Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals DOMINATE Ravens in Joe Burrow's Return, Keep PLAYOFF Hopes Alive

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Cincinnati Bengals roar back as Joe Burrow shakes off the rust for a statement win against the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night. Is a late-season playoff push suddenly within reach?James Rapien and Jake Liscow break down the Bengals’ dominant defensive performance, spotlighting an opportunistic defensive performance led by Miles Murphy and Joseph Ossai, plus clutch plays from Ja’Marr Chase, Tanner Hudson, and Chase Brown. We discuss Burrow’s return from injury, Evan McPherson’s field goal showcase, and an outstanding performance by the offensive line. 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-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.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.

Turns out the Bengals just needed Joe Burrow to play football. And now everything is just fine. 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. Well-up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Now the number one sports podcast network in the land.

He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Lisco. We've got you covered here on Lockdown Benckleson. every day of the week and we have going all the way back to 2016 before the Joe go the Joe Burrow days before we knew how good we had it with Joe Burrow. Welcome back to all of you who are everyday listeners, all the everydayers out there, part of the everydayer club, all of you who make lockdown Bengals your first listen. Welcome back to another episode of Lockdown Bengals where we get to celebrate a Bengals when

Joe Burroughs return triumphant in Baltimore. Third times a charm, finally winning on the third straight year that the Bengals have played in Baltimore on Thursday night football. This one on Thanksgiving night a breakout performance for this defense. Joe Burrow knocking the rust off, you name it. This ends up being a fantastic win for the Cincinnati Bengals. It really just leaves you regretting the last nine weeks a little bit, James, the last nine games a little bit. But they're not dead. The playoffs are officially still alive for the Cincinnati Bengals.

needed to start with a win this week. It needs to continue with wins for the next five weeks. But in Joe Burroughs return, hope is still alive for his team. Yep. Hope is still alive. And my goodness, my, it's wild what Joe Burrow does. Joe Burroughs suddenly made the defense good. All those people that said, hey, can he play safety?

Well, he can play safety, rush the passer, and enforce Lamar Jackson to fumble. I mean, that's what's so wild about this game is I, I, I, if you would have told me that the Bengals defense forced three first half turnovers and that the Bengals offense would have 12 total points just that alone without saying oh, well, in the red zone, they were there four times and they had nine points to show for it. And they had four downs at the two and they had nothing to show for it. Well, I'd be like, oh, well, so the Bengals lost this game, right? I think a lot of people at halftime felt that way.

But their offense and their defense, they did play a little compliment. football in the second half after the defense did everything they could to put them in position to win the game in the first half. And that's it. I think this is the most complete win they've had all year when you combine what the offense did in the second half. And they dominated the time of possession. I mean, dominated it. This is not something that the Bengals have really done much this year is win the turnover battle, dominate the time of possession. They're star running back who should have gotten more carries, average is five plus yards of carry. They did turn it over once, should have been turnover free. I wish they were so we could

say that. But just top to bottom, Jake, this was a dominant win on the road in the AFC North, short week, season on the line, take away the borough returning storyline and the importance and all of that. There's a dominant win against the team that everyone thought was going to win the division five hours ago. And maybe that's wavered a little bit at this point, at least for some, but it's a huge, huge win for the Bengals. And thought they would run away with the division, but you look at the teams of Baltimore has played lately, and perhaps we should have given more credit to the fact that their wins came against the Jets, Browns, Vikings, dolphins, and bears.

And the bears, I know, have eight wins, I think, in the NFC North, but those other teams pretty bad, especially lately. And it's not like the Ravens were particularly dominant in those games. The Bengals, however, lost to. several of those teams. So it's not like the Bengals had been particularly dominant either. I think that the game ends up dominant. The second half certainly was

I wonder how differently it could have gone. Had they not had a little bit of luck early in this one, Jordan Battle sticking with Isaiah likely after he gives up a deep catch and I'm like, all right, of course it's a tight end again. But Jordan Battle sticks with him all the way down the sideline and knocks it out before Isaiah likely gets over the goal line And you credit Jordan Battle for the hustle on that play.

And the Bengals taking advantage of at least two absolute gift turnovers from Lleward Jackson in this game, one of which would not have been a fumble if the tuck rule still existed, one of which is an insane bonehead play. I mean, I guess you credit Joseph Osai and Sgt Johnson on the one hand. But probably if that's the other way, you're saying, man, you cannot do that in that spot. An inexcusable turnover on the two. The Bengals don't even get any points out of. But you're right.

