Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS SQUAD SHOW: Joe Burrow IMPRESSES in return, Bengals get HUGE Thanksgiving WIN in Baltimore

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Joe Burrow leads the Bengals to a ROAD win, on a short week, in prime time, on Thanksgiving in Baltimore against the red-hot Ravens.Alex Frank, Mike Santagana, and Art Valero break down this impressive performance by Joe Burrow and the Bengals in a game they needed to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. It wasn't just Joe Burrow. The much-maligned Bengals' defense forced FIVE turnovers against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens' offense. What can the Bengals' young defense build on over the last five game regular-seasons? Now... at 4-8 with five games remaining... can this Bengals team make the... Playoffs?! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!   PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LO... GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joe Borough campaign hard for the NFL to put the Bengals on Thanksgiving. I think he knew what he was doing, right, Mike Santagana? Oh, man, a little rust here and there, but certainly the best quarterback of the night and came away with a decisive victory. And art the number five, five turnovers for the much malign Bengals defense. Oh, boy, did they show up tonight? I tell you what, everybody's been talking about how poor they are and how bad. The coaches have done a great job, and more importantly, those players stepped up big time.

They absolutely did. This is Bengals Squad on Thanksgiving night, Black Friday morning. Today, it's the Bengals Squad. 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. For the first time in the history of the Bengals Squad show, we get to discuss a Bengals win on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore, 32 to 14. The Bengals beat the Ravens. I'm Alex Frank. He's Mike Santagina. He's coach Art Valero. Today's edition of Bengals Squad is brought to you by a fan duel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5.

And if your bed wins, you'll get $300. $1 and penalty speds to use across the app. Gentlemen, what a night. You know, I, okay, Joe Borough made his return. That was enough to get me excited. But then the Bengals not only beat the Ravens, they force five turnovers. Their offense looks good. They overcome some early rust.

They score two touchdowns in the second half. Man, and you know what? It's been a rough season. We know that. But to be sitting here tonight this morning, right before we go out and buy some Black Friday stuff with a Bengals win, I mean, Mike, Art, this is winning is why you play the game, even with the season the Bengals have had. Yeah. I'll tell you what, great playing right home. I don't know if you saw that.

They had a great time tearing apart the turkey. Oh. The entire team was there. I don't know if I've seen that. There was a, it looked like there was like some Cincinnati Chile in there. There was some crab. I mean, this is what you work for. This is what you campaign for.

If you're Joe Burrell, there's a reason why he wanted the Bengals on Thanksgiving. Mike Santagina from a national perspective on this team, which has obviously been a little negative critical from that perspective this season. What does this win do for that? And most importantly, what does this win do for the season? Cincinnati Bengals and their fan base and what's been a rough season. Yeah, I think nationally you'll get some talk about, well, what's the Bengals path to the playoffs? Because they won in this big game.

And man, this AFC North doesn't look like some insurmountable task to take over, especially when you have wins against Pittsburgh and you have wins against Baltimore now. If they get sweet Baltimore, they hold a tiebreaker over them. They're tied with Pittsburgh, but they're three and one in the division, huge. despite the bad record, that's pretty good. I think for Bengals fans in Cincinnati in general, though, it's just a shot in the arm. I mean, what the last five weeks or so have been

where you don't get complimentary football. You get the offense playing really well for three straight weeks and the defense not being able to keep up. And then last week, we thought defense played pretty darn well in that game, as well as you could ask, holding them 19 points, not kind of the pick six against them. and the offense couldn't keep up. This felt like the first time they got a little bit of complimentary football.

There's definitely some stuff that's probably bigger than nits to pick about this offense in the red zone, but never going to play about 32 points either. Yeah, coach, when you're in the midst of a season like this, when it feels like maybe there isn't a whole lot to play for, but yet there is mathematically, how important is it to keep the guys in that locker room focused on, hey, we still got something to play for here. And what is the, what's the messaging like from the coaching staff to the team in a situation like this? Well, you know what? I tell you what, they probably thought going into a short week and not playing well offensively.

You know, the spark was Joe Burrough stepping back in the huddle. Defensively, they just kept getting better and better and better. And special teams, we talked about it last week about how they've been consistently good the entire season. So now you combine that. And today, I'm telling you what was a complete football game by a football team. And if they could just maintain that and stack those back to back, who knows what could end up happening in about three weeks when they played this team again. Yeah, we'll see him again in two and a half weeks as you mentioned, Coach. But Mike, I go back to last year, and I don't mean to bring this up, but I just think when the Bengals were four and eight,

which is where they were last year through 12 games, and they are that this year. And Joe Burroughs said after that loss that, you know, we were going to find that they were going to find out who was with them and who was going to be difference makers and stuff like that. And I remember thinking at that time, is Joe Burrow even going to play? Is there appointing him playing with the Bengals basically out of playoff contention? It's a very similar situation this year. Do you get that?

Like, are you feeling a lot of the same things you felt last year? But now all of a sudden, you get this win up Baltimore in prime time like they did last year against Dallas. And you go, wait a second here. We've got some meaningful football going into December. Yeah, I think part of the problem here is just I don't think of high-end quarterbacks that typically just sit out when healthy when it's December. It's November. So that's what runs through my mind of like, yeah, it would stink to not have. meaningful football in a way, but at the same time, I mean, these guys are going to play.

It is nice to get some meaningful football. I thought last year, you know, the AFC North, like I mentioned this year, it's not looking like a world beater division. Last year, it did look pretty good. You had Baltimore playing a bit better than this at this point in the year. You had Pittsburgh looking like an all right playoff team. And the Bengals at 4 and 8, it felt more of a tall task to try to take down the division. And now it doesn't look that crazy to take it down.

I'm not, it'll look pretty at the end if they win it because at best it's nine and eight. And it's probably like a game worse than that if they take it down at eight and nine. So one of those type of division winners, I could see it happening. You just look around. You're like, you look at this Baltimore team and how they played today. I don't trust them to win a whole bunch of games down the stretch. You look at Pittsburgh and how they've played. I don't trust them to win a whole bunch of games down the stretch.

