Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals vs Vikings: OFFICIALLY Battle of Backup QBs | Who Has The EDGE?

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals head to Minnesota to play the Vikings on Sunday. Jake Browning will get the start at quarterback with Joe Burrow injured. Minnesota will also be playing their backup signal-caller with Carson Wentz gettin the nod. J.J. McCarthy is dealing with an ankle injury. Who has the edge in the battle of the backups? James Rapien and Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings discuss the showdown, what a win would mean for both teams, which defense is in position to take advantage of the new quarterbacks and so much more on a Week 3 crossover edition of Locked On Bengals!Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit https://5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2FYahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Draft now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.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.

Locked on Bengals, Locked on Vikings crossing over for what I guess is now a battle of the backups. Let's do it. You are locked on NFL crossover. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. And everybody, welcome in Bengals fans. Welcome in Vikings fans. It's Crossover Thursday.

That means I am Luke Braun. I do Locked on Vikings. So hello Bengals fans. And I'm here with James Rapine. Locked on Bengals crossing over here to preview the Vikings and Bengals. Sunday noon weird backup quarterback tilt. You know, if I had a nickel for every time this happened, I'd only have two nickels,

which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice. So we're getting Jake Browning again in US Bank Stadium. It's like it's 21, 2021 preseason all over again, James. Yeah, it's, look, I don't even know where to start, but I guess we should start with Jake Browning. We have to start with the backup thing. that's happening.

Yeah. Like, this is the headline of the game. And no doubt about it. And it's just, it's like, man, I was so looking forward to the,

the Joe Burrow, Brian Flores chess match. And like when the schedule, I was thought about that. I was so scared of this one on the, I mean, I still like, Viking,

like, because of what happened in the last game, like, Vikings fans are like, maybe the most scared fan base of Jake Browning specifically. Like, he's already hurt,

hurt us once. Yeah. But like, Going into this game, I was like, oh, man, Joe Burrow, Zach Taylor, quick strike, like, get the ball out kind of quarterback, totally will neutralize the Blitz. I thought he was, like, the Bengals are perfectly set up to neutralize the Brian Flores Blitz. And I was like, man, that one's going to be a tough matchup. And the teeth gets taken out of it a little bit. It does.

And it's a bummer. And it's a bummer for a few reasons. I mean, obviously the biggest story of the week for the Bengals is Joe Burrough going out. and it overshadowed, much to Zach Taylor's. He pretended he was surprised. She's like, it doesn't feel like we're 2 and 0. Because they're 2 and 0 for the first time since 2018. Zach Taylor got here.

This fast start Bengals. Right. They get off to this fast start. And everyone all week is like, including me, I'd trade those two wins for Joe Burrow. Like obviously you'd rather have Joe Burrow. For sure. And then it's, it's so interesting to have the Jake Browning versus Vikings

just element of it. and I thought about that during the Jags game. I'm like, man, if Browning, before we knew what Burrow was dealing with, if Burrow was going to come back or not, I'm like, Browning has to start next week. He's going to Minnesota. And so, yeah, that is a fun. It's not the headline here in Cincinnati,

but I think by the time we get to Sunday, that's going to be a fun storyline for sure. Yeah, and he kind of already had his revenge game, right? And he, if I recall, he came out and said later, he's like, I probably shouldn't have said, like, you shouldn't have cut me. And he kind of regretted it. He was just a little wrapped up in the moment, like it happens. but I wonder if there's a little bulletin board on that for the Vikings defense that

like I don't know how much you guys paid attention to how that 2023 season ended for the Vikings but you know Kirk Cousins was out it was Nick Mullins we were back up against backup again um and that was kind of the day where like in that fourth quarter in those adjustments that's Zach Taylor made in that game the Vikings defense never recovered from that getting put on tape they got blown out and then they got blown out again like they did not win another game after that. And so that's why I kind of always looked at this one as like, okay, what does Zach Taylor have for us now?

