Network. Brook You buy Paycor. Paycor is proud to be the official
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listening to the Bengals Radio Network. Let's keep it moving on this Monday night
of Bengals Line. Our number two one folding on the first Star Logistics Bengals
Radio Networking seven hundred WLW A Lance Percallister. He is Dave Lepham and Lance.
It is a pleasure to be joined by Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan,
who is so gracious with his time of this every week. He is a
class act. There was no question about that, and I hope we keep
Brian Callahan as offensive coordinator, but I don't want to hold him back because
there will probably be some opportunities here on the horizon interviews that are coming his
way based on what has happened with the Cincinnati Bengals. I think this season,
coach is a big story because everybody probably thought, boy, when Joe
Borrow goes down and there's almost a half season to play, what's going to
happen in the Cincinnati Bengals. Well, Jake Browning happened to the Cincinnati Bengals,
and you're a big part of that. The success of Jake Browning,
Dan Pitcher, you know, Zach Taylor. I mean a lot of contributors
to that obviously, but that was phenomenal what you guys were able to do
and helping Jake Browning perform at an extremely high level. If he's not one
of the top thirty two in the NFL, he's number thirty three. Man.
Yeah, he did a really nice job this year stepping in and without
us knowing what he was going to be like in a game, and that
was always you always have a question mark about someone until they actually go play
for real when it counts, and he answered all those questions for us.
He's he's proven himself a very capable quarterback, somebody that can you can win
games with, and a guy that's proven to be a ability quarterback right where
he can go out and play really good football and you don't have to necessarily
scheme around him. He made some really nice throws over the course of his
starts and put us in really good position. You know, we just came
up probably a player too short at the end of the day. Some things
that we wish we could have done earlier in the season too. But to
Cej go out and play with with confidence and play with the intensity that he
plays with was was good for us. And I think that anytime you get
a chance to prove yourself in this league, you know you may only get
one or two chances. Yeah, and he and he proved himself. I
do agree with him. I think he probably is one of the top quarter
two quarterbacks in the world for sure. And I think that I'm glad we
have them. When you put in all the hours and days and months and
practices and games and today arrives, what's it like, What what are the
emotions today? Disappointment? You know, I think we had we had obviously
high expectations and to deal with all the ups and downs of a season,
which no matter what happens in a season, there's always some of that somewhere,
you know, whether you hit us a losing skid or you lose players,
and you know, all those things happen every year. But there's just
a finality to the end of the year, no matter when it comes,
and it's it's very abrupt. It's it's sort of like you're just slamming on
the brakes and all of a sudden, it's it's I did I You know,
you think about all the time, but the years in the NFL are
pretty fleeting and they go really fast. And I was laughing with my dad
because he came over. He came over to the house on Saturday night just
to see his grand kids and hang out for a minute. And you know,
I'd seen him the first week, right, you know, and all
of a sudden, you look up, like six months has gone by,
you know what I mean, Like it's crazy, It's like it's it feels
like a you know, a yeah, it's weird, it's but it just
it's very abrupt, and you're and you're just kind of cruising in your routine
one hundred miles an hour, and then you get to today and all of
a sudden, you're like, well, there's no more, no more games
to get ready for unfortunately. So I mean, it's a it's a mix
of it's it's always disappointing at the end of the year. There's one team
that ends up happy at the end of the year ultimately, so it's just
verying degrees of disappointment unless you win that one. So yeah, it's it's
it's it's all those things mixed together. And now you start your you turn
your focus to to what's next when you evaluate what went well, Uh,
this past season, you're gonna have to only sixteen giveaways in a seventeen game
season. You went plus ten in the turnover department seventy six penaltyes few the
National Football League six hundred and fourteen yards. I think that might be fewest
in the National Football League. If not, it's a close second. No
self destroy well, I mean minimal self destruction. I mean that's those numbers
are playoff team numbers right there. Yeah, And that's that's another thing that
you get a little bit frustrated about, is that those are those are numbers
that when you look up, especially if you're plus ten, like you should
be a playoff team at plus ten, and then you look at the the
Browns are like thirty second league and giveaways and so it's like, I don't
know how to make sense of those things. Generally speaking, that's not how
it works. But yeah, we do. We do a great job taking
care of the ball. Both quarterbacks, decision making quarterbacks, both Joe and
Jake have have proven really in depth at avoiding you know, the sack fumble
and the and the They got great awareness of protecting the ball. I think
Joe Mixon's maybe one of the best backs I've ever seen when it comes to
not putting the ball. And I don't think he ever fumbles. I mean
I don't know. I can't tell you the last time he fumbled the football.
Yeah, I can't even remember it, truthfully. So, and we
got a lot of guys that take a lot of pride in protecting that part
of the game. And we know that you know, when you give the
ball the way, you tend to lose games. And so we've we've done
a decent job of that over the years. Really all of our time here
in the last probably three four years have been pretty good. And the penalty
parts a huge, a huge deal. I mean, we played discipline brand
of football and guys play with the technique and we don't get caught is not
doing the right thing. And I think that's that's a testament those to the
players and how important they view that ability to play clean football. Nine nine
fumbles on the season, lost two. That ties team record. Well,
it goes way back with the Bengals only having two lost fumbles. I think
it was probably when they were maybe twelve game schedule, you know, forget
fourteen or sixteen, So two lost fumbles in seventeen games. That's ball security
at the highest level possible. Yeah, I mean, and give a little
credit to Justin Hill and his all about the ball presentation every Wednesday. I
mean, it's again it is It's something that we do emphasis that we do
have a lot of awareness for and and know how critical it is to winning.
And our guys do a great job of executing that plan and not turning
the ball over. And you know, you you come out of a lot
of seasons at plus ten, you're probably going to be sitting pretty good most
years, and this one was an odd one. For whatever. That's kind
of the standard we hope to keep. Conversely, what areas would you like
to see? Do you think has to get better for this offense next year?
Yeah, I think we I think we need to start faster, you
know, whatever that looks like. Obviously Joe's injuries is a large part of
that. But we've put ourselves in some holes the last two three years and
forced to climb out of them, which really makes our margin for air at
the end of the year razor thin. And that's a hard way to live,
and so got to find a way to get off to a better start.
It gives us some more breathing room and at the end of the year
where instead of having to play playoff games from week ten on you know,
we can we can you have some a little bit less pressure every single week
to perform, that would be help full. I think we got to be
uh, find ways to get better in the run game, you know,
not we've we've had spurts that were solid and we've been okay, but I
think we can be a lot better. I think we can be more explosives.
Really, the bigger part of it is just find ways to be more
explosive in the run game, because that that helps. It takes the pressure
off of everybody, takes pressure off the front, takes the pressure off of
Joe to have to make big plays all the time. So that's an area
I think we can we can find fine ways to improve. And I thought
we did a good job over the course of the year. But there's you
know, there's some meat on the bone, as they say, I think,
so that's definitely one of them. And you know, I think we
can get We're gonna we're gonna need to still evolve schematically as far as what's
what's next. Every year the league evolves and you know, the things that
were in vogue in the season ten changes as people study. So we'll try
to stand on the on the on the front end of schematic changes and try
to stay ahead of what the defenses are doing. And that's gonna be a
big part of the offseason study here as well. Your running game yesterday averaged
over six pretty attempts one hundred and eighty three yards. Joe has one hundred
and eleven on fourteen carries. Aided immeasurably by that forty four yard John But
I mean you had I think it was eight rushes of ten yards or more.