This is not a division that I think you really have to fear going into this. So I think that's one of the big differences for me where it does feel different with Joe Burrow coming back from an injury. And Joe Burrow, and the talks of him getting shut down make more sense with the injury. And you've got guys missing left and right in this season. You got Trey Hendrickton out a lot of this season. Last year he was making a defense player the year type of campaign. I just think this year it just looks like everything looks a little more beatable.

not just the AFC North because you look at Kansas City today, they look pretty beatable. You look at Buffalo. They look beatable week to week. There's not really a lot of teams out there. And the Patriots, they almost beat them with Joe Flacco back there. I think it could have been gone different with Joe Burrow. Who knows? But I think you look across the whole AFC, they're like, what are you really concerned

about? Is it the Colts, the Broncos, the Patriots, the Bills, the Chiefs, everybody feels like they've got an Achilles heel that can be. be exploited. So make the playoffs, make some noise, and see how far you can go. Yeah, the stat that was mentioned a lot tonight on the NBC broadcast, which I thought by Terrico absolutely crushed with, and I mean this in a very good way, he crushed, you know, understanding what this Bengal season has been, but also he was very complimentary when things went well tonight. That's what you want if you're a Bengals fan. When you look at this Bengal schedule,

the tough part of it, aside from Buffalo and Baltimore, the tough parts of it, aside from Buffalo and Baltimore, the tough parts of it for me are behind this team. You know, that stretch from weeks three through seven. Unfortunately, Joe Burrow wasn't there. And the stat that was mentioned tonight a lot was the one in eight record through those nine games that he missed, which obviously may come back to hurt them at the end of the season. But again, having Joe Burrow back, you see, I mean, Mike, as you mentioned, the path is there. It is very reasonable.

Well, we'll get to that coming up here towards the end of the show. But coach and Mike, I'm going to turn to you back to you on this. Let's talk about Joe Burrow, because he's the headline of tonight. Was he perfect? Far from it. Was he good? He was. He was good when he needed to be.

Coach, is that what you come away from this game thinking he was good when he needed to be? The touchdown to Yosevosh, the touchdown to Hudson? Oh, my gosh, those throws. That's why you have a quarterback like Joe Borough, coach. Absolutely. You know what? You saw him in total control of the offensive personnel end of the game. And you know what? I kept looking at the game going, as it went on, I'm going, Joe Burrow is, even though he's not playing Joe Burrow-esque, he was better than Lamar Jackson

and both of them are MVP type players. And I'm saying, who was out two months? and this is his first star back. And it was totally flipped in my mind. Mike, do you concur with what Art's saying? Because I think that's a big thing to point out here. Joe Borough head to head against Lamar Jackson. Record coming into tonight wasn't very good. But tonight, he didn't make very many mistakes.

He kept the Bengals on schedule. I think he was sacked one time, if I remember off the top of my head. So when he, I mean, throughout the entire game, he played Joe Borough football, or as you referred to, Joe Borough-esque. Clean, efficient, big-time throws. And Mike, as a Bengals fan, that is why you love watching Joe Borough play football, even with the Bengals record what it is. Yeah, I thought he made good throws.

I think he missed some. I got a little bit frustrated at one point with all of the go balls on, like, third down or whatever, and third down in one, third down to two. And it's like, we're going for 40 yards down the sideline again. It's incomplete. It gets a little bit frustrating. But then you complete whatever to Tanner Hudson. Look, going to this game, the idea that Tanner Hudson would catch a one-handed touchdown over their best defensive player in Kyle Hamilton, never crossed my mind.

Joe Burrow tried that pass twice and completed it once. It was crazy. I also want to point out, man, you mentioned sacked once. I don't even remember getting sacked to be honest. I thought the offensive line was really good. You know who else was really good in past protection was Samajai P. Absolutely. On that Yosivas play, cross scan, pick up the defensive back blitz on the opposite side to just get a piece of him.

He didn't get a great block, but he got a piece of them as Burrough steps up and makes that throw. It's a tough throw, but they got Yosevaas on a linebacker, so they got exactly what they wanted from the blitz. That was an awesome block. I thought that was big time. And like I said, I was a little bit frustrated with points in this. I think, man, some of that red zone stuff, when they got that turnover, in the low red zone and they come out and empty on first and goal from the two. I was like, come on, he's got a bad toe.

Can we at least have the, like, any idea of a run here? Yes. Can we run the old Gruden Spider 2i banana or something, and something easy to throw? No, he's out there and empty trying to run the play. Like, get this out of here. I don't want this. But like I said, I'm not going to complain too much,

but I did get a little frustrated. I thought Burrow played pretty well better than I expected. That's, I think, what I came away from. I thought he would look like he did in, parts of that first half where the arm, it felt like the accuracy was a little scattershot. It felt like he was overthrowing some of those go balls, felt like he was missing once in a while. It seemed like he was playing with anticipation, both over the middle and outside, a little checkdown happy at times.

We don't know what's going on down the field. Overall, thought he played good, not great. Like my expectation for like a prime Joe Burrow game is a little higher than this, but this is certainly not a bad game. And like Art said, between the two quarterbacks, I mean, Yes, it sure did look. When Lamar Jackson had the fumble on the pump fake, it was like, okay, that looks like the guy who has missed a lot of time

and is rusty and not the other way around. I'll jump in here real quick or before I get to you. Joe Borough was sacked one time. Do you know, or do you remember that that sack was on a corner blitz by Marlon Humphrey? Condensed formation, yeah. Yeah. So two tight, two tight slots and the back,

and actually had the back, and I got so involved inside by the Mike linebacker, he would have seen it and he didn't quite read it right. In a situation like that, especially with tight slots and you can't tell because the disguise is so good, you're slow to go. And he got a little too excited to get up in there and missed him coming out the edge. Well, I mean, look, there's so much to get into about Joe Burroughs performance. I think, too, and I'll ask you both this before we, uh,

transition to our next conversation. This seems like a performance that Joe Borough can absolutely build on. And I wouldn't be surprised if he goes into Buffalo, and we all know what happened the last time he went into Buffalo, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes into Buffalo and just goes nuclear in terms of stats. Are you two in the belief that he can do that, build on this performance and do something special in Buffalo in, what, 10 days from now? Yeah, I absolutely agree with that.

He is one of those guys that, I mean, he accepted the challenge to come in here, play on Thanksgiving, prime time. He's in the middle of it. And he's playing against an MVP player and steps up his game. Well, next week, he's got an MVP quarterback he's playing against. So that, he's just such a great competitor. And I think that, hey, the sky's the limit for this kid. He is fun to watch. And, you know, there were a lot of drops that we had that were,

you don't know how the ball came out as fast. Were those whiteouts used to that speed coming out? Or, you know, rather than the ones behind him or over the top like Lamar had. And there were a couple of drops that I thought could have been really third down significant. it. And, you know, we ended up having to punt the ball. Mike. I would say yes to Burrow could go nuclear against Buffalo. I also think Buffalo's had a pretty poor run defense.

