Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS SQUAD SHOW: Defense SHUTS DOWN Texans, keeps them OUT OF END ZONE , 2-0 START!

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

This was the vision for the Bengals' defense when they spent  bunch of money this offseason and traded for Dexter Lawrence. On Sunday, the Bengals' defense turned in a dominant performance against the Houston Texans as the Bengals improved to 2-0.Alex Frank, Coach Art Valero, Mike Santagana, and Evan Stacy react to the Bengals' defense swarming the Texans' offense and keeping them out of the end zone.In addition to the defense, Ja'Marr Chase had a huge bounce-back performance, and Joe Burrow gutted it out against the Texans' ferocious defense and after battling back tightness earlier this week.There were a lot of incredible performances from the Bengals' defense today. Which players will get game balls?Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn ImagesJoin the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! Where you'll get updates directly to your phone and be able to text the hosts, check it out at: https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsEverydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everyday...Find and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0l...Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-...Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!OdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.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.IndeedListeners 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/LO... 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.

It's been said that you got to spend a little extra sometimes to get what you won. That was so true for the Bengals defense on Sunday and a dominant performance at Houston. I'll tell you what. Hey, you talk about complimentary football. Both the offense, defense, and special teams all created big plays when they had to. As much as we love complimentary football, sometimes you just have the best receiver in the world scoring most of your points in a single game. And Burrow was able to find that receiver twice, even though he was sacked five times, didn't get rattled,

and made the big plays when he needed to. Today, it's the Bengals Squad. Everything Cincinnati Bengals every week. Breaking down all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Queen City, the way only the Locked-on Podcast Network can. From the jungle to the playoffs, the Bengals Squad Show starts now. My all-time favorite sports talk show host Colin Cowell. Howard once said that sometimes you got to spend a little extra money to get what you want. The Bengals did just that this offseason with their defense.

And whoa, did they come to play today? Welcome to the Bengals squad show. We're live on lockdown Bengals and the lockdown podcast. Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. We're brought to you today by Cal She for a limited time download Calci and use code locked on to get $25. When you trade $25, Cal she trade what's next? I'm Alex Frank with Coach Arfallaro, the head coach at the Bengals Squad show, Mike Santagana, our resident film expert, Evan Stacey, our lockdown Bengals hits.

Guru, he runs our Lockdown Bengals Hits channel for Lockdown Bengals. Bengals 20, Texan 6, the Bengals are 2 and O. Coach was a little dicey for the offense early on, but then Dexter Lawrence gets a fourth down stop and says to the offense, go out there and take advantage. And that's exactly what they did. Complementary football and Dexter Lawrence's fourth downstop on David Montgomery, set the tone for the game. Hey, I tell you what, the entire game, the defense came to play.

Now, this was one of those games where statistics, if you looked at it, you'd think, hey, Houston won the game. But when you look at it in terms of actually watching the game and what is reality, you might give up some yards. You might give up very few points. But you made key stops when you had needed to, when you had to, when you had to, when you had to, when you you wanted to. And then the offense did just enough. Very quietly, Chase Brown has a great, very good, not great, but a very good day in 80 yards of carries. You know what? And then you got the two best receivers, Camdenham and football. And Jamar Chase, what can you say about that catch in the, towards the end zone? It was incredible. Mike, I know you, you said it best. There's nothing

better than watching the best wide receiver in football. And as Paul Danner Jr. said on Twitter, sometimes you just got to hit the bad control button that says F. Jammar's down there somewhere. Yeah. And he's one-on-one with one of the best corners in the league in Derek Singly. And making that catch, in my opinion, DPI. I mean, he's falling out of, he's falling down if you're getting grabbed and still making

the catch. It's, it's, you see it once in a while, but it is like the and one of playing wide receiver of what getting contacted with. and still catching the ball for a touchdown. Reminded me of obviously the famous, I think it's like two plays. You kind of have that Chad Johnson type of footwork in the end zone on the famous shot.

And also the O'Dell catch just to be stumbling out of there and then turn back to your back shoulder and still catch the ball. Not one-handed on three fingers, but still it was incredible body control to recover and get into that position to make that catch was awesome. And then you had the out-of-structure play,

which you got to give plenty of credit there to Joe Burrow. who is this was a kind of vintage Joe Burrow well it seems like it was a second bout gut it out take a bunch of hits and still to move in the pocket extend the play know you're going to get hit throw the ball so that Jamar Chase has enough time to cross read blanket ships face and make that touchdown catch I thought Jamar Chase was dominant in this game in what felt like a war just to pick up a first down on both sides and Evan going back to the bangles defense because last week they forced four turnovers but he didn't force any puns. Today, they forced several puns, turnovers on downs, missed field goals, a foil field goal.

They got stops in multiple ways. Yeah, I mean, they didn't allow a touchdown, which is pretty impressive. I think the Texan Sunday put up 31 points against the bills last week. I think so, yeah, I mean, dominant performance from the defense, especially Dexter Lawrence, that fourth and inches is exactly why you make the trade for him. He, you know, we talked about him. last week as being one of the best defensive players on the team, but the stats didn't show it. Now he has the stats to back it up, and he was just dominating the trenches, especially on the run. Houston could not get the run game established at all, and that was mainly due to Dexter Lawrence in the defensive line. And, you know, the secondary had some miscues at times, you know, strad through for a bunch of yards.

But whenever you don't allow a touchdown in a game that's massive, and so it's only when, for them to only score six points and for them to, you know, they didn't score in the fourth quarter, which was big. And so overall, really happy with how the defense performed, especially Dexter Lawrence. I want to tell you what, very ironic, right? Last week, in a big win, he got Dexter Lawrence, who relatively is very quiet unless you watch the film. This week, he explodes. Last week, Jamar Chase, very quiet unless you watch the film. And then all of a sudden this week, he explodes. Hey, those stars will always shine.

Yeah. add some stats to what you were saying, having to back you up because I looked it up. And yes, some of the statistics look bad for the Bengals defense if you just look at raw yards. But you look at success rate and they held the Texas to a 7% rushing success rate.

So that's if you pick up four yards on first and 10, at least, or you get at least half of the yardage on second down end. Obviously, you need all of the yards on third down to be successful. Otherwise, you might be punting. 7% is in the 0th percent. Like that's among the worst games we've ever seen. And that is the Dexter Lawrence effect, I feel like.