It was a complete game for the Bengals because they capitalize on the eventual field position to get three points anyway. And that's where it is a complete game. It's the five takeaways is Joe Burrow finding his footing, finding his rhythm in the second half. And it's the special teams unit that sees Evan McPherson kick, what, six field goals, was it? Yeah, six field goals, including a 50 plus that, that was a tough one. I looked at that. I was like, ah.

And that was the one that gave them a 29 to 14 lead and didn't seal the deal, but really put it on ice. I believe that was that one. And yeah, so I was nervous. And Money Mac is not only back. I think this is the best we've seen him, honestly, with how he's been. The kicks he's missed this year, one where he was kicking with a regular ball and not the kicker ball, which has made a big difference for kickers across the NFL this year. You're seeing kickers kicking longer field goals across the NFL.

So kicking with a ball that isn't prepared for kicking. That's one miss. One was a 67-yarder after he was iced after making the 67-yarder against Green Bay. And there's one other 50-plus yard miss that he has this year, and that's it. Been really good for Evan McPherson, really good game holding for Ryan Rico. A lot of high snaps out there. That's the one thing in the operation that you would like to see ironed out. But that's probably the tertiary storyline here, James, is I think the defense probably dominates to me

the stories of the game, if not for the fact that this is Joe Burrough's first game back. Like, yeah, the defense did insane things after the defense that we've seen from them all year. Five takeaways against Lamar Jackson in this Baltimore offense that we were supposed to fear. And Lamar looked awful in this game.

One of the worst games I've ever seen Lamar Jackson play, certainly in recent history, certainly against the Bengals. But there were moments, like you said, the way the first half went, where even when the Bengals scored in the second half and the way that the third quarter goes is the Bengals get that stop, which is surprising to me.

But then they go touchdown, Ravens quickly answer touchdown, Bengals quickly answer touchdown. And then the Ravens start driving again. Yep. But even after that Bengals, second touchdown to get up, 26 to 14 in the second half, which gives them their second two score lead of the half. I'm thinking, man, this feels like 2024 again. We're just going to see touchdowns exchange for the rest of the game. And then the defense bucked up.

And then we found Al Golden find the right time to dial up pressures and get Miles Murphy one-on-one with Isaiah likely to create an interception for Barrett Carter. And you credit Al Golden, too. For Demetrius Knight. Demetrius Knight. My apologies. You're right. Wrong rookie linebacker. Yeah, we'll talk about those rookie linebackers at some point in the next week.

But, yeah, where I was going was credit Al Golden for finding the right buttons to push, finding blitzes that were effective that got free runners that found ways to get missed. matches, it challenged Baltimore's protection rules, which is something that I've been critical of this defense of all year, really found those answers tonight and found a way to be very disruptive against Lamar, who was terrible when he was blitzed in this game. I think it was four of nine win blitzed in this game for Lamar Jackson with that interception. So really unable to find production when the Bengals sent the blitz. Yeah, huge. It's huge for this defense to find ways to get pressure. It's amazing what pressure. can do. And Miles Murphy, the pass, it goes down as a past defense on the tip ball that becomes

the interception. Miles Murphy on fourth and eight. And I thought this was really the drive of the game. Like when you talk about turnovers, the Bengals forced five turnovers, including four fumbles. But the turnover on downs was big. It's fourth and eight. Lamar drops back. And Miles Murphy gets pressure on him, makes him step up. And Lamar throws it probably, earlier than he wanted to and not where he wanted to. And Josh Newton has the easiest, he could have had an interception, smartly batted the ball down because it was fourth down. Pressure does things, man.

It does, especially when Lamar's playing the way he was, is it didn't let him find his rhythm. Joe Burrow had time to get into a little bit of a rhythm and obviously did on back-to-back touchdown drives. Lamar didn't. And it's a lot of that is out golden in the blitzing and these young pass rushes. Joseph Osai and Miles Murphy breaking havoc.

And if you're going to do that, well, you're going to have chances. You're going to have opportunities for turnovers. And so, yeah, this defense deserves a ton of credit. The splash plays, well, it's been back-to-back games now with splash plays from this defense. We still have to talk plenty about Joe Burrow. More on the defense as well.