I would not mind. I would not mind them leaning on the run game in that one if it's working. Because I also don't mind Burrow not taking that many hits. I mean, he didn't take many in this game. It was a great performance to the offensive line. But they've also been doing a good job in the run game. I kind of want to see them just take over a game. running the ball, which we haven't seen this Bengals team do in a while.

Yeah, we haven't seen him doing in a while. But tonight, they outrush Baltimore 128 to 123. And this is the Baltimore Ravens we are talking about here. There's one other element to this box score that stands out to me. We'll get into that when we return right here on Bangal Squad. This addition of Bengals Squad is brought to you by Fan Duel. You know, it is the NBA season. And we got some NBA Cup action coming up tomorrow slash later today.

and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fan Duel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA, even if you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, and you can do that absolutely with a guy like Steph Curry who dropped 49 the other night. Fan Duel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comeback. You can also combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team's making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to FanDuel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Don't forget to check out James Rapine and Jake Lisco with their recap and breakdown up tonight's Bengals victory in Baltimore Thanksgiving night.

That is available right here on the lockdown Bengals YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcast where you watch or listen. Bengals Squad, as we have mentioned, is a twice a week long-form conversational supplement to the daily lockdown Bengals podcast, Mike Santagina and Arfellero joining me, Alex Frank, on every postgame show. Art will join me, Jake and James, during the week. Before we continue, I want to wish you both and our listeners a very happy Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoyed some delicious food. Art, you told me before we came on the show that you were in a quote, casserole coma, rolls off the tongue very nicely.

Mike, what you enjoy for Thanksgiving before the Bengals dismantled the Ravens? Ooh, I had like everything. I don't know. I had a turkey mac and cheese, mashed potato. Like carb city and turkey. It's really what Thanksgiving is for me. I tell you what. Carb City.

Hey, listen, it's Thanksgiving. You can eat whatever you want. Okay. So I mentioned before, go ahead, Coach. Well, you know what? You have to cargo load for a program like this. Absolutely. Listen, we go, we're in the trenches here, okay?

Like, we go, we get after it on this show. And coach, I know having coached with John Gruden and Pete Carroll, I'm sure you know about this word called energy, the energy bus. So we're bringing it, Mike's bringing it, James and Jake are bringing it. I try to bring it because, listen, the last nine games prior to tonight, I mean, let's just put those in the rear view of mirror because I'm sure, and I thought about this, and this is totally okay, that there are bagels fans, they're going to want to talk about

Zach Taylor, what this one means for him and if they're going to keep him for next year and the front office. We were not going to worry about that tonight. We'll worry about that at the appropriate time. There's one part of this box score, Mike and Arthur, stand out to me. You look down and you see, Jamar Chase has seven catches for 110 yards. Didn't it feel like an off night for him at some points?

Not like the last couple. You know, obviously last week he was out. the time before he didn't have that bigger turnaround tonight. And without T. Higgins, you know, he came out, had a very good game, and it was great watching him on the broadcast, smiling. That frustration level has dissipated. And I tell you what, it was fun to see. You can tell this to Mike, and I think what's interesting about Jamar Chases,

Joe Burroughs the only quarterback he's played with, is the only starting quarterback he's played with since he got to college. I mean, this connection isn't just about, you know, great highlight real place. It's a real thing. Do you see that or did you see that tonight when you watched Burrow and Chase being reunited on the field? Yeah, I complained about the go balls a little bit, but the offense finally did feel like it had a spark on that, what, 40-something-yard go-ball down the right sideline to Jamar Chase.

And it was just a classic play. Joe Burrow threw it up, got the moon ball into the air. Jamar Chase with amazing ability to track the ball and use late hands and also kind of use that slow down, bump into the corner to create some separation, not do a full arm push off like on the other side that got flagged. But just kind of slow down, bump him. So it slows him down and then he could speed himself back up and catch the ball. I thought that looked like classic Burrow Chase stuff. I thought it was there. I do think, like, yeah, the Ravens are going to focus a heck of a lot on that matchup.

he had some other opportunities. I think where it didn't look exactly the same was, but down the left sideline, there's the Ousier pass breakup. It felt like there were a couple more opportunities that he had to turn that from a quiet-ish, 100-something-yard performance into like, oh, he had 150 yards in this game.

So it's almost there. I think the connection's definitely there. They're working with each other when they get the opportunity. But I did think, like, there was a tiny bit of rust. It's just a tiny bit, but they could put that one down the right side line. It felt like it opened up the office. That was huge because it just felt like everything felt so stifled right before that.

You can talk about Zach Taylor and his question will play calls, and there were some tonight. But here's what's so great about this Bengals offense. Andre Yosevosh had one catch, 29-yard touchdown. Tanner Hudson had one catch for 14 yards touchdown. When those guys were targeted, they came up with some huge catches. And you look at, I'll just point this out, Chase Brown, 15 carries 78 yards. Samajet P. Ryan, 14 for 39. Even Joe Burrow had three for eight.

If you want to take it a step further, Drew Sample had a three-yard rush. So you look at what the Bengals offense did tonight. It wasn't just Joe Burrow making great throws. And he said something interesting, or not he directly. But Melissa Stark was reporting on this before the game that Joe Burrow had said, that he may not be able to move around a lot because of the special plate that was in his shoe. And my thought was, I mean, if he's playing, if he needs to move around, I think he will. He had a first down rush in the third quarter.

He had some place where he rolled out to his right and he would hit Jamar Chase on the sideline. The burrow to chase out route to the near sideline, gentlemen, that is such an underrated part of their game. Art, did you pick up on that when you were watching this game tonight? Oh, absolutely. you know what and that was you know very quietly he had seven catches and but the ones that were really noticeable were the outs on the sidelines those were all timing and he knew where he was going to be the anticipation of the throw those were they kept drives alive they got people involved and it opened up some of the other people and i thought that was that was very very uh you could tell

the chemistry was still there and It doesn't need a lot to reconnect. Mike, how impressed if you've been with the offensive line and their growth this season? Because tonight they played, I thought, a really strong game. Yeah, I think they played really strong games the last few weeks. But tonight was almost an exceptional game, at least from my first watch. I mean, I'm usually watching them to see if pressure is coming through. What's the defensive line doing?