And it showed right away on what you talked about, that fourth down stop. They were on wide zone trying to get away from Dexter Lawrence. And that is just so dumb to me to end up singled one off with your rookie left guard against maybe the best defensive tackle in football. Because he looked like the best defensive tackle in football today. That's a great job by Al Golden, putting him on their worst. normally he wouldn't line up in that front on that guy.

But all of a sudden they moved him from the nose over to the three, and he got his butt-wooked. Well, that's a great point, Coach, because you think about it, I was listening to the Bengals Radio Network broadcasts the game driving to where I'm staying tonight, and Evan Brown, the Texan Center, they've mentioned that he's a journeyman. Now, journey men can be great stories, but if they're bouncing around from team to team that tells you that maybe there are some limitations to his game and he has a ceiling, Now you're going up against Dexter Lawrence, one of the best, if not the best defensive tackle in the game.

You know what's a good day for your run defense. When Chalin Noll, a wide receiver, has more rushing yards than David Montgomery and Woody Marks. And by the way, C.J. Stroud was the Texans leading rush year three carries for 29 yards. David Montgomery was six for 10. Woody Marks was eight for eight. That is dominant run defense right there. 18 carries 60 yards for the. Texans on the ground. But when I think about the Bengals defense, I think about the way they

finished the game, the way they got after C.J. Stroud on that last possession, because if they score there, the Texans get an on-side kick and it's a little dicey there. The Bengals made sure they didn't happen. And then it's Shamar Stewart and Cedric Johnson getting sacks on that last drive. So that shows your depth once again. And the fact that Jonathan Allen had a sack, I can go through the defensive statistics. Cedric Johnson had two. Jonathan Allen with one, Shamar Stewart with one, the Bengals had eight tackles for loss today, three of which came from Jonathan Allen, who has been tremendous through the first two games of the season. Jonathan Allen now with two Saxter two games, three tackles for loss today.

And you want to talk about, again, not forcing any punts last week. All right, so the Texans drives today, punt three plays two yards, punt three plays five yards, turnover on downs, the foiled field goal attempt. Turnover on downs, the Dexter Lawrence fourth down stop. Field goal end of half. To start the second half, the Bengals don't get the ball. The Texans do three and out, zero yards. Missed field goal, field goal, fourth quarter drives.

Punt, punt, turnover on downs. That's getting to done, Evan, without forcing any turnovers, which maybe was a little concern of ours. They quieted that today in dominant fashion. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were saying, you know, oh, they had all the big turnovers last week, but the defense overall, you know, might not have been as good as what people said. But yeah, I mean, you completely take them out of the running game and force them to throw

without their best receiver. So they had to rely on their tight ends a lot. And so, you know, and like you said, Alex, I was super impressed with how they finished that final drive. Shemar Saur and Cedric Johnson, two guys that, you know, aren't, don't play every single snap, making those big plays. And I saw Chris Jenkins get in there a few times as well. well. He played well. Cassius Howell was getting in there as well. So I think there was a handful of

times where the defensive line would kind of close in on Stroud and he would either throw it quickly or would kind of move. So they had a whole bunch of times where they kind of collapsed the pocket, but didn't get a sack. And, you know, they were pushing the offensive lineman back. And so, you know, it starts with that front and then moves to the, moves to the back, Demetrius Knight, led the team in tackles. Even Dax Hill, he had four pass deflection. So he played really well, and it all starts with the defensive line. When they can dominate, it helps a lot. And I feel like they didn't have the, I felt like Strout wasn't running for his life as much as Baker was.

But even with, even with Stroud having that more stability, they still didn't get gashed a whole lot and still didn't let up a touchdown. So even though they didn't have the four turnovers, they were still able to make a massive difference. And Cassius House, we keep talking to Cedric Johnson's Sackwick, Cassius House set up. He got the pressure on it, moved Stroudoff his spot, made him, try to escape the pocket and ends up getting sacked on that play, which I thought maybe his most impressive rush, and maybe his least impressive rush was the one he got a sack out where I'm like, he's running a stunt, he looped around, he got set up by everybody else. It was like, Stratz just ran right into him. I mean, that's just the fun of what gets credited for sacks and, you know, what was your

most impressive play on the day? And his most impressive play was setting somebody else up. Pretty cool. But I thought Cassius Howl was awesome in the game as a bass rusher. I know it's not the high highest bar of difficulty with the Texans' offensive tackle room. But it was great to see, especially as the close out like you guys are talking about. And I was glad to see him Marcos. I don't think I saw him at all the entire game. And then he's making a sack on third down to force the fourth and goal from however far back they were. So I like that.

I do think the Dax Hill, he did have some pastures. I thought it was a bit more up and down personally. Just like he was getting beat by 20, 23. restricted, like undrafted free agent. And I think that's part of the tackles he had. But he also did make some big plays with the past breakup. So I was a little up and down on it. I thought Turner was really good in this game, though, for the defensive backs.

And it seemed like Cook was good. Well, I think is interesting whether you guys noticed much with the lineback. I thought early on it was bad. Like I thought early on this is what's going to kill the Bengals defense. And then second half, third quarter, going into the fourth quarter, I thought they played pretty well. Then you had that final drive. They might have gotten picked on a little bit with Dalton Schultz. But I was interesting what you guys thought with the linebackers in this one.

Coach? I thought that linebackers, like you were talking about, they showed up. They didn't show up early and then they kind of showed up a little bit later. I think where I was really taken by them was in one-on-one pass coverage. I think they got to take advantage of trying to cover down on guys, whether it be a running back, a couple of times or Shultz the tight end. I thought they were kind of out of position

and they weren't really as well as what they should be and what they will be as they were. But hey, they're still like I said, they are still in a learning process. This is their what, 18th game, 19th game that they're playing. So

they're well on their way. I think that how they drafted I still like to see a veteran in there. But how they drafted thinking the front guys were going to help them, the front guys are helping a lot of people. And I think that that was money well spent. Evan, what did you say? Yeah, I think, you know, there was definitely some struggles that we saw at the beginning in some shades of last year where it seemed like they were out of position and then that led to a 20 or 30 yard gain and some bad, some bad tackling techniques as well. But then I felt like in the second half,

they settled down and I didn't really notice them as much, which was good. But Yeah, the first half a few times I was like, oh, gosh, this is kind of how it was last year. I guess it's going to be how it's going to be. But then they settled in the game and played pretty well. But, yeah, the defensive front is really what's going to help them a lot. And so if they can continue to get pressure and continue to kind of break down plays, that's just going to help them more. But like coach said, it's only their 19th game.

