Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Are the Cincinnati Bengals failing their transition plan in 2024? Breaking down the core issues after dropping to 0-4 at home
Episode Date: October 28, 2024The Cincinnati Bengals have been an organizational letdown, in varying degrees, in 2024. It looks like their transition plan to go from a core that included Jessie Bates, DJ Reader, and Chidobe Awuzie... on defense is failing. Maybe they're getting lapped schematically. They're losing even when Joe Burrow puts on the cape and plays well. The guys break down why it's a total organizational issue, with questions for players, development, and the team's ability to adapt after a discouraging loss to the Eagles.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsFor your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place aFIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET !Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
At 3 and 5 coming off a demoralizing loss to drop to O&4 at home,
let's talk about the biggest issues facing the Cincinnati Bengals in 2024.
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 Liskgo, along with your host, James Rapine,
here on the Locked On Podcast Network covering your job.
covering your team every day. Today's episode is sponsored by PrizePix where you can get $50
instantly with promo code locked on NFL when you play your first $5 at priespix.com slash
locked on NFL. Welcome back to the everyday or shout out to those of you who make us your first
lesson. We appreciate you all so very much. And if you're new to the show, looking to stay up to
date on all things, Bengals, including where they maybe need to make some changes, which is going to be
a conversation that we're probably having on and off
for the rest of this season at this point, the way things have gone,
well, you're in the right place.
We'll also celebrate the things that are going well,
talk about the things that are going well,
and what exists for hope for the future, of course,
when we have cause to do so here on lockdown Bengals
as we try to keep that balanced perspective
on what's going on with that football team.
James, today we're going to talk about some of those biggest issues
And from my perspective, from what we've seen from this team so far, eight games in, three and five,
losing close games, losing at home, losing to teams with winning records.
We've said several times on this show, at some point you are what you are.
I think we're at or past that point.
But you can take it a step further and actually dive into, okay, what are the core issues really facing this team?
Yeah, I think a couple of things.
One, I'm not in the fire everybody, get everybody out of town.
The season is over realm yet.
It's not there.
And I think people should be remind.
That's the least important game of the next month that they lost on Sunday.
And you weren't aware that I was going this angle, but I'm going to start with this angle because I think people need to hear it.
Of any of the games in the next month between now and the buy, that was the one that they should have lost.
Now, does it feel great?
Does it look great?
Did I want to come on and talk about three and five and all of the issues that led to a second half meltdown in a game that should have been a shootout and went down to the wire and wasn't?
No, it sucks.
And we're going to go over all of the reasons why.
But if there was a game to lose, it was that one.
And it makes the hole a little deeper and the ladder's got to be a little taller to climb out of.
I get all that.
But I just want to point that out.
I'd much rather lose to the Eagles than lose to the Raiders, AFC team, Ravens.
AFC team, Chargers, AFC team, and those last two are obviously important for
playoff positioning because both of those teams are probably going to make the playoffs or being the
playoff hunt. That said, there's a bunch of issues. And the one that to me stands out the most
is something that we talked about week three. I became a meme week three when I was just mind-blown
at how much time Jaden Daniels had to throw it and put up 38 points on this bank.
Eagles defense. That was short-handed, right? It was because they were short-handed. No
B.J. Hill, no Sheldon Rankins. Were they short-handed on Sunday against the Eagles?
I guess you could say no Dax Hill if you really want to reach, but that's been weeks now.
They weren't short-handed. The defensive linemen were on the field.
Trey Hendrickson was facing Fred Johnson. Cam Taylor Britt and DJ Turner and Mike Hilton were all
starting. And you had your starting safeties and you had your starting linebackers and you
had your defensive line rotation.
And if Jalen Hurts didn't get on the flight back to Philly, he'd still be standing at Paycor Stadium,
even though the white logos are now orange again, and he would have plenty of time.
True Media had the stat three pressures.
He was pressured three total times on the day.
Pressured, not sacked, pressured.
That can't happen.
And that's my concern.
I don't know how they're going to generate pressure with this group.
and if that's the case and they can't,
then they're going to make good quarterbacks look great,
and average quarterbacks look good,
and that's a recipe for disaster,
especially with the margin for error about this big.
It's very razor thin, razor small.
It doesn't really exist.
Yeah, you can't see it.
