Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Can Cincinnati Bengals Recover Against Chicago Bears? | High Stakes to Finish Home Stand

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Bengals, it's Bears, it's two teams looking to bounce back. Let's get into a special week nine crossover here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Our Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. I again, everyone, and welcome into a special Locked-on crossover with Lockdown Bears host, Lauren Cox. I'm Locked on Bengals host James Rupin, and we have plenty to dive into when it comes to this matchup of two teams looking to bounce back in a big way. Crossover Thursday presented by prize picks.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Download the price picks app today. Use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Shout out to all of our everydayers, all of our first listeners on both shows. We're excited about this matchup. There's plenty to dive into and storylines with both teams. Well, taking big Ls and different ways in week eight and trying to bounce back this week.

Starting point is 00:01:05 And Lauren, what's the biggest thing going on right now in Chicago land as the Bengals rival, the Baltimore Ravens handled business against the Bears in Week 8? Yeah, there's a little bit of a feeling of the sky falling. And I think it's an overreaction sky falling. It's a little chicken little action where he's looking around like no one, you know, but still there's a feeling of like, well, everything that you thought was working, stopped working a little bit last week. And so, oh, does that mean it's broken?

Starting point is 00:01:29 Is it all the is Caleb Williams? The problem is the defense ever going to stop anybody ever again? Like, and there's a certain amount of like, hey, let's. let's take a deep breath and relax here. But I do think, you know, along those lines, they present, I think, a favorable matchup for Cincinnati in some of the ways where the bears are struggling line up well with what Cincinnati does well

Starting point is 00:01:46 and where the bears are doing well, maybe lines up where Cincinnati can withstand that. So I think there's a legitimate fear of like a couple of losses stacking up here. And I think for Chicago, they just want to see themselves stop beating themselves with penalties and their own mistakes and really feel like, hey, this opponent is the one, like that you're giving your best shot to your opponent.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Yeah, I totally get that. And I think it was a tough spot. Like going into that game last week, I looked at it and I was like, man, if the Bengals win, which we fully expected them to beat the Jets and they should have beat the Jets and the Ravens lose to a red hot Chicago team, like the Ravens are pretty done. And it went the other way. The Steelers lost, the Bengals lost, the Ravens won. And now it's all back together a bit in the north and Lamar.

Starting point is 00:02:34 is coming back and all of those things. But like, that's how I looked at it because I was certainly giving it a side eye because of the Baltimore connection there in the division. And instead, and this is kind of the bummer, certainly for lockdown Bengals listeners, is now the Ravens are alive. They completely trip and fall down when they should have won that game against the Jets with two double digit leads in the fourth quarter. And so now you got to worry about the Ravens.

Starting point is 00:03:02 and it just feels unrealistic. Like I think the Bengals fan base is as down on this team as they've been outside of when Joe Burrow got hurt. And it was like, oh, well, Jake Browning just can't play quarterback. Like, this is the second most down they've been because of one, how they lost to the Jets. But two, it is a good Chicago team coming to town. And it is going to be tough to win that game. And it's not like you're like, oh, well, that's a W.

Starting point is 00:03:31 and then you look at the second half of the schedule, WWW. Like, it's tough to find the wins. And that's why I think a lot of fans are thinking of offseason and I, Joe Burrow isn't going to get a chance to come back. And like that one loss really set people down a,

Starting point is 00:03:45 down a path. Now, it's up to the Bengals to flip it. But that's been like the story here. All we is just, oh my goodness, three and five, one and two with Joe Flacco. Like,

Starting point is 00:03:56 it's just there's no hope. And so if there's going to be any hope, they need to win on on Sunday against the Bears and that's what I think is interesting is I mentioned both teams need to bounce back. They're looking to bounce back, but for different reasons. One, the season's completely over and in a tailspin at three and six if they lose in the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, I'm a little surprised like that how high expectations remain for Cincinnati. Like I would think that once Joe Burroughs out, like, yeah, it's been fun watching Joe Flacco in there. And obviously there have been past games with Jake Browning before, you know, before.