Are they stunting? How many are they leaving in protection, et cetera? And it felt like it was mostly just the five. blocking and they're getting five out in the passing pattern, but they were fine. And it's, I know the Ravens don't have a truly fearsome pass rush. They've got some young guys that you can look at. And they've got Travis Jones, who's been a pretty good player, but Matt of BK's out. Despite that, you can only put the guy in front.

You can't, like, lend a better pass rusher to the team or something. They did a good job with their communication and they're processing when they saw different exotic looks and pressure situations because they were getting into some third and longs during this game and they felt like they picked things up okay it felt like any time there was pressure in this game it was either i forgot a bit about that corner blitz off the condensed formation um but other than that it felt like nobody's open and burrow's just rolling out the pocket to create something he's going to take a hit because he's in space and they can't block for him out there but i thought that the offensive line awesome and not just in pass protection too they've been

really good as a run blocking unit for weeks now and i feel like it's all going under the radar because of kind of the stigma that comes with the Bengals offensive line. But I would say this has been a pretty good unit for multiple weeks. And I think the addition of Dalton Reisner in that right guard makes it so like there's not even really a weak link that you can try to target. Wow. What was I saying? When was last time we said that about the Bengals offensive line?

Let's go to the red zone. Burrow obviously had some struggles tonight there, which I mean, look, you're going to have. I mean, that's going to happen throughout the course of even a career like Joe Burroughs going to have. But, Art, I want to turn to you here because something. that's always stood out to me about the red zone. And I forget who said this.

May have been Dan Rolowski who said this. When you are in the red zone, you're coming up with plays that gain X amount of yards, but they can't go beyond X amount of yards too because you've got to worry about the back line in the end zone. Is it harder? Or like when you're talking red zone with your teams over the years with the bucks, with the Seahawks, when you're in the red zone,

like are you guys talking about, okay, it's harder to gain separation because the formations are more condensed. The coverages are more condensed. It's hard to get separation. So is that what you saw tonight in the red zone for the Bengals? Like it's just harder sometimes to operate down there with the shorter feel that you're working with. Well, you know what you're looking at it two different ways. Like in Baltimore's case, and a lot of teams play it.

Once you get into the red area or even on the fringe, you know, about the 25 or so, things happen faster and is the defense playing coverage and if they're playing coverage like baltimore was that's when you you almost have to force yourself to run the ball to get yourself into those you know 10 yard the 15 to the 10 yard place the 10 yard to the 5 yard place so you can get down on the goal line and once you can do that and you say hey you know what we are going to, don't try to fit a route because the field, there is no back end. So you can't run a guy off and have things opened up underneath. Everything is in front of the defense.

They're going to play too high kind of quarters look and make sure that they keep everything in front of them. And so that's why you have to catch and run and make those personal plays, you know, those individual effort plays to get the ball closer. down. If you can run the ball on first down and continue to move it, then you have you have better numbers in terms of being able to run it against somebody down there until you get inside, you know, down on the true goal line, like about the two-yard line. Does the timing between the quarterback and wide receivers and playmakers, particularly Jamar Chase, is there more of an

emphasis on that when you're in the red zone? Yeah, everything happens so much quicker. Every break is sooner. Every complementary route to control the underneath coverage has to be there faster. And that's why you'll see a lot of teams condense the formation to create more space outside. You'll see other teams extend the formation to create more holes and have to force the coverage people to spread themselves a little wider. So it's personal philosophy of how you want to do it. But in my opinion, as, as, as, as, as a run game guy, once you get in the red zone, you get in that fringe area, they're playing coverage, run the ball. Run the ball and give you those advantages that that short space will allow you to have. It must be nice also to have had running backs on your teams that include Cardinal Cadillac Williams and Marshawn Lynch. Those are stories.

You fight for those guys. Absolutely. Mike, what you see in the Red Zone tonight that maybe led to Joe Burrow, kind of uncharacterial, kind of uncharacteristically struggling tonight there. Not even a threat of a run game. I think that was like the most frustrating. Like I said, when they lined up an empty gun at the two-yard line on first and goal, and the next series, the first down, they're in under center.

It's like, well, why didn't you do that? He can do it. They're not protecting Joe Burroughs' foot. He played under center throughout this game. I didn't understand that whatsoever of like not even having a running back back there. And there's another play where Drew Sample, is back there as a pass protection back. It's like you're not going to hand him the ball.

You mentioned this one rush attempt. That was a pass behind the line of scrimmage. That was really another pass attempt for Joe Burrow. But it was just really frustrating to have half of your attempts on four downs, just not even have a threat of a run game. Ignore like, yes, they didn't run the ball. They didn't even like show the ability to run the ball. And I think that's what's really frustrating.

Even an empty, they could have motioned somebody across and done like a little jet suite tap. pass type of thing in front of him to hold defenders. But no, it was static. And that was the most frustrating sequence to me. Because in my head, I thought, you're going to look back at this and be, man, I wish they scored points in those four downs from the two yard line because it really made me, and this is, I'm not a push push guy, but I was like, I get it. I get what the Eagles do when they get down to that two yard line. It's like, they're overthinking it. You get out there and you overthink it where the Eagles know what they're doing.

They just line up and they just throw Jalen Hertz over top of the wall and he gets a touchdown. Great. And you obviously don't want to do with Joe Barrow with the injury. But man, that was the most frustrating sequence to not even have a threat of a run game. I don't even care about lining up in like some type of big goal line package. But could you at least get under center if you're going to be 11 personnel and just have like, I could hand this off and hit it quick and chase Brown because just jump over the top. Or Samajapiro and could just try to plow through.

just something there to be a threat. But that's the most frustrating thing to me to line up and empty, especially with Joe Burrow not playing until today for months. I think that was extremely frustrating. But like I said, I can't complain too much when they score 32, but it should have been closer to 40. It should have been closer to 40 because of the opportunities they have from the turnovers and everything.

And you look at that situation where I would hope next week, with a run defense that has been kind of poor, that they've kind of learned from this, and we're going to line up under center, we're going to give a good threat to run this ball in this situation, because you need to. You need to be able to protect your quarterback a little bit. He shouldn't be an empty in that scenario.

