Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals-Jaguars FIRST LOOK: Bengals D needs to REBOUND against Jags team hunting REVENGE

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

The Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars clash in an early-season battle that could impact AFC playoff seeding—can Joe Burrow silence the doubters and outduel Trevor Lawrence’s surging Jaguars? Turnover battles, injured secondaries, and elite weapons like Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins set the stage for a high-stakes cat fight in Cincinnati.Jake Liscow and Tony Wiggins break down key matchups, including Dexter Lawrence vs. the Jags’ interior line, Trevor Lawrence’s lethal intermediate passing, whether Joe Burrow can put the team on his back, and the impact of recent Bengals injuries in the secondary.Photo Credit: Corey Perrine/Florida Times‑Union, Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesEverydayer ClubThe improved Everydayer Club brings you access to ad-free audio, the Subtext insider club where you can text Jake and Joe and get Bengals updates in your text messages, and Joe Goodberry's members-only Discord with over 1000 other Bengals fans—all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more: https://lockedonbengals.supercast.com/Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!HomeChefFor a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners FIFTY PERCENT OFF and free shipping for your first box PLUS free dessert for life! Go to http://HomeChef.com/LOCKEDONNFL. GustoTry Gusto today at http://gusto.com/LOCKEDONNFL, and get three months free when you run your first payroll.Gameday Men's HealthBook your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=NFL&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corp Butcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.AppleYou can earn up to 3% unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase you make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA. Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apple-card-dot-com.https://learn.applecard.apple/unlimited-daily-cash?cid=apy-318-2000008800000-400000000000039&itscg=2030032&itsct=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnsiteid=133087&mttnpid=LockedOn%20%28Audio%29&mttnsubad=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnsubplmnt=&mttncc=USIndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.PrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL 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.

Just a couple of two and one teams in the AFC meeting in Cincinnati looking for positioning for playoff seating. And their mascots just happen to be cats. Let's talk Bengals, Jaguars. Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. What's going on, Cat Team fans? I'm Jake Liskgo from the Lockdown Bengals podcast. He's Tony Wiggins from Locked on Jaguars.

It's crossover Thursday. we're here to give you your first look at Bengals Jags. Coming up in week four, as always, we're covering the biggest stories, the biggest matchups and what these teams need to do to get to three and one as they're both two and one entering this game. And the episode brought to you by Fandall. You can make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandual Rewards Club. Every week, check out the Fandual app and see what's waiting for you.

And Tony, we always love to start with the biggest stories for each team. being as the Jaguars are visiting Cincinnati this week, taking a little trip up north of the Ohio River. Let's start with you. What's going on with the Jaguars that Bengals fans may not be aware of? What's the biggest story right now? That they are playing, looking, and acting like they not only belong, but they expect to win.

And that's a big jump for a team that and for a fan base that, you know, for a long time, every time the Jaguars, it good. They don't make the playoffs the next year. They've never made the playoffs in consecutive seasons, but they've been to three AFC championship games in like 30 years. So there's this up and down nature. Last year, they had a very, very good season and went 13 and 4. And the fans still have what I call football Stockholm syndrome where they ain't going to believe it until they actually see it. We're familiar with that in Cincinnati. Oh, yeah. I know it. I know it. Very familiar. So what has happened is it starts and stops with

Trevor Lawrence, he walks out there like he's the best player on the field. Joe Burrow has that aura. The person that has it right now more than anybody, of course, Mahomes and Josh Allen. There's just a feeling you get when he watch it, when you watch it, where he's never rushed, he's never rattled, and he always is able to get to the next play and make something positive. Even in games that they've lost, we had this thing, this term we called the Trevor Lawrence experience.

It would last about a quarter and a half. He'd start playing bad and he just keep going. And then all of a sudden, he'd snap out of it and maybe sometimes it was a little too late. That's not the case anymore. He walks in like the same way Doc Holliday was in Toonstone. Like, hey, I'm your Huckleberry. And that is a really, really good feeling.

And it exudes confidence to the rest of the lineup as well as the fan base. Tell me this. The Jaguar's had some tough losses in Cincinnati, the last couple of times these teams have played. Is that a story down there? Is there like a revenge? Like, we got to get back for those last couple? Because it's week four twice.