And even with Jake Browning, like, that doesn't change the fact. And it didn't last time that Zach Taylor kind of had the secret sauce and showed everybody. And then everybody else copycat it. And it took a while for the Vikings defense to figure out a way to play football again. So I wonder if it happens again. but then you got to the other side with Carson Wentz now. We haven't seen anything of Carson Wentz. He signed after the preseason.

The Vikings had terrible backup quarterback playing the preseason. They cut everybody but an undrafted rookie out of Minnesota named Max Brosmer and brought in Carson Wentz. So we have no idea what we're going to see. And now we're going to be treated to Carson Wentz for an entire tour of the AFC South here over the next three weeks. Yeah. Yeah, that I have to ask you,

starting this way because I do think Bengals fans wondered in the moment. I certainly did. This version of J.J. McCarthy is Carson wants the better option, like for this week? I mean, people are going to ask that, but I don't think that that's smart at all. Even if, you know, yeah, sure, maybe a veteran backup style quarterback is going to do better than you're struggling. But you guys, you guys had this in the early days with Joe Burrow, too. Guys have to work through it. So, you know, benching a kid that you drafted 10th overall. basically aligned your entire franchise around and your entire career path around if you're Quasi and Kevin O'Connell and then giving up after that after six days, that would be pretty

bad and I would even say fireable. And I think people calling for that probably just, they would probably get fired too if they were in this job. Oh, no doubt. I'm not saying bench him. I just mean it's a way to make you can all be like it's almost scarier, I would say. if you're the Bengals with the unknown with Carson. Maybe not. Maybe I'm wrong. You don't have any tape on him. There is, yeah, there is that weird thing. Like this is in no way would the Vikings choose this, right?

But yeah, the argument would be that, you know, hey, he's a veteran. He knows how to get in and out of the huddle a little faster. The Vikings have had a ton of problems with this. They're breaking the huddle at 10 seconds and the play clock is running down on them all the time. D-line is teeing off because you can't do a snap count anymore. They've had all kinds of.

of problems with like the timing of stuff. But it's also kind of hard to time out with a quarterback you've never practiced with. So I feel like we're kind of just trading some problems for other problems right now. The thing is from the Bengals side of it, that defense doesn't know what those problems actually are or how to exploit them and attack them because they don't have any tape to work off of. So they're going to have to kind of figure that out on the fly for a fairly maligned unit. Yeah, I think that that's what so.

intriguing to me is this this young bengal's defense that has has four interceptions in two weeks and you could say oh well carson wince is going to give you a chance to do and maybe he will you're getting picks oh 100 percent but but but you had you had the film on mccarthy and outside of that one quarter one of eight quarters of football essentially where he was awesome by the way i watched that it's it's like man it now you have this unknown with carson wins i don't know i just i think it's interesting But at the same time, it isn't as sexy as Joe Burrow versus JJ McCarthy. And I would love that element of it. Yeah.

And we don't get that. That doesn't mean it's not going to be interesting, though. Like, I think this is going to be a really fun game and an entertaining game, even if it isn't what we thought it would be two weeks ago or a week ago. Yeah. There will be fun and weird and wild elements. I think both of these quarterbacks have a propensity to, you know, have a disaster play here or there, to have some game swinging mistake.

But honestly, when it comes down to these battles of the backups, it kind of feels like it comes down to like elsewhere on the roster. I don't know. We'll get into more of those matchups a little later. But I think the goal for both of these teams is to just hide your quarterback. Figure out a way to make it come down to Jamar Chaser, Justin Jefferson. Figure out a way to make it come down to Trey Hendrickson or Jonathan Grenard. Like make the game about your stars and make it so that we're not walking away from this one being like, hey, you remember the Carson-Lince disaster game or the, Jake Browning disaster game.

I think it's a great point because that's how the Bengals are so Joe Burrow driven, and that is why they win when they win most of the time with Joe. And now they can't be that way. And in the Vikings, as JJ McCarthy comes along or Carson wants, they're going to have to win without being quarterback dominant at times. Well, the Bengals are going to have to, we're going to see if they can do that. And they were able to do it some in 2023 when Jake Browning came in. Obviously, Vikings fans are aware of that.