Maybe on fourth and goal from the two or three, or I'd buy it more, but first in goal, where getting even a yard there does help you is really frustrated. Yeah, it is. And that goes back to what Art was saying. You've got to be able to run the football in that situation. Just hand it off to Chase Brown or Samasha P-Rand. Let's see what they,

can do. I get it. You have Joe Barrow. You have Jamar Chase, but you also don't have didn't have T. Higgins tonight. So they, you know where the ball is going. If you're the defense, the Ravens defense is smart. Zachary or is a smart defensive coordinator. So really good stuff there. But another key story from tonight. And we are going to talk about this, the defense feasting. Five turnovers will get into what impressed us the most about the much maligned Bengals defense coming up next right here on Bengals Squad. So we've talked a lot about effort, unfortunately, this season when it comes to the Bengals defense.

We talked about a lot after the Steelers game. I want to go to the play that for me turned this whole game around. So Jordan Battle, who we have criticized heavily for not being able to tackle, he's been out of position, what have you. That hustle to force that fumble on Isaiah. likely. Art, when you saw that play, because you've talked, you've been talking about effort a lot. What went through your mind when you saw that play and you thought that was a good hustle play right there? Oh, it was, you know, the great thing about it, and it was great hustle on two of their

parts. And because there were two people around the football, but when you saw him, A, not give up, not let him just walk in the end zone, but have to battle for it, then he was able to strip it. and where and where he stripped it, you know, right there, because the officials scored, you know, gave up the touchdown that they had scored. And he just did a great job of getting to the football, stripping it like they work on, like they practice every day. And there was somebody there to be able to grab it too. So I thought that was big.

The other one that I thought was huge was Miles Murphy tracking Derek Henry down. I mean, that kid has impressed me more the last two weeks because of his effort. And now he's turning in and into, oh, you know what? He can still work on his past rush moves, but just having a guy like that forces a lot of the other ones to say, whoa, look at this guy. I mean, it was outstanding effort on the defensive guy's parts. Yeah, like, Miles Murphy, like, there's still areas of his game that need fine-tuning, as you mentioned, absolutely. but he's making up for it by the hustle plays. He's making an impact and it's rubbing off on this entire defense.

Mike, I go back to the Vaughn Bell game in 2020 because all week, I kept thinking to myself, we just need that one play from the Bengals defense that says enough is enough. We're raising the standard. I think that play by Jordan Battle tonight may be that play. Is that what you sense? It could have been. It could have been for sure.

I think that one's an interesting one too because I think he was the guy that busted the coverage for likely to get so open. And it was a case of you've lost the battle, but that doesn't mean just lay on the ground and accept defeat. He lost the battle, app name, I guess. But he won the war. He won the war by fighting back and getting over the top, not wallowing and self-pity or whatever for busting a coverage, getting back there and getting all the way back there and forcing a fumble that goes out the back of the end. on which good rule i stand by that i know people hate that rule that's a good rule the end zone is different it's different i know there's so many people that think that's a terrible rule i think it's just

fantasy football brain that they want down at the one yard line so they still get a touchdown or something they're like no you fumbled the ball in the sacred area that's defense ball now that's the one area you can't do that you have to be very ball secure in that situation but yeah i thought that was a good situation where yes jordan battle may have busted the coverage there but to hustle get back there and force a fumble. I mean, that's a heck of a lot better than even just an incomplete pass. They got the ball back. So that's a good example of hustle, getting you back into a play where even if you have made a mistake. And yes, Miles Murphy chakes him down 45 yards downfield or something. I think the other one that showed up for Murphy and Osai needs to talk about too,

I think after this. But the other play for Murphy was there was a third down and Lamar Jackson's escaping and Murphy's in contain and he's able to chase him out down the sideline and force a fourth down a punt. I thought that was also huge. Started the second half. Started the second half with that. You force a three and out of them. Burrow leads them on a touchdown drive to Tanner Hudson. Look, this era of Bengals football with Joe Burrow, which and Mark, Jason T. Higgins, that's your identity. And I'm okay with it. I love that, actually. Here's the thing. I'm not asking for the Bengals defense to ever be a dominant defense like

the 2000 Ravens or like your 2002 Buccaneers or any other defenses that we've seen Legion of Boom, which you saw the, you know, kind of the first part. part of that when you were with the Seahawks. I just need you to play hard, play smart, and make the plays when they're available. Tonight are with Miles Murphy and Mike, you mentioned Joseph Osai. This defense forced five turnovers. And my mother and my sister, who I'm watching the game with, because I'm home for Thanksgiving, I told them I'm like, the best defenses that I've seen for the Bengals in my lifetime forced turnovers. They weren't a dominant defense. That's okay, they made up for it by forcing turnovers.

Or can you win, can you sustain winning and success by being that kind of defense that lives off, you know, creating turnovers? Absolutely. You're going to win championships on defense. Wow. You're going to win games on offense. And when you have a solid group that everybody's on the same page and they're running sideline to sideline and they're committed to what their job is, and we talked

about it last week. Your job is the most important. And to see somebody get beat and then recover and make a play, that's infectious. And I go back to last week when you saw the Bengals have the goal line stand. Yeah. That lit a fuse like, gentlemen, why between the middle of the field, we're going to let teams go up and down and then you're going to stiffen up there. Why do it all the time because it's in you. And that lit the fuse to tonight. You know, and it was crazy because you're playing against, really, you had to play tight to the line of scrimmage because of Lamar Jackson's ability to run and Derek Henry. And they were to the point where they created, they stayed in their pass rush lanes and did not allow Lamar to beat him. And then when

they over-pursued Derek Henry a couple of times, but then they shut the door on the other ones where they build a fence around that big guy and we're able to stop him. And my hat's off to the defensive staff into those defensive kids. Yeah, it's really an impressive performance. And as the season continues, we'll talk about what this means for Al Gold and some of the defensive coaches. It's obviously, it's a revamped defense completely almost. It's a, excuse me, it's a revamped coaching staff from, you know, Lou Anna Romo and his staff. But let's look at because we've talked about him, Derek Henry. And look, we all know Derek Henry is going to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. There was a graphic that they

showed on the broadcast that he just passed Jim Brown. I mean, when I mentioned the name Jim Brown, holy smokes, but he passed Jim Brown for 11th all time in Russian arts. And the guy that was ahead of him, Tony Dorset, and the other guys down the list, Marshall Falk, Edgner, James, Jim Brown, L.T. I mean, these are all Pro Football Hall of Famers, which Henry's headed to. But if you take away his 28-yard touchdown in the first quarter, he had nine other carries for 32 yards. I mean, that is something I can absolutely have confidence in. Mike, how impressive was it for you?