This is a third time these teams have met, I think, in week four since 2021 in Cincinnati. And those two games, I think, probably a little frustrating for Jags fans. Let me explain something to you. Jake Browning, I look, and I don't think it's on your roster anymore. First of all, he was the problem. People don't understand, man. The Jags were beating the Bengals twice when Jake Browning entered the game. Joe Burrell goes out and you're thinking, okay, we got him.

No, you don't. And, you know, he did that to him a few times. And so it almost felt like snakebitten. And then there was another time, I think we came up there on a Thursday night, I believe. Thursday night in 2021 and it was a like, Mr. Walkoff Field pole. Yeah. So, yeah, they got to get over that hump. But this is the thing, man.

This is a different team. Even though that team lost last year, they believed that it was a bogus. I even believe there was a bogus. I even believe there was a bogus pass interference call against Travis Hunter and the Jaguar were totally ran the clock out. But they just don't look past. They just don't look backwards. They look forward.

And it's not even about year to year anymore, or month to month or game the game or drive to drive. It is play to play. They go and it's about what is in front of them, even if it's a good or a bad play. And I think that's the thing that's going to be their saving grace maybe in this game this weekend. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting one because there's so many matchups that we're going to talk about that the secondary matchups, the trench matchups in this one, where Jacksonville is attacking when Trevor Lawrence throwing the ball. He's targeting intermediate parts of the field more than anyone in the NFL. That's something that I'm going to want to talk to you about in a few segments.

But let's talk about the biggest stories for the Bengals this week because they're coming off of a bad boss. And I think that the fan base is down bad a little bit right now. There's Steelers fans on the internet accusing Bengals fans of Little Brothers syndrome out there, man, you know. And there's just this, when is Zach Taylor going to figure out how to beat AFC North opponents consistently. When is Joe Burrow going to finally put together a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter for the first time in a while? He's had six tries at it in the last few years since 2023 is the athletic beat writer Paul Dana Jr. pointed out, and we talked about locked on Bengals yesterday, and Joe Burrow hasn't come through in those moments. So I think I'll be

very interested to see. We're recording this before Joe Burroughs press conference today. I want to see if Joe has asked about those things and what he has to say about it because part of me is in agreeance with one of my good friends from Bengals Twitter, John Shearer, that I want to see as many people in the world doubt Joe Burrow and his ability to perform him to clutch as possible because of the way that guy seems to answer when he's doubted. Yeah, so my comp with Joe Burrow, I tell my kids and any young person all the time, if you wonder what Joe Montana looked like as a player,

because people are like, it wasn't this, he wasn't at his arm, that's him. People said Brady all of these years, but they forget that, Joe Montana actually had a getaway car. He used to run the ball a lot. He used to get away from people. And I think Burrow has that thing. If I'm Joe Burrow, I welcome all of those clutch questions. I welcome all of that stuff because we seem to forget that if Aaron Donald is blocked for a half a second,

the Cincinnati Bengals win the Super Bowl because Jamar Chase was wide open behind Jalen Ramsey. The other part of it is if I'm Joe Burrow, I'll answer any questions as long as you ain't answer me questions about whether I'm healthy or not. because I think that that is the biggest bugaboo and has been the biggest bugaboo. That and the slow starts. And we ain't going to get into the front office and the person. By the way, the front office, I've been giving them for the last three months. I've been saying, I'm sorry, Bengal fans, you know, the front office actually did it right this offseason. But Joe Burrow being healthy is enough.

You ain't going to hear me or nobody else around here talking about him not being clutch. him being out there, in our opinion, is the second biggest thing in this game. I'll get to the first biggest thing in this game, but Joe Burrow is a gamer. He actually got hurt against the Jaguars last year with a turf toe injury, I believe, on a sack where he was dragged down.

Now that the Marius Mims and the rest of that offensive line is stacked up, we ain't worried about Joe Burrow being clutched and you can't depend on them not running for his life again. You can't depend on any of that because things are really changed in Cincinnati. Yeah, it'll be a fun game. The other thing for the Bengals and locked on Bengals fans, I'm sure, are aware of this.