Like, can they do it again? Like, they shouldn't have won the other day. Like the Jags and Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohn down the track. Well, the Jags aren't a real football team. Like those guys, like they made so many mistakes to leave the door open for the Bengals. I mean, Jake Browning throws three picks and he still gets the ball with the chance to go win. It's wild to think of, but that's what happened. And so, yeah, I agree with you.

One, your quarterback can't make those kind of mistakes and have three interceptions, even though one wasn't his fault. Two, the other guys around him are going to have to pick him up, whether it's the Vikings or the Bengals. And that's just how it has to be with a backup quarterback. It's going to have to be this way for both of our teams moving forward here. Although you guys are out, can I break some news to Bengals fans? Oh, yeah.

I mean, they'll be like the next day when they're listening to this. But as we are recording this, the Bengals officially placed Joe Burrow on injured reserve. Little roster transaction news there for you. There we go. Oh, man. We're all very happy here on the lockdown crossover. Hey, let's do this, James. Let's next talk about some stuff we're excited about here.

Some of the things that we think, some of the matchups that we think both of our teams can really get an advantage in and something that could maybe decide this team. That'll be, or decide this game. That'll be next on the locked on crossover. This episode of the locked on crossover is brought to you by Mazda. The Mazda delivers confidence with every ride. It has more IHS top safety pick awards than anyone else as of August 25,

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Just like NFL players, they sweat every detail because when you make every move count, impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. Let's move on here with crossover Thursday on the Locked-on podcast network. James, I want you to tell me something that you look at in this game and you think, oh, the Bengals are going to get him on this. This is how the Bengals win. If we're walking away from a 30-point Bengals blowout, tell me who did it.

Who was it about? well if we're talking that i think the first thing would be this offense kicks it into gear and so it would be the stars and who are the stars well it's jemar chase it's t higgins on offense i think it's chase brown who hasn't been as productive is he's been involved but not as productive as i think most would have expected over the first couple of weeks and so those guys lead the way and maybe you're talking about some highlight real grabs and some long catch and runs from Jamar or from from Brown. But that's it.

I mean, that's the way. And obviously you could say trade and you could get into the defense and turnovers and all of those things. But if the Bengals are going to get to 30 points, not even just win by 30, but get to 30, I think those guys on the road especially are going to have to shine bright and be stars. Yeah, I am definitely like part of this matchup, even when the schedule came out and I started looking ahead to it was me being worried about Chase and Higgins and who are the Vikings

putting out there a corner. They'll probably have Byron Murphy playing outside. He's a good corner, but he's smaller. And that proved to be difficult last time they played the Bengals. And then you have Isaiah Rogers, who's in his first season as a full, full-time starter. Jeff Okuda's coming off a concussion. He might not even have him. And we're talking about Dwight McClother, who's a second year undrafted rookie, Fabian Moreau, journeyman. Like, we're talking about like real, you know, bottom the depth chart kind of guys on the outside. And the game within the game for Zach Taylor, I think is isolating that and finding ways to get an opportunity. You can catch the Vikings in man to man or in single high where you know you've got like Jamar Chase one on one with Byron Murphy.

Even T. Higgins one on one with Byron Murphy. Just throw one high and say jump up, go get it. Be tall. I think that there's like I don't really know what you do about that outside of the Vikings just have to get pressure. And for me, I guess I have to. have to ask you about the Bengals O line. What is the vibe around the Bengals O line? I genuinely have no idea. I haven't followed it at all. Is it,

does it, do we feel like it's improved over the last couple years where it's been really frustrating? I think they're better than the perception among the fan base, especially with Joe's injury. They're better than that. Right. You got Reisner and he's like in a bunch of trouble because it was like his guy, right? I guess.