You need to get an electron microscope out
to find that margin for error at this point.
A few things you mentioned that I'd like to talk about.
One, you talked about it being the least important game.
that's true. It's the least important game if you had to pick one for them to lose. The problem is
losing that first one doesn't preclude losing the other ones, right? No doubt. We've seen that going
back to week one, going back to last year's early games before Joe Burrow got hurt, we were saying,
ah, we might look back on those early games they lost and regret it. And they did, even before
Joe Burrow got hurt. We said that about the Patriots game this year. They got themselves in this
whole early because they've lost winnable games. They beat the Patriots.
are four and four right now.
Still not great, right?
But then we're not talking about an electron microscope on Locked on Bengals.
I didn't have that one on my bingo card, by the way, you mentioning that?
I did not.
So the moment you said it, I'm like, that's definitely on brand for you.
Yeah.
But I didn't think we would be talking about microscopes today.
I never thought I would say the words electron microscope on Lockdown Bengals.
But you talked also about pressure and this issue of the defense.
And we'll just start with the defense there because I think that is certainly one of the core fundamental issues they've had this year is the inability to get pressure.
Jalen Hertz had 22 dropbacks according to, well, everybody who watched the game. PFF charting is what I'm looking at right now.
They agree with true media's three pressures.
And the thing there that goes into this is there's multiple issues.
One, we talked up this matchup with Fred Johnson, who hasn't been a good pass protector on a consistent basis, although we have seen him at times.
times show up throughout his career.
That's a matchup that your superstar,
past rusher should be able to win.
And it's not like there was even a ton of help.
There was some help for Fred Johnson going against
Trey Hendricks,
but there are also highlight plays that we've talked about
that are making tons of rounds on social media
where you watch a tight end handle,
Sam Hubbard one on one on one side,
and Fred Johnson run Trey Hendricks in 15 yards around the arc on the other side.
And it's a play action, play, and they're reacting play action for sure.
They're playing the run first.
fine, but this is emblematic of the entire game.
They're just not getting pressure home on the few dropbacks that Jalen Hertz has.
And we talked about going into the game.
If they can slow down Sequin Barkley early,
they should be able to exploit this Eagles pass protection dropback plays.
And they couldn't do it.
And when they couldn't do it, Jalen Hertz was averaging over 11.2 yards per attempt
on 77.8% completion percentage.
Now, when he was pressured, he was also two.
of two for 34 yards.
And that's 17 yards per attempt,
but that's a very small sample size.
Point is,
is they couldn't get pressure home with their front four.
And even if they had some pass-rush wins,
whatever the Eagles were doing schematically was good enough that they didn't matter.
Okay?
So that's one issue there.
Then the other piece of this is,
what's the answer from the coaching staff when you get into that situation?
You can't expect any zone defense to hold up for, like,
four seconds. And we've seen that multiple times. And that doesn't even go to some coverage bust
issues that we had where players fell or reacted too hard to play action or were just in the wrong
spot covering grass. The other thing is like, well, maybe we can blitz. Maybe we can do something
different schematically than dropping eight in critical third down situations and then not covering
guys anyway when we can't get home. And they didn't find that counterpunch, that adjustment on the
defensive side of the ball. And in fact, things just got worse for them as the game.
went on. And whether that's on the players, the coaching staff, development, the front office,
and missing on draft picks. And here's a spoiler. It's all of those things. It's just unacceptable
for a team that has a quarterback playing at the level they have in Joe Burrow. Because Joe Burrow
hasn't been the problem for this team, even if he hasn't been perfect this year. He's the thing
trying to keep this team afloat. And so you can start on the defense and that's where we started here.
and a big problem is pressure, the secondary to go with it,
also not holding up their end of the deal,
but it's a whole package.
It's an organizational failure right now,
and it's endemic to every level of this team we're going to talk about.
Yeah, I think it all ties together.
And some of these problems, a lot of these problems,
are things we were discussing in April, May,
but March, but April, May, June, July,
when you were in town for camp.
after you left town with McKinley Jackson going down for example.
Like we've talked about them.
So let's go there next because the front office certainly ties in.
We were worried about the pressure coming into the year.
We were worried about some of these things, depth and key areas.
So let's tie the front office in and we will do that coming up next.