But they're dealing with some injuries for the first time this season. They've actually managed to get through three weeks pretty healthy. And then they played the Steelers in Pittsburgh. And these games seem to turn up injuries, these AFC North contests, especially with the Steelers or something about the Bengals trips to Pittsburgh that end up with guys hurt. I wonder why that is. I'm not going to say more than that now. But just a few injuries for the Bengals in the secondary.

and that's something that's causing a secondary shuffle. Dax Hill is going to kick in to the slot. And we'll see DJ Ivy, who was a seventh, seventh round pick a few years ago, dealt with an ACL came back from it, is now listed as they're starting outside corner. And if that's the case, that means that he's been elevated ahead of current third round rookie, Takario Bobo Davis, who did look like that was a trajectory for him. So we'll see if the depth chart is a liar or not as it often is. But not only that, they've got injuries for Brian Cook that he's dealing with something minor.

It looks like an ankle. he came back in at the end of the game after Kyle Dugger, his backup, got hurt and was clearly laboring and unable to move at full speed. So some injuries in the secondary that we're going to be watching for, Cincinnati gets our injury reports out this week as well. Yeah, and it's really going to be good on good because the things that the Jaguars want to do is run the ball. And the most dangerous matchup for me is the fact that Dexter Lawrence is lined up so close to Trevor Lawrence and so close to the interior of the line, which has been the real struggle for the Jaguars, if you can say they've had one that hasn't really, they've only gotten a stalemate right there, right?

They haven't actually been able to dominate people. They've run the ball more than they've passed it in their two victories. So that right there to me means that that is a critical matchup. But now that you told me that they might even to try to attack that secondary a little bit, they've been playing really complimentary football. Ironically, most of Trevor's touchdown passes have come. All except one have come. In the two games that they've actually run the ball more than they've thrown it.

But they use complimentary football to get there. And if the Bengals can nullify one of those things, then that means that the other thing that might seem like a weakness won't be a weakness at all. Yeah, let's talk about some of those matchups because I do think it's really interesting how much the Jags are running the ball this year and where the strengths and weaknesses that Liam Cohen might try to attack are Liam Cohen, a guy that really figured it out after that Bengals game last year, after week two last year in the Jags, one of the runs. So we'll get into some of those matchups coming up next.

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Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Tony, let's talk matchups here. The Dexter Lawrence matchup with the Jaguars interior offensive line, obviously one that we're going to highlight. It was blatantly obvious when Dexter Lawrence left the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Steelers suddenly busted off a 30, yard run or whatever it is that they tried to do when Lawrence wasn't on the field. The on-off

splits for Dexter were staggering. Not that Pittsburgh didn't have any success when he was out there. There are things that I'm sure the Jaguars are going to do to try to deal with Lawrence. But do you start somewhere else? Are you starting with like Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase or T. Higgins? Or now you're thinking more about Dexter Lawrence when you're thinking about facing the bankers. No, I'm absolutely thinking about Dexter Lawrence because he represents a direct impediment to what the Jaguars really want to do and be about. And that is break the huddle and move people. right. So I'm suspecting that there'll be a little bit of doubling going on, not only with Robert Hainesie, the center, but with the rookie left guard, Emmanuel Pregnon, who's really good at moving

people. And then maybe Liam and the crew, they really try to focus on what they do more than try to take advantage of what the opponent doesn't do that bid them a couple of times and they need to just focus on themselves. But this is what they want to do. They want to run the ball and now their opponent actually does stop the run. So it'll be strength on. strength. It'll be interesting to me if they try to duck that smoke a little bit and try to game plan around it because there are so many injuries in your secondary and the Jaguars do use the run to set up the pass and the pass to set up the run. And they really do like the challenge the deep middle of the field. So with that being said, they're going to they're going to have

to either go with the floor or have a really, really good game plan coming in. And then sometimes you just got to tell them, look, the monster's there. You got to block him. You can't run from him. there's nothing you're going to be able to do. He's going to eat you up anyway, so you might as well get the best of it while you can. And maybe do what Pittsburgh did. I think Pittsburgh tried a lot of outside runs, right, and kind of was dragging these dudes and making them run a little bit

because as good as Cincinnati is this year, the one thing you can always question when a team uses one off season to fix their ills is, are they deep? Do they have depth? Do they have two levels of those things that they're trying to do? Do they rotate? If they don't rotate, the Jaguars, try to go ball control because that keeps the ball out of Burrell and Chase and Higgins his hands.