Jamar got jam. Like, we went over it on yesterday's show, but Jamar got, it gets jammed at the line. Joe would have already had the ball out if that doesn't happen. Oh, is it like a quick game jump set? Basically, yeah.

And so there's multiple. Okay. Multiple linemen lost. It wasn't just like Dalton Reisner's guy goes around, hits Joe, and Joe gets hurt. Like it wasn't that simple. And Dalton took the blame. But honestly, like, he's practiced with the team for two weeks. Like, you know, it's what he does.

He's like specifically to do that. He always joined the team like August. Yeah, it's wild. It's wild how that's happened to him because he, at least. from my vantage point, and it's been a few weeks, seems like a really good dude. But yeah, this line, you have a rookie and Dylan Fairchild at left guard.

You have Dalton Reisner at Wright Guard, who's been here for a few weeks. Fairchild performed pretty well last week, and you look at the advanced numbers. Makes sense that they would be so bullish on him. And so they believe in him. I thought Orlando Brown Jr. was really silent last week, despite kind of the perception.

It's just so weird. I think the perception versus the reality is different. And yet this offensive line still isn't great run blocking wise. There's a reason why I didn't say, oh, well, they go to Minnesota with a backup quarterback and run it 40 times. Like,

that's just not who that's going to be. That just can't be the move. Yeah. No. So I think they're solid, but they're far from great if that makes up. So that's the thing that I think has to happen for the Vikings is you have to be able to get pressure on Jake Browning.

If you're going to throw it 35 times, get pressure on Browning and make him do dumb stuff. And then hope that dumb stuff. stuff bounces your way. That's what has to happen for this one. If we're talking about like a comfortable Vikings win, we're probably looking at a whole bunch of like Looney Tunes offensive mishaps from the Bengals because of some cool blitz stuff that happened because of some cool schematic stuff because you got a free rusher because somebody, the Vikings have greatly improved their interior pass rush. So you're going to have somebody like J. Vaughn Hargrave who just worked

Drew Dalman all day on Monday night football had a much worse game against the Falcons. So I don't know what we're going to get out of him, but if he's up one-on-one with Reisner and he can beat him, that becomes the like path for the Vikings to really stymie a Bengals offense that I think I just always sort of expect to be really, really explosive. Yeah, I shake my head for those listening, especially I was shaking my head because Javon Hargrave, oh, that was one of the many, many defensive tackles, I think Bengals fans were thirsty for. Oh, you wanted him. Oh, man. Of course.

Yeah. Just something, anything, you know, just anything that anyone that can be dominant, as you said in week one, that, you know, you take that here in Cincinnati. Yeah. Well, if it makes you feel any better, go look at what Chris Lindstrom did to him on Sunday night football. It was unholy. It was illegal in 10 states. Really? Okay.

Yeah. So we got it up. We got it down. We're one in one. Yeah. And that, honestly, I think that's such a huge, it's going to be a huge storyline for the Bengals during this Jake Browning era is can they do enough in the trenches and do enough on the ground to take pressure off of him because he's not going to go there and throw it 50 times.

Joe could have. Like, Joe might have. Like, you never know. But, like, you're not going to be able to do that with Jake. And you're probably right, 30 to 35 times, which is normal. But can they be more normal and successful? And that balance, I think, is interesting because the Vikings defense, they're going to treat. out with the Jags. They treated the Bengals weapons different the moment Joe Burrow went out. And I'm

curious to see how it looks now that you see the good and the bad for Jake Browning. And do you see some man-to-man coverage? Like Jake Browning will take it. Maybe that's the Joe in him or being around Joe, but he saw Mitch Tinsley one-on-one on an RPO and he just throws it to him. There's not one Vikings fan that knows who Mitch Tinsley is. I don't know. Is that a tight end? No, no, it's a wide receiver. his first ever, first ever NFL catch and it was a touchdown last week. 13, not touchdown tied the game at 17. Yeah. Well, sometimes it works with the guys you got like chemistry with from the twos.