Browning had one, brown had two, Joe had five. You know,
when you get that many carries of a first down after the carries completed
or like in in Joe's case, forty four years four first down, you
don't have to worry about anymore. How big is that as a play call?
That's great. I mean, that's that's the that's what you hope it
looked like every week, you know, and you know they're they're playing their
practice squad players. Obviously that's part of it. But I thought Mixon ran
really hard. I thought we had a good scheme versus all we were seeing
and and made yards on what they gave us. And so that part was
positive. And I think that that's if you looked up in a regular game
and that's what our rushing stats look like, I think we'd all feel really
good. Yeah, I think that's obviously the goal is to get to point
where that's what it feels like when he and the ball office, you know
we're getting six or not three and a half, you know, I think
that's obviously what you're looking for. So Joe ran really well yesterday. I
thought Frank put together gets schematic plan to get him in some space and take
advantage of how that the style of that defense they're they're up to field,
defensive line dropped them and whammed them and did all the things it's do to
those defenses. So it was well executed, and and you know, Joe
ran hard and ran well, and he's got good numbers to show for it.
I won't ask you about a myriad of personnel decisions that will have to
be made during the off season, of course, but you've been around Tyler
Boyd for five seasons. What has he meant to this team? What what
is his presence day in and day out, locker room, on the field
meant? Uh, God, there's not probably not enough. But I don't
have enough time. You know, he's he's been such an integral part of
the leadership in the locker room really from the day and to see him,
uh be able to see the fruits of that labor from from being I know
he had augh. We weren't here for the start of his career, but
to get through those things and some rough spots, are really grew up and
matured obviously and then made a lot of plays over the time that he's been
here, particularly on third down. And but his his impact is always going
to be not always measured in his stat line because of how important he's been
to the receiver room. He has always been the veteran, especially when he
had jam Jamar and Tier both the young players, and he was the one
that sort of brought him along. He kind of kept that room and set
the standard of what we wanted those guys to play a lot. There's really
not enough accolades nor enough attention that could be paid to that part of what
TV brought to our team. He's maybe one of the most consistent players I've
ever been around. He never his his he rarely missed a practice, he
rarely missed a game. He was always available, and I think as an
NFL player, that's probably one of the you know, one of the bigger
company. To be an iron man like that and being be able to be
available all the time, I think is a huge deal. And then he
never changed. He had games where he had big games and games where he
didn't see the ball, and he was always the same the person all the
way through all that, And I think that's another huge compliments you can pay
to a guy. But to be as consistent as he's been over eight years,
I think is really really really impressive. I think he's got good football
left in him still. But but his impact I think will always be felt
in our in our locker room and with those receivers and in our offense.
That his consistency and steadiness and leadership is probably the you know, the biggest
part of what he brings outside of just a pure productions as a really good
slot receiver. Yeah, you think of him three abilities that you love to
have as a pro reliability, accountability, responsibility. He's all those abilities,
man. I mean that's uh, that is huge. Now that the Big
three may look different, your tight end group, you get production out of
the out of the group. Uh, he had more production from the tight
end group this year than even last year, which is a positive. And
Hudson has proven that he can find seams, he can find spots, he
can get open, he can catch the football. Do you add to the
tight end position since the Big three is gonna make front or do you like
the young guys you know, like Charlie and Yoshi that showed you what they
have. Yeah, those guys have come along. I mean they're in for
a big offseason this year. You know. I always, I always get
excited to see what guys look like when they come back in April after the
first real NFL offseason, because, as you know, those guys they're getting
finished their college careers. They're going to combine, they're training for their testing,
they're not training for football, right, It's just a totally different experience.
And they get here and their heads are spending for the first six months
and so to now know what to expect, to know what the offense looks
like, to know what it feels like to play, because they all played
a good amount this year, you hope that they make a pretty significant jump.
And I always go back to what Tea looked like when he came back
his second year. You know, Tea came in his first year a little
bit out of shape. He had a hamstring, he was you know,
he didn't really work out coming and you could just tell he looked off.
He didn't look like he was ready and found a way to have a decent
year. But the way he looked when he came back in April, he
was like, who is that guy? You know, there's a freak there.
And so that's what you know, You hope these guys come back with
this renewed confidence and then they get to put in the kind of work that
you need guys to put in, you know, without having to worry about
all the other combines and drafts and team visits. They can focus solely on
on getting better and stronger and all those things. So excited about the young
guys coming back the tight end position. I think James Casey again has proven
his his medal, is maybe one of the best tight end coaches in football
and found a way to get production all that. I mean, Drew Sample
had a career year. Tanner obviously emerged. He's a veteran player but has
the most production he's and I was really helpful for us in the passing game
down the stretch, right, I think got I think all those guys are
free agents. So that's another part of it is that, yeah, we're
gonna probably we're gonna need some tight ends in general this offseason. So what
that looks like and where that goes, those conversations just will just beginning here
in the next week or so. But they really did the tight ends,
you know, without the mark of having a great one tight end that called.
I mean, they produced collectively, and I think that's what we needed.
Jake said, I'm probably gonna get in trouble for saying this, and
I don't want to say that Hudson's Tanna Travis Kelcey, but Tanner Hudson has
some of the traits playing as a former quarterback like Kelsey. He understands the
you know, the coverage leverages and where to where to find seams and holes
and all that. He does, doesn't He's pretty darn good with that.
Yeah, he's he's he has a a knack for being for playing football.
Yeah, and and he does. He's not gonna wow you when he walks
in the room physically. That's probably why he's been a little bit of a
journey, uh to get to this point. But he's not gonna run faster
than everybody. But I will say he's got great hands. Yep, he's
he's incredibly intelligent, uh, and he's a really reliable target, and you
know what he's going to do, how he's going to do it. And
and he's shown that he's a very capable passing game player. And really,
I mean we liked him in training camp and he fits into those mold of
those guys that when you're looking at tight end groups, you know, what's
he going to do for you because he's you know, he doesn't really play
on special teams, but he's not really a starter. He's a he's a
role playing tight end in the passing game. And so it's, you know,
roster gymnastics wise, how do you keep guys like that? But he
we knew he had some value. We wanted him on the practice squad.
He chose to come back knowing that he might have an opportunity at some point,
and he stepped up and we really needed someone in the position to step
up in the passing game. And I love everything he brings to our offense.
I think he's an exceptional player. And he's got a really great feel
for the passing. He produced for us at a at a level that we
needed to do this year, and it was it was. I'm happy for
him. It's a great success that he's and hopefully we can find a way
to get a couple of these guys back and get a few more to add
to it. Our time is up. We can't tell you how much we've
enjoyed the conversations with you, your commitment to this and the time you've given
us. Usually we've kept you longer than we probably told you, right,
and you haven't. You haven't bat it an eye at that, So thank
you. I've enjoyed this. Always a pleasure coming in. It's it's a
lot more fun to come in after wins and his losses. But I do
always, I do always enjoy coming in and talking to you guys. This
is a very small example of when you do something, you do it.
I mean, you commit to it. So we appreciate your commitment. Players
do too. They love your coach, There's no question about it. That's
it's always good to have you. Players like you. A good way to
add it, he is Brian, callahead. Everybody take a time out of
continue Bengals Line of the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred WLW.
Hey, We're moving right along, and this Monday Night of Bengals Line,
we're doing it on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundredule
LW. The Cincinnati Bengals upgraded the Wi Fi at Paid Course Stadium with the
help of their new internet provider, Alti Fiber future proof fiber Internet capable of
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Brian Callahan as always to kick off our hour. We're busy. The rest
of this hour you're gonna hear from Joe Burrow and Moore. Hang with us.
