Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Can the Bengals get their stars going in primetime against the Denver Broncos?

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals need their stars to shine bright under the Monday Night Football lights in Denver. From Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to Chase Brown and Trey Hendrickson—James Rapien and Ja...ke Liscow discuss Cincinnati’s keys to victory! They also talk about Jake Browning, Jalen Rivers possibly starting at right guard, a defense that has to starter faster against the struggling Bo Nix and more!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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Can the Cincinnati Bengals break out of their offensive funk in week four? It's about time to get out of that slow start. Let's break it down. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liscoe.
Starting point is 00:00:32 He's James Rapine, and we are your host of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. collectively bringing you up-to-date daily information and analysis about your Cincinnati Bengals since 2016. So it's the best one-stop shop on the internet for everything going on with those Cincinnati Bengals. And the everydayers already know it. Shout out to the everydayers and all of you who make us your first listen. Today we dive into a preview of the Bengals Week for Monday night football contest in Denver, in which one of the biggest stories to me, James, is that the Bengals need to find a way to get their stars on offense going. We've talked a lot about the run game.
Starting point is 00:01:11 We've talked a lot about the offensive line. Obviously, Jake Browning is not Joe Burrow, who, by the way, finally posted something on Friday, talking about how the game will break your heart. And I'm sure a lot of Bengals fans had a little broken heart reaction to Joe reminding them about the game breaking their heart. At least that was my reaction a little bit when I read the caption, James. But despite not having Joe, they need. to find ways to get going on offense. They do. By the way, my takeaway was, told you he's going to come back if they're in it,
Starting point is 00:01:42 which means Monday night is huge. And it means that next week is huge and that all of these games, which, spoiler, are huge. And yeah, they have to get going on offense. It's still the strength of the team. It is. And it needs to be. Why? Well, I'll give you a Jamar Chase and a T. Higgins and a Chase Brown.
Starting point is 00:02:00 And that needs to be the strength of the team. what carries them. And so when your back is against the wall and you're playing a desperate team that is really, really good defensively, well, how do you get out of your funk and get into a rhythm and get to a rhythm early and get your stars involved? Well, it's much, much easier said than done. Guess what? It's our job to say it, not do it.
Starting point is 00:02:25 It's Zach Taylor's job to do it and Dan Pitcher's job to do it and Jake Browning and all the players. And so the extra day, I think, helps because it gives them a little more time. It gave them a little more time this week to breathe, to collect themselves, and to regroup. And I do think that in the past, and you could go back to 2023. We talked about this the other day, Jake Browning regrouped after getting crushed by the Steelers and went on the road on Monday night football and played well. I think that's possible here, certainly. But finding those answers,
Starting point is 00:03:05 finding and pushing the right buttons for this coaching staff, and then the players going out and executing, there's a lot of questions. And to me it does start offensively. You need to be productive early in this game because the last thing you want is to get into a funk or stay in your funk, have the crowd get into it like last week,
Starting point is 00:03:25 and you're looking up and you're looking around, and it's a two-possession game when you finally feel like you're getting into a little bit of a rhythm. That's no recipe for success. Yeah, and then as soon as you get into a rhythm, you turn the ball over on three out of four plays or start to find something that is working on offense, maybe getting into a rhythm was too generous.
Starting point is 00:03:43 It's worth pointing out as well when you revisit the way Jake Browning played against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2023 in his first start that it was worse than he played against the Vikings. Yes. I know he didn't play well against the Vikings, But it was an absolute mess against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He ends up with 8.7 yards per attempt. He ends up completing 73% of his passes, sure,
Starting point is 00:04:08 but he also put the ball in danger a ton, three turnover-worthy plays in that game as charted by Pro Football Focus, including a fumble of his own in that game. The next game, he completes 86 and a half percent of his passes for 9.6 yards per attempt in a touchdown. no turnovers 32 for 37 86% pretty good in his second start he was obviously thrust into the game against Baltimore in week 11 when he was kind of you know not great not terrible but the bounce
Starting point is 00:04:43 back the next week is is what we're hanging our hats on here and saying that this has happened before it could happen again not that it will happen again because I do think that this Denver defense on the other side is a little bit different. than the Jacksonville defense in 2023, even though, as we've pointed out, I know it's Jacksonville, and you hear, oh, yeah, it's Jacksonville, who cares, it's Jacksonville. They were in contention at the time of that game,
Starting point is 00:05:07 pushing for the one seed in the AFC at that moment, and then the Bengals went out there and rode a Jake Browning performance to a big game, but the numbers for Jamar Chase, I saw, I think it was Hayden Wink's fantasy tweet. Jamar Chase has, I think, once when Jake Browning was a quarterback, which isn't a whole lot of games. Obviously, these guys haven't played together a bunch, but once posted a top 30 wide receiver fantasy day with Jake Browning at quarterback. And I know it's fantasy football, but it kind of puts into perspective the production or lack thereof that the Bengals have achieved with Jamar Chase as good as we have seen him be with Jake Browning at quarterback. and that's why to me it starts with getting your stars going,
Starting point is 00:05:54 finding ways with Jake Browning to still feature your best player now on the team. I think there's a debate between Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, when both guys are healthy. But right now it's Jamar because Joe isn't there. And you cannot have Jamar Chase not putting up top 30 fantasy days. That means he's not being productive enough with Jake Browning a quarterback. No doubt. It's not a Jamar Chase issue, to be clear.