And then the Jaguars might decide, okay, at some point, pull a Dallas Cowboy. It's 1310 in the fourth quarter. Now you go and try to hit something deep. Maybe that's the approach that they try to take. I just think it's going to be really, really interesting. Now, for me, it's hard to say, I think Jamar Chase is top five player in the league. I've been arguing for four years that he's the best wide receiver in the league. Even when he was hurt, I said he was.

was the best. And it's hard for me to come into this game and you go, Tony, what's the matchup? And I'm just mentioning him at 15 minutes. But that's just what it is. You know, football is about a game of matchups, just like boxing. But for me, that is the second thing that comes up. He can beat you by himself. I like T. Higgins. But Jamar Chase can literally, ask the Baltimore Ravens. He can beat you by himself. And that's always dangerous. So they've had some holes. in their secondary a little bit. They've given up some stuff. They've been very bend, but don't break when it comes to the big plays.

So that is the other task. I don't think it's a B. I think it's one A and one B. It's not one and two. It's one A and one B. Spoken like Jamar Chase referring to himself and T. Higgins. And I think that's an intentional illusion there. Tony has done his homework on the Cincinnati Bengals.

I think you covered the Dexter Lawrence matchup quite well, what the Jaguars try to do to attack or avoid Dexter in the middle of the trenches is going to be interesting, and the Bengals will have to play better on the edges. They had issues getting off blocks. They had issues tackling when they got to the Pittsburgh ball carriers. And tackling has been an issue for this team now in 26, certainly in 2025 and 2024 as well,

something that they haven't seemed to be able to fix. And where you talk about depth, I do want to kind of throw out there for Jaguars fans anyway. The Bengals fans in general feel pretty good about their defensive line depth. And I do too. I think that they are deep on the interior. They got exposed a little bit against Pittsburgh last week when they took Dexter out of the game.

But I do still think they have, generally speaking, relatively quality depth on the interior. And they're four or five deep on the edge right now to the point where Shamar Stewart last year's first round pick, who did deal with an injury in training camp, couldn't even get into the game against the Steelers last week because of rotating four other guys at defensive end. But I'm looking at this as a game for Joe Burrow to put the team on his back a little bit.

I expect that Liam Cohen is going to find the weak links in the Bengals defense to attack. And I think that Mike McCarthy showed the way to do that a little bit with the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. And defense in the NFL is a weak link system. You find somebody you can go after. He doesn't do his job. You're giving up plates. And I think Liam Cohen is smart enough to be able to do that. We'll see if the Bengals can make some plays on defense or not this week to offset some of that.

Because the first couple weeks are really good. But I think the Jaguars are the best offense. they will have faced so far this season. On the other side, though, I'm thinking, can Joe Burrow avoid the interception? There's no team in the NFL, as far as I know right now, better at forcing quarterbacks to make mistakes and put the ball in harm's way than the Jacksonville Jaguars.

We're forcing quarterbacks to throw the ball to their defenders. They have what, each corner, maybe, or three of the corners have an interception, each maybe Jones doesn't have one. But this is a team that has forced quarterbacks to make mistakes. And Joe Burrow generally doesn't make a ton. but has made a couple this season the fumble to lose the game in Pittsburgh when it looks like they're on their way to a game-winning drive. There's an interception as well against the Texans.

It was a pretty bad interception. Or that was against a Buccaneer, sorry, in week one, pick six against the bucks back in the game. And so taking care of the ball, big in this one, that could be highest over under in the league this week, Tony. It could be a high-scoring effect. Yeah, it could be. And the Jaguars have won that battle. They've been very good at the turnover battle, protecting the football and causing other people to make turnovers. I really do think it's important that they get Cincinnati off the field.

They got to get them off the field. This is one game where the Jaguars, while they have a great kicker, they don't really have a kicker advantage. You just spoke on something that really hurt my heart, man, because I had me fiercen as my fantasy kicker last week. And I was hoping they tried a 50-yard because I lost a very, very close game to them. But the key is always in any football game is going to be about turnovers, right? And the Jaguars have done a very good job of bending and not breaking. And the other thing that they do very well, they use that back line. The back line in the end zone is like a 12th man.