It's Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred
WLW. Hey, welcome back to Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals
Radio Network and seven hundred WLW, Lance McAllister Dave Lapham the Cincinnati Bengals.
Twenty twenty three Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee is Ted Karris Folks.
No surprise there, He's awesome. Ted has used his voice to support
the village of Maurici in providing housing and community opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities.
Learn more about Ted's impact at Bengals dot com slash community slash WP moy
Ricci. It's all about doing good things for people that need help, no
question about it. Top notch stuff. Let's let's hear from QB one.
Joe Burrow met with the media earlier today talking about the risk, the recovery
that the season just completed, the off season and next season. All that
covered with QB one. Here's Joe Burrow feeling good, getting better every day.
How that you ever had time to analyze just the path years. Do
you have a target day in terms of throwing a game. No, I'll
have to see. I think I think I should be good by OTAs,
but uh, we'll see pretty early on to to really tell you you were
confident with Jake and play well, What did you see in the seven games
that he did play exactly what I expected. He was calm and poised and
took the opportunities when they were there. He did a really good job and
I'm really happy for him. He made a career for himself, so he
went in took advantage of his opportunity, and we talk about it yesterday.
It's exciting for him and so I was happy to see it. What's been
the biggest thing that you've kind of thought about as you've kind of been waiting
to kind of watch it in the rest of the season. Just getting back
to the grind, you know, we have I have about ten to twelve
weeks on everybody else starting my off season, so you know, that kind
of gives me a leg up on next year. Obviously, the the throwing
part will we'll come back with time. But just as far as physically,
you know, weight room, whole body, I think I should be in
a good spot. What have you been able to do in terms of keeping
your conditioning up. Yeah, we're lifting legs, doing a lot of core,
you know, doing the upper body where we can tough without you know,
being able to grab or do anything like that. But we're modifying in
in ways that keeps me in good physical shape. And it's just going to
keep getting better as the risk gets better. To mind for thing and being
able to grate, Yeah, we'll we'll have to see it's it's gonna be,
you know, a couple of months from now. What's been the most
challenging team three personally over the last seven weeks. You know, it's always
tough when when you're watching from the sideline, you're used to being out there
playing and making a difference. You know, you tried to find ways to
to make a difference where he could, but obviously it's not the same.
So, uh, I was just focused on getting myself better every day,
and you know, doing what I could for Jake, putting him and you
know, giving him nuggets here and there. But you know he's a smart
guy. He didn't need too much. But just trying to find ways to
bring value to the team. You were totally engaged, you know what you
like you're talking about for me a scheme addict and all that sort of thing.
What the coaches we're doing and you don't know three quarterbacks had Zach same
Gate and roads maybe, but was there anything that wall with Jake's playing or
go physician? You said you don't want to Dan that was pretty good.
Maybe might be over incorporate some of that rook, but I do. Yeah,
we'll have to I'm gonna go back and watch all the tapes again this
offseason. You know, takes take some things, but I'm gonna watch both
sides of the ball see if I can take anything from from either one.
So that's a that's more of an off season project, I'd say. Bride
said the hundred center was something that you all playing on doing which you're gonna
kind of fully healthy and going out to the mis. What was that like
kind of watching that kind of integrated to the offense and watching that readstance.
What did you make of how that work? Yeah, it brought some some
some different things to the offense that we were not really able to do at
the beginning of the year because I physically couldn't do it. And then you
know, when the caft started to get healthy, we were able to incorporate
a little more. And then when Jake went in there, he did a
great job of you know, executing the the under center and stuff. He's
he's good at the play actions and the nakeds and our run game took a
step, I thought. So it was you know, a good couple of
weeks or the creature happened in terms of your routeam in the off season.
Is there anything that you're going to change in terms of you're getting into a
place where I know some of its lock training camp, but being able to
get you through a training camp with Doby Major. Yeah, well, you
know, I think early on it's not going to change, but maybe the
week's leading up to training camp maybe will you know, that'll be something that
I decided as we get closer, depending on how my body's feeling. But
we'll take that out of step at a step at a time. What would
you like to change what the preach ready? Maybe maybe a couple of weeks
before just laying off the gas a little bit. I don't know, we'll
see. It just depends on how the body's feeling. Did you learn anything
specifically about your teammates over the last seven weeks watching through the sideline. I
wouldn't say anything specific. You know, I know what we have in the
locker room. I know the guys that we can count on, and you
know, guys maintain their routines. They stayed engaged, they went out and
tried to win football games, and we did. We put ourselves in position,
didn't quite make the playoffs, but we had our opportunities. I know,
he knows what's gonna happen with T pre aging a lot of guys too,
but specifically with how different would the offense have to be if you didn't
have him. Yeah, obviously we'd love to have Tea back. He's a
big part of what we've done here and there's it's no secret our relationships.
So you know, I expect T to be back, to be back,
and I think that's the the sentiment in the locker room. We all want
T back. We know what kind of player is. We're not kind of
person he is. He's what being a Bengal is all about. So uh,
like you said, we'll see, but I think we should have a
good opportunity. I don't think you'd beal the whole plan to us. But
when you were negotiating your contract, how much was the plan for things like
this off season laid out to you when you have those discussion. Yeah,
that was, you know, we made sure the things were in place that
we could if we needed to. A couple of years ago, when Josh
Allen was doing a lot of running out of cockey, there was a lot
made of him potentially changing the style and with your rist injury and the season
ending. I know that in the past couple of years, you know,
you talked about maybe taking some of the last hits that you can only so
much of it is under your control. But do you feel like, based
off the way you guys are past first offense here, you need a little
bit more of a balance from the run game in terms of limiting the amount
of times you're gonna get hit. I think we could be more ex more
explosive in the run game. I think we've been efficient, you know,
we've the run game has been able to keep us on schedule. It'd be
nice to hit you know, a couple of big runs we didn't, you
know later in the season. That was nice to see, you know,
guys like you know, Joe Mixon taking advantage of his opportunities and Chase stepping
up and making some big plays. So I feel good about that aspect.
I think, you know, this off season will be able to take a
stet. Joe Burrow earlier today on where he is right now and where he
hopes to be the next season, and we say this, and I remember
as he said it last year knocking on wood, I'd like to have a
normal camp. But then the next day was the calf. But man,
it would be it'd be really important, vital to have normalcy for the quarterback
with a lot of moving parts between now and training camp next year. Four
seasons with Joe Burrow, the two seasons he's been healthy, AFC Championship,
super Bowl, the two seasons he hasn't not. I mean he's it's that
important. I mean got to have the football got kind and the support supporting
cast for Joe Burrow has to do their job and there's no doubt that this
could be one of the elite football teams competing for the World championship in twenty
twenty four. Dave quick thought on Joe and what they've delved into where they've
gone to the playbook with Jake Browning is they're intrigue in what they might be
able to transfer over to try with Joe. Does that make sense what I'm
saying, Yeah, Yeah, I think it does. I think. I
think I think Joe watching UH as closely and listening and seeing and UH communicating
with Jake and the coaches. I think that he sees value in some of
it as well. I think his eyes have been open to you know,
there there are some things. There's always good that comes out of bad,
you know. And uh and and this might be some good. You know.