Starting point is 00:04:29 they made the switch there where he gives you like a glimpse of hope but all along right it doesn't it feel like a little bit extra like when burrow's going to miss a bunch of time you're probably screwed either way so why not just have fun with joe flacko but like has it been good enough where there's there's really that faith of like hey maybe just maybe they can get through and do this and you know if they do beat the bears then they got a buy week and then you know you get that much closer to kind of just hovering until burrow comes back and then saves the day i think they were there were some fans that were there realistically after that Steelers went. And they were like, all right, well, beat the Jets, get to four and four.

Starting point is 00:05:08 And then have that conversation and paint that path that you just. And so they almost allowed the path to be opened. It had been closed down and you had to go another route on your hike. And they were like, ah, well, maybe we should remove that sign and take down the caution tape and let people go down that path. And as they were doing that, the Bengals completely shut down the path. And so, no, I think it's going to take more than a win over the Bears to win back any equity or trust.

Starting point is 00:05:40 And that's what was so tough about that Jets game. It really was. Like, two weeks ago, after Joe Flackers debut against Green Bay, I was like, if you beat the Steelers on a short week, handle business against the Jets, even if you don't beat the NFC Bears, that's the, the least important game over the next month because you have the Steelers coming out at the buy again. And so that was my mindset.

Starting point is 00:06:04 And well, they stub their toe on the Jets. And so it's to me, you're right. Like your line of thinking is where people are. And it's gotten even darker than that, but we don't need to go down that, that road too much. We've already done that on the pod this week. But yeah, that's, that would have been the line of thinking, I think, had they finished the deal and sealed the deal against the Jets.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Instead, it's like, all right, path closed, no detour at this moment. And I'm not sure when people would get back on board for that. See, because I think Chicago is coming from it from like a similar thing of like, is the path open or the path closed? But it came from feeling like the path was probably closed at the beginning of the season to like, oh, maybe it's opening up and like now maybe it's closing again. And it's almost a little bit less pressure and I don't want to say more fun because losing is never fun.

Starting point is 00:06:51 But like when you come in with low expectations, And then sometimes your expectations get risen. It's a little bit more enjoyable than when you come in with high expectations. And then you watch those keep coming down. Because like when the Bears were 0 and 2, it was like, okay, yeah, this is this is Ben Johnson's first season. Like they're all in the offense. This team's not ready to really be real contenders this season. So, you know, let's just ride it out enjoy Caleb Williams development and look ahead to 2026.

Starting point is 00:07:13 But all of a sudden, you win four in a row, a lot of one score tight games that maybe could have been coin toss games. And all of a sudden, you're on the in the hunt graphic on the broadcast for the playoffs. And it's like, wow, this maybe this. This team could win nine, ten games and sneak into the postseason. And especially when Lamar gets hurt and Joe Borough gets hurt. And it's like, well, the Ravens and Bengals go from really tough games to potentially winnable games. And now they look like tough games again.

Starting point is 00:07:35 And all of a sudden you kind of back to, oh, like maybe that path to the playoffs isn't quite as visible in there. But you know what? You should still be able to win some more games here and be a competitive, you know, quality team down the stretch, if not necessarily like a true deep postseason run type of contender. And I think that's a lot of Bengals fans fear. The Bengals have been 9 and 8 the past two years. And what do you have to show for it?

Starting point is 00:08:03 Well, you don't make the playoffs. You can say you've had a winning record, but you have crappy draft picks. They picked 18th, two years ago, the 17th last year. Like, you're like, well, what is it? We've wasted another year of Joe Burrow. Because they're just in different phases. Zach Taylor's in year seven, right? This is year six for Joe.