Because the way the Bengals defense played against him, it reminded me a lot of what they did against him in the playoffs four years ago. Yeah, I thought they did a really good job on Henry because it didn't really feel most of those runs. didn't he had the two big ones and other than that it really felt like he was a bit stifled by this bengal's run defense which to be fair wasn't a great run defense before going into this for last couple of weeks but they've they've stiffened up i think um what's impressive about

what they're doing with henry is being able to get him down and it didn't feel like there were ever plays like you you think of the darnel washington play from a few weeks ago like that It feels like something that you could have also given up to Derek Henry, where he throws one of your guys down, he runs somebody else over. It just looks like he's unstoppable fright train. They never let him get that full. They let him twice kind of get that head of steam. But other than that, the thing with Henry is always getting multiple bodies to him like before he can get moving. Because he's not in a super fast accelerator, but once he hits that top speed, it is runaway fright train.

It is how do you stop 200 and whatever 40 pounds sprinting like that? Yeah, that was impressed by the run defense throughout this game against Henry. And I think when you're playing against Lamar Jackson, it's always going to be an extra plus one in their run game, which makes it even more difficult because you're wasting an unblocked defender that's probably working against Jackson, whether he's working surf technique down the line or I saw some other plays where they're trying to scrape the linebackers over.

It's a waste of a defender against Derek Henry. So they're playing down one man, playing a little bit like a hand behind their back when they have to do that, too. Derek Henry, 10 carries for 60 yards. The Ravens only rushed for 123 yards on just 22 carries. The Bengals had 11 more carries than the Ravens did. When you looked at the first half stats, that's actually kind of impressive. Art, when you watch a guy like Derek Henry, I mean, he's one of the most physically opposing strong humans. I've watched play NFL football. When you watch a guy like Derek Henry, what the Bengals defense did tonight, it just makes a

that much more impressive, right? Absolutely. You know what? He is such a threat that if you try to go thin on the back edge, you know, with the linebackers getting depth and their drops and stuff like that, they're playing soft and they can't handle a guy like that. When you have two of them, you got him and Lamar Jackson, the linebackers were playing a little tighter to the line of scrimmage. That's why they were able to get the tight ends over the top and into those big holes, because the linebackers weren't getting as much depth as they have the previous three weeks. And so having those guys be more instead of past coverage guys, be more run stoppers, you know, I think it was very beneficial for them.

And the secondary kept everything in front of them, and it worked out really well for them. For as complex and as difficult of an offense that the Ravens have to stop, it is pretty simple what they want to do. They want to run the football and utilize. their tight ends. In fact, only four passes tonight were caught by Ravens receivers. DeAndre Hopkins had to, and Zay Flowers had to, oh, by the way, he fumbled on one of those. So Isaiah likely had five for 95. Mark Gantris had four for 47. The Mark Jackson, by the way, did not throw for a touchdown.

And I believe his fourth straight game, which is really something for a two-time MVP and the struggles that he's having this season. Art, I'll go back to you for Mike. I'll go back to you on this. But from you're you were tight ends, coach, from your perspective, why is it the tight ends just get so wide open against this Bengals defense? Because it's something that the teams are doing, or is it weaknesses in a hole within the Bengals defense? Because every time I watch it, every time, it feels like there's a tight end running wide open in the middle of the field.

Well, I think a lot of it is happens to be that the way that they're playing, the front and coverage, that's why I think if you look back at all throughout the season, where they really struggled is against play action. especially on first and second down. They struggle against that because the linebackers are so close to the line of scrimmage. They absorb all of those fakes, and now you can get a tight end back behind them or on a deep over route where the coverage has been cleared out by one of those whiteouts. And I think that they did a great, they've done a great job of adjusting to, okay, hey, the tight ends are hurting us right now.

the first half. So then all of a sudden they started to loosen them up a little bit because they knew the run game. They had not abandoned it, but Lamar wasn't the same Lamar. And Derek Henry was obviously frustrated coming off and only getting, you know, not getting the big chunks that he normally gets. And because the defensive line did a great job. Linebackers did a great job of rally into the ball. Is Mike, is Barrett Carter someone that you think is an important? emerging core member of this young defense? I think he's, you know, I think one of the things with the tight ends is also just these rookie linebackers have shown some rookie struggles in that area too.

And I know it is hard, especially modern NFL feels like it is specifically designed to attack those guys with that play action, the overrout behind it being one of the major staples of the league. I think it's up and down. I think I really like that he's tackling. I do think his coverage hasn't matched it quite yet. It's hard to tell watch it live if the coverage is match it or not. But really, it feels like there are fixable things within what he's doing.

I don't know if I would yet say like locked in starter for the next 10 years or anything like that. But it feels like there's some fixable issues just in terms of like Art was mentioning, some with the depth. And that could be what the coach is asking of them. And then some of it is just knowing his role in assignment when teams are trying to target him. Like I think the Patriots were able to do quite a bit. But I think it seemed like he played better in this game with regards to his coverage because it, I don't think that Mark Andrews was really taking advantage of him. I do think Isaiah likely was getting open once in a while.

But it also feels like the Bengals are kind of matching likely with defensive backs a lot too. Yeah. I mean, it felt like for every play that Barrick Carter didn't make, he made another impressive play. So, or you mentioned Miles Murphy's chase down of Derek Henry at the end of the third quarter. If he doesn't tackle him, I'm kind of scared to think of where this game goes because on that drive, then Miles Murphy gets a pressure on Lamar, causes a tip. It's intercepted by Demetrius Knight.

He runs it back a good way. The Bengals get three points, go up by 15. I'll go to this question. How clutch was Evan McPherson tonight? Six for six on field goals? We talked about him last week, you know, about what his, I mean, after the, what was it, 53 yards? 60 yards.

Yeah, 63 yarder. It's like he's been consistent. And, you know, it's like going fishing. You go out and you catch enough croppy. They're terrible one-on-one, but you get enough of them, you got a chance. You know what I mean? And hey, as long as you're coming away with points, that is all you need because they stack up.

And then you get points on your possessions. The defense is getting you back. Now, we would love to get five turnovers every game. But when you're plus five in the turnover takeaway ratio, you're going to win games. And, hey, if you can just get to a game and don't turn the ball over on offense, you've got a better, more likely a victory than not. You can look at this box score tonight.

Sometimes you can say like the final score is not indicative of how the game went. This time it was, okay? The Bengals ran 80 plays to the Ravens 57. The Bengals were 8 of 19 on third down. That's pretty good. The Ravens were just 3 of 10. The Bengals also held the ball for 3846. The Ravens just 21-14.