And I've seen progress in these first two games than we saw last year. So still not perfect yet, but still pretty good. It was a tale of two halves, if anything, for the two linebackers today. Because in the first half, you're right, that they were missing tackles that they were getting picked on by Dolan Shultz. And I mean, Dan Horde, Tony Pike particularly brought this up on the radio broadcast that they were picking on the Bengals linebackers because they knew they had to mismatch there. Dolan Shultz is one of the best tight ends in the game. He set a Texan's team record last year for receptions by a tight end in a single season with 82. He had 12 today on 14 targets for 140 yards in that sick, one-handed catch, not as good as Jamar Chase's catch earlier later in the game.

but in the second half, because the Bengals defensive pass rush, Evan, like you said, was there and was getting to CJ Stroud and was clearly impacting him. CJ Stroud did not look comfortable in that pocket in the second half. Let's be honest. And that allowed for Barrac Carter and Demetri's, I thought they're tackling was really good today. They were rallying to the ball. They were getting there on the catch. That's what you want to see.

But what's interesting also is you didn't really notice Brian Cook. You didn't really even notice DJ Turner. You know who else had a great game today? Mike, you mentioned the secondary. Jordan Battle played well today. A tackles four from solo. you didn't even notice the secondary, I thought, because of how good the defensive front was today. And that's a good thing if you don't notice the secondary because Blaze didn't get to that level very often.

Yeah, and Jordan Battle specifically did end the second to last drive they had where he made a great tackle in the open field, wrapped the legs up, drove the guy backwards to get him into a short yard and situation, and then had the pass breakup on fourth down where he made a great read on the ball and broke that pass up. So I thought he did play much better in this game than he did the game before. I think the other thing I was thinking of was, might have lost my train of thought a little bit. But I did think Jordan Battle played pretty well. With Dalton Schultz, I did think early on he had a big,

you know, he had that big catch against, you know, that was Barrett Carter, where he came up to him, ran a shallow crossing route. The thing is, they also have. got DJ Turner on a deep crossing route. And the way the Bengals feel like they're playing coverage in that game was trying to play outside leverage and funnel stuff to the middle of the field. And that works great until you cross the face of the middle of the field. And now you're on the opposite side. So that's somewhat where it felt like when they started getting more and more

pressure in that second half, you weren't seeing those completions because those all take time to develop. A crossing route's great, but you need three seconds. And the Bengals' defensive line was no longer giving them three seconds. Just looking at the box score here. This shows you how depth, how much depth the Bengals defense has, particular defensive line. Cedric Johnson had two sacks and two tackles for loss. I mean, Duke Tobin wasn't mincing words and wasn't lying it was this entire offseason as it turns out. And this is one of those performances that the Bengals defense, and we said it last week, they put their money where their mouths are. And today, they didn't even have to force four turnovers, not even one turnover to have the dominant

performance that they had. You know who else was good today? Jamar Chase. And we told you not to worry about him either. Bangles Squad Show today brought to you by Price Picks. If I can pull this up here, get the wrong button there. Excuse me. Anyway, football is finally back. It's two weeks in. The Bengals are 2 and O and Sundays are about to get a whole lot more interesting and they already have. Every week brings new matchups, breakout players, big performances, and plenty of storylines to follow. And if you like getting even more engaged with the players and stats you're watching, there's a new way to make game day more exciting. Price picks is bringing out its best offer yet for kickoff.

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Bangal Squad Show also brought to you today by five-hour energy. There are certain flavors that instantly feel like summer. And for a lot of people, those classic red, white, and blue freezer props are right at the top of the list. Sweet cherry, lime, blue raspberry, it's one of those nostalgic summer flavors everybody recognizes. And right now, five-hour energy is bringing that flavor combination into the new, Firework freeze, five-hour energy shop blending, sweet cherry, zesty lime, and electric blue raspberry, and a one refreshing shot inspired by those iconic summer freezer pops. And look, summer schedules get chaotic fast. You got road trips, tournaments, concerts, long weekends.

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Okay, one was arguably one of the greatest catches I've ever seen out of any wideout. his body control, his foot placement, his concentration on the ball, bringing it in and to the ground, because oftentimes you don't even know what it catches anymore. But that was unbelievable. And I sat there watching it over and over again and said, wow. And then on his second touchdown, I deal the way that he converted the scramble drill. He was brand across the middle, and once he saw Joe break contained, he elevated and stair stepped his way to create space between him and the safety. And Joe hit him like they've been doing that their entire lives, which they probably have.

They have. I mean, Mike, we've seen that play before where Chase is running from side to side in the end zone and just being wide open when Burrow escapes and executes the scramble drill. It's exciting whenever you see Joe Burrow rolling. to usually his, I feel like his right, and he gets to the line of scrimmage, and then he starts running parallel with it. And I'm thinking, oh, man, he's got, he's got an idea here. And that idea is oftentimes Jemar Chase. He's possibly breaking free.

And like you were saying, got made the separation against Blankenship, the safety. Once he, once Burrough saw that, he unleashed the ball. And the rest of his history. What I thought was great was that he, I also didn't think he started this game great. You know, you had that. And I thought Burroughs pass on the play was not the best either, but that pass over the middle of the field should have been a 12, what was it, 15-yard gain or something.

And they don't rush fast enough to the line. The call gets overturned. The ball goes back. I'm like, man, you got to just haul that in. I know it's not the best pass, but got both hands on it. Just bring it into the body and fall down on your back maybe. I don't know. Just do something so that the ball's, the tip of the ball doesn't hit the ground.