Yeah. One handed. And so I would say that like Mitch Tinsley, Andre, goes to watch guys that Jake Browning has worked with could also make an impact for sure. And they're going to need, need those guys to make an impact with what Jamar and T are going to command attention once. Yeah. It's, it's going to require like you get,

you can kind of sell out for that. And then like, okay, make, make Jake Browning beat you has to be the sort of angle at it. And I think on the other side is it has to be, you know, make Carson Wentz beat you. Because I think everything that I've said about Browning also applies to Wentz. If the Bengals can get pressure, Wens will do dumb stuff and give the game up. Like that has to be what the thing is. But I do want to ask you about that defense. I'm fascinated with it.

I talked a ton of crap about it on Lockedon NFL. And it appears that I am eating crow. So I want to get into that next on the Locked on crossover. This crossover episode of the Locked on Bengals and Locked on Vikings podcast is brought to you by five-hour energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five-hour energy shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each two-ounce shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12-ounce cup of coffee plus B vitamins

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It's crossover Thursday. Prize picks is a great way to get a little extra fun in on a game. You otherwise wouldn't care a ton about like a Sunday night football game or whatever. Or right now, they have these max discounts going on that are genuinely broken. If you think Patrick Mahomes will get more than half a passing area, you can put that square into your play and it super, super breaks the value that you can get. So you have to get in on these while the getting is good. Look, you make decisions every day and you have all kinds of takes about how games will go. Maybe you disagree with me and James about how Chase Brown will

play or how James will play or how Jake Browning or Carson Wentz will play. Go be right. You just pick more or less on two to six player projections. And if you're right, your takes will turn into real prizes. Download the prize. picks app today and use code locked on NFL to get 50 bucks in lineups after you play your first five dollar lineup that's code locked on NFL for 50 bucks in lineups after your first five dollar play prize picks it's good to be right let's move on james with this locked on binkings locked on bengals crossover um so i don't know how familiar bengals fans are if how many of you your bengals fans are also listening to lock down NFL but there is a locked on NFL show twice a day and i go on their

Wednesday mornings with Tyler Roland. And we spent a lot of the offseason monitoring what was going on with the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson and just the look of that defense, how much it struggled last year and how a lot of the same guys were run back. And then they had that rough preseason start. We're going, oh, no, here we go again with the Bengals defense. But it appears that the Bengals defense has, I mean, it played pretty well against the Browns.

It's just the Browns. The Jaguars moved the ball a little better on them. What is the vibe around the Bengals defense right now? I genuinely think this is a huge key to the game. is how much can they execute versus a Vikings offense that has not been able to execute, but if they get it together, they have a ton of talent, would the Bengals be able to keep up? Yeah, I think that's, it's such a huge question, and I thought you were about to set me up to brag on the Bengals defense just for Justin Jefferson and Adam Thiel and T.J. Hawkinson

to take him down the peg on Sunday, which could happen, right? And I think, no, but that's what's what's so interesting, like my fantasy team. that has Justin Jefferson on it. It's kind of painful the first couple of weeks. It hasn't delivered necessarily the same the way you'd want. And I think for the Bengals defense, like it's been encouraging, but during both of these games, there's been times and in a moment where you're like same old Bengals defense.

They're the same as last year. They may be worse than last year. And then they have an interception, an opportunistic interception, or they get a stop, or they find a way to get off the field. and there's been at least three different drives in the past two weeks that were aided by drops. But those drops have happened. And so I don't really know which way to go. Is luck just on their side?

Are they better than last year? I will say this. They need someone, anyone to consistently generate pressure that isn't Trey Hendrickson. And that's been a huge issue when they've given up a bunch of yards. And Joe Flack was going up and down the field at times and stretches in week one. Trevor Lawrence almost put them up 14-0. And then Trey Hendrickson got pressure and threw the ball right to Dax Hill. It was an easy interception for Dax.