Starting point is 00:08:22 my goodness for Joe Burrow, right? Like it just, it feels much different than Caleb Williams year to, Ben Johnson, year one, building, Roma Dunzee, the way he started this year. Like, there's, they're in different phases of, of things, at least how they're being viewed now. You can say that, but this Bengals defense is in phase that they're square one. And I think that's what we should get to next. There's all of these matchups because boy, oh boy, when I look at that bear's offense, and I think about that firepower, and then I look at what's on the other side. I know.

Starting point is 00:08:56 I'm not saying they're a great offense every Sunday. But this Sunday, this Sunday they might be a great offense. We'll dive into that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is a daily fantasy the way it should be. You and I make decisions every day on prize picks. Being right can get you paid whether you're following the NFL, NBA, or both. There's no better time to jump in.

Starting point is 00:09:24 If you haven't tried it yet, prize picks is the simplest way to play. You pick more or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. It's that simple. So you think Caleb Williams is going to throw for a bunch of yards on that Bengals defense? Well, that's probably likely. Well, you go with the more on prize picks. You could combine that with Jamar Chase and his number of receptions, which he's had a ton of receptions over the past few weeks with Joe Flacco at quarterback. Download the price picks app today.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Use code locked on NFL. to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code Locked on NFL for $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup prize picks. It's good to be right. Today's episode is also brought to you by Monarch. Let's be honest, most of us can't even name all of our financial accounts, let alone what they're worth between 401Ks and savings accounts, investments. It's easy to lose track.

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Starting point is 00:11:13 key, well, different talent, different levels. Let's start, though, with that Bears' offense versus this Bengals defense. The Bengals, I'm not sure you can look worse in a fourth quarter with a double-digit lead than they did against the Jets. The thing, and I'm sure you've seen highlights and heard some of it and all of those things, who hasn't at this point? But the fact that the Jets were willing to run the ball with like nine minutes left, eight minutes left, down two scores, just gives you an idea of what they thought of this

Starting point is 00:11:42 Bengals run defense. How do you think Chicago will attack the Bengals, especially early on, on the road, trying to bounce back and get a win over the Bengals? I certainly know how it feels week one against the Vikings. the Bears also had a double-digit fourth quarter lead that they blew to J.J. McCarthy, who had the only good group of those played all season. So there's potential in both of these teams to screw things up, that's for sure. But Bears fans are wetting themselves right now and have been, for the last three days,

Starting point is 00:12:10 about Jamar Chase and T. Higgins trying to be covered by these Bears cornerbacks. And now the reinforcements came in Wednesday morning with CJ Gardner Johnson. That's their plan to upgrade the secondary right now. They just weren't having enough penalties. 11 last week. Wasn't enough. Ryan Poles wants to hit, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:27 12, 13, 14, 15. And it had some unnecessary roughnesses in there. But, you know, C.J. Gardner Johnson's going to come in and play the slot almost certainly so that they can have Nashan Wright and probably Nick McLeod play the outside cornerback spots. And I don't trust either one of them against, against either Jamar Chase or T.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Higgins. I honestly, like, just don't put either one in the slot ever because that's where the bear's best coverage is probably going to come on Sunday. But really there's this ripple effect that, I'm worried about in this game where the last couple weeks the Bears run defense has been better because they've gone more single deep safety loaded up the box with eight or nine guys and been able to trust those corners one-on-one a little bit more knowing that there's some risk there but you know they haven't been playing great receivers in you know with the Raiders and with commanders with Terry McLaur and even the Ravens a little bit last week they weren't that afraid of Zay Flowers but when it's T. Higgins and Jumar Chase you're going to play two deep safeties and you're going to take a guy out of the box which means they're going to be able to run the ball more which means they're not going to be able to get as much of a pass rush on Joe Flacko and then they can you you can have all day to slice and dice your bad cornerback so it's kind of just lose lose for chicago right now it's it's so wild that you go that route and i'm thinking of it the other way

Starting point is 00:13:33 and uh i i haven't looked in a couple of days at the fandal over under i last time i checked it was like a low 50s it might be a high scoring game there lord because yeah i i uh when you broke that down this bengal's offense has played well they they scored on seven of their final eight possessions against the Steelers in week seven, then week eight, they come back and score on their six of eight to start the game against the Jets. And there's a reason I keep saying they should have won the game. They had leads of 38, 24, 31, 16 in the fourth quarter over the Jets. And so, yeah, this offense has played well.