And then you have the discussion of, how much did it move? How much is it okay to move? Nobody knows. But in that case, I thought early out, I was like, man, he's not, you know, like I want to see him start off a little better than this. They're trying to get him involved. And then he just looked like the best receiver in the world for a couple of plays. I was, that's great. That's what I wanted this entire time. So I'm great to bounce back after what was, I don't know, is that considered a drop or what do we consider that? He didn't drop the ball, but it's hit his hands and didn't end up a completion. Well, it goes back to what coach said. We don't even know what it catches nowadays. I mean, on T. Higgins's catch in the fourth quarter that set up Evan McPherson's second field goal, like I was making sure they're like, okay, let's make sure there's no problem there. But Evan, it's so great to see Jemar Chase, not only the great catch in the second quarter against Derek Stigley Jr. of all corners, but then he doubled down and scored a second

touchdown today. I think it is 14th game with multiple touchdown receptions. This is the Jemar Chase we know. And once again, he shows up in week two. Yeah, that's why he's the best receiver in the league, in my opinion. And that's why you pay him the big bucks, because when you need him, he more than likely makes the big play. And there were a few times where I was just like, just throw it to Jamar Chase, just let him do his thing, let him make a play. And yeah, I loved, obviously the touchdown was unbelievable for him to be stumbling and turning his body full and being able to catch it while dragging his toes as just elite stuff that not many people can.

do. And then the second one, the scramble drill with Joe and Jamar, that was just vintage, both on the same page, know exactly where they, Joe knows exactly where he is on the field. And I love to see that. As much as Joe gets got hit today and as much as he gets hit, I do think he's extremely

dangerous when he's out of the pocket and out of structure. We saw that in 2024. But that was, you know, that was really good to see. And, you know, it's always great when Jamar's making plays. He's an electric receiver. And they made sure that all they talked about this week was we got to get Jamar Chase more involved we're going to get

Jamar Chase more involved and I found interesting stat that PFF tweeted a few right after his touchdown catch so the most 30 plus yard touchdown catches since 2021 Jamar has 25 which is the first second highest is 15 to Devante Adams and Tyree kill that's and Tyree kill is not even playing currently this year's 2021 mind you is when Jamar was drafted yeah who needs a red zone offense when you can score like that. Well, I thought it was interesting that they went right away early in the game with slip screens and, you know, some a couple of, because they started out pretty much in the gun.

And they had some RPO's on it to try to get Jamar the ball. And he showed that those short little ones, although he is extremely explosive, give him the ball down the field, giving the ball intermediate to deeper, and wow, he's magic. He is. Also, the slip screens, the RPOs, all of this was in there.

Their game plan was to not have Joe Burrow get hit like this, like he did in this game. And unfortunately, throughout the game, I feel like they kept drawing penalties that put them in passing situations against the one team you don't want to be in that situation with. So they're in the gun. gun and I understand the idea of like and I was with it.

I was saying get under center, get heavy and, you know, let's try to run the ball and maybe use some play action off of that. But they seem to say like, you know, let's do a little bit of the spread gun stuff that we've been so good at. And they're trying to do something to be like, we want to be spread gun. We also don't want to get Burrow hit. Let's try to get the ball out quick. And then they'd get a false start.

They'd get a holding call. They'd get something in your first and 20, second and 15. And now Will Anderson is lining up in. And you could see his leg twitching before he's able, before he's going of how excited he is to be in a wide nine against Orlando Brown Jr. And unfortunately, the Bengals probably didn't provide that man enough help against one of the best defense events in football. Burrow took a lot of hits in this game. But he toughed it out. I thought it was interesting game plan-wise to have kind of that in there.

And I'm thinking this doesn't go with what I was thinking they might try to do early on. but they did try to get the ball out quick. It just felt like unfortunate that they kept getting penalties, especially in that first half, that would put them in situations where now they had to drop back and risk Joe taking a hit. Yeah. You know what you brought up that point, Mike,

is they started out of the gun. He was getting the ball out extremely fast. And then all of a sudden you'd get a penalty or two, put them in not advantageous down the distances. and then the next series, which kept them in the first half, is they started to go primarily underneath until they had to get into the gut. And I thought that was a great neutralizer for them. And if there's any reason why they did so much in camp and everybody was, you know,

hey, is it going to sink? Hey, those three or four series of downs that they had were they were underneath, two backs and they put, you know, Eric Allen in the back field, Eric Hall, excuse me, in the backfield. Oh, shoot, they were rolling. They were moving the chains. They were moving it. They depended on their defense. And, hey, you know what?

Phil goals are as long as you're getting points on the board, all you know, you have to cross the 50 and you got a great chance. Yeah. And eight of the 12 penalties, Mike, to your point, were in the first half. It wasn't a great day for the Bengals as far as, you know, playing a clean game. in terms of penalties. But the Bengals made up for it in the second half because you talk about Joe Burrell's scramble drill touchdown, Jamar Chase, was very reminiscent of the one against San Francisco in 21 where Burrell was rolling out to his riding hits Chase in the back of the end zone.

It's interesting, too, because there was a holding penalty on Dylan Farage child in the first quarter that took away a big run for Chase Brown. And coach, you mentioned Chase Brown earlier. If that play stands, we're talking about Chase Brown. How about 100 plus rushing yards against the Texans defense that is so great at stopping the run. So like the Bengals, they didn't play a great game. I thought they played a good game. They played well enough to win, but they left some stuff out there on the field. Now, we talk about Jamar Chase and Chase Brown. Let's talk about T. Higgins for a minute, because I thought one of

the big plays in the game was T. Higgins's catch right before Jamar Chase's touchdown. It was third and four from the Bengals' own 45-yard line. The Bengals had good field position to start at this game. Let's not forget that, guys. They just could not, you know, out of that between the 40s. They were putting the ball a lot, and you were kind of getting frustrated. T. Higgins is 23-yard catch underneath, coach, like you said, first down, 23 yards, and then next play, Evan, right for the kill shot that Jamar Chase against Derek Stingley, Jr. That is how good this fangles offense and receivers are. Yeah, like coach said earlier, they're the best one-two-punch receiver-wise in the NFL, and I think T. Higgins is one of the best security blankets with his height and his catch radius,

and they work off of each other so well with, you know, if Jamar's taking all the attention, T. Higgins is open, and T. Higgins makes a big play, gets Jamar a big play. So they work in tandem a lot. And I think now that they've been together for as long as they have and they have the chemistry with Joe Burrow, I think they're all, all three of them are all connected so well where they know where everyone's on, everyone's out on the field, know how to break down these coverages. Joe knows exactly where the ball needs to go. and they just open each other up and it makes it so difficult for defenses. The Texan secondary is one of the better ones

in the league with Stingley and Petrie and, you know, Jamar Burt Stingley or, you know, had the touchdown against Stingley and then T. Higgins opened in the middle a handful of times and, you know, he was able to have a lot of run after the catch, which, you know, isn't the thing that he's the best, you know, his calling card compared to Jamar Chase. But I thought they just worked so well off of each other

and it makes it so hard for defenses to game plan when you have two guys who can make massive plays there at any time. Five catches for 95 yards, led the team in receiving Earth, second to Jamar Chase in receptions. You know the loss was good today? Joe Burrow. And again, just like we told you about Jamar Chase, you shouldn't have worried about Joe Burrow either. Yeah, he had some back tightness.

