Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Another heartbreaking loss that could be it for the Cincinnati Bengals' 2024 season

Starting point is 00:00:00 We've seen this movie way too many times this year. The Bengals once again lose in heartbreaking fashion and their season may well be over. Let's break it down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. He's your host, James Rapine.

Starting point is 00:00:33 We are the Locked on Bengals podcast, part of the Locked on Bengals podcast, part of the Locked on. Lockdown podcast network covering your team every day as the Bengals trudged through what has been a very disappointing season filled with heartbreak tonight. No different. And so far we'll break it down in this episode. Welcome back to the everydayers. Welcome back to those of you who make us your first listen. And if you're looking for a place to stay up to date on all things Bengals as this season finishes, you are in the right place and you can subscribe to the show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. James, it was a game that felt so similar in so many ways.

Starting point is 00:01:10 The big difference being at halftime, I was ready to say fire everyone, and it was really clear. And then the team fought back and really muddied the picture. But in the end, they couldn't make the game winning play. And we've said that way too many times this year on this podcast. Yeah, well, way too many. They're one in six and one score games and that one win. They were up 14 on the Browns and then the Browns scored late to make it a one-score game,

Starting point is 00:01:37 where they were in control of the game. It's they stink with the game on the line, but there's a bunch of different ways to do that. And one of them is missed two field goals. I've been the guy that's defended Evan McPherson. There's no more defense now. Money Mac is bankrupt and he's got to figure it out. And he didn't talk after the game. I asked multiple teammates about him,

Starting point is 00:02:07 asked Zach Taylor about him. I think the most noteworthy quote is Jemar Chase. And I tweeted out a link to the video. I don't know the exact quotes. So I'm paraphrasing here. But he said, we paid him all that money to make those kicks. And there's certainly a lot you could read into that if you wanted to. But the point is, is Evan McPherson.

Starting point is 00:02:31 Pearson has to make one of those. This is a beautiful facility at SoFi State. The wind wasn't a factor, Jake. Spoiler. It was great kicking conditions. And so that's one thing. The other thing is when you're at least the things that stand out to me the most. So that's one.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Number two, the fact that in a must win game, you and I talked about it all week, a game where it really did feel like some people, people were playing and or coaching for their jobs. And in Camp Taylor Britt's case, certainly playing for his job and got Yang. For them to come out the way they did and to look that bad. And at halftime, it felt like they were going to get run out of the building. That is unacceptable. And so those are the two things that really stand out to me is the start and just how

Starting point is 00:03:25 awful it was. And then Evan Luce changed because he, he missed two field goals and he should have made both at least make one and if you do i know they lost by seven but if you make one the game feels much much different down the stretch totally different you're not seeing multiple drives and at midfield i mean part of it's you're ending the drive at midfield the field position change from missing a field goal of 48 or 50 yards is better than the average field position you have on kickoff and then there's the whole momentum thing whether or not you believe in momentum,

Starting point is 00:03:59 and a lot of you are saying, of course, momentum is real. And a lot of you are saying, of course, momentum is fake. And a lot of you are pointing to Harbaugh after the game, saying, we didn't have momentum, but they didn't have momentum. And if nobody has momentum, then what is momentum? You don't need to talk about momentum anymore. The point is that the Bengals once again came up short and they started slow. And we've talked about both of those things this year.

Starting point is 00:04:19 We've talked about fast starts a ton. And at some point, we were talking about fast starts so much. And I said, yeah, but they also got to finish. And then we started talking about finishing games. T. Higgins at his locker talked about finishing games. Finish is a word of the week. You got to finish the game. And there was an ex would have in there the T use that I won't repeat.

Starting point is 00:04:37 You can find that if you want to. It's on the internet. But it's not just the miss field goals either. You can certainly point to miss field goals. And you should. Rightly so. Those are field goals that Evan McPherson has to make. He's now missed, what, four straight, 50 plus yard field goals that is turned into an official nightmare season for Evan McPherson.