And it gave the Bengals some momentum the other day and kind of turn the game around a bit. So they've been able to force those kind of plays and create those plays. But during that early stretch, you're like, is this defense just the same as it's always been? And so that's why I stopped short, even with Carson Went, because you may look up and it's 14-0 Vikings. and it's because this Vikings offense is moving the ball up and down the field, and the Bengals didn't force that turnover that they've done in each of the past couple of games. Yeah, this is the scenario that is like kind of, you alluded to it earlier, where like the Bengals defense struggles and the Vikings move the ball really easy,

and then everybody's suddenly going, oh, my God, I've been playing the wrong quarterback. That would be an extremely annoying narrative that will probably get really prevalent, but I think everybody in the building understands this is a backup, and that McCarthy would be back theoretically after the body. I, even if things go well against a defense that is like very maligned. So let's walk with me a little bit here. Let's walk. The Bengals, if they are getting lucky, let's say it's just totally unsustainable and it's

really just been buoyed by drops. And they're actually not playing that well. What is the issue there? I mean, it's not the names we know, right? It's not Trey Hendricks and he ain't the issue. What is the way that people have been attacking this Bengals defense? Well, it would be that they don't have enough talent in the trenches to get regular pressure. And I think Dax Hill is their best member of the secondary, but they don't have any stars in the secondary right now.

And so that would be the argument. And that linebacker, they're young outside of Logan Wilson. Like, I don't think that there's any gigantic glaring, oh, my goodness, holds right now outside of pass rush. but that's obviously a huge, huge void. And something that they got some, some from down the stretch out of BJ Hill in week one. But you're, like, there's no, the reason why Javon Hargrave would have been so intriguing here

is because you just don't have that consistently. And that's such a nice thing to have when you have Trey Hendrickson commanding a bunch of attention. You throw in the fact that Shamar Stewart is doubtful this week. He's out this week. He's not going to play. And he was disruptive. He doesn't have a sack yet,

but he was disruptive and you lose him. And so now it's on Joseph Osai and Miles Murphy and some of these other guys that have either underachieved, been injured throughout their career or both that the Bengals are relying on to get pressure. And if they don't get pressure, then Carson Wentz should be able to find someone open because it's going to be hard to guard all of the Vikings weapons for three and a half seconds, four seconds.

Yeah, it's tough on the back end. One thing that you should be aware of, the Vikings don't have Christian Derasia yet, he's still coming off of the ACL injury and MCL injury that he suffered last year. We're kind of right in that range where it's about time where guys would come back from that kind of injury. We're at that nine, 10 month range of recovery. So he's kind of week to week. It's been just in school. He's been a disaster.

I mean, he's been a total catastrophe. You've probably seen it on prime time. Now, Justin's school has a concussion. And it's the guy who is backing up him, Walter Rouse, who's a second year dude out of Oklahoma, Well, I actually kind of liked in the preseason. I thought he actually had a pretty reasonable start, but he was not in front of Justin's school who was struggling quite a bit. And either we find out that the Vikings made a big depth chart mistake there

and maybe cost themselves a couple of plays early in the season or that the guy who's backing up the bad guy is even worse than the bad guy. But if on the Bengals, I mean, like, I'm looking at Trey Hendrickson and I'm looking at the third stringer over there at left tackle and I'm drooling. Yeah. no doubt Michael B. Jordan and sinners. And I need to see that, by the way. I have it's too.

No, it's okay. I haven't. Spoiled a little. There's no spoil. It's fine. Look, that is a matchup. If they win the game, he has to dominate that matchup. There's been times where I've thought that going into games.

Like, he went up against Fred Johnson last year. He was like, you've got to win this matchup. It's against the Eagles. And he didn't. He didn't really win it. And those are the type of matchups. are the type of games where you need Trey Hendrickson to be just a

terror. And so if he's that, well, then this defense is probably going to make some plays and create some chaos and force some turnovers. If not, I don't know where else that comes from. And maybe Al Golden has a wrinkle or two that he hasn't thrown out there, but they're going to have to find a way, especially without Charmarsh Stewart to do that.