It's like, hey, there are other things we can do. We
can we can incorporate some of this stuff into into the packages that we we
do with you, Joe. But it is a pass heavy offense no matter
what. One number nine is a down Hey hang type much more to get
to UH as we make our way towards nine o'clock. Bengals Line, First
Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network. Hey, welcome back to Bengals Line on this
Monday night. We're on the First Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred
w l w I lancemcallister. He is David Lapham. Yes, Sar Lance,
and Ohio Kat is proud to support the Cincinnati Bengals as Ohio's premier construction
equipment provider. We know what it takes to be a first place team.
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Bengals go Bengals. We have a very special guest joining us. Dave,
you do the honors and welcome him in. Please yes, this uh,
this gentleman andre Yosi Bosh is not only a great football player, incredibly intelligent
Ivy League graduate, understands the game of football and had a major impact on
the Cincinnati Bengals. Darren Simmons loves him on special teams. Cincinnati Bengals love
his uh what he brings to the table as a receiver offensively, seven targets
yesterday, five catches, two of them are touchdowns. At the time he's
in the end zone. That dog will hunts. Yeah, I mean when
you look back at it's kind of a crazy stat. But yeah, was
it you said five catches, two touchdowns. Yeah, it's kind of like
my season. How my season has been going, Like every time I get
the ball, like every other time, it's going to be a touchdown.
That's crazy. That's awesome. Yeah. How you went through regular season,
the longest season you've ever played in your life. How do you feel,
How does your body feel today? Mentally? What was it like coming through
all of it? Yeah, it was definitely interesting. You know, in
the IVY League you played ten games only, so by the by the seventh
regular season game, I was football mind and body where like, oh you're
still going, you know. So at that point we played ten games and
I was like, okay, well I had a routine down already at that
point. So I know a lot of vets say, you know, routines
are really important to keeping your body right, keeping your mind right. So
I made sure I had a routine. And it's not like I haven't been
doing like well, I used to go from football to track. I mean,
although track is different, I was always doing something, had to be
focused at something for a while. But you know, it was great to
get a full NFL football season under my belt. And you know, I'm
kind of just hungry to get back working, to be honest. So I'll
take this break, but I already know what I need to work on in
the next offseason. You know, it's watching you on special teams playing gunner
for Darren Simmons. The physicality that you bring to the table. I mean
there's not a whole lot of receivers that play at that high level of physicality.
You're a big, strong bodied receiver that can run. I mean,
you've got some traits. Man, you check a lot of boxes. What
is it that you probably learned most from You come as a rookie and kind
of don't know what you don't know yet, and then the season unfolds.
Is it from a from a mental standpoint, from the beginning of a training
camp to now in terms of what you know and what you're gonna think about
and ponder and work within the off season? Yeah, I mean yeah,
it's kind of like what you said, you don't know what you don't know,
and then you get thrown the fire and you're kind of getting beat up
a little bit, and so you know what you need to work on,
and you know, you really realize what your strengths are, how people stop
you, and what people are willing to do to stop you, And so
you can see if they, like if they focus on your strengths or if
they focus on your weaknesses. And so you can always gain a lot from
that kind of stuff, like just watching film back or just even on the
field. And like I said earlier, I already know things that I need
to work on. I have like a set of notes in my phone that
I need to work on. Yeah, every after every game, I write
down things that I've seen that I need to do. So are you tougher
on yourself than the coaches are? I would say, I mean, I
have really good coaches that I've been blessed with here obviously, and they expect
a lot out of me. They expect the most out of me, But
I also expect the most out of myself. So I would say some.
I mean, I'm quiet about it, but I'm pretty tough on myself.
Yeah, not to go too deep into that list on your phone, but
in general, what are some of the things you'd like to work on it?
It'd be better at hop out phone numbers. I don't think my girlfriend
would, but you know, yeah, like you said before, I mean,
the NFL is a physical game, so it's just getting used to the
physicalness attributes to like, you know, be fat and strong, and I
think during special teams, I definitely you can see me become more and more
physical as the year goes on. But also, you know, it translates
to being a receiver. You know, yesterday I had two touchdowns, but
I also had two drops contested drops that I should have I thought I should
have caught. I mean, that's just kind of the different physicalities and different
things I need to work on. Just like instead of catching it and looking
and then tucking it's catch it, tuck right, then look right. The
reason the second one I dropped is because I caught it and I looked before
I caught it, and he just raked over there. So it's just little
things like that. I don't even have to be on the field to do
that. I can just be with the ball in my bed. Just catch,
tuck, turn catching, you know what I mean? Sure? Yeah,
So, I mean, guys will come from the SEC. You know,
that is really really high level of collegiate football. It's probably the closest
thing to the NFL from a physicality standpoint. Instead of the speed of the
game, what an adjustment in your situation, you know, coming from the
IVY League, and that's a good brand of football, don't get me wrong,
But it's not like the SEC. What was the speed of the game
JU just liked for you? It was. I mean, it's obviously different,
but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle it. I never felt like I
was really out of place, you know. I think I think everybody kind
of went through similar growing pins that I did. I don't think my growing
pins were you know, like exacerbated by any means. I think I think
I was just in the same boat that a lot a lot of these other
rookies were in. You got a lot of reps in camp with Jake.
How much did that help later in the season unfortunately, what Joe goes down
and Jake takes over. How much did that help you? Yeah? I
think it definitely helps. You know, we had that the same touchdown we
had against the Commanders was basically the same round I had against my second one
against Cleveland. It was like a little race ground in the back of the
end zone, and you know, we lock eyes and you know pretty much
at that point he's gonna throw it to me. And so it's good to
have a connection like that with you. You're really good at an extending place
and knowing how to get to some place to make yourself available. Has that
always been the case? Is that something you've learned lately? How why are
you so good at that? I don't I never was a big scrambled person
before that, But I think maybe special teams also that, to be honest,
just like dudes flying around everywhere. Yeah, sometimes there's no structure.
It's kind of just you know, player, just I just see the open
space and I just run to it basically. Yeah, And you know one
thing you do too, is on a natural basis is when the quarterback's in
trouble, eventually you start to work your way back to the court, staying
deep or going deeper. You say, all right, I've got to make
this a little bit easier for him, not because he's running for his life,
and you have a good understanding of somehow angle my way back toward the
quarterback to make myself available. Yeah. Well, you know, usually times
when I'm scrambling, I feel like I've been on the backside more so.
So you know, you've got to be conscious of where the other dudes are
as well, you know, because one scrambled drill on a I can remember
I got push in the back, but Jake was rolling right and I was
I kind of saw, like I forget who mixing. Maybe he was like
kind of there with me, so I didn't know if I should keep going.
It's kind of just about like spatial awareness and just spacing, and most
of the time I feel like coming back to the quarterback is not going to
hurt, right, yeah, right, But all of this grind season's done.
Do you do you unplug for a while. Do you go on vacation
for a while. Do you not pick up a football for a while?
How do you approach it? Well, I mean right now, I'm gonna
go back to Hawaii tomorrow, just be with my family for a bit.
You know, I do want to do football stuff. I you know,
I already have that list ready to go and what I need to work on.
But you know, I've heard from a lot of people just to chill
for a bit, because you know, you don't want to get burnt out
too early, which makes sense. But I think that doing a little bit
won't hurt, you know. So I'll go back to Hawaii work a little
bit, and then the real training starts when I go to Tampa, probably
a month or so after that, go in to Hawaii. You needn't ready
to carry your bags or anything. I mean I could, I could.
I can get to bed with doctor Milwaukee, maybe at his house. You
can say in my house, I'll carry your bag, man, no doubt.