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You want to pivot to the front office, and I think that's appropriate. I think it's a core problem
facing a lot of parts of this team, what direction do you want to take first?
Well, let's just discuss the defense, right?
You mentioned the secondary, and that's fair, the pass rush, that's fair.
All of the issues, right, on this defense are because either draft picks haven't worked,
pre-agent signings haven't worked, or they've been unwilling or weren't willing to go the extra
mile to retain certain free agents.
And that's where the front office comes in.
Part of this is on the coaching staff, too, because the coaches certainly have a
poll when it comes to draft, when it comes to a free agency, and there's good and bad
to that for sure.
And I think we're seeing that.
I think we're seeing some of the bad that comes with that.
It's easy to say, all right, well, I definitely need a nose tackle.
Go get me McKinley Jackson.
But did that pick in the third round, keep them from maybe signing a,
a Callias Campbell and spending a little bit more money on the defensive line?
I don't know.
I'm not sure, but Clyas Campbell is someone that we've talked about,
or we talked about a ton when he was a free agent for literally most of the offseason.
He has a history of, with Marion Hobby, the Bengals defensive line coach.
So that was an easy target.
Keeping Jesse Bates looks worse by the game or not keeping him, letting him walk.
Look at what he's doing for Atlanta, forcing turnovers, recovering fumbles,
making crazy interceptions.
This is year two of him doing that for the Falcons.
Man, oh, man, what would this secondary feel like, look like if Jesse Bates were back there?
There's so many layers to it.
But it's something as simple as, oh, we'll go get that aging veteran that still has something left in the tank like Campbell.
And then there's also the other side of it of like, did you really have to let DJ Reader go to Detroit when he basically signed a one-year prove-it deal?
and if he plays well this year he gets a second year,
you could have done that deal.
There's plenty of room to make that happen,
and you didn't do it.
And then you drafts McKinley Jackson.
It's a ripple effect.
Then you draft McKinley Jackson,
who could end up being a really good player,
but that's all out of pressure to put on him,
and you reached on it.
And so there's a ripple effect,
and it doesn't help you in the win-now state
that you're supposedly in,
because we all know DJ Reader can still play
and has played pretty well.
They're kind of half doing everything.
right where they let Jesse Bates go and then they try to backfill it with a cheaper solution they
they've added draft picks they've even drafted for the future which is something they've gotten
praised for and then those draft picks for the future haven't hit and then it makes me wonder if
drafting for the future is a strategy that this front office can actually execute and then you have
the same issue where yeah they let DJ Reader go but then they drafted two defensive tackles
they didn't draft for the future in this case but they drafted a couple of rookies they added
children rankins and well then those things just kind of haven't worked and so
You have this, and I think I said this yesterday,
you end up in this situation where you can see the ghost of the good teams.
And it shows up a little bit from time to time, right?
You see Trey Hendrickson take over a game from time to time.
Or BJ Hill's had, he's actually played really well this year.
It's nothing against BJ Hill.
BJ Hill, when he's been on the field, has been good.
But there aren't enough pieces around these guys.
You'll see Mike Hilton fly off the edge or get downhill and blow up a screen
or blow up a run play and do the things to make Mike Hilton great.
and then it's just not enough because the pieces around them aren't enough.
And so what we're seeing overall is this transition plan fail.
The transition plan into Joe Burroughs second contract fail.
That's kind of where it is right now.
There's time for this to turn around.
But the draft picks they've made, their early draft picks haven't been good enough.
And I know they're picking at the end of the round sometimes.
But the draft picks haven't been good enough or haven't been good enough yet.
And the free agent decisions they've made, whether it's retention or replacement, haven't been good enough.
And I think that that's true on both sides of the ball.
We're starting on defense.
So that's obvious where they're not getting enough.
Right now, I would argue from any of the defensive linemen, really, that they've added lately.
Like it's Trey and BJ, and that's kind of it on the defensive line, even though some guys are healthy there, right?
They've had some flashes from Chris Jenkins.
Don't get me wrong.
But like these early draft picks, Chris Jenkins, DJ,
Turner, Cam Taylor Britt, the free agent editions of Gino Stone, who has played a little bit better
lately, Von Bell, the Jordan Battle pick even you can point to at this point.
Like these guys just at the level where you need them to be.