But man, is he tough? Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast. The people I love depend on me. If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear. I didn't want my family figuring things out during the hardest moment of their lives. That's why I knew only one place to go. I chose life insurance through my friends at Ethos. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy.

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Absolutely. You know, the great thing about Joe Burrow this week is he threw for what he needed to throw. You know, stats don't look great, but he's got two touchdowns. He kept the ball moving. The poor guy threw 31 times and got hit 15 of. of the 31 times. Wow. And you talk about a guy that'll sit in the pocket and try to extend plays with guys converging on him. I think my hat's always off to Joe Burrow, but what he did today under duress, constant duress was incredible.

By the way, we are just about 33 minutes into this show today. And we have not mentioned that the Bengals are alone in first place in the AFC North at two and no because the Ravens lost at home today to the Saints 2417. And by the way, you want to talk about not throwing a pick under duress. Lamar Jackson was sacked three times today. He also threw the ball 31 times, coach. And he threw an interception today. And in a seven point game, that's going to add up.

So guys, the fact that we're sitting here today and Joe Burrow after that pick six last week, which, you know, he owned up to it and that was great. I thought today, as coach you said, he made the throws he needed to and he managed the game he needed to. This was one of my favorite Joe Burrow games. He didn't have to be 525, four touchdowns, 37 to 46. He just had to be game manager, make plays because I'm Joe Borough, and the defense is going to take care of us on the other side.

You know what? He took care of the football. He did not make any errand throws. He didn't try to force falls in there. He found guys open, kept his, reeds on, change the protection when he needed to, and, you know, tried to put it on the O line guys, and they tried to get the ball out as quick as it was. But I think early on he kind of figured out that, you know what, we can nickel and dime this team. But, you know what,

I still got to take a shot down the field. Yeah. And this is just one of those games where getting first downs was extremely difficult on both sides. Like I said, I said, it was going to war to pick up a first down is what it feels like. Yeah. And the, I felt like the Bengals offense was that it's best on that last touchdown drive where they went under center, they got heavy, and then they would get themselves into decent second and manageable situations. And sometimes they would run it and pick that up.

And then sometimes they would throw it to pick it up. Not a lot of, I felt like the early passes, like the early down passes didn't really work too well in this game. but when it came down to it, I also feel like you get the third down. It was Joe Burroughs time, and I feel like he did a pretty good job in those situations. So he kind of did what needed to be done. You get a feel for the game as you're going. And this game, both sides, like I said, it's a war to get a first down.

Both these defenses are rolling. You're facing what has been the best defense in the league the last two years. And you're putting out a defense that's held them to no touchdowns. And throughout the game, you're getting a lot of punts that keep you at midfield. So it becomes a game of, do you want to take risks or do you want to keep yourself in these situations where you can control the flow of this game? I know the Texas did eventually have some explosive plays with Dalton Schultz mainly, but to me, I thought it was fine. Like there's situations where in a different game, if the Texas were putting up 30 points in this game, you're going to need him to push the ball down the field more, need him to take some of these risks. And obviously he did with the two back shoulders against Derek Stanley.

Jamar Chase touchdown. One we didn't bring up was the T. Higgins' back shoulder down the right sideline. Yes. There, interestingly, as well. I was impressed in terms of managing the game. I know that becomes a very negative thing to say about quarterbacks, but it is kind of like what you hear about with Tom Brady say, like, early on,

get a feel for what this game is. Is my defense going to win me this game? Do I just need to make sure I don't put them in a bad spot? Do I just need to make sure that we're controlling the ball, we're controlling the field, and we're getting into a situation where we can win. win because we get this good field position. We just need a couple first downs. We've got a field goal.

We pick up a couple of touchdowns and suddenly you're able to win the game. It felt like Joe Burrow knew what the situation was and acted accordingly. Evan, I want to, I want you to talk about Joe Burroughs toughness because I felt like he showed a lot of that today. I mean, he was getting hit in the first half. Will Anderson was clobbered him. Daniel Hunter had a monster hit on him. I mean, I'm listening to the game on radio and I'm nervous. he's not going to get up he does obviously but talk to me about joe borough's toughness and it did it

i mean look we we don't need any validation about joe burrow's toughness but like what did it show you today what did he show you today yeah i mean coming into the week you know he had that back tightness which he said was kind of overblown but you know who knows if he was 100% or not and this was a game where he took a lot of hits like coach said 15 15 hits five sacks and but he gets back up every time unless he you know breaks something or seriously injured and he said in his press conference this week, he said, like, if I'm not having surgery, I'm playing, like I'm going to be out there.

So if he can walk and he can throw, he's going to be out there. And that just shows his toughness and his ability to take these hard hits from, I mean, Will Anderson put some good licks on him. I think Sheldon Rankin's had one where he kind of got crunched and he was kind of slow to get up. But he gets up every time, he shakes it off.

He doesn't rattle him. I feel like he doesn't get, like, timid or, you know, oh, I'm going to try to, you know, try not to get hit this time or he just goes back, resets himself, and then makes the next play. And we saw even in the week one game, he was putting his body on the line, on the quarterback sneak, on the scramble for diving for the end zone. So even with his past injuries and stuff, he still, he knows what it takes to win and he wants to do that extra effort.

That shows his toughness and his ability to sustain these hits, get back up, get to the next play, and keep going. and that just shows how he's taking care of his body the last few years and his preparation. And yeah, I think he's one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league, even though, obviously I don't want him to get hit 15 times a game. I'd like for him to not be stacked five times. So I don't have to, you know, worry every time it gets hit. But I think he's one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league and he shows it time in and time out.

Well, there's no question about that. You know one thing that looks at. Go ahead, coach. I think the one thing that really kind of shows you his mindset is he told you early, He told everybody earlier in the week he's going to play. All right. They have him on the injury report that comes out every week. He practices one day.