That's crazy. Hey, congratulations on the rookie season. I know it
ended sooner than everybody wanted, but congrats on this success and enjoy the off
season. Thanks for making time for it, of course, Thank you.
Guys, got a bright future, my man. Thankkeep working, love it,
take a time out of Continue more on Bengals Line on the first Star
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back on Bengals out of this Monday night, third of three hours. Thanks
for hanging out with us. At this point, We've got a lot more
to get to, including a look ahead of the off season. We do
it each week on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network in seven hundred WLW.
I would be Lance McAllister. He would be Dave Blapham and Lance.
This portion of Bengals Line is presented by Betford's Sports Book, the official sports
betting partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. Zach Taylor met with the media earlier today
season wrap up news conference. Here is Zach's thoughts on the season, just
completed the off season and what's ahead. Just wrapping things up with that players.
You know, it's got through a good number of guys this morning and
and still more to go. But just just again giving some finality to the
season and making sure we wrap things up with the players and the coaching staff
and front office and all that stuff. Those are those are kind of what
these next couple days are for. Not every player, you know, there's
there's some guys that are that are you know, under contract and you have
opportunity to talk to them in the coming months as they come back. But
there's you know, all ranges of guys you want to you want to make
sure you talk to on the final day. But everyone talks to the position
coaches, coordinators and then I've got a line up my door that's probably still
up there. So Jun had a kind of hard to heart. Remember the
conversation with you about being your first draft back and when you guys helped build
early on in his career. What are your thoughts on John? Yeah,
Jonas Jonas competed really hard for us, you know, and for five years
now, and you know, there's a lot of appreciation on our end as
coaches, you know, for the job that he's done moving from left tackle
to right tackle and so again, just I think he's he's served himself well
and done an excellent job for us, and you know, look forward to
seeing what the future holds again with a lot of those guys that aren't expiring
contracts, it remains to be seeing. Those are conversations that will undergo over
the next month and a half. And that's when I communicated him. But
but it is you know, when when I get here, it's it's not
my first traft pick, it's our organization's traft pick. But there is a
collection of guys there that group. You know, if you look at the
first three picks with Jonah and Drew and Jermaine and guys that were in some
sense on a on a second deal, and I think that's that's good,
that that hit the character that we were looking for. And those guys have
played significant roles for us over the last couple of years. When you've season,
we've onment, you only have see and give a ways waiting sentences recently,
you give yourself a chance that I am, you know, I think
that's a great starting point. You know, it's you know, the penalties
is something you know sometimes it's out of your control. But there's a lot
of things that you can control, and our guys do that, you know,
with some of the procedural stuff. We take a lot of pride in
how we control that and how we use that. I think yesterday is reflective
of that, you know, doing a great job with our cadence and getting
some free plays and some free first downs and getting ourselves out of a minus
one situation and you know, defensively staying on size and so there's things you're
proud of. The ball security stuff is something that we spend a lot of
time and effort preaching working on, and it's it's significant in terms of wins
and losses, and it gives you chance to be in the hunt and do
all the things we want to do that it's a possibility that Tyler's not back
and DJ is maybe not back, and although maybe not that those guys have
been leaders for you. Yeah, if you identified the next group of guys
in the big leadership, let that happen organically. Well, I think,
you know, I'm not I'm not certainly not resigning to anybody walking out the
door not being here, but it certainly, you know, as you look
at the evolution of your team and and the influx, you're gonna have a
lot of first second year of thirty year players, and there's new leadership that
has to emerge from that group, and and that starts with me helping navigate
that leadership. And I've talked to some of our veterans today on helping me
with that and identifying guys, and you know, I do think that's a
big part of our future is making sure that we have a great plan to
develop the leadership and get the most out of those those guys that are capable
of that. And so that that's a great question and that that is a
big, big point of emphasis here in the next six months. Joe said
that he expects to have tea bag obviously. He said that event this contract,
that the guys in the lockerroom expect that too. I would. I
mean, it's hard to imagine life without Ta Higgins, you know. And
then again, those are all conversations that we'll continue to have upstairs and I,
you know, T and I talked and I have no information on that.
You know, that's that those are things that evolve. That's what the
next two months are for get a chance to go in depth at the roster
and survey the future. And again, I'm not I'm not trying to angle
this any which way. That's just that's that's what we do, and that's
what Duke and all of them have been working on endlessly, you know,
while we're in season and then I get caught up to speed and we have
those conversations. But you know, Tease, Tease a big part of what
we're doing, and it'd be hard for him to imagine not being here.
You feel like there's some younger players that aren't necessarily, you know, hold
in their way back or saying out of respect to the older players that have
been leaders, I'm not really going to try to overstep my boles here,
but if somebody moves on, I'm ready to assume that next level. There's
always an element of that, you know, guys trying to find their role
in their place and the team. It's my job to help them navigate through
that and come to the forefront. I can remember having conversations with the Sam
Hubbard, you know, my first year here he was a what a second
year player at that point, and and trying to help him navigate that.
And so again we take great pride and leadership can come from any corner of
this locker room. It can be a starter, a non starter, a
veteran, a young player, and and uh, I think we need to
continue to take great pride going forward and evaluating the right guys and bringing them
to the forefront and defendsive actian that we're already talking about getting to enter and
doing stuff like stuff like that this off season. Will that be more important
maybe this offseason than a previous season. Yeah, I think it's just continuing
to make the most out of our communication process. And and again there's youth
in the secondary, you know, those guys, and so it's good for
them to take some initiative and you know, we'll expecting that group to continue
to grow and improve and and the experience that they gained this year is valuable
and and that's that's part of playing this league is is sometimes you're gonna take
your lumps a little bit and you're gonna learn from that and grow and there's
not a player in a locker room that's a veteran player that didn't didn't go
through a similar process that some of those guys are going through right now.
And now it's just how you handle that going forward. And again just as
as coaches, making sure that we're we're helping them improve the right way.
The meetings actually meetings would be you've got and your in communication when you get
a lot of validation, it's like I knew that the locker room was like
this because the guys like you, I mean, the guys have something to
say to you, the kind of validation of God, well, you get
a lot of a lot of guys that have been elsewhere, you know,
and and again they've been. We got guys that have been tremendous places,
and so they're never negatively speaking on other places they've been. But it's just
positive is that it is a great environment that allows you to grow as a
player and as a person. And I think that was one of my probably
my favorite comments from this morning is is you know one of our our free
agent players that we had in here that that just said they felt like they've
grown as much as a person this year as any other place they've ever been,
and that's important for getting this team where we want to be. You
know, it's not just about the on field stuff. It's about what happens
in the locker room and the weight room. And I think we've got a
good group of guys that way, Zach Taylor. I remember I said back
when when Joe got hurt, I said, with seven games left, we're
going to find out a lot about this coach staff. And there's a lot
of talent still on this team, and I don't want to see a one
in six, zero to seven the rest of the way, everybody feeling sorry
about themselves. This team went four and three in those final seven, stayed
in contention till the second week end of the year. They put Jake Browning
in a position to succeed. I think there's a lot of credit for the
way this team. I know it's cliche to give people kudos for effort and
lot this team found a way to win for their final seven without Joe Burrow,
and I think we found a lot about this coaching staff. I agree.