Starting point is 00:04:56 at this point, and he has been on the wrong end of the Bengals losing some games this year, where if he makes kicks in the clutch, perhaps instead the Bengals are six and five right now, for example. That's possible if some kicks go a different way this season for Evan McPherson, but it's not just Evan McPherson. It's all the players that played great in this game, and I'm going to go out of my way here before I start talking about this point to say that I'm not blaming these guys for the loss, but in these clutch moments,

Starting point is 00:05:24 you have a pass to Jemar Chase before Evan McPherson's first field goal that wasn't a perfect pass. There was pressure. Jamar Chase got hands on it, didn't quite complete the catch. Could have gotten that field goal a little bit closer. Or if Joe Burroughs able to get that ball in a little bit of a better place, and again, he's getting hit and it's hard. But if that ball is able to be in a little bit of a better place, perhaps instead they convert that third down. On the very next drive, perhaps he hits Jamar Chase on. or I guess it was a couple of drive later.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Perhaps he hits Jamar Chase on the deep ball. Or when he threw it to Andre Yosevats, which converted a first down, and I don't know if he had time to see that Jamar was wide open and a busted coverage. If he hits Jamar there, maybe that goes for a touchdown. And then you're up 24, 27 with about two minutes left in the game. Or if T. Higgins is able to hold on to a ball

Starting point is 00:06:14 with a guy playing through his back. Or Joe's able to get a little bit more on the ball to T. Higgins on that third down before they had to punt the ball away the last time in the game. there are all these opportunities they had on offense and they also had opportunities on defense. Mike Hilton had an opportunity for a pick six and he couldn't quite make the play. And it's not to take anything away from these guys again

Starting point is 00:06:37 because they're making plays that are good enough to be in position to win the game. And then when they need to make that one more play to actually win the game, that's where they're coming up short. And that's what's so frustrating about this game because like you said, it looks like they run out of the building at halftime. And I'm ready to say fire everybody.

Starting point is 00:06:54 I'm ready to come on here and say, this is the clearest sign we've ever had that everybody needs to be fired. And now, maybe that's still true because all of those issues don't magically go away because they fought back in the second half. But they did fight back in the second half. And they did play with their hair on fire. And they did play like their season was on the line. They came up short in the key moments,

Starting point is 00:07:13 but they got to a point where they could win the game. And so whatever happened at halftime, whether it's the Chargers charging or the Bengals doing their thing to get themselves back in a position to win the game, DJ Turner making plays, fig Josh Newton making plays. They were at a position to win this game, and as we've seen from them too many times this year, that last play they need to actually win the game is absent.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And that's why you have the collection of heartbreaking, brutally close game losses that litter this 2024 season for the Cincinnati Bengals. And as Joe Burr pointed out, they're just not good enough. Their margins are too close, and they need the plays that they're not making. And they're not making them. And so they are what their record is. Four and seven. They're not good enough.

Starting point is 00:08:00 That's what we've seen. Because Joe, Jamar, and T are awesome. The defense was pretty good in the second half and made some plays. But they still weren't dominant. They still gave up big plays when the Chargers went down and scored the game-winning touchdown. Right? They still gave up big plays there. And heck, they were aided by a misthrow by Justin Herb.

Starting point is 00:08:24 where Ladd-McConkie is wide open, you know, like, that's, those are things that we see every week. And I think that's the other element here is it's always someone. It's always that, oh, man, well, if this guy had done that, if Evan had made this kick, or Mike had made that interception, or Joe had made this throw, even though he's been hit 52 times. And, you know, like, at some point someone else has to to and by someone else I mean the collective team and I think they did do some of that in the second half you're right Josh Newton did make a play DJ Turner did make a play and it's like man they just can't do it consistently enough and then so to me you combine that with what we heard from Joe and just logic they just aren't good enough they're

Starting point is 00:09:16 too flawed, even with these elite high-end guys, like Jamar Chase, who's just playing at an insane level, like a T. Higgins, who comes back and is carrying guys and is really playing well. It's tough. It's tough to see this team play this way because it feels like they're wasting these elite guys. And we have much more to dive into when it comes to this Bengals team, using 3427 to a Chargers team that's good. I don't think they're great. And they had a real chance to win at SOPie and they didn't. We'll continue the conversation coming up next. Today's show is brought to up by Hillsdale College. Time is our most precious commodity. So don't waste it scrolling through the same mind-numbing content for hours and hours. How can you

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Starting point is 00:11:59 All right, Jake. I talked about Evan, so I'm sure you have plenty of thoughts about Evan. There are going to be people that say cut him or, whatever and the Bengals aren't going to cut him. But what are your thoughts on Evan McPherson right now? I mean, it's a nightmare season for him. I think I said that a little bit earlier. I don't know how you recover from this sort of thing. He needs to recover. They have a lot of money committed to him. There is certainly some irony. Maybe irony isn't quite the word. Something frustrating about the fact that he got paid and has had the season he's had and Jamar Chase, who we all agree