He feels so confident that he's playing. But management and the coaching staff doesn't, and they bring Josh Johnson up to be the three, just in case Joe can't finish. But Joe says, hey, you know what? I'm in it. You wasted a roster spot on Josh Johnson. and somebody else could address

I'm playing this whole game. I mean, that shows me a lot about him. Well, it does. And I think one of the plays, Evan, that you were alluding to when you were talking about Joe Boyo, is fighting to make that extra play. The third and nine,

the third and seven conversion is Samajai P. Ryan on the second touchdown driver. He's literally being held on to. I forget what the defender was. He was literally being held on to, but he kept his eyes down the field, and he just flipped the pass to P.Rine who runs for 16 yards.

And then what happened? happens. Chase Broncos for an 11-yard run. Mar Chase catches that 18-yard touchdown. So it's those extra plays from Joe Burrell, living to fight another day as well, but also just willing to go that extra mile for the Bengals. Let me ask you guys this, because I was thinking about this, because we know the Texan's defense is frighteningly good.

Last week, notwithstanding against Buffalo. Did you guys think today that the sacks Joe Burrell took was more him holding on the ball too long, or was it that Houston's defense is, Coach, I see you shaking your head. The Houston's defense is just really good. Whomever lined up as the right defensive end, whether it be Hunter or whether B. Smith, knew that they put Orlando Brown Jr. in a foot race.

And he's running backwards, 350-pound man, against a 270-pound man running forward. They were not going to win. And we talked about it earlier on Friday's show. that it's important that you don't allow those guys to create a wreak habit. So whatever the game plan was, they should have put the protection and spun it the other way and gave him some help on some of those downs.

Because the guy, it was in dire need of help. And he got beat around the corner before he even had a chance. hence, which created a lot of those pre-snap penalties because he was just trying to get out of his stance against those guys. So I, you know what, I put that on the coaching staff and not giving him some help, and they could have, either by formation or by chipping that way and turning the protection the other way.

But, yeah, that was lambs to the wolves right there. That was, he was not in the same game as those other guys. Two thoughts on that. The first two sacks he gives up. The first one, they use Dante Myers to try to chip the end. And one, I'm not sure that's a great idea of 510, 180 to try to chip Will Anderson. But two, Myers didn't even put a hand on them. I'm like, come on, man, you are, you want playing time? Like, this is a situation. You could get some playing time. Go give that your all. Go smash your face mask into Will Anderson's face mask. Instead, he just kind of like, yep, that was what supposed to do. All right, let me get into this route already. Well, I don't blame them. I'm not paid to chip. I'm paid to rap.

Yeah, he's an undrafted free agent who, I mean, who battled so hard to make the team. I don't blame if he wanted to put a hand on Will Anderson. The other one, they chipped the opposite side with P. Ryan. I couldn't believe that they were given. And I know it's Will Anderson, but to me, Daniel Hunter is almost as good of a pass rusher. Like Will Anderson, I think is a tier better run defender. But as a pass rusher, Daniel Hunter has been that guy for years, one of the most underrated pass rushers of the past decade.

And they put, and yes, usually when you send a chip to the right side, you got the back going that way. You're probably sliding the line to the left. But do you think Orlando Brown needs help to the inside or to the outside? I think he needs help to the outside. Let's put the chip on his side. And I know you maybe don't want to give up all your protections. but on third and long,

I'm going to trust Amarius Mims to be able to handle the slide side with the inside help, and let's trust Orlando Brown to maybe force this rush to have to go through or inside of him. Instead, they give him nothing besides the slide, and Hunter goes right around him

in a devastating sack for Joe Burr. I've heard quarterbacks say those are actually the ones that they feel the least because you can't tense up, but man, did that look bad on the blind side when he just takes helmet, like, oh, just crows. crushed without having any knowledge that Hunter is behind him. Thankfully, he held on to the football because that also feels like one of those

where often you end up to quarterback gets hit so hard the ball comes out. So he held on there. But I think those first two sacks, yes, most of that is blame on Orlando Brown. And then some of that blame, I'm looking at the coaching staff and saying, guys, Dante Myers is probably not going to chip Will Anderson. And you didn't give him any outside help against Daniel Hunter. We got to have a little bit of a better plan than this. Yeah, I mean, what did you say?

It was a long day for Orlando Brown, obviously, and, you know, I don't want to say it was expected, but, I mean, well, Anderson and Daniel Hunter are the two best Eddressure duo in the league. So it's a long day for most offensive tackles. But, yeah, he got beat pretty bad on a handful of them. And like Mike said, I would have liked to see them kind of help him out a little bit because when you have these guys on one-on-ones, you know, they tend to win more times than not. And, you know, we've seen Brown in the past struggle, you know, in one-on-one blocking. But, yeah, it wasn't obviously a day that he's going to want to forget.

But I thought Amarious Mims overall played fairly well. I think he had one where I think it was Will Anderson kind of cut right in front of his face. And then I think he got to Chase Brown or P. Ryan pretty much immediately that one was rough. But I think overall he played pretty well. But, yeah, I think my plan coming in should have been to not, leave these guys on an island and help help me out a little bit and felt like Orlando Brown was on an island a lot and it's getting beat a lot and then that led to multiple false start penalties because like coach they were trying to get out quicker but I don't know like

I'm not an offensive line guy I don't look at like the tape or anything as much but I want to ask coach or Mike I feel like Orlando Brown's stance is kind of odd like pre-snap is that like a normal stance or I just curious I'm just curious because I see They cut to like a wider shot and it was everybody. And he really sticks out as having a really, yeah, like a really tight stance. He's really narrow. When they have a tendency to narrow their base, they are trying to get as deep as they can as fast as they can.

And the one thing is, is in a normal stance, you want to be slightly wider and shoulders width apart. And maybe that outside, that stagger leg will be a little bit different, be a little deeper. but I noticed it too as he started to, he started to narrow that thing and almost get like in a reverse pre-spinner stance so he could get out. And his sets changed. He went from setting at a 45 early in the game and he kind of realized that he was getting beat off the edge. So then he went to almost setting vertically, which now narrows the pocket.

and it also, by narrowing in the pocket, it shortens it. And so those guys now have a running head start at you. So when you start doing that, you start making things up as they go or self-adjusting, then I think that that's when you know you're in trouble, but you're almost too proud on the sidelines to say it. And that should have been noticed from the box and should have been said, hey, you know what, we need to get Orlando some help. Yeah, and the narrow stance, he's been doing that for like two years.