And they'll bend, bend, bend. And then when teams get down in the red zone, they do a very, very good job at red zone defense. And here's the kicker. Red zone offense. They were five for five last week. And that is something that has come from training camp. had joint practices in New Orleans. And I had Ross Jackson give me a report so I could tell the fans because I didn't travel

to the joint practice. And he told me all these things, but then at the end, he goes, that red zone offense is fabulous. And then it happened again next week and the next week. So we didn't know if it was going to carry over to the regular season because the starters didn't play at all in the preseason. It has. They've been extremely good in the red zone. So keep the ball, move it down the field, get to the red zone, do what you do, and then

stop them on the other. in and I think the Jaguars will have a pretty, pretty good day. That is, I think, a formula for success in the NFL. We'll talk about some of those keys to victory. I want to dig in a little bit on the Jaguars Intermediate Passing game as well. We'll finish this crossover coming up next. This crossover Thursday is brought to you by prize picks and football's back. We're in week four, baby.

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That's going to be a big one. The Jags forcing turnovers this year. Trevor Lawrence, I think it's had some turnover luck. It looks like he's throwing some balls that have been a little bit dangerous, maybe survive some dropped interceptions. Before we get back to those keys to victory, I want to talk about the intermediate part of the field. This is where Trevor Lawrence loves to attack,

throw more balls to the intermediate part of the field than any other quarterback in the NFL so far this year. And a lot of that's coming on intermediate posts. A lot of that's coming out routes. A lot of that's coming on crossers. What is it about Liam Cohen's offense that caters to that big game hunter in Trevor Lawrence where he wants to push the ball downfield?

And it seems like Liam Cohen has really found a way to make him comfortable and compliment his innate playing style. Confidence that he has in Trevor Lawrence. Actually, I believe started in Cincinnati. If you guys remember last year, there was a ball that Trevor Lawrence through that was high. And Liam kind of looked at him and went,

put it on his chest, man. And then later on, he was like, I'm just telling him, let it rip, let it go. Trevor has this big talent, right? But he wasn't insulated properly by Urban Meyer or by Doug Peterson. So you think about insulation. That's what the Bengals have done this year with their offensive line over the last couple of years.

That's what Tom Brady always had, but Dante Scarnickey. And that's what Howard Mudd had around Pake Man. And we think that these people are like Michael Joy, when they say, give them the ball and just go move, tell everybody to get out of the way until they're – No, you have to take care of your quarterbacks. You have to support them with all of the things that they need in order to be successful so that talent can come out. That's what he's done.

And he's taught Trevor to be confident, and he's also taught Trevor to come to the line and get pre-snap answers. And then go through his progressions and to have the confidence to let that ball rip like a dude that was the number one player coming out of high school and college. That's what you have to do. Allow someone to play to their strengths. And that's what he's been able to do. They also use a bunch of tight ends, which might be they've gone to this three tight end packets that a lot of people have this year. So those intermediate routes are open because two of those tight ends are pass catchers.

So what happens is they're also very good blockers. you get in there if you go small, they'll bang on you. And they'll make you punt. They'll punish you for going small and get six, seven yards a clip. You go big to try to stop it.

Now those guys are routing you up, right? So now that creates holes and windows. And because they've been able to run the ball and keep the safeties and linebackers at bay, that's created windows for sure-handed receivers. Parker Washington, Jacoby Myers. They catch everything, bro.

So it's not as if either one of them is like a burner. Parker's not that big, he's built like a firehards and he's like a running back. Brian Thomas Jr. is the one man. He's a big plate threat. He hasn't gotten on court yet. Travis Hunter because he's coming back off of an injury, they're kind of going, they're pacing them a little bit

and also playing him a little bit more on defense. Josh Cameron, a six-round rookie out of Baylor, has caught two red zone touchdowns. And it's all been in that intermediate era. Trevor's just letting it rip. He's getting it pre-slapped. The windows are still small, but he's able to fit it in.

those windows get a little bit bigger when they get the running game and the tight ends involved. And that's really, really been the key. They really want to hit bigger chunk plays, but they really never get the opportunity because they're real big play guys, Brian Thomas, Jr. And he just seems to have the yips right now. It's like him and Marvin Harrison Jr. It's like, everybody keeps asking me, why don't you just do a one-on-one swap? I'm like, for what? It's like Spider-Man looking at Spider-Man.

What are you going to do that for? You know, you got, you know, trade a problem for a problem? I don't believe in that. But that's what it is. it's the pre-snap answers and the protection along with the confidence that has come along with them just telling them just to be nothing more than who he is. A couple things that are really interesting there to me. One Parker, Washington with the Bengals changing their slot corner in this game, it'll be Dax Hill moving back into the slot. That's obviously going to be a crucial matchup, I think, when the Bengals defense is on the field in this one.