And you look instead at a team like the Chiefs, for example, not to compare everything to the
chiefs.
But the Chiefs were in this place where they went into a second quarterback contract window
with Patrick Mahomes and they traded away their star receiver, not saying the Ben
not saying the Bengals should do any of this, but just for the sake of they took a very different
direction, right, in terms of the way they're approaching things. We'll see how it works out this year,
one of the Super Bowl last year, where they were stronger on defense, right? And they hit those
draft picks critically. That's a big difference. And when you're not hitting draft picks and your
free agent decisions aren't working out and you're paying big money to a quarterback, it leads to
this top-heavy situation where the collective talent level of the roster isn't enough,
even when you see those top-end players make those plays and make you see the ghost of that
good team that you were the last few years.
Well, they can't, this idea, and I'll shut it down, and from Duke ownership on down,
the Joe Burrow contract prevents them from doing nothing.
They can do anything and everything.
They could have went out and signed Sequin Barclay this offseason, extended T,
paid Jamar. They could have done all of those things. And so this idea that, oh, well, Joe's contract,
and I'm not saying you're saying this, but there are definitely people like, oh, well, Joe's contract,
no, Joe's contract nothing. That's what plenty of quarterbacks are making now. And that's what
you had to pay to keep him. He completely changed the franchise. That is a good thing. You know what else is a
good thing, hitting on your second round safety in 2018 and being okay with giving him enough
guaranteed money to stay in town. You know what else would have been a good thing? Even with the
injuries, extending T. Higgins for a $21 or $22 million per year deal last offseason when he could
have been had for that. And people are like, oh, well, you can't do that with his injury history.
He's going to get 30 this offseason. Book it. He's going to get 30 if he hits the market.
and he's probably going to hit the market.
And so it's hard to get the draft right.
It's hard to get free agency right.
The Bengals did a lot of good in 2019 in the draft.
They got some contributors there.
2020, they got three straight starters that are just awesome,
starting with two stars.
And then Logan Wilson, who's really darn good.
2021, you get Jamar and Evan.
And during that time, who did they add in free agency?
a bunch of guys that help them, a bunch.
I mean, it starts with DJ Reader,
and it goes from there.
And Trey Hendrickson, obviously.
And they haven't had that same,
they haven't gotten it right nearly as much.
And when you do that,
and you're trying to draft for the future,
well, you better get it right.
But you also need to draft for the present.
And I think what's really hurting them,
they're getting nothing from Dax now.
He's on IR.
And he was starting to come around.
I think he was their top cornerback this year
and would have continued to be if he didn't get hurt.
Miles Murphy, did you notice him yesterday in a good way?
No.
Okay.
Jake shook his head no for podcast listeners.
Like, that's, that can't happen.
Even that late.
You should be able to find a contributor,
someone that's going to be able to make a splash player too.
And in those two drafts,
combined with the middle round,
you know, the Jackson Carman pick
and all of those picks in 2021, that didn't work out.
Joseph Osai. Did you notice him yesterday? I didn't notice him on Sunday. Keep saying
yesterday because it's a Monday when we're recording. That's what's frustrating is like they've had a
ton of picks. And if you're going to start squeezing the wallet because of the Joe Burrow contract,
well, you better start getting it right. And it doesn't feel great right now from that perspective.
Because they've had some good picks and guys that are promising, but they're either asking more
of them than these players are ready for, or they flat out got it wrong in some instances.
Or a guy like Amarious Mims, who I think was a great pick, he's just going through some growing pains
because he's a rookie. Like, it's tough. And so that's the balance of what we're seeing right now
and the ups and downs and the inconsistencies. Yeah. And to be clear about this year's rookie class,
I'm not meaning to pile on Chris Jenkins there. If anyone thinks I'm doing that. He's a rookie.
There will be ups and downs with rookies. I think Chris Jenkins has a bright future. I
think he's actually a pretty exciting player.
And I just wanted to throw in that little editorial note before we wrap up the show coming
up next week.
We also have to talk about the player development side of things.
We have to talk about the coaching staff side of things, the offense, the offensive
line.
Part of this, the run game, part of this, because those are some of the big court issues
facing this team as well.
It's not all on the defensive side of the ball.
We will do that coming up next.
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All right, Jake.