That's where this game was born. They kept Lamar Jackson did. Eric Henry off the field and then the Bengals, they got some, they got some, I mean, did they get a big run? No, but they got enough solid runs that it opened up so many other things that they did in their offense. All right. I hope that if Jim Mora is listening to this, he's not. Because this next segment, I'm going to ask a question with one word that he doesn't want to

talk about. We'll get into that next right here on the Bengals Squad show. Before I get into the question with the one word that Jim Mora doesn't like, this is a reminder to check out James Rapine and Jake Lisco to hear their breakdown and recap of tonight's Bengals victory over the Ravens in Baltimore, 32 to 14. That is available on the Lockdown Bengals YouTube channel and the Locked-on Bengals podcast feeds wherever you watch and listen to podcasts.

I'm sincerely sorry I did not mention this earlier. I'm just so excited about the Bengals winning. Locked-on podcast network is the number one sports podcast network in America and the world. And we are happy to have you with us right here on the Bengals Squad show, the supplement twice a week, long-in-form conversational show with Mike Zanz and Art Valero. I'm Alex Frank at Frank underscore Natty on Twitter. Art is at Arthur Valero 3 on Twitter. All right.

Bengals are four and eight. Is that great? No. But look, if longtime Bengals critic Chris Canty, says the Bengals can still win this division. And then what the Bengals did tonight against his former team and the Ravens, should we talk about the possibility of the, don't say it, Frankie. Oh, I'm going to say it.

Playoffs. They won a game. So you can't do the, we're trying to win a game. The second half of that quote, they won. That's true. Good call, Mike. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of went over it.

Like, yeah, I think the AFC North and the AFC in general is just weak. So, like, that's their path to the playoffs. Once you make the playoffs, it's just about taking it week by week. Honestly, it's just taking week by week throughout the rest of this season. You don't think about going, we have to do this or this. You're two games back of Baltimore for the division lead, and you have the one up on them by having the three and one division record, beating them head to head.

So I think you just take it week by week. If you beat Buffalo and they lose, you look again, you're like one game back and we play them next week. Maybe the Steelers will be two games ahead of you still at that point or something. I don't know. But what I do know is just you take it week by week, And then if you make it there, then you can keep that thing rolling. If they do make it, they're going to be a hot team.

I think that's the other thing you're going to think about here. If they somehow make it, they've probably won all of these games down the stretch, if not all but one, maybe two of these games because they're not going to make it going, well, I shouldn't say they can't. But they're very likely not going to make it going like six and 11 or something. They're going to be much better than that. And going six and 11 would be winning, what, like 50%? and the games down the stretch.

Wow. It's going to have to take a lot of wins to get there. Burroughs won seven straight starts, I believe. So it could happen. It could happen if they just run the table. But yeah, week by week. And then I think it turns into kind of like that, was it the, I think it was the 2007 giants that had kind of a losing record going in there,

going in there. And then we're able to just super hot team, roll it off week by week. keep winning games. I think that's the path that you're looking at is just sneak in and be one of the hottest teams in the NFL. By the way, if the Bengals go nine and eight, I think they could win the division. Not only are you in the playoffs then, you'd be playing at home. And I guarantee whoever that five seat is, you're not going to want to come play the Bengals. What if it, what if it is Buffalo and Josh Allen? I mean, you don't know who it could be. Art, I'm going to turn to you here. I want to say losing record here. I'll say below 500 record here, but you were

part of a team that made the playoffs with a record below 500. Absolutely. The 2010 Seattle Seahawks. The Beastquake Seahawks. Yes. Yes. By the way, just I got to ask this. Okay. What was it like to be on the field after Marshawn Lynch had that Beasquake touchdown run? What was it truly shaking inside that stadium? Oh, unbelievable. It was out of control.

And you know, growing up in California, I'd experienced earthquakes. but it was that. It was so loud. And believe me, we ran 27 power. And as a blocking element, we didn't block a soul. It was all Marshawn. And it was like, oh, yeah, I remember that play great because we didn't block a soul. And I was watching them, and then all of a sudden, he's loose.

And then the place erupted. And it was out of control. And it was interesting. is Mike Mayock, who was on the NBC call of that game alongside Tom Hammond in the booth in Seattle, was calling the game tonight for the Bengals and Ravens on Westwood won with John Sandack, who's the Reds TV play-by-play announcer. And I remember Mike Mayock on that beast quake on the replay when he just completely shed Tracy Porter, Marshawn Lynch. Mike Mayock literally said, get off me to Tracy Porter. So, Art, that season's going for the Seahawks. You guys had a lot of

tough losses that year. But what did Pete Carroll do down the stretch, knowing the division was very winnable? What was this messaging like to you guys, coach and staff and the team to say, hey, we're still in this? You know what? It was a very, very typical Pete because he's very upbeat, always positive. But he made it very, very clear to the team and to us that we have every game is a playoff game from here on out.

And in order for us to have an opportunity, he would never mention chance, an opportunity to continue to play. We have to take each game as a playoff-type game in order to get there. Then we will see what happens. And so we took them just like Mike and talked about. You take them one game at a time,

one snap at a time, one competition at a time, and you just see where it is. takes you. And then you build up so much motive or momentum that you're tough to beat. And you can end up being like Pittsburgh was going as even a playoff team and winning it because you're hot. And you know, you mentioned the New York Giants team that went in with the Lucy Wright. They beat us in the first round. And we had won it. We had won the division or our conference

with two games to go and we sat everybody to wrestle. Yeah. And we came out, we were the healthiest team out of the, out of the playoffs. I do remember that playoff game in 2007. It was in Tampa Bay. So, I mean, look, crazy things have happened. The Jaguars were four and eight in 2022. They were at a winnable division. The Titans fell off. The Colts weren't very good. The Texans were rebuilding. They found a way in. I mean, it is, look, is it a long shot? Yes. Are the bills going to be a challenge?