Yeah, and you have to like chip him, right? Like you have to, I mean, that's, if I'm the Vikings, like, I'm very aware of where he is every play and I'm throwing a chip at him, I'm doubling him, I'm getting sliding towards. him like help help help help help help and then everybody else has to be one on one and I'm fine with one on one everywhere as long as Trey has two guys on him that's how I was

Minnesota yeah and so who's the most likely guy to step up then and be that dude I would say Joseph Osai and defensive end because we've seen it we've seen him have the flashes he's had the moments last year he ended the year well he's he's someone that and he signed a one year deal. He's in his fifth season. This is very much a prove it year. And this could be a prove it game for him where he kind of busts out. So yeah, Joseph Osai would be the one that I would look at and say, all right, man, this is your time. And if he can win one on one, then who knows, maybe they finally get some pressure that they've been waiting on. But honestly, look, we've been waiting on it and waiting on it and waiting on it from all these guys. It's not just Joseph.

I'm not singling him out. Yeah, there's, I'm familiar enough with a lot of the like Miles Murphy type situations that you got going on in Cincinnati that, you know, fans are not, not so happy with. Well, let's get down to brass tacks. On Fan duel, as I am looking at this, maybe it has changed by the time you're listening to this, dear listener. But right now, the Vikings are favored by three at home, minus 105 plus or minus 115 for the Bengals. plus three, so the money slightly edging toward the Bengals over unders at 42 and a half. How do you feel about that line?

I don't like making predictions. I just don't really want to do. It's just not a fun game. I'm not a power rankings guy or anything like that. But I do like to look at the betting lines and just kind of figure out how the world feels about this, which I do every week on Friday is, by the way, Bengals fans want to check it out. But how do you feel about that? It's a tough one.

And it was like minus one and a half in favor of the Vikings before. Joe got hurt before they played their week two game before the Vikings did. And then it went up to, I think, minus five and a half. And now it's come down a little bit. And it's been going back. I think I think you lean home team here. Maybe I'm wrong. It's just my initial thought. You already said we're recording on Tuesday. Could feel differently by Thursday. But like, it's just, it's a tough turnaround. Both teams are short-handed. One's at home. One's coming off of an awful loss and I think is well coached. And so I would expect the Vikings to respond naturally, even if Joe were playing. And so without Joe, even though the Vikings are shorthanded, like you mentioned,

I think it's going to be a tough game for the Bengals. I had this as a win coming into the season. I had the Bengals starting 3 and 0. And so maybe I just stick with that anyway, but just spread wise. I would be, I think it's tough to take the Bengals in this spot given Jake Browning starting a quarterback. I think it's kind of nuts to me. How much? how close the that Fanduel feels Joe Burrow and J.J. McCarthy are in value. Like the loss of both of those guys only moving the line one and a half points toward the Vikings feels like a big underreaction to me. Um, but maybe the markets just believe in Jake Browning a little bit more than I thought they would. Um, either way, or I guess in despite

of that, I kind of feel like the Bengals are being. underrated here. I think we're doing the thing. We're too, like, down in the dumps, podcasters who have dealt with a lot of bad news in the last two days, picked the other team in the crossover. But I kind of feel like the problems that were exhibited in that Atlanta game

were more concerning than just an off night. And I'm not really willing to dismiss them maybe as much as like Fandul is. So I do think that the Bengals are a little underrated there. But we'll see. We'll see where everything goes. And obviously, I mean, with these two quarterbacks, this game probably gets decided on some weird lucky crap. Like some stupid thing is going to happen. That sort of makes all these little like marginal things about what are you doing?

Who's chipping who like not matter as much? So I don't know. Yeah. I expect an entertaining game. I expect it to be chaotic back and forth. And I do think there will be some big swings. I just lean the home team as of today. reasonable safe bet to lean the home team when in doubt but we don't really know what we're going to

get out of this one everybody tune in at noon and get your splash guards on because you will get wet for James Rapine I am Luke Braun thank you so much for listening to this crossover Thursday episode brought to you by prize picks we will see you all next time