Let's dive into the offensive.
side a bit because the offense is far from perfect.
Far from perfect.
Joe Burroughs playing at a really, really, really high level.
And Jamar Chase is playing at a really, really high level.
See Higgins, when he's healthy, is playing at a high level.
But they can't run block.
Their run game has been pretty ineffective in recent weeks.
And I'll say this.
And Jay Morrison had this stat, bengals talk.com, shameless plug.
I had this stat before Sunday's game,
and you sent it to me, and it's just, it's wild.
But it shows how much the Bengals rely on wide receiver two,
which goes back to me saying pay T. Higgins, like five minutes ago
or whatever it was on the pod.
There are one in five when he misses games with a hamstring injury.
One in three in games, he exits early with a hamstring.
And let's just count yesterday.
All right, so one in six, when T is out with a soft tissue injury,
they rely on wide receiver two.
And I look at it and I see Jermaine Burton had the nice 41-yard catch.
Trent Nervin had a one catch for four-yard performance.
Andre Yosevash had a one-drop day on three targets, no catches.
No production at receiver behind Jamar Chase, who had nine grabs for 55 yards.
They need a wide receiver too to be productive.
It's just part of this offense.
it's built in and when they don't have tea,
maybe it ends up being germane burden,
but right now they don't have it.
And Mike Keseki admirably filled that role of wide receiver two on Sunday as well,
where he's essentially playing wide receiver in that game.
And he did a good job.
He was their leading receiver in a number of categories.
He had an awesome game until the fumble,
which comes when the game is essentially over.
Still not a play you'd like to have,
but it was really good up until that point.
It was a highlight real kind of day for Mike Kiski.
in that game. But despite that, there's a couple things there. One, yeah, T. Higgins is awesome.
Two, it's probably an indictment of your offense if when you lose a player that isn't even
Jamar Chase, isn't your top player. I'd be curious to see what their record is in game.
Jamar Chase is missed by comparison. I would guess that it's a little bit better, actually.
I think it is better, which I think is probably a little bit more coincidence than anything.
but it's probably an indictment of your offense when losing one player leads to that kind of record.
What was it, one in six in games he misses, one in three in games he leaves early?
So two and nine overall in games that you don't have T. Higgins the entire game because of a soft tissue injury,
specifically soft tissue injury.
So I don't know if there may be some other injuries.
This doesn't count.
Yeah, it would be great if he could say healthy.
And there are some of you that are thinking that's why they can't pay him.
That's why they don't want to give him the big contract is because he means.
misses time every game.
But beyond any of the T-specific issue, losing one player that isn't Joe Burrow and going
two and nine in those games is unacceptable.
And a lot of that goes to perhaps the way they're approaching offense where they're
too reliant on their outside receivers just winning and putting them in positions where
it's like, okay, Jimmy and Joe, just go win.
like Jimmy's and Joe's X's and O's if you don't get it.
They're not the common complaint of scheming people open enough, right?
Or Joe isn't trusting some of these other guys enough to throw it to them
when perhaps they are open.
See, Jermaine Burton, where this guy just needs to be on the field more.
You go look at what he did on plays.
He wasn't targeted.
And he did have a bigger snap share.
What was it, 23 snaps for the Bengals?
Something like that on something.
41%.
which noticeable uptick needs to continue going up, I think.
He needs to, one, make sure he's on the same page,
goes to the coaching staff and Jermaine Burton to get him ready
and in position to make those plays,
but clearly a more talented receiver than the other non-T. Higgins options
besides Jermar Chase, right?
So need more from Jermaine Burton, need more from the offense
in terms of finding ways to find plays that aren't just asking Joe Burrow to be Superman,
Jamar Chase to be Superman, these guys to just win.
their individual matchups.
So there's that.
But the other thing that goes hand in hand with all this, right,
is they're the worst run-blocking team in the NFL?
Probably.
They've had a couple of games of success,
but against quality opponents,
the run game has been puttered yesterday.
Another example of that Sunday, another example of that,
where if they can run the ball in that game,
maybe Joe Burrow doesn't have to be Superman in the second half.