Yes. We'll get into that next week because you're facing Josh Allen. You're facing that offense with their tight ends, Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. We'll see them on Sunday against Pittsburgh. So a huge game in more ways than one for the Bengals. But again, tonight is a night where again, and look, the last three seasons for this team have been tough. They have been to the playoffs the last two years. Can they go this year? Sure. The odds are slim. But this is why Joe Burrow wanted to come back. I think he silenced a lot of

people tonight. And Michael Turner, first article back to you, but like when you hear Joe Burroughs say, I make a lot of money to play a kid's game, and that's why I want to be out here. I'm a football player. What does that do for you as a fan? It's exciting. It's, it just reminds you of, I think fans sometimes get too into the giant picture of this all. And don't think of the smaller picture of this player who has a limited window to play and wants to just be out there and play the sport he's been playing says he's been young, that, you know, probably his favorite thing to do is playing in these games because like i think i've said here it's it's kind of like blink and it's gone so you can't just waste an entire season because you're like well what if i get hurt and that hurts next year that's

true like that is true there's there's validity to that but on the other side of it is just you can't bubble wrap a player like joe burrow you it's going to it's not going to like he's going to do more damage to him physically but i think that it's just something that one he's not going to take well and two you're taking away his window and you're talking about like you're you talked about those Derek Henry stats, too, and I'm not saying you play for stats or anything. At the end of the year, you don't want to look up and go, like, well, I wonder if I played the last six games of that season.

Because we're talking about six games. I'd understand if this was one game. And he's like, should he come back? No, probably not for a week 18 game. But there is a small chance of playoffs here. And you just have this limited window. And I think Flacco is at the other end of it, where Flacco is taking it every single game

because he knows he's at the end of the road, whereas Burrow, I think, can look at that and go, like, one day I'm going to be there. And I will have wished I played every possible opportunity available to me. And look, it's something we haven't seen him do come back midseason from an injury sustained also during that season. Coach, when you heard the things Joe Burrell was saying this week about, well, should he be playing, should he not be playing, should just be rest until 2026. First off, my thought was, okay, if you're going to wait until the absolute perfect time for him to

return, that's not how you do it. It's if not now, then when? Because you're always going to worry about him, you know, potentially to sustain another injury, unfortunately. But when you heard the things Joe Burrow said this week, did that just further confirm to you, this guy is different? He literally said 12 weeks to come back from a turf to injury is for normal people.

I'm not one of them. When you hear your quarterback saying that, that just tells you, oh, my gosh, we have somebody special in this building. Oh, without a doubt. I'm telling you, he, I mean, he's a two, time comeback player of the year. So with six games ago to sit him down and say, no, you're not going to play, it's going

to happen for a guy that's wired like that. You know, I had mentioned it before. He's the son of a football coach. He knows what it's like. If anybody ever told you you were going to be beat up, banged up, tired, or sore, they lied to you. So get out there and compete and use the gifts that the good Lord gave you. And that's what this young man is all about.

He is not one thing out of his mouth. Well, you know what? If I do get in, no, there is no if I, if I, it's, I'm going to go out there and show everybody how you fight through adversity, physical adversity, and continue to compete and win. So I mean, my hat's off to him. He was the story tonight. He was a storyline going in. And he delivered an absolutely spectacular performance. he campaign for the NFL to put the Bengals on Thanksgiving.

He got his wish. He came back for this game. And boy, did he deliver. Look, it may not happen this season. The odds are slim. We've talked about it. But I still believe in my gut of guts. At some point, Joe Burrow is going to win the Bengals a Super Bowl.

I truly believe it. And that will hopefully be sooner rather than later. Mike Santagana, Art Valero, Alex Frank with you on Bengals. squad. It's a late night. It's Black Friday morning. We know deals are popping. So get out there. Hope you enjoyed staying up late with us. We appreciate all of you. Tuning in. The comments section loaded tonight. Look, this is a fun night. This was a very fun night. Winning is a heck of a lot better than the alternative. And now we have some momentum going into

next Sunday. I'm going to be there in Buffalo for Bengals bills. It's supposed to be cold. Listen, I'm okay with this, all right? This is December football. I'm all in on this. Mike and R will be with me on Sunday, December 7th, following the Bengals and Bills. We'll get you details on that as the time approaches. You are back with me on our next show with James and Jake. Hopefully, both of them can join.

Hopefully we'll have Jake with us. He's been on with us midweek throughout the season. So we'll see what we get there. We may also have a Sunday show. We'll let you know about that. It's kind of weird with this Thursday Thanksgiving night game. But hey, this is what makes it fun. Don't forget, check out James and Jake with their recap and break down to this game on the Lockdown Mengles YouTube channel.

And wherever you listen to podcasts. And also in Cincinnati this weekend, big weekend, the Bearcats taking on TCU and their regular season finale on Saturday, Jeff Carr. Check him out, Lockdown Bearcats. He also co-host Lockdown Reds with Stephen Offenegger. Mike Santagana is our resident film. guru. He's got tremendous film breakdowns on Twitter and on all Bengals, Cincinnati Bengals talk, part of Sports Illustrated with James and Jake. Our longtime NFL coach is on Twitter at Arthur Valero 3, Mike's at Bengals underscore Sands. I'm at Frankie underscore Natty. I'm Alex Frank for Mike

Santag and Art Valero. Gentlemen, final thoughts before we close. What has been a very fun night with a lot of good food involved. Joe Burrow back, five takeaways. Life doesn't get any better. Awesome. We didn't even get to mention it. I thought Al Golden did an awesome job with his pressure plan, too. Thank you. Because it really rattled Lamar Jackson into those must-pass situations. Well, very similar to what Lou Anirumo did in that week seven game back in 2021. I got leftovers in the fridge.

Don't worry, I'm going to the gym in the morning. We got great college football law and NFL football on Sunday. Favorite week 13 game, do you have a, if you've looked at the schedule, do you have a favorite week 13 game you're looking forward to on Sunday? Honestly, I haven't looked much. I probably watch the Steelers' Bill's game. I mean, that sounds like something very important for this team. Other than that, there's some stinkers, too.

Staking a week. One of one that I'm excited about is the Saints Dolphins, only because my son coaches for the Saints, and I want to make sure that they at least start to progress. I read earlier this week that this is the Saints first game in Miami since 2010 in February when they won Super Bowl 44. I'll concur with you, Mike Bill Steelers. Also, Texans Colts.

That's a very interesting NFC match up there. We'll look forward to that. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. This has been Bengals Squad show post-game edition following a 32-14 win in Baltimore on Thanksgiving night. John Madden Thanksgiving celebration for Mike Santagga at Bengals underscore Sands for Art Polaro at Arthur Polaro 3 on Twitter. I'm Alex Frank and Frankie underscore Natty.

Have a great rest of your holiday weekend. We'll talk to you next time on the Bengals Squad show right here on the Lockdown Bengals YouTube channel and the lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in America and the world. Your team every day.