He kind of changed his stance to get a bit more narrow. And Peters uses three different angle sets. You've got the 30 degree and that's guys who can move their feet. You have the 45, which I think you're talking about there. He's trying to set 45 degree angle. They have that 60 degree angle, which I think is where Orlando should probably be more often than not. Let's get a little deep. You are 300 and whatever pounds, probably over 350.

Make him run through you in these almost vertical sets. but I think he does that because when you have slow feet, you probably want to get as much distance as you can with that first step and then your second step. So narrow the base so that you can take that big, wide step backward, kind of at that 60 degree angle and try to take, you're getting two steps in the ground. It's unlikely your first two steps are going to be before the defense

ends first two steps, but the goal is to beat that guy to the spot. So if you've got giant legs like him, maybe you can get there with two big steps, one and a half big steps before that. It is a gross stance, though. It's one of the gross sicknesses in league. There's not a lot of guys built like Orlando Brown either, though. So he's not six, five, three hundred pounds and able to move his feet really well. So it's kind of interesting to watch because, like, what is he going to do to try to be successful at this enormous size and this really bad athleticism?

He's not an athlete. Oh, not a great athlete. He is an athlete. He's a professional athlete, but not a great athlete among the offensive tackles. So what do you do to try to mix that up? He kind of went to that narrow stance. If you could be successful, I don't care. He wasn't successful today. So now it's a topic. Do we care? I think that's more for Scott Peters and the offensive line to talk about. But also it gets a little easier. Maybe not next week, though.

I think the Steelers also are going to probably have a narrowly that stance quite a bit. Well, you definitely know the Steelers will be watching this game film for sure when it comes to Orlando Brown Jr. The Bengals, Joe Burrow was sacked three times in the first half, only two in the second half. I don't know what it is either about Sheldon Rankins when he plays the Bengals, when he plays against the Bengals, when he's on the Bengals, as Dan Hort said on the broadcast, he didn't do a whole lot. When he plays against the Bengals, as he did today, he had a sack and two tackles lost,

two quarterback hits. By the way, when it comes to Joe Burroughs toughness, they got to really appreciate that he got through this game unscathed because you saw Caleb Williams leave the game today with a hamstring injury. And then I don't know if you guys have the commander's Cowboys game on in the background where you are. Jane Daniels' elbow, I literally saw it just pop. So major, major prayers to him as he left the game on a card at the end of the first half there. So two quarterbacks who Joe Burrow, I feel like because Williams and Daniels both won the husband trophy, Joe Burrow won the Hasman trophy, and Joe Burrow and Jane Daniels with one's LSU, they've played a great, they played a great

game against each other two years ago. So give Joe Burrow, he, immense credit for the toughness that he has. He gutted out today. No question about that. Just one of many gutting, gutsy performances we've seen from the Bengals franchise quarterback. Maybe he will be one of the recipients of our game balls. That is coming up next as we do that. And some other elements from today's game as we round out Bengals squad today right here on the Lockdown Bengals and Lockdown Podcast Network.

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That feeling is what makes football so much fun. And Fandul is adding another layer of excitement with rewards and surprises throughout the season. Make this your most rewarding season effort with Fandul. Visit Fandul.com to get started. I never thought that I'd be giving this player a game ball just two games into the season. The coach may be surprised with this one because he's a show me guy. I'm giving my game ball to Dimitri's Knight Jr. Because I thought today he was fantastic.

12 tackles to lead the team, one of two guys with double-digit tackles, four solo tackles today. He looked like he belonged on an NFL field yesterday. And that's the thing, too. When you watch this Bengals defense, they look like a functional operational NFL defense at the minimum. And that's why this defense is so much better. As Kevin Harlan says, revived Bengals defense. I'll tell you, hey, that's a good choice. I thought he showed up today.

And I thought on blitzes that even though he wouldn't block, he put pressure and made the ball get out. I thought he had a very, very good day. My two or my one, I mean, how can you not? And others are going to give it to Dexter Lawrence. He is incredible. But you know what? I'm going there. Again, I might, well, I'm going to let you have that one.

Mine's going to be my man McPherson. There you go. 50-yard field goals. And if it's not for Dalton Riser, he only gets two. I mean, the guy's incredible to me. I mean, when you can get to the 40 and your offense, for whatever reason, stalls, the guy comes out and puts three points on the board. What an incredible weapon.

He could have had another one, too, at the end of the game. Yeah. I think he would have made it. Yes. You could have four. The flow of the game, you kind of pun it because Texas, I haven't moved the ball much, blah, blah, blah. But, like, I kind of want him to go out to,

yeah, just let him kick it, go up three scores. Oh, I mean, my thing is, too, like the first three drives for the Bengals started their own 41, 46, and 40, those should have been three points automatically. Like, I remember thinking when Houston started moving the ball, I wasted so many opportunities, but ultimately the game played out differently. But that's how powerful Evan McPherson is. He outscored the Texans himself today. Yeah.

He's got 350 plus your field goals already through two games. and he could have a lot more. That's how scary he is. Oh, I'm telling you. I mean, you talk about a, once you cross the 50, it's like, oh, okay, three. All right, three. Let's get a touchdown, though. How about three? The other one that I really thought had a very good game because the Texans were in such bad starting field position was our punter. RICO. He has, I mean, with the exception of the one, a little, little. off to the side, shoot, I'd have given them a ball.

Yeah. Wow, special teams, coach. I love it. Mike. I'm going to extra Lawrence, man. This guy looked like the best defensive tackle in football. When they lined up in fourth and one and they tried to run wide zone away from him, and he said, get over here.

Like, you put a rookie guard on me? You think I can't move? He had the play where he dropped back into coverage and he almost got a handle that ball. I mean, the way he dropped back. I was like, dude, this guy's got a better feel than some linebacker. in the league to be able to drop back, get into a passing window, try to flip his hips, get up there, make the pass go high. I thought this guy was awesome in this game.

He should have had. Did he have a sack? Because the main one I remember is that when he dominated his opponent, got back there, and then Stroud, coward, threw the ball at the ground, gun intentional grounding. That should be ruled a sack. I don't care. That is so rude, the defensive lineman to do all that work.