We will do that coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandul. Fandul is America's number one sports book in the Bengals. Well, they're hanging around on the AFC North. So maybe you think, all right, the Bengals, they're going to win five more games. They're going to win the division. Well, you can wager on that with NFL futures.

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All you have to do is go to fandle.com and sign up today. And again, get $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. A little bit of luck early in this one for the Bengals, Jay. And just want to see to get your quick thoughts on this. Because overall, the defense holds Baltimore to minus 0.33 EPA per play, which is terrible. That's about as bad as it gets.

A success rate that's just 39%. But on their side, the Bengals offense only has a success rate of about 40%. And an EPA per play just over zero. The running game not as effective for the Bengals in this one. Joe Burrow was great, especially in the second half. But between two plays primarily, I saw some people talking about luck, especially at halftime. And that's the Isaiah likely fumble that turns into a touchback. and the Zayflowers OPI that they get him for extending his arm with DJ Turner and coverage.

What are your thoughts on the whole luck idea early in this one? Because those plays sure would have tilted this game another way. Sure. They would have. Guess what? Don't fumble on the goal line. Like dumb. Don't reach out.

Why'd you do that? Like, that's dumb. That's poor football. That's what that is. So luck. Okay. Well, you gave him the opportunity to do that. And that's a heck of a hustle play.

by Jordan Battle. Miles Murphy had a heck of a hustle play, a tackle on Derek Henry after Barrett Carter got shaken in his shoes in a play that just shouldn't have happened at the end of the third quarter. But nice hustle play by Miles Murphy. We can talk about the linebackers at some point, but the Bengals won. So let's be as positive as we can here, the Miles Murphy hustle play. But I do think that was a theme because as I'm going through it, I'm like, well, Miles Murphy has that play, Jordan Battle has that play where he gets beaten, ends up being a seven point swing. and the Bengals did go down. They did get a field goal after that.

They took that and I believe got points on the ensuing drive there. Yes, they did. I can't confirm. There you go. So it's a 10 point swing. And I know it was a field goal because let's be honest here, the Bengals only kicked field goals in the first half. There was no touchdowns being had.

It's just good to see these young guys continue. to battle and so I'm not going to call that luck. The Zay Flowers won. I don't think that was OPI. I would not have called that. I get the arm extension. I think that hand fighting stuff happens all the time. Jamar does it all the time and T and every other great receiver because guess what? You're going to get grabbed, pushed, all of those things. And so I get it. It was an extension on Zay and that's it. That one would bother me. me if I was a Ravens fan. Obviously, the Bengals benefited and they took advantage of it.

And that's ultimately, if you take advantage of it, then you take advantage of it. And they certainly did. It's another one of those that sometimes gets called. And you don't want to put yourself in a position for it to be called. There are ways that you can do that that are more subtle than what Zayflowers did. I think what the official saw was an extended arm without the reciprocal hand fighting that you often see when it doesn't get called. But, you know, you take those if you're the Bengals. Stax Hill, speaking of hustle plays also when he's beat by DeVantos Wocke catching up,

getting the arm in there to break up what would have otherwise been an explosive play for the Ravens on that one. And honestly, like, we're going to talk about the linebackers probably in film review. Gino Stone coming back to Earth a little bit in film review. And those will be topics that we will get to. But for Barrett Carter's woes, and he had one that was under the microscope, there were some nice plays for Barrett Carter in this one, too. So it wasn't all bad for Barrett Carter in this particular game, despite that Derek Henry play that everybody saw.

Nobody missed that play. There's also, I think it was the touchdown run, or a different red zone run perhaps for the Ravens that looked pretty bad. It was a touchdown run. Derek Henry's touchdown run at the beginning of the game. Genosone and Barrett Carter end up in the same gap on the right side. and Demetri's Night goes under a block in pursuit ends up with a terrible angle as a result.