Starting point is 00:12:40 should have gotten paid, did not get paid and is having the kind of season that he's having. It's a tough spot because I think financially speaking in terms of the impact of those of you out there that want to cut Evan McPherson, one, you have to find a replacement. And two, there is a financial impact from a cap perspective that you don't really want to deal with when you're talking about a kicker. That said, at some point if it continues for too long, like if he misses another five in a row, 50 plus yard field goals and another multiple in a row 40 to 49 year field goals and they just can't trust him anymore, at some point, enough is enough. And so I don't know if it's the new field goal operation with Ryan Rico. It doesn't appear to be, but we're not experts in the

Starting point is 00:13:27 nitty gritty of the holding operation. I don't really know where they go with McPherson. the way he's performing right now. But considering, as Joe Burrow pointed out after the game, what their margins have been in these games this year, he has been a huge problem and is a huge part of the reason. In addition to all of these other things that we're talking about, where they're just not making the game-winning plays, he is part of that.

Starting point is 00:13:51 And that haven't really been the case with Evan McPherson thus far in his Cincinnati Bengals career outside of a couple of exceptions. No, it hadn't. And I think... that's what's so tough is it's like all right well you're flawed on half of your your special teams you're flawed on defense your offensive line isn't going to to move guys to consistently run the ball and that's it's not something you're banking on even though chase brown did have a solid game ran for 86 yards and you would take that at 3.9 per it's it's like man well what do they do

Starting point is 00:14:31 great. And it's like, okay, well, we know they have Chey Hendrickson on defense. And on offense, they have the big three. And Joe T. Jamar, Joe Jammar, T. And T's been there half a year. So it's just, it's really tough because I don't think they're, I don't think their head coach is elite. I think their quarterback is elite. I think one of the wide receivers is elite. Another one is really, really, really good. And then what? Your best offensive linemen didn't play again tonight. Like, it's just, it's tough.

Starting point is 00:15:04 It's tough to look at it because you can see all of the flaws. And you can win Super Bowls with flaws. But you have to have enough big time talent or enough consistent talent and they just don't have that. Well, they just don't have a floor. That's the problem this year. Is the floor is invisible, like, you can't see it. It's way down there in the dark.

Starting point is 00:15:27 It's at the bottom of the chasm. And there's no light down there. It's at the bottom of the Mariana's Trench. Whatever euphemism you want to use, whatever analogy you want to use, when it's bad, it's unwatchable. And that was part of this game. There's part of this game where the defense can't get pressure. Justin Herbert is standing in massive pockets

Starting point is 00:15:44 and delivering the boat wherever he wants to put it. And they're isolating Geno Stone in single high looks and taking advantage of his inability to close gaps on multiple touchdowns. Camp Taylor Brits lost on another one. And other times in this game on offense early, Joe Burrow can't find where you're supposed to escape because of interior offensive line

Starting point is 00:16:05 and in general the offensive line can't hold up against stunts too often. And on top of that, they can't run the ball. And on top of that, and on top of that, it does keep going. And that's where, like, yeah, you have T. Higgins, and that's awesome. You have Joe Burrow and that's awesome.

Starting point is 00:16:21 You have Jemar Chase, and that's awesome. Chase Brown in this game was awesome. He went Superman mode a few times. And both as a receiver and as a runner did some really, really impressive things in this game. But that's it, man. Like we were talking about Jermaine Burton a few weeks ago. Like remember all those flashes we saw from Jermaine Burton? And now every time the ball goes to Jermaine Burton, you're like, man, what happened on that play?

Starting point is 00:16:45 Like, why didn't the second hand go up in the end zone to try to catch that ball? Or why are they so far off on these deep ball? Is that Joe or is that something else going wrong? You know, and just go down the lines. I think we can have a conversation, a more in-depth conversation about Jermaine this week, because I agree with you. I think that's a good point.

Starting point is 00:17:06 It's, especially if you're a new listener, but certainly if you're in every day, you heard us in March and in April talk about the interior offensive line. That's why we were so excited about Matt Lee, like the fact that they actually drafted, I mean, an interior lineman in the seventh. And it's at the point that's like,

Starting point is 00:17:27 let's get them in the game. I think it's time. Yeah. Another conversation we can have. It's just like, but you're right. Like, it's like,

Starting point is 00:17:36 my God, like we saw these things. Like, we saw these things coming. And it's, yeah, we're going to do a whole, I mean,

Starting point is 00:17:46 it's the byways. We can dive into the offensive line, but it is really frustrating. It is. And they, hits that Joe is taken. I walked behind him out of the Bengals locker room. And Sofey Stadium is huge.