Starting point is 00:14:11 There's another gear it can get to. They need someone not named Jemar Chase, Chase, Chase Brown, and T. Higgins, to a lesser extent. He only had a couple of targets last week, but one was a 44-yard touchdown. They need someone else to step up in key moments when teams say, hey, we're taking away these guys. You are not going to be able to lean on them on this play. Well, they need Andre Yosevash to make a play or Noah Fan has made some plays. Maybe he's more involved. But with Mike Gisicki out, it's been a bit more limited in that department.

Starting point is 00:14:39 But yeah, I think I do think that this offense is good. I think the offensive line has discussed a ton. They've been better over the past few weeks. They've given Joe Flacco time, at least enough time. to get the ball to his weapons, and they've opened up running lanes for the Bengals. And that's been a big, big part of this, where Chase Brown has gotten going, some Ajie P. Ryan, I had some nice runs, including a 32-yard touchdown last week. In the past couple of weeks, one of the themes of this Bengals offense has been explosive runs,

Starting point is 00:15:12 chunk runs, 28 yards, 37 yards, and stuff that we just, we're not used to seeing on this offense because of the offensive line, because of how they are. the second level as well blocking. So yeah, if the bears give them the opportunity to run, I think the Bengals will be comfortable running the ball and going that route and then using that to open things up for Jamar Chase and company. Good news for the Bengals offensive line. This bear's pass rush might be as bad as the cornerbacks,

Starting point is 00:15:40 and they don't have an injury excuse there. Like Montez Sweat has been, I wouldn't say he's been bad. He's just not been as great as the bears need him to be. And then they don't have anything else. I mean, Dio Dengbo, their free agent signing has been a complete bust. The interior pass rush has been far, far lower than it needs to. Last week, Tyler Huntley had all day to just sit in the pocket and take his time. And I'm worried that even a much less mobile Joe Flacco will still be able to just sit back.

Starting point is 00:16:05 And as long as he doesn't put the ball in harm's way, the Bengals offense will be fine. Because this bear's defense lives and dies off of those turnovers. And if they don't get any, you're going to score pretty much. They're going to get touchdowns every drive, but you're going to finish with points on pretty much every drive. I think the the interceptions slash turnover's element is a big one with Flacco. He had a couple

Starting point is 00:16:26 near picks last week. We know what he's been in his career. He'll take chances. He'll put the ball in spots and he will turn the ball over. He hasn't with the Bengals. It's been wild learn. It's my biggest, I am not shocked that he can get the ball to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and the offense

Starting point is 00:16:42 looks better. I am stunned that we're three games in now to the Flacco experience. And there's no picks. There really weren't turnover worthy throws until this past week. And then there were a couple where I thought, where I deemed, I'm not saying PFF, but I deemed as like, oh, well, that could have sort of would have been picked. And that's how sustainable is that? Part of it is he's not been afraid to throw the ball away, to throw it into the ground. And the other part is, like I said, they've got the ground game going. They've been given him a decent amount of time to get the ball to

Starting point is 00:17:17 his weapons. And so we're clearly bullish on on both offenses here. I think this this Bengals defense, it's been the topic of, in the talk of every show this week that we've done, it will continue to be because I just don't know where the answers are. Like you have Trey Hendrickson and full disclosure, we're doing this show on Wednesday. We don't know the injury report. But if Trey plays Sunday, he's going to be less than 100%. And I think Trey's going to push to play because Trey Hendrickson's a madman. He pushed a play through this injury on Thursday night. But it might not, might not be enough. He might not be out there. But even if he is out there, they haven't had a sack from a defensive lineman since Jake Browning was still starting. It was week five.