But that aside, we get to give out props again to the corners. DJ Turner, Daxo with the pass break up each. Joseph Osai, Miles Murphy, continuing to play admirable, consistent hustle, football, and racking up the pressures. Jalen Davis battling back from getting panicked and being on the wrong side of a highlight reel and making some nice plays of his own,

including the strip fumble to, remove the final drama after Somaget Pirine's late fumble that have a lot of Bengals fans myself as an audience member included groaning at potentially opening the game back up but jalen davis bouncing back and continuing to i think likely earn his spot on the 53 yeah no it's time get jd on the 53 have him up i like how they've used him blitzing uh for sure and uh making a play you know make a play on on on on zay flowers that's uh that's how you ended the game really when when zay flowers fumbled was like all right there's no more life this one is it so i like what i've seen from the defense man it's i don't i don't know part of me is like all right well now let's

see what they can do against buffalo and the other part of me is like why couldn't you do this for like five seconds against the jets in the fourth quarter right and it's it's uh it's it's painful on one hand, but maybe Miles Murphy has officially turned a corner. And Joseph Osai has turned a corner. And if you have that, like they're doing this and they did this in Baltimore without Trey Hendrickson. Like that's such a huge factor here.

And I just want to point it out because they deserve a ton of credit. And it wasn't perfect. I'm not really expecting it to be perfect. I think that's unfair. Like the expectations for this defense given what they are and what they've been, Like, can you compete?

Can you make a few splash plays and force some punts? And they did more than that, obviously, on Thursday night against the Ravens. So you take it all day long. Yeah, it wasn't just the takeaways. Like Lamar was pretty uncomfortable for a lot of the night. According to PFF's initial charting, it was over a 40% pressure rate for the Bengals on Lamar Jackson in this game. And some of this is Al Golden finding the right buttons to push.

I think that's truly part of this. I think we're seeing Al Golden starting to figure some things out. They still have issues at linebacker. they do and no matter what we can say we can dress it up any way shape or form they still have issues of linebacker but they're finding ways to get advantageous past rest situations they're finding ways to get better play out of their defensive backs that have been banged up now you know you're you're down camp taylor britt so you're digging into your depth and you had to move dax back outside like the way he answered the bell on a short week yeah and so we'll see if that continues

but it's been encouraging now because it's a couple of weeks where Al Golden has found ways to really challenge offenses that are better than the ones that gave them huge issues, like better than the Jets offense that put 49 points up on them or whatever it was in that embarrassing. Like, you know, we're seeing potentially some improvement from some guys, even though there's still issues there. And we'll see if that can continue because with Joe Burrow back, they got a chance now. And so can they sneak up? We're doing the same song and dance we were doing last year, James, in so many ways. Except this time, they didn't have Joe Burrow for a large stretch of the season. Joe Burrow, though, back tonight.

Let's talk about him. There was some rust, but. Let's talk about him. He finished strong. Let's talk about Joe Burrow somehow last to finish this post game show next. Let's talk about Joe Burrow, Jake. It kind of a weird, so weird. It was really weird because he started 4-4 on the Bengals opening drive for,

34 yards then there's a couple of incompletions they have to settle for a field goal and uh if you take those two incompletions and the rest of the first half there's 11 of 28 after going for four for 11 of 28 for a buck 31 they had 12 total points they were in the red zone a bunch of times four times and he was one of 10 passing in the red zone for three yards in the first half like just brutal and I don't think it was all on Joe. There were some plays. And I think the most obvious ones were ones to Jamar, where Jamar's open. And he misses him, throws it behind him, doesn't give him a chance on the sideline.

Just different plays like that where you're like, ah, well, Joe usually does. One time he clearly said my bad afterward where Jamar was open. So we saw those. And the thing that I'm most impressed with, honestly, with Burrow is he could have been like, man, I got to get points. The Mar's on the other side. The Mar's going to wake up. I've been here.

I know I got to get to 30 plus. And he didn't. He just didn't make the mistake. He didn't do what Lamar did. Lamar made the big mistakes. And Joe didn't, didn't have a turnover, was sacked once, threw it into the dirt a couple of times when plays weren't there. Extended plays still was the normal Joe there,

extending plays doing what he could to get guys open. And then things started to turn. and Tanner Hudson makes a play, and then suddenly this offense put points on the board. I think Joe navigated on the road, short week, first game in two and a half months, 69 days since surgery, all of the things that have gone into

and go into winning on the road in the AFC North. He navigated it really, really well because any one turnover when they're struggling in the red zone could have completely shifted this game. and he handled it the way you needed to handle it. Yeah, I thought Joe in the second half looked essentially like Joe Burrow. There were flashes of it in the first half. We saw the deep voltage of March Ace.

We saw some timing throws. We saw them overcome being behind the chains, converting from a first and 20 spot, converting some third and longs. We kind of got used to being death knells to Bengals to Bengals drives. We saw that, oh, yeah, Joe Burrow can do those things. he moved better than I thought he would. He didn't move 100%, I would say. There was one play in particular where he ends up dirtying it.