Starting point is 00:18:00 Like it is giant. And so they have, they cart the players from the locker room to the, the news conference room because it's that far apart. But I was walking behind him for a little bit. And that, like, you could just tell he's like,

Starting point is 00:18:14 just had just been, gotten the crap kicked out of it. You know? And he's a tough dude. But you, it's just not realistic to keep making him do that and deal with that

Starting point is 00:18:28 down in and down out because it takes its toll. And you know what it takes its toll? Late in the game, when you're like, oh, well, he needs to hit Jamar on this. Or he needs to be able to throw an accurate pass to T. Higgins. And he's getting hit again. And that's it.

Starting point is 00:18:47 It's because he's getting hit and those hits do take their toll. And even though he's still up, you might be a little off on one of them or multiple. You might misread the defense. Like it impacts everything. Even if he says it doesn't, it does. And I'm sure he would tell you deep down if you give him truth saying,

Starting point is 00:19:06 like, yeah, it would be nice not to get hit as much. Like, I just. And that part is frustrating. The culture of the offensive line helping him up after some of these hits, man. This is like starting to become a recurrent theme as well, where he's peeling himself up off the ground too much. Let's, we can do that. Let's do it.

Starting point is 00:19:25 Because you might have noticed more than I did. And so watching the TV copy, I was kind of bouncing back and forth, obviously, here at the game. So I'm sure there's plenty more to dive into besides that, but we can do that as well coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandle. Get ready to tackle NFL Week 12 with America's number one sports book. You don't have to worry or stress about. the Bengals losing this week because it's the buy week. And that means it's the perfect time to get the Fandul because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

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Starting point is 00:20:46 There's so many directions we could take here as we wrap up our thoughts. on this game. And I don't know how much I have to say about the offensive line helping up Joe Burrow right now, other than like this has happened a couple times a season when he's conspicuously peeling himself up off the ground. And there's like some late hits he's taking or questionable hits he's taking. And you see some other offensive lines around the league really taking a personal foul there where maybe maybe that's it. Maybe they just don't want to take the personal foul to go protect their guy. But man, the shots that Burrow was taking in this game.

Starting point is 00:21:20 And the stats don't suggest that he had like an amazing game or anything. He had 356 yards and three touchdowns. That's really good. But he's also only 28 for 50. And he averaged what, 7.1 yards per 10? That's pretty good. It was a good game for Burrow. But I don't know.

Starting point is 00:21:39 I guess the offensive line thing, I don't know how deep my thoughts go there. But it is a little frustrating to see this trend. of him taking these hits. And I don't know if it feels like it's like a lack of accountability or something from the offensive line when they're not back there to help pick him up or what it is. But something feels weird about it. That's all. Yeah, it does.

Starting point is 00:22:02 It's annoying is what it is. A lot of annoying things this year, huh? And it's annoying to watch. And these are guys I like. I do. But I don't want to see these guys get beat right, right? like literally right away. Burrow had a scramble today where he hits his back foot and a guy's in his face boom on him. Like he has no chance to make a play and he still makes a play, finds a way to make him

Starting point is 00:22:28 miss scrambles and picks up the first down and is doing Joe Burrow things. And it's like, man, how does he find ways to do that? And he does that and it's what makes him special. But you you need guys that are one if you're going to make those guys look good well damn it you better be ready to to pick up your guy literally pick him up if he needs help up but i i just i get that and i can sense the frustration of the fan base that's why i wanted to hit on that other things well along that same thread if i could if i could interject the one of the things that that tells us is when Joe, again, this is like, what, the third straight week, I think. Maybe there's a week in there where he didn't have to do it, but when Joe's having to do so much off script,

Starting point is 00:23:18 and some of that's on the offensive line, but like some of that's a play calling, man. And I'm definitely getting to the point where I know they end up crawling back into this game and have a chance to go win the game and all this stuff. And I'm sure Zach had some good play calls that helped them do that down the stretch, right? But so much of the structure of the offense right now just seems so hard. And in years past, we've praised them for finding the adjustments to make when the offense wasn't working and they had injuries and they found the buttons to press to get the offense productive again. It just feels like that's harder this year, even though Joe is playing at such a high level because it seems like he's just doing it himself. And that's been a, I've said it before on this on the show.