Starting point is 00:18:02 Week five, their last sack was week six against Green Bay at Lambo, Gino Stone on a blitz. Like, they just have not been affecting the quarterback. So you think about Caleb Williams, he should have time to, and now these defensive linemen have heard it all week and like it has been coming down on them hard. But until they show us otherwise, I think he's going to have a lot of time to throw and move and play, make and do the things that he's done well throughout his football career. Yeah. Generally, this Bears offensive line has trended upward in recent weeks.

Starting point is 00:18:38 But I think last week against the Ravens, it was the blitz that they were just overloading a little bit too much and then the Bears had a little trouble consistently picking that up. But a straight four-man rush, they've been able to be pretty manageable there. It just, I think the other, the big things holding this Bears offense back right now that they're looking to sort of remedy against the Bengals is like, first of all, way too many of their own penalties, you know, false starts, legal formations, a couple of kind of phantom offensive pass interference penalties, but like still, they had 11 last week against Baltimore and about half on the offense, half on the defense.

Starting point is 00:19:08 And then like, there's still just little miscommunication things between quarterback and receivers where it's like he thinks DJ Moore's going to keep running around around and DJ Moore settles it behind his own and it's like well quarterback that throws to a spot the receiver is just not there or you know just kind of little little things like that or guys catch it underneath and just not being able to make the big plays or and Roman Dunes has one big drop every single week that just is really frustrating for Bears fans so I think Chicago is looking to just say hey can we sit back and run the ball and let Caleb just be a game manager make sure that's good enough and then when you need him to make a big play then he can but

Starting point is 00:19:41 Let's not make that the game plan for him to have to create everything by himself. But it's been a little bit easier said than done the last couple weeks. And I think they're looking for the wheels to be a lot more greased against Cincinnati to just kind of get Caleb Williams into a rhythm early and kind of let him cook from there. Yeah. That's rhythm. It might not take much. Put it that way.

Starting point is 00:20:01 It might not take much. But we will get into some keys what the bears need to do to beat the Bengals. What the Bengals need to do to beat the Bears and maybe build a little equity. with the fan base that is pretty out on the Bengals and rightfully. So we will get into that coming up next. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. And that's why Mazda's are perfect for you. My broadcast partner here on Locked on Bengals, Jake,

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Starting point is 00:20:53 crossover SUV so you can drive with confidence through almost any season. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda move and be moved. All right, Lauren, we've danced around both topics here, but let's dive in. If the bears get a win, if they put the ravens behind them, come to Cincinnati and deliver what I would say would be the death blow, not mathematically, but drop the Bengals to three and six. What do you think needs to happen? Yeah, so I'm fully expecting this is going to be a shootout, right? I mean, we're both, I think we're both on board there. I'm not expecting this bears to all of a sudden really dial in and shut everything down for Cincinnati. I think

Starting point is 00:21:45 I think it's a question of like, can they keep it reasonable enough? Because I'm also not expecting this Bears offense to put up 40 necessarily. I mean, I think it will look better for Chicago than what it has the last couple weeks on offense. But I still think, again, it's going to feel a little bit more like self-inflicted wounds there, where it's not as though, oh, Cincinnati's defense is making some big plays, but it's like they're doing just enough and also allowing the bears to get in their own way enough, where that can be the difference between, you know, 24 points and 35 points. And that's the difference between winning and losing a game like this, certainly.

Starting point is 00:22:20 So I'm expecting for Chicago to win, right? They just got to get out of their own way on offense and kind of just take whatever the Bengals defense is going to give them. And then that defense does need a turnover or two. Like even in some of their wins, their opponents, but the Raiders and the commanders win. Each of those teams punted one time in that game. Every other drive was either a score or a turnover.