It's a play where he's trying to escape pressure to his left. Those it at the feet of, I think it was Chase Brown, but it might have been a different running back in the flat. And on that one, I thought he didn't look quite like his nimble self, like his normal nimble self. There are a couple of other times where he looked maybe like a half beat slow. But generally, I thought he moved pretty. well. I thought that his escapeability,

pocket maneuvering, pretty good. And all the mechanics were still really good to come along with it as far as keeping your eyes down field and converting in those spots. And that includes the Tanner Hudson touchdown against supposed defensive player of the year frontrunner, Kyle Hamilton, who I did not notice

in too many positive ways. He was fine, but when you get Mossed by Tanner Hudson, on one of Tanner Hudson since the game. That was a hell of a catch now. I mean, I know. But like are you a defensive player of the year if you're giving up a hell of a touchdown catch to the tight end that played six snaps for the other two?

I don't. Yes. I I I Joe Burrell called him the best tight end in the or best uh best tight end in the league best safety in the league afterward just to be really good I think he's really good Tanner Hudson made an awesome he made an awesome play I'm trying to diminish the Ravens because they're a rival and they lost badly and tanner miles garrets the defense player the year by the way just to be clear yeah I'm just saying there's some debate out there Tanner Hudson embarrassed Kyle Hamilton on that play. Look at you. On one of his six snaps of the game.

And it was an awesome play for Tanner. Are you saying we should call him Tanner Moss? Is that what you're saying to me? I like T-Hoddy. I think that's still an appropriate nickname. But the reason this came up is because it was a play where Joe Burrow is running. He's moving out of the pocket. He's moving to his right on that play.

Buying a little bit of time. Actually, it was a clean pocket. But ends up buying himself a little bit of time. Gets a different angle on the throw. Really good throw there. You get the deep ball to Jamar Chase. get a deep ball that should have been a touchdown to Mitch Tinsley. You get the Andre Yoseva strover, the middle, which was spectacular.

It's going to look awesome on the tight, the end zone angle. It did. You saw it on the broadcast. They showed it. Fantastic throw. The feel for the field. That's 39. And like the confidence of the protection there.

They pick up the blitz. Amage Pied. I'm working across the formation. Awesome blitz. Pick up. I know people are going to be down on them for the fumble. And not incorrectly so. inexcusable fumble can't do that that was an awesome rep he had too many touches too many touches

for samaj yeah we can we can talk about that another time too that was weird especially because chase brown out snapped him by nearly 20 and and for some reason they had a relatively even carry split 15 to 14 like 15 to 14 but chase brown also had seven catches so yeah second on the team of catches so tied for the team leading catches where burrow was a little bit awkward and and not himself early You talked about the timing on a couple of plays. Talked about ball placement on a couple of plays. Ball looked wobbly on a couple of plays. I thought he really settled in, found his rhythm.

And he talked about that after the game, too. He said his footwork in the first half was a little bit frenetic, calmed down in the second half, looked like himself in the second half. Settled in, found those adjustments. And if there's not going to be an adjusting period now for Joe Burrow, you certainly take that with Buffalo coming up after the long week. The other factor here is the offensive line was awesome tonight. And they have been and it continued to make Joe really trusted that protection.

A chance. Like we say it all every offseason and you can literally find clips of Jake saying I'm going to wait, believe it when I see it type scenario over the past couple of off seasons. But like this really should be the best offensive line they've ever had with Joe. And they've they've showed flashes of it. I think Dalton Reisner has really settled in. And yeah, there were there were a couple of false. Reisner got called for a fall start, two on Orlando Brown Jr. Like that's what I remember as the negatives.

Like the major like, oh my God, is a couple false starts on the road. Like I'll take that. What I don't want to take is free runners crushing the quarterback, right? And obviously we've seen that in the past. And so for them to continue to one run the ball, Chase Brown 5.2 a carry had 78 yards. Over 100 yards from scrimmage again, by the way, six straight. games. But for them to be able to run the ball effectively and then protect Joe to wear like a lot of times when he was on the move, it was, it was by, it felt by design more so than it was,

oh, well, he's he's got pressure up the gut right away. He's got a sprint out. Now, of course, there was pressure at times and he had to do that and react. But it wasn't, it wasn't like we're used to seeing. And you better believe the Ravens came into this game saying, hey, let's make Joe Burrow move. Let's get after him. Let's heat him up. Let's give him happy feet. Let's do all those things. And I'm sure they felt great at halftime. Honestly, I bet the Ravens felt great at half time. Like, all right, let's wake up now. Stop turning the ball over, go score. The defense has this Bengals' offenses number. And it just, it didn't work out for them. By the way, they did this. Joe Burrow did this and played the way he did without T. Higgins. And I think that matters a ton.