I agree wholeheartedly, and I mean defensively. It was a shocking season
of explosives. I mean going into the last game sixteen prior games seventy nine
explosives plays of twenty yards or more. They also led the NFL and plays
a lout of thirty yards and more. When you're doing that, even with
Joe Burrow, it makes it difficult. The fact that they're able to hang
in there as well as they did with Jake Browning at the helm is a
testament to how he led the offense and supported the defense when it was having
its struggles, having its problems. And I think this is a blip,
this is an aberration. I don't think this is a trend. I think
when the next year, I think the defense will get the form that they
had a couple of years prior to this one, two seasons in a row
with Louisna Rumo. I do think they're still going to continue to be a
red zone defensive stopping football team. I think that's part of their DNA.
But the explosives have to be fixed, and that's going to be as big
an offseason priority as anything. I think it'll also be interesting, and back
to what Brian told us in the in the second hour as well, how
they approach training camp and that the yin and the yang of all this of
do we take it easy on him to keep them healthy and fresh for the
end versus the slow starts have put us behind the eight ball. Do we
ratchet it up early and run some risk. There's that, there's that balance
and counterbalance to all of it. Yeah, And I think that I think
that they are probably going to do a little bit more. I don't.
I don't think they're going to be scrimmaging goal line, no, nothing like
that. But but I do think that they'll have a lot longer off season
to recover and recuperate their body. And that's that's that was that's the biggest
fear. It's like, you go all the way to the Super Bowl,
man, your off season is really condensed. So how hard do you push
them in mini camps? Their body is still in a much earlier recovery mode
than they're going to be this year. So I think that they probably will
do a little bit more. And and man, they just can't start out
owing two in the division like that, And they don't know what the schedule
is going to be next year. I'm not saying that there's going to be
two Digital Division opponents right out of the Gate like this year, but uh,
it was a multiple level problem. Joe Burrow was injured and he couldn't
move, and he was a statue in the pocket and limited. The limitations
offensively were dramatic, but overall, as a football think they could have been
more prepared physically than they were, and I think that's going to be rectified.
Still ahead, a little bit more from Jake Browning on his season,
what he thinks of Tyler Boyd and the culture on this team. Some good
stuff as we continue with the Bengals line in the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio
Network in seven hundred WLW sink we keep it rolling right along of this Monday
night of Bengals Line. We're on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network.
It's seven hundred wled up you wrapping up the Brown's Bengals game yesterday, looking
ahead of the offseason, and so much more on lancemcallister. He's Dave Lapham
and Lance Pai Corps probably be the official HR provider of the Cincinnati Bengals.
A little bit more from Jake Browning from yesterday. Three things that really jumped
down and caught my ear talking about his season, his place, in the
NFL now, his respect for Tyler Boyd and the exchange he had with Zach
yesterday, and the praise he has for Zach and the culture he's built.
Here's Jake Browning yesterday. I mean, the goal is to make it in
the playoffs, so that part not well. I think as we get further
away from the season, I'll remember the good, hopefully, but I think
I'm kind of wired to remember some losses that, uh, you know,
I could have played better. But I think I've established that I'm capable of
being a starter in the NFL. It's obviously a weird situation where I feel
like, hey, I'm one of the top thirty two quarterbacks in the world
and I just so happened to be on a roster with the guy that's proven
that he's a top five quarterback in the world, and so you know what
that what that looks like going forward, I have no idea, nor do
I have any control, so I'm not going to think about it a ton,
but uh, I think when I go watch the uh all my film
to try and figure out what I'm gonna work on this offseason, I'll be
proud of what I put on tape, but the goal was to go to
the playoffs and we didn't, so that's, you know, pretty motivating going
to the offseason too. Was it important for you to reach out to Tyler
Boyd in the middle of his plus gathering. Yeah. I think TV's I
mean, he's been my lockermate through out this whole year, and I think
Jamar and T get a lot of pub and rightfully so, I mean,
they're unbelievable players. But I think TV, at least in my experience over
the last couple of years here and watching this place and I wasn't here when
it was bad, but watching it kind of climb to the next level,
I think TV is an unsung hero or like a guy that pulls a lot
of weight in the locker room, because you know, those two guys came
here, and he was kind of the guy and those two guys came and
you know, it's a zero some game. You can't throw the ball to
three people every play, and so you know there's a lot of touches that
win other people's ways that uh. But he kind of set the tone like
that this is not going to be a Prima Donna room and that it's just
really about winning and going as hard as you can. And you know,
I'll always have a lot of respect for TV and uh, just how he
carried himself. I think he's you know, he's I throw three picks against
Pittsburgh, his hometown, and in front of his whole family, basically coming
into the locker room, He's like, hey, man, shake that off.
Like everybody has one of those games, and so, uh, you
know, I always remember that. It was kind of like I said earlier,
remember what people were like when something bad just happened, And so I
always think very highly of Tyler. And during that drug Uh no, guys,
yeah, I lost my cool for a second. And luckily Zach is
a very forgiving person and not a jerk, because if I were him,
I would have screamed at me in the helmet. No, it's not bad,
it's just I lost my lost my cool in the moment, and and
he was great as always and just pretty much I think he's always here and
he just stayed right there as I was through the roof pissed off, and
uh yeah, because I can't be doing that to the guy that gave me
a shot. And it is bad because situations, Yeah, I think one
of the things that is most impressive about being this building is like Zach encourages
you to be who you are, like he is not I've never felt the
pressure like get up in front of the team and be the raw rock guy
because I'm a quarterback for these last couple of games. He's hey, be
yourself. You know, whether that's how you conduct yourself in interviews or you
know how you are outside of the facilities, say be yourself, protect the
team, but be yourself. And uh, and that's not the case everywhere.
I think there's a ton of effort and thought to intentionally create a culture
where people can be themselves. Jake from yesterday and the final exchange, and
as he said, he kind of lost it. He was upset with being
hit hard on a naked and he and he turned and he yelled to Zach,
you know, no blanking more nakeds and Zach had kind of had a
back and forth with him on the headset. Zach said, we had a
little communication there, but I was struck by what Jake said. He one
of the things that is most impressive about being in this building is Zach encourages
to be you, to be who you are and it's all part of the
culture that Zach has built with his team, no doubt and uh and Zach
understands and so does Jake, that everybody's competitive. There's gonna be flare ups.
You can't take it personally, you know, you explode. Everybody apologize
to get over it, whatever the case may be. No harm, no
foul. I mean, there's that's just it's just the nature of the beast
when you're competing at the highest level. But I will say the Cleveland Browns
Schwartz did a good job of making sure those defense have been took care of.
The naked bootlegs. There always was somebody on the prow for Jake Browning
when he come out of there on the naked and that look on Jake's face
and the TV version of it when Rack gets up, it turns around and
Jake, I mean the looks of like it looks to kill at that point
in him fired off. His exchange was pretty good. I also was struck.
And Jake was asked about his respect for Tyler Boyd and why he for
those who haven't seen it or heard it, and when Tyler Boyd is kind
of holding court with the media, maybe for the final time and answering questions,
Jake steps over and interrupt to say how much he appreciates Tyler and what
he's meant to him and the words of encouragement. And I think that,
to me just speaks volumes about Jake Browning, who's he's not the thirty plus
year old veteran who's been around. He's still a guy young in his playing
career, but knew it was important and just kind of popped in to make
sure everybody knew how much Tyler meant to him. I think that says a
lot about It says a lot about both guys. It does. It does.