And you talk about the tight end usage for Jacksonville. They actually are among the league leaders in targeting wide receivers. Tight end is not getting a ton of targets yet in Jacksonville's offense. and then when you look on the other side in the Bengals defense, they're giving it up to tight ends. So which of those things is going to remain true in this game, I think is going to be a potential impact on the outcome as well. Obviously, Dexter Lawrence big in this one.

I'm going to be very eager to see how Jacksonville's defense decides they want to deal with Joe Burroughs, Marce, C. Higgins, who look like they're getting to the point where they're in midseason form. I know they have that fumble at the end of the Pittsburgh game. That was a double post against quarters that was going to come open. and if Dalton riser can hold up. So there's some reminiscences there to the Super Bowl in a way where your guard just needs to block.

And in this case, it was a one-on-one in Super Bowl. It was a slide to Aaron Donald. But a little bit of a difference there. The receiver's open. The play call works if you can block for about a half more second. And that's going to come up with Josh Hines Allen this week as well with that matchup with Orlando Brown, where the Bengals are giving a lot of help.

So protecting Joe, obviously going to be a factor in this one as well. But I really do think that it's clear. cliche, the turnover stuff is going to be big in this game. Whether the Bengals defense is able to make some plays again, take the ball away like they did in week one, like they did to some extent throughout this season, or if they can't take it away, I'm not sure that they have the down-to-down consistency

with the way Trevor likes to attack the middle intermediate part of the field, the Bengals weakness there with their linebackers and safety injuries. That's going to be a key factor as well. Yeah, and hopefully the Jaguars can make them hold on to the ball because they've gotten pressure, but fans around here are still talking about, lack of pressure. The lack of pressure really comes from the three-technic position where Eric Armstead is. They don't get a bunch there. So when they can get in these long down and

distance situations, they can move Trayvon Walker inside, who, in my opinion, is the best player on their defense. He was also the best player at Georgia. He just doesn't have the numbers. And so we keep dealing with this. Well, he's the number one of the world pick and what you got to watch the game to really understand the effect that he has on the football game. They're number one in the league against the run. He is number one, the number one reason in Devon Hamilton, the nose tackle. is number two. So he really does get a lot of pressure. He's leading the team in pressures,

but they played Deshawn Watson, who at first everybody was rolling their eyes about, now Cleveland's two and one, and then they played. Well, well, let's give it time. I forgot what show I was on. My bad, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

You don't leave in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati. I forgot about that happened when I was a teenager, by the way. But that, along with Bo Nix, who's getting the ball out of his hand really, really quickly. And then he has a getaway car also, just like Deshaun. Say what you want about him. He can get away from people. And then Drake May last week.

So it's understandable that they don't get pressure on guys when guys are able to get away and have an alley to run. And Joe Burroughs another dude that can get away from you. So the Jaguars are just really waiting for their sack numbers to go up when they can finally face one of these statues, dudes that can't run. Where's Jared Gough when you need them to help your stats? But I think it'll be fun. it'll be something that has to, it'll be strength on strength.

And ironically, it'll be strength on weakness when it comes to your guy's safety and that back seven having to deal with the injuries. And it'll be strength on strength when the Jaguars want to run the ball, but you got Dexter Lawrence. Shout out to Boy Mawfe, too. I ain't going to forget about him. He's had a fabulous, fabulous season for you guys. The other part of it is who wins?

Who wins philosophically? Who gets it? I wish y'all would have won last week because now teams, that are really good teams tend to not play bad two weeks in a row or they tend to correct things and it's a little bit of a wake-up call. That's what happened in New England last week. They came in here and caught a bus saw, and they got ran out of the stadium because the Jaguars really felt like

they let one get away after being up 13 to 3 in Denver. But now we look back, and Denver seems like they're to come back Kings of the year, so it doesn't look as bad now that they lost that big lead in the second half. I think it's going to come down to strength on strength. And just like all of these games, man, it's going to come down to probably the last two minutes. Yeah, I think the Jaguars are one of those sneaky good teams in the NFL

where this game could have a real impact on AFC seating. We'll have you covered on lockdown Jaguars and Lockdown Bengals, leading into what should be a really fun week four game in Cincinnati. Until then, he's Tony Wiggins. I'm Jake. Let's go. That's crossover Thursday on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.