Starting point is 00:22:38 The Bears need probably a couple of turnovers to be the main ways they'll find to stop this this bengals offense and if they don't then i you know i worry that you know like bengals are going to get up to the 35 38 mark and the bears aren't going to quite get that high yeah i totally get it i think the turnovers are a good point weird fun fact bengal safety third year safety jordan battle has three interceptions one in each of the bengals wins he didn't have one last week i should have known mid fourth quarter hey if jordan battle doesn't get a pick then then we know and so you'll know too if you see 27 with an interception on Sunday but then we know how the game is going to go and if not well then we know how the game is going to go no I I think turnovers are such a big deal and in the reason honestly the reason why they're such a big deal at least for the Bengals is when your margin for error is super slim and you know you're not going to get many stops getting one of those like they got a turnover on downs early last week and it felt like that was going to be the difference and propel them to victory and be just enough for the offense to do what it needed to do to take control of the game.

Starting point is 00:23:45 And then they decided not to tackle anyone. And so that's the biggest thing here. Can you play not be great on defense? And I'm not even saying stop the bears or keep them from 30 or anything like that. Can you just tackle? Can you make it sort of challenging and hard on them to operate offensively? And obviously that comes with pass rush. That comes with getting after Caleb making him uncomfortable.

Starting point is 00:24:08 But first things first, you can't give up 13 yards per care. in the fourth quarter or in any quarter in deandre so like if you do that well then it's it's really not going to matter it's all a moot point because it's going to open up everything and they have enough weapons in chicago and so yeah we'll we'll see there but that that's it it's all eyes on the defense and then offensively can they continue to do what they've done over the past couple of games with joe flacco still play turnover free football still push the ball downfield when needed when not take what's there move the chains possess the ball huge to do you do that. But I keep thinking about this because it came up against the Steelers a little bit because

Starting point is 00:24:48 of how bad the defense is and then in a big way against the Jets. You're going to need someone else to step up. It can't just be Jamar Chase and Chase and Chase Brown and Samadjapirine. And that's what it was last week. You need T. Higgins. And then there's going to be a play or two where it's going to have to be Andre Yosevasch or someone like that. And so do they have the horses to do that? to me it's a tall it really is like what a what a difference a fourth quarter makes i think if the fourth quarter goes the other way i've been like oh well yeah the bengals can win this game and get the five and four they're just really good on offense it's just when you when you lose like that it's it's really tough for me to wrap my head around you bouncing back and winning but it is the

Starting point is 00:25:29 NFL it is possible i'm not dismissing it but uh yeah i think it's it's going to take a a much different effort on defense for them to get a win I will say when it comes to Caleb Williams and turnovers, he takes really good care of the ball from a decision-making standpoint, but every game there will be at least one pass where it's inaccurate and it's interceptable. Like it's not like, oh, why did he throw it there? It's not why did he choose to target that receiver? It's why did he put the ball behind the receiver instead of in front of the receiver? Like that's been a little bit too frequent for him is just like a bad deletive. delivered ball, but not a bad decision to have thrown there in the first place had he put it where he was supposed to put it.

Starting point is 00:26:15 So I think it is a good chance that Cincinnati gets won here. And the bears can overcome that if they're not getting in their own way with penalties and all the other mistakes we talked about. But if they're struggling to run the ball and can't get things rolling from there, then that's when they can talk about that margin for error. Like that's when that becomes too much to overcome. I'm with you right there where like this feels like a coin toss game to me. I would not be surprised if the Bears win. I would not be surprised at the Bears lose. I find myself, I mean, I always, I have long been a pessimist when it comes to picking Bears games

Starting point is 00:26:46 because they've just beaten me down so often that they don't usually win the games that you think they're going to win. I do find myself feeling a little bit like the Bengals 30 second ranked defense is a little bit more of a true 30 second rank defense than the Ravens defense last week that was ranked 37th. Correct. Correct. The defense, they were coming off a biweek and they were getting healthier, whereas like, I don't know that the Bengals. defense is much different this week than it was against the Jets last week. So I'm more confident in the Bears offense putting up points. I think that as a result,

Starting point is 00:27:18 our defense can do a little bit better. So I'm, I lean Bears victory, but I think this is going to be one of those who possesses the ball last type of games. And Caleb Williams has been really good every fourth quarter. Like you get two minutes left in the game. He dials it and he is super sharp and clutch. Like even if he's been struggling the first half and three quarters of the game,

Starting point is 00:27:36 when it's go time, he has been phenomenal. And so I'm learning to trust that a little bit more than I distrust the bears who usually find ways to lose instead of finding ways to win. Yeah, one, I've never heard it put that way, but it makes like, they're the true 32nd rank defense. Yes, that's fair. It's well deserved.