And then the quarterback picks up the penalty instead. Stand in there and take it. You're getting hit anyway. You're not getting this ball anywhere. I thought he was incredible in this game. And the pass rush was there. The run defense was there. He is definitely, in my opinion, the best nose tackle in the league.

And I think he made a strong case today that he's the best defensive tackle in the league. I mean, I didn't watch Jeffrey Simmons and some of these other guys that are up there. But man, does it feel good to have a guy like that on this defense? How about the one, Mike, where he literally took the center. The center. The entire way back. The entire way back right in this crowd. It's like if people are only looking at sack numbers,

you're not seeing the whole thing. He was dominant today about taking on the doubles, everything. And just one more thing here. The Texans, I mentioned a 7% rushing success rate. That includes the one that Alex mentioned was a wide receiver run. Their running backs basically had a 0% success rate. They'd never had a successful run with a true intent. tend to run to the running backs.

And they traded for David Montgomery this offseason. And I don't think it's the running backs fault. Like I think they just got dominated up front. And it was awesome to watch Dexter Lawrence in this game. It was one of those things that just had me giddy. The entire time the defense is out there, I'm watching Big 97. I'm seeing what's going to happen with him in this play. And every single play, I saw something that I got excited about.

Evan, I coached and Mike are kiddie over their game balls. Are you giddy about somebody? Maybe we haven't mentioned yet. Yeah, let me just piggyback off of Dexter Lawrence. I want him to get a sack so bad. I want to see the sexy dance in the Bengals uniform. Well, you've seen it already when he came out of the when he ran out of the last week.

Yeah, I want to see it after he makes a big play. He should have done it anyway after that was a sack. Oh, that would have been savage. So, but yeah, he's an absolute animal. My play, my game ball, Jemar Chase, he had the two big touchdowns had one of the best touchdown catches I've seen in recent memory. He was, you know, against Derek Stingley, who's his college teammate, he had bested him a handful of times,

and a really bounce-back game from what he had in week one, had the two scores. And just one other quick one. Can I give the game ball to the entire defensive line, to the entire position group? Because they had back-to-back games with four sacks. That hasn't happened, and I can't tell you the last time that happened for the Bengals. Jonathan Allen, back-to-back games with a sack.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is what to Dexter Lawrence, he is being not only a disruptor in terms of stats, but in terms of giving other guys the opportunities to feast. Jonathan Allen sacks them back to back games. Cedron Johnson at two sack station. Mar Stewart had a sack today. So he is creating opportunities for other defense players. By the way, BJ Hill didn't even play today.

And you know what else was great? The Bengals weren't called for an off sides today. That was good to see. The offense took those penalties. They flipped. So we got to clean that up. Look, these two games haven't been perfect by any of means. Joe Barrow hasn't been prolific.

We know that he starts low, but the defense has picked them up through two games. That's what's so great about it. This was the vision. Yes, they forced four turnovers last week. Today they did it by just getting stops. You knew when Houston had that clubbed field goal attempt, the Bengals defense was about to pounce. And boy, did they ever. By the way, Joe Burrow, this is only the second time in his career where he has thrown for 200 plus yards in his first two games.

Just wait until he starts putting up big numbers. This team may be even better than they are right now. But I'll tell you what, gentlemen, it feels good to be 2 and 0. Your final thoughts, we got about two minutes on today's game. Bengals 20, Texan 6, 2 and 0 for the second straight season with the first division. game next week against Pittsburgh. I'll tell you what, I thought that they won. And I thought that stats being thrown out.

They won the football game. They're 2 and 0. They're going into conference play. They're at top of the conference right now. I think they're on their way to really putting things together. And I think that offensively, very slowly, they're going to come around. And when they need to explode offensively, they will. Oh, they will.

Yeah, we didn't talk about this at all. Amaris Mims, the only offensive lineman without a penalty, I think. That was good. Because Ted Karras picked up the one, which I'm not sure. I thought you could cheat a count. You could do that fast. If he didn't just put his hand on snap it back, he had to tip the ball up and then snap it. I was a little confused on how that.

It felt like the official was just like, whoa, I wasn't ready for that one. So he just threw a flag at it. But yeah, only offensive I went without a penalty. And I thought on initial watch, I thought he did pretty good considering the assignment. I thought he faced the strongest edge duo in the league. And he came out fairly unscathed. I know I think Burrow may have moved into him after a possible pressure from maybe Reisner or maybe Brown or whatever is going on.

But I didn't feel like there was ever a moment where Marius Mims completely lost to Neal Hunter. or got ran through by Will Anderson or let them get and create a short corner on his outside. So I just want to give him some props. I was just on initial watch, I thought he looked relatively clean against a very tough assignment. And he got dinged up, came out for a few plays, came back in. So good thing that he's okay. Evan. Yeah, it's a nice feeling when Burrow and the offense doesn't have to be Superman.

They don't have to go out and score 40 points a game to try to win a game. And we know that the offense starts off slow and they'll hopefully get it going. you know, as the weeks goes on. But with how dominant this defense has been through two weeks, it takes a lot of pressure off of them. And, you know, you just keep winning these games. The offense is going to come. And once the offense comes at the defense plays like this, better watch out. Absolutely. Absolutely. It feels good to be two and no. Second straight season. And the best part about this two and no, Joe Burrow is still standing. And he looks really good and just wait until he puts up prolific numbers.

For Coach Arfellero, Mike Santagin at Bengals underscore Sands, Evan Stacey of Lockdown, Bengel Sit, and at Evan Stacey three. I'm Alex Franke, Frankie underscore 90 Bengals beat the Texans 20 to 6, 2 and 0 for the second straight season at Pittsburgh next Sunday 1 o'clock. We'll be back after that game and following Jake and Joe on their live post game show on lockdown bangles, which you can check them out all throughout this week. And coach, you and I are back on Friday with Jake at noon as we preview the Bengals and the Bengals and the lockdown Bengals and the lockdown podcast.

And then we're celebrating 10 years of your team every day. And we are the number one sports podcast. network in America and the world. Have a great rest of your day. Have a great rest of your weekend. Have a great week. We'll talk to you next week Friday right here on the Bangal Squad Show. Good Yomtoe to my Jewish family and friends. We'll see you next Friday right here on the Bangal Squad Show.