It says a lot about Tyler Boyd to put his arm around. Basically,
I'm talking figured it figuratively to Jake Browning when he first came to the
organization, and you know, basically it was a conduit for him, you
know, to learning and everything else and even probably to the city. I
mean, Tyler Boyd was a guy that'd been around the city and the environment
and everything the most. So you know, Jake's like, I got to
pay that back. When I first came here, he was the guiding light
for me. Now as he may be departing. I have to let everybody
know that that was the case, and I'm going to pay it back.
And I just think that it encapsulates. It's a great example of what this
football team's about in terms of closeness chemistry. This locker room is very,
very tightly knit, one of the tightest ones that I've seen in the tightest
one I ever was a part of. And it becomes I mean, when
yes, this, you know, the super Bowl locker room was great,
It was great. This locker room has had success, They've been to a
Super Bowl, but this version, you know, didn't achieve the goals that
they were necessarily trying to achieve. Yet that did not basically crumble the relationships
of the players in that locker room. Take a time out of continue.
There's more to get to, including game ball presentations. That is we rolled
down the stretch on Bengals line of the First Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and
seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back on Bengals lone of this Monday night.
We're on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred WL and
Lance on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the season, save five bucks off Mike's car
wash top two washes for all washes sold. On Wednesday, Mike's donates a
buck to the Anthony Munnals Foundation. So far this season, over fifty four
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their education. Mike's is open daily seven am to nine pm. That is
awesome. Congratulations. All right, we've got to look at both sides of
the foot before we get out of here and hand out and take a listen
to the game balls in our final segment tonight, let's start of the offensive.
Even since things start up front. First, the recognition that this offensive
line for seventeen weeks rolled out the same five which doesn't happen very often,
it really doesn't. And during that seventeen week timeframe, guys, we're nursing
some things, you know. I mean, it doesn't mean that you can't
play, but you're going to have to alter some technique the way you get
go about doing some things in order to protect your body that is a little
bit under the weather in an area or two. So the fact that that
speaks volumes to me as well, because when things aren't going necessarily well when
you know they were streaky. There win a few, lose a few.
They had multiple game winning streaks and losing streaks during the course of the season.
It's easy to tap out during the bad times, and these guys not.
And this offensive line, it's like you mess with one of us,
you mess with all of us. These guys are a close knit group,
and I think that for each other is a big reason that they sucked it
up and started every single football game together. I always talk about the offensive
line as being a fist. You know, five components. You curl the
fingers, wrap the thumb. It's involuntary. And when you've got something going
and you have the chemistry and you have, you know, the feeling that
this offensive line has, you don't want that to go away. It would
seem the only of those five spots that would be in play or with questions
during the offseason would be the future of free agent and it either he comes
back or I don't know that there's an in house candidate versus drafting or signing
free agent wise, but there's certainly going to be a decision and movement and
motion on that right tackle position. Yeah, and When you look at Jona
Williams, he's more than a right tackle. He played left tackle very well.
I mean, he's a solid NFL player at both tackle positions. That
is got value, And he and his representation know that if Orlando Brown had
been nicked up, Jonah would have been the guy to go to left tackle
and you would have had a different guy at the right tackle position. So
I mean he's like one and one a at both at both spots. So
that's a that's a loss, that's a blow. If Jonah Williams moves on
and somebody's going to get a guy that has position versatility and is able to
play both at a significant level. I mean, it's it's amazing, how
you know, Jonah's like your feelings. He had hurt obviously, you know,
and it's like I thought I played well at left tackle and they signed
Orlando Brown. They tell me I'm going to play right tackle. Well you
have to go, and then kudos to him. He pulled himself up by
his bootstraps and got to work and had a very solid year. So now,
I mean, he's increased this value in my mind, if anything,
because you get a guy that can literally line up at either tackle position for
you and play good NFL snaps. Biggest question, Uh, it would appear
I think safe to say on the offensive side of things this offseason is the
future of T Higgins, who I guess you can you could tag and keep
and having played for you this year, you could tag him. You could
trade him. I guess you could let him walk in free agency, which
would seem the lesser the three. But there's a decision that's going to have
to be made. He's in a position where he's going to command a lot
of money. He is, he's gonna comand a lot of money. And
then you get Jamar Chase coming up, you know, very shortly thereafter.
So there's always a payday and you always have to pay the piper, as
the old saying goes. But T Higgins Brian Callahan story about you know how
from year one to year two what he did with his body. Yeah,
and and uh and and what a force he is, this this guy.
When one opposing coaches see him in warm ups, their miles are a gape.
You know, it's what the heck? This guy is a is a
physical freak, and it's going to be how all that all all of that
unfold is it is it logical to think that all three will be returning of
the big three? That's not logical, that's not going to happen. But
how many of them will be returning? And where do you have to go
from there? Yeah, because it's easy to say, it's easy to say,
well, tag him and keep him this year and make another run at
it. But it's well, it's easy to say that that's a nice chunk
of change that one could be used realistically to help other areas at multiple areas
of the football team. And that's the and yang of a Saracap league,
right. I mean, what you have to do is you're you're looking at
Okay t Higgins. We know pretty much you know the value that he brings
to us. If we tag t Higgins, we have a twenty million dollar
expenditure, If we tag Tea, all right, we're not going to be
able to maybe spend where if we don't tag Tea. How close are Yosi
Vosh and Charlie Jones and those guys to giving an effort that team might be
able to give? Now obviously physically different, Yosi Vash is closer to the
size of te but they bring different traits to the table. And it's like,
if I can get close to where I the production, the t gave
me that twenty million dollars, these guys are already on the contract, I
can do a bunch of other things. So you have to make those kind
of decisions and there's ripple effects to all of it. With respect to Sarry
Cap, let's come back, flip the script, talk about the defense and
some of the questions for the off season as we head down the stretch on
Bengal Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred WLW. We are moving right
along on this Monday night of Bengals Line on the first Star Logistics Bengals Radio
Network. It's seven hundred WLW Lambs. But Catlester Dave labam As, we
talked defense, and I want to leave out a guy who certainly flashed multiple
times yesterday and had an impact throughout the game, and that's Joseph Osai.
Here's Date's conversation after the game with Joseph edge Rush. You gave that you
gave some snaps, a defensive tackle, you had tackle for loss, You
had a hit on the arm that caused a deflection for an interception. Big
day. Yes, sir, I just want to say, dang guy,
you know I've been working all year and I'm happy I was able to get
in and uh be an impact, be be a positive, positive force for
the for the defense. Defense played really well. I mean, you shut
them down for a good portion of the football game. They scored fourteen late
points, but you guys had that game out of control of the whole game.
Yeah, it was a It was a great collective defensive day. Offenses
working well with us too, especially seams doing what they could, but what
they had we didn't pump much or or get to return the ball much.
But you know, everybody work, Everything clicks and you can say what you
want to say. But this scene's gonna keep fighting and it was great.
Appreciate it. No, Pap think Dape his impact was certainly felt yesterday.
He did he didn't have I want to say he had. He had twenty
six snaps and he certainly had an impactful twenty six snaps. And just by
saying to you throughout the broadcast and what you've said about him, you were
bullish on him. There's been there have been injuries at times and maybe not
the opportunities some wanted or maybe he hoped, but you believe there's still something
there and more to come from Joseph o'side. I really do. He's a
three year guy, but he's only a two year player because he missed his
whole rookie year. He got hurt in training camp and missed the entire duration
of that that season. So you know, yesterday's game, he had three
tackles and he had two quarterback hits, one of them caused an interception.
He had a pass defense. I mean, he was he was a factor,
and he lined up at edge rush, he lined up as a nickel
defensive tackle. He is got physical presence. I mean his size, speed,
quickness, strength ratio is unique. He He's just got to stay healthy.