Maybe some of these drives where they end up
these third and long situations that Joe Burroughs consistently overcoming in that game, which is
really hard to do, don't have to be third and longs. And the issues in the running game go to
the kind of offensive linemen they've picked where they just don't have athletes, they don't have
strength on the interior with their guards right now. They're a little bit banged up, obviously,
a tackle where they're down a couple tackles. Cody Ford's playing a lot of that game that really
doesn't help things.
But the roster construction of the offensive line, the schematic approach, the fourth down
play design, like all of these things are also tied into the issues they're having on
offense that, like I said, it goes from the top down, right?
It goes from the front office to coaching to the players.
Yeah, I think offensive line wise, it's tough.
It just is.
It's tough.
I mean, the Orlando Brown Jr. thing hurts a ton.
But the interior, everyone's talking about the interior.
I was never expecting them to be an elite running blocking group,
but you want them to be competent.
Get me the worst.
I've talked a lot about, yeah, I've talked a lot about big plays from the defense.
Soft fence needs to have some big plays.
They need to be explosive.
They need to find ways to do that.
And that's why Germain, this really is Germain's opportunity.
and we can talk more about this probably on our next show.
But Andrei Yosevash has had every chance to grab that next wide receiver job,
and it hasn't worked for whatever reason.
All right, Jermaine, like, do your thing here and take advantage of it.
And I think he did.
I think he played pretty well on Sunday.
And you need more of that.
Because this team, it's such a past first team.
that they really are going to set up the run with the pass.
Like that's just it.
They're not going to run at a ton.
You're hoping for some explosive runs in there.
Obviously that didn't happen on Sunday.
But it's what they are.
And that part of it isn't going to change this year.
I don't think.
Can they be effective and efficient on the ground?
I think that's still reasonable to think.
But I don't think they're going to be this awesome run team.
So what can change?
Well, T can hopefully get healthy.
Joe can still put that
Superman Cape on. I think this
offensive line can run block when Orlando is out there.
But
the thing that could be different is, man,
if Jermaine Burton can just be
this field stretcher
that regularly
gives you a deep
ball and adds
a couple routes to his game and he didn't run
just goes the other on Sunday.
So maybe we'll be able to do that
and make some plays. Like that's
what they need. Like, Mike
a sicky. He's not, he wasn't signed to be your wide receiver too at any time. And he was supposed
to help, but you weren't supposed to really run your offense through. And he was great the other
day. But you don't want to be in that position. And if you are in that position, it's because
they're double teaming T and Jamar and they're finding ways to take everything else away. And he's
being guarded by a 180 pound nickel. Then you take advantage of it. Right. That's what you want.
not the, oh, man, we don't have any other answers.
Let's keep going to 88.
That's not a good position to be in.
And that's why it kind of fizzled there in the second half.
Among other reasons, right?
But yeah, they didn't have a sustainable game plan.
And it's frustrating because on the one hand,
they got Jamar Chase on Nolan Smith on a play for a touchdown.
And then on another play, they're running the same orbit, not orbit motion,
like counter motion, whatever it is with Jamar Chase and Cooper DeGine.
just knows what you're doing.
And so you have these tendencies where teams are sitting on certain things you're doing.
And then other times you do see the innovation that you would hope to see from an offense and need these adjustments.
So goes from a roster construction issue, a development issue, players execution issue, whatever it is.
There's just a lot going on, right?
We wanted to get to what they could fix midseason.
We didn't get to that a ton in this episode, James.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe we can talk about that a little bit more tomorrow.
We'll see what we get to in our next episode.
Maybe that is a bit of a conversation around Jermaine Burton.
But suffice it to say at this point, I think personally, and I don't know where you are,
that the issues facing this team are deep and varied and multi-level, like I said,
from players to coaches to the front office.
Sure.
No, I think that that's fair.
and what can they fix?
How can they fix it?
I agree.
I think that can be the theme of our next show.
Some of it can be fixed.
And as I let off the show, I don't think the season is just over.
But things need to be fixed in a hurry for them to climb out of this hole.
That just seems to, it's like the dark night rises, man.
It feels like we're in the pit.
And it's tough to get out of there.
It's tough to get out of there.
He does.
Spoiler.
We'll see if the Bengals can.
Yeah, that's a big.
we'll see. Hopefully we're not talking about electron microscopes anytime in the near future on
this show. Until next time, that's going to do it for this episode of the Locked-on Bengals
podcast. Thanks for listening and have a good one.