Starting point is 00:24:03 That's been a common refrain from national media in the past when criticizing Taylor. And this year, more than in those years, I'm really feeling it and feeling like that's the case so often where Burrow is really putting the team on his back in these moments. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It's a good point. It's not just the offensive line. It's that mixture. And that's the part that's the most frustrating is I thought Joe was really good today, really good. And Jamar really good today. I mean, that's what's crazy. Like if you tell me, all right, your quarterback's, going to throw for 356 and three tis higgins is going to go nine catches for 148 yards and a touchdown tomorrow's going to have seven for 75 and two touchdowns and chase brown by the way is going to quietly have 143 yards from scrimmage average four yards of carry over 11 yards to catch you're like oh my god like that's great against that chargers defense what yeah yeah

Starting point is 00:25:07 the first team to score more than 20 against the Chargers. But it's so hard. And it shouldn't be that hard. Like it shouldn't look that hard. And you know what I mean? Like the look and feel of it of, well, Joe's got to do this and this. And they just put a lot like, Justin Herbert was, there was a much easier night for Justin Herbert.

Starting point is 00:25:30 You know what I'm saying? And I don't just mean because they're a wide open guys. I just mean what the Chargers ask of him versus what the, the burden almost that Joe has. And you look at the numbers, and Herbert was fine, but it wasn't great. His completion percentage stunk.

Starting point is 00:25:49 Yeah, he started great. And then just pissed on. He started great. Started seven for seven was one, 23, two touchdowns, had the two scrambles for 50 yards. Like, looked great. But, yeah, it's just,

Starting point is 00:26:02 it's one of those things when you look around the league at these other elite quarterbacks. Yeah, they have to do a lot. But it doesn't look like this. And whatever this is, isn't fully working clearly. Even though the offense is scoring, how many times have they outscored just won these shootout games this year? They haven't.

Starting point is 00:26:19 They get in these shootouts and then they come up a play short. A lot of times, those plays have been on offense. That's the most frustrating thing about it, right? In a year that I think is very frustrating for most Bengals fans, perhaps the most frustrating they've lived through. I'm sure some of the more experienced Bengals fans will tell me there's some season I'm forgetting that was more frustrating than this one. But compared to expectations and the number of crushingly close losses where complimentary football just isn't there, where the defense is getting stops and the offense just can't make that last play or the offense sees a defense to pick them up. And then eventually the defense can't or the defense and offense both start the game.

Starting point is 00:27:02 The way they started this game, they're just in a huge hole. because they can't execute in the red zone, they have penalties, and whatever the thing is, when you're so close with all these good teams you've played this year and you can't win a single one of those games and you lose all of them but the Eagles game in excruciatingly close fashion, yeah, I mean, that's got to be one of the most frustrating

Starting point is 00:27:25 and not the most frustrating kind of season you can live through as a player, as a team, as a fan of that team, and watching them. and the way that it's happened this way, it's frustrated to talk about too, man. I tell you what, like we're talking about some of the same stuff that we've been talking about since the off season.

Starting point is 00:27:42 Yep. And it's because I don't have a synonym off the top of my head, frustrating to be going through these same refraints. Yep. And we're going to peel back some of those layers this week. We'll, coaching-wise, I think coaching Jake, and we're going to schedule right here

Starting point is 00:27:59 or planning it out a little bit right here on the fly. but I think we'll talk about the coaches plenty. I think there's certainly a conversation with the offensive line, conversation on the offense in general. There's a lot of layers because I said all those things about mentioning Cam Taylor Britt. Without even talking about the defense. Yeah, man.

Starting point is 00:28:17 Like there's so many things. And now, by the way, they fumbled the Xavier and Howard thing. Well, they might be calling him back. They might be calling him back because DJ Turner is going to miss some time. And he was good tonight too. And so is just like. those guys stepped up, made place. Yep, so we'll be with you, Bengals fans.

Starting point is 00:28:39 We don't go anywhere. No buy for us. Why don't we get a buy? Because we're here for you, the listener. That's why. That's going to do it for this episode of Lockdown Bengals. We will be back throughout the buy week, of course, and leading into the rest of the season

Starting point is 00:28:55 that come out of the buy with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And that ASC North Hard Knocks is right around the corner. Oh, boy. Luckily, we have you covered when HBO does it right here on Locked-on Bengals. And until next time, thanks for listening and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Another heartbreaking loss that could be it for the Cincinnati Bengals' 2024 season

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