I mean, he got nicked up this year and he's been healthy for
a while, and I'm like, man, I'd like to see him get
a few more snaps, you know, and maybe take some of the burden
off Sam Hubbard, who's playing with a high ankle sprain. There's gonna have
oporpion. I'd like to maybe take a second to give kudos to him.
This guy played seven games with a high ankle sprain. You know, he's
gonna have that tight rope procedure on Wednesday. The tibbi amphibulous separate and soft
tissue damage. There's not many guys walking the streets in the National Football League
that would play and endure what Sam Hubbard endured. But you know, maybe
take some of the load off of Sam a little bit with with Joseph Asai,
you know, in terms of you know, getting up the football field
and creating havoc. I think he is an explosive act. I think he
can be a factor in the rotation. I really do. I I'm struck
by as well. While we're talking about the defense, something that Mike Hilton
said last week. It was along the lines of the jump from year one
to year two is big to determine a lot of people's careers. And as
as I remember him saying that last week, I think of Jordan Battle,
who we talked about earlier, and Miles Murphy and DJ Turner and Chase Brown
and the young wide receivers. There's a strong group of guide into that year
two. Do all of them make the jump? Probably not, but it's
gonna be fun to see what they did now and what that jumps to next
season, because they're gonna need some significant jumps in the second year for these
guys, no doubt. And you look at it, eight rookies, they
all made the team and their roles all expanded. It wasn't like this guy
can't hang, so let's just forget about him. Let him just kind of
rod over in the corner over there. I mean, they basically said,
hey, I like what you're doing. We're gonna give you a little bit
more responsibility and gonna gonna make you roll a little bit larger. And everybody,
everybody responded favorably to that. So, yeah, rookies that get that
offseason, reflect, learn, work on your body, come back second year.
Like you said, Lance, all eight of them will they make major
jumps if fifty percent of them, If four of them do, that's big
time. And I do believe that young secondary falling into the category of some
of these guys. I really really am excited about what they're gonna give lou
An and Rumo and how lou is going to develop those guys, you know,
and along those lines. I also thought it was interesting we kind of
alluded to it earlier and Logan we heard from Logan Wilson. Lou and Rumo
said last week there were no doubt there were times this year because of the
uncertainty of what was going on to the back end. It impacted guys like
the linebackers. Sure Logan would turn in just to make sure and instead of,
you know, instead of facing what's going on, he had to take
that quick peek or where are they? Are they where they're supposed to be,
And that's the domino effect well and lose defense. It all starts from
the back end. It's a top down communication and the worst thing you can
have in the back end is silence. And Logan Wilson was waiting for and
he'd turn he'd be like, where is it? Because his communication to the
linebackers and then to the defensive line is totally contingent on the back end.
So it's like, say something, even if it's wrong, let's all get
on the same page. So when there's no communicator, you know, when
communication doesn't happen or it's late, now, the chances of everybody being on
the same page or nil. So you know, that's what has to improve
the recognition and then communication of the recognition in a faster fashion is what has
to happen big time. What other piece that would be in play this offseason
is DJ Reader, And I think it's safe to say there's no debating would
they like him back. Everybody would like DJ Reader back. He'll be coming
off the injury, he'll be thirty. We don't know what he'd be,
but I think if he has Loui Anarubo, he'd say, there's no doubt
in my mind, I want him back. In the locker room. Here,
just a little bit ago, going through the locker room, there's DJ
and there on crutches coming in to get his rehab going and everything, and
he's holding court, holding court with the D line. You know, everybody's
everybody's tapping him up. I mean DJ Reader is an immense presence in that
locker room as well as on the football field. He is as good a
run defender as there is in the National Football League and Pro Football Focus with
second that because they had him rated higher than Trey Henderson, with all the
contributions Trey Hendrickson makes in the pass rush in the passing game, they had
DJ Reader with a higher grade because of how he handles the run game on
a snap by snap basis as well as giving an interior pass rush prep.
He is a huge, huge player impact wise. We call our final time
out come back, put the raps on it. You'll hear the presentation of
game Balls on Bengals Line the First Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network and seven hundred
WLW Down on the Stretch, final segment of the night, final segment of
the year here on Bengals Line of the First Star Logistics Bengals Radio Network in
seven hundred W l W Lions Bacallister, Dave Lapham and Dave Well. The
season is done. You're working involvement within the trenches and the fantastic interviews never
done, lay out things ahead. Yeah, well, Lance appreciate that very
much. We work hard to try to give give value to people that want
to tune into into trenches. And we got the Sims family, Chris Sims,
Phil Sims, got a couple of a couple of episodes with Phil Simms
that are pretty interesting coming up. So he's he's he's not bashful. He
will he will give his opinions and we'll be catching up in the off season
with them and Boomer and uh, you know, Chris Collinsworth and from from
the broadcast world, and the coordinator is still you know, key players in
the offseason. I mean, it's going to be a it's a year round
thing. We're also going to be doing our draft party again, that was
a May your successful We're going to be doing that coming up. And we'll
be doing a lot of draft coverage leading up to that draft party. So
in the trenches, it's a year round thing. And enjoyed its love Everybody
that tunes, in no doubt love it, love the content. Hey,
before we get out of here, let's hear the presentation of game balls one
final time on a victory Monday. Here's how it sounded in the locker room
after yesterday's game. Hey, guys, I appreciate you. Great win.
You did everything we talked about. You came out strong, You gottaut twenty
four nothing a halftime, You won the penalty battle, you won the turnover
battle, all those things that we said, we'll leave the victory today.
And defensively through three quarters helm scoreless. That's awesome. Okay, offensively you
last fore drive ninety nine yards for touchdown, you go up thirty one.
Now, then that's pretty impressive. Okay, so I'm good off the offense
and the defense. That's good stuff. Okay. A couple of achievements that
I want to point out here, Okay, first career in reception for the
fourth time his career, Joe Mixing over a thousand yards time for second most
in team history. Jamar Chase one hundred catches and second most in team history
with seventeen and a half sacks, a personal record. Trey Hendrickson. I
appreciate you guys. I know it wasn't the season we expected to have,
but you finished it the right way, Okay, and we'll get this thing
together and get back in championship for him again next year. Okay. That's
all I got, you know, man, this song that's real. Yes,
one l time and one time. I know it wasn't, you know,
the outcome that we wanted for the year, man, But I just
want you to know I'm proud of you all boys for showing up you know
this each and every day, and the fact that you guys show up and
put the hard work in, you know, last week and do all these
things that we needed to do to come out here and get the dub and
have fun. I appreciate y'all boys once I know, I love y'all.
And uh for the last time, man, let's get this hooray, hooray.
There you'll beat them Bangals hooray. Then you'll beat the game ball presentations
yesterday. That will wrap it up. We are done for the season.
Uh we We certainly think Yid who has been the overseer of all of this,
who afect us in line and organized all of this over the course of
the season to day by say this every year. I learned so much from
you. I so much enjoy working with you. I'm sad the season is
done. The last two years we've been able to do this deep of January.
Let's make that the plan next year to go deeper into January and we'll
have some more fun doing it here here, Lance, I'm all for that,
and I do want to say that working with you, Dave Armiste and
yourself, Lance mccows do you guys pros And this is so much fun because
it's so easy. Have a great night, everybody. Thanks for hanging out
with us this season. We'll do it again next season. It's been Bengals
Line on the First Star Logistics Bengals Radio network in seven hundred WLW