Starting point is 00:27:57 No one with locked on Bengals or any of our listeners that I don't think any are going to, I want to speak for everybody, but argue with you there. This needs to be a kitchen sink game. for the Bengals because they're going into a buy. And if you're Zach Taylor and you want to salvage this season at all, you have to win. And so I would be pulling out. And he doesn't coach this way. Full disclosure, Bears fans.

Starting point is 00:28:20 He does not coach this way. But like any trick play, anything that you need to pull out to try to get, keep the ball out of Caleb Williams's hands with two minutes to go. If it's fourth and three at the 50, whatever, go for it. aggressive. I think he'll approach it with that mentality from an aggressive go for mindset, knowing what his defense is and knowing what the bears could do offensively. So we'll see. But yeah, like internally, that's how it should be externally. I think people are rolling their eyes at me saying that, like, they're already done. And I understand that. But internally, I would imagine, like, that's the approach. I totally get why you would lean bears.

Starting point is 00:29:01 I think a lot of locked on Bengals listeners are leaning bears. And it's up to the Bengals to prove us wrong on Sunday. It should be a fun one. I'm just hoping that we can see like some kind of progress from either of these teams. Wouldn't it be nice to just feel like, hey, like, you feel like they're making adjustments and growing and getting it just a little bit closer to progress there? I mean, it's, it's a lot to ask, but I imagine, imagine this becoming a defensive battle, just a little bit more than it currently is expected to be. I think it would be fun to watch. And I'm maybe most worried about a CJ Turner. Let me wrap up there. CJ Chauncey Gardner Johnson, which bangles, there is most likely going to get baited into an unnecessary roughness penalty by him being a jack a jerk oh i mean

Starting point is 00:29:45 naturally i think a lot of people would say jemar but i don't think jemar's like that like i think he's so dialed in that most of the time like i've seen him lose his control once in five years and and he got penalized in kansas city last year maybe jimar if he's not getting the ball and it like he's not getting the ball and they're not moving the ball on offense so it's like well what are we doing here. He doesn't care if tea catches it or whoever if they're moving it. He's staying there and look pretty, you know, but if it's if it's the other way. Yeah. So I would imagine you'd say Jamar, I don't think T's going to now. All bets are off if he's like borderline hits and things like that and really trying because then it's physical and then I,

Starting point is 00:30:26 you never know who's going to see red. But yeah, I mean, that's why you bring him here to bring him there, right, for some for some toughness, for a little edge, for a little jolt here mid-season. Like, I get the logic. I don't know if it'll work, but I get the logic. If you can't stop them, you might as well try and hurt them. I don't know. It used to be the Saints way with Bounty Gates,

Starting point is 00:30:45 so I just assume there's some lingering, some lingering, lingering. Please don't hurt the nice, shiny wide receivers that the Bengals have. We need to have some fun watching this football team this season. I think we should see some high-fly in action, and it should make for at least a more entertaining back-and-forth shootout, but hopefully not as painful as losing to the Jets would be.

Starting point is 00:31:04 That's for sure. that was the they rip your heart out in front of you and end your season type of loss. We'll see, though. And we're going to have you covered every step of the way on locked on Bengals and locked on bears. Both teams looking to bounce back. We'll see who does for Lauren Cox. I'm James Rapine. Thank you so much for watching and listening to a special locked on crossover,

Starting point is 00:31:27 locked on Bengals, locked on bears.

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