because I do think early in this game as he was feeling things out, that Mitch Tinsley touchdown that wasn't. Like, plays are different. Things feel different. If that, just if that completion hits, an easy touchdown for Mitch Tinsley that he left out there. So teaching point there.

But overall, really pleased with Burrow. And for those that wonder, does Joe matter or not? Like, I think you just can tell, like just everything. He matters.

to everything and everyone and everybody and it's just part of it from Zach Taylor I'm very happy smiling in his in his first comments he said he's I'm very happy right you know and in talking about how fun it is to watch Joe Burrow like it hits everybody and and his impact it cannot be overstated which for us I think we know because we we've we did this show before Joe Burrow was in town and and so we remember what it was like and obviously it's it's better when he's on the field the surprising thing is the impact it made on the defense so lamar jackson played a poor game and algolda maybe is figuring some things out but the defense stepping up like that is is a very welcome site because that didn't

happen last year and we hadn't really seen it at any point this year until last week if it continues then you start to see okay took some time for the first year defensive coordinator figure some things figure some things out now you got copy competence, like excellence beyond competence at quarterback now. You have a lot of confidence in the offense, and you see the difference it makes. By the way, the number of pressured snaps for Joe Burrow in this game on 50 dropbacks, just eight, according to initial PFF charting 16% of his dropbacks were pressured, according to PFF.

That is a small number, as I remember in a heavy, heavy passing game for the Cincinnati Bengals in quite a while. The Ravens blitz Joe Burrow 14 times, according to PFF. He completed 7 to 12 passes against the blitz, had a 92 grade against the blitz with two big time throws in that spot, according to their initial charting. So couldn't really be happier with Joe Burroughs return to play, is my takeaway here. Like, yeah, I was a little bit rusty in the first half,

but by the second half, it looked like Joe. And it appears that he got out. of it unscathed, didn't have any issues with that toe, looked reasonably fine, moving around, navigating the pocket, had good protection. And if you're going to have that kind of protection, when T. Higgins gets back, you got your full compliment back out there. Oh, my. Because it was a tough game for Mitch Tensley, not to finish on a down note here, but like,

there's like three plays, contested plays, and the one touchdown that you mentioned, that if he makes those plays, it's an awesome game for Mitch. it ends up catching I think just two of his nine targets so had a lot of opportunity a lot of contested plays out there that T was unable to make but they would have been really tough

so I would love to see those happen probably T. Higgins make some of those that's what T's really good at but that's what you're talking about when you're talking about the difference that T. Higgins can make. For sure. Huge difference.

I think just make the touchdown make the easy plays Mitch like the contested ones were crit like some of them are just And I think he will make some of those. You also see how much, yeah, you also see how much Joe Burrow trusts him in.

I was thinking like, it was like another Tinsley target, another Tinsley target, another. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? And he's, hey,

he trusts them. So, no, I think, um, it's going to be fun. Having Joe back is fun. I get it.

People didn't want him back, all of those things, but it makes them a lot better. And, and we'll see, how far that will take them, how far it could take them. But enjoy this one. By the way, before we get out of here, Jake, I just want to make sure that everybody knows how thankful we are. That you listen to us and watch us and support us all the time, all year long, five days a week.

We get it. It's a lot of us. And so we appreciate you, however you watch us or listen to us. And we're certainly thankful. So happy Thanksgiving. And thankful at the bank. Bengals made it a happy Thanksgiving. Yeah. You know, I wouldn't have thought, hey, 32-14 domination, but here we are. Makes it a lot more fun recording at 115 on Black Friday morning, right? Let's go. We're having a good time over here.

Yeah, we're really appreciative to all of you to make us part of your routine, to make us part of your life, especially here at the 32-minute mark of the show. So that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Enjoy your Thanksgiving long. weekend if you got one. We'll be back with some film takeaways most likely for our next episode. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locktime Bengals podcast, Hoodei, and have a good one.