Starting point is 00:06:18 That's like get Jamar Chase productive. everyone else involved. For sure. And I think it's, I don't know if it's the matchup of the game because you could look at the offensive line. The matchup that I love the most is Jamar Chase versus the writing defensive player of the year, right? Triple Crown Chase versus DPOI Certain. And I think that that's going to be such a fun, a fun matchup. But you're right. It's, it needs to be that simple, even if it's going to be harder in, it's much easier said than done. You've got to get Jamar involved. He's got to be a factor. Your stars need to be stars. When your back is against the wall or you're struggling, what do we say when Joe's out there? Well, you're going to have to
Starting point is 00:07:06 lean more on Joe. Joe's going to have to find a way to make a player too. Well, now it's on Jamar. Jamar's going to have to win that matchup and win it, win it pretty handedly. I think T. Higgins is going to have to win his matchup by a lot. And those are just things that need to happen because it's unfair to say, all right, at least I feel this way. Hey, Jalen Rivers or hey, Dylan Fairchild, or hey, even Ted Caris, go dominate that Denver defensive front. Like, that's not going to happen. It doesn't mean they can't hold their own, right? But you're not going to dominate there.
Starting point is 00:07:43 So where can you clearly win and clearly have the edge? It needs to be at receiver. it needs to be your top weapons. And that includes Chase Brown. And so getting your stars involved early, which is something they did not do against the Vikings, productive early, getting a few first downs. Not only will it get them in the mix,
Starting point is 00:08:03 it's going to get Jake Browning into maybe a little bit of a rhythm. It's going to build a little momentum. It'll take the crowd out a little bit. Like all of those things are all factors. And so, yeah, finding a way to get number one, the ball. It's going to be the case every week. but certainly this week on the road in a really, really big game. It's huge to do.
Starting point is 00:08:24 And part of the reason we're talking about this is because of the history that I just brought up and because it wasn't a huge game for Jamar last week. He obviously had his moments, but they just haven't gotten this offense going all year. Jamar Chase did produce with Jake Browding and Joe Burrow, both of them, in week two. And so getting that kind of production, I mean, doesn't need to be. that big of a game, but you get the idea. They need to find a way to get this offense going. They need to find a way to start building confidence in the trenches at quarterback with
Starting point is 00:08:56 these wide receivers that have done it before and aren't lacking for confidence because they have the skins on the wall. But this year, through three weeks, the offense has not gotten out of its own way. It's one of the worst offenses in the NFL, if not the worst offense, depending on which measure you look at, which is an insane thing to say about this team. based on its recent history, based on what we know the offense can be. But a lot of this, once again, James is going to come down to the offensive line. And I know we talked about it a lot last week.
Starting point is 00:09:28 We talked about it a lot on our last show of the week last week as the Bengals were returning to practice. But it's still something that we need to talk about today. Because once again, as you allude to, they're not going to necessarily dominate there, but they need to be better. They need to survive at a higher rate than they start. survived against Minnesota. They cannot be dominated. And so let's pivot, let's talk offensive line, this difficult trench matchup that we started to get to as a Bengals return to practice on Thursday,
Starting point is 00:10:00 dive back in here, then get to what needs to happen on the defensive side of the ball to finish up this show coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is daily fantasy the way it should be. Every day we make decisions, but on prize picks being right can get you paid. Don't miss the excitement of this football season with prize picks where it's good to be right. Playing prize picks is fun. The reason why I say it's daily finish the way it should be is because you just pick more or less on player projections. Maybe it's Josh Allen. Maybe it's Sequin Barclay. Maybe you do go with a Jake Browning Jamar Chase stack. Regardless, you go more or less and you can make your lineup in under a minute. You pick two to six players and boom,
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Starting point is 00:12:08 Jake, and, you know, build that confidence a little bit. They're going to have to. No, I won't know. I said maybe they should, right? Look, I think I'm not sure it would hurt, put it that way. And they certainly have to be much better than last week. But I think you put it the right way. You can't get dominated.
Starting point is 00:12:28 It needs to be like even if you lose the matchup, it needs to be like 60, 40, not like 99 to 1 or 95 to 5 or like whatever the score would have been last. And it was probably in that range, certainly in the first half when the game was still sort of hanging in the balance. that's a clear factor here because even if Jamar is great and wins his matchup and he wins his matchup, if it's 99 to 1 in the trenches, well, that's not good enough. It needs to be 70, 30, 60, 40, something like that where you're giving Jake enough time, Chase Brown, enough space to make place. It's been such a problem this year, James. It's the reason that when we were talking about this team in the preseason,
Starting point is 00:13:15 We were talking about how on paper they had these guys put together that with Dylan Fairchild's promising start in the preseason, with what we know Ted Karas was, with Orlando Brown's track record, the way he was playing last year before he got injured, with Amarius Mims potentially taking a second year leap, even with the questions of right guard. There were for the, I don't know, fourth year in a row, third year in a row, discussions in the preseason about, yeah, paper this looks like it should be a good you know improvement to the offensive line and despite all that people maybe didn't like to hear it maybe didn't hear it very clearly but i was like i'll believe it when i see it like yeah on paper sure you can see it we can see the arguments for it and there were reasons to be somewhat encouraged but every year we've made this argument it got to the point that it was like full me, full me twice, pull me three times,
Starting point is 00:14:17 not going to fool me again, you know? And I feel like that's why I set expectations way I did in the preseason, regardless of how we felt in the preseason, it's not like it ever gets easier in this league. And this week is another example of that.
Starting point is 00:14:34 We've talked about Nick Benito, the speed matchup that Nick Benito brings and the challenge that he will pose for Orlando Brown, who needs to be ready for a guy that's 240 pounds, he's 100 pounds on Nick Benito, but Nick Benito might beat him in a race. Yep, throw him. Orlando put his ass in the stands, honestly.
Starting point is 00:14:56 That needs to be the mindset is I'm just going to be so physical. And this goes for Amarius, this goes for all of these guys. We're going to be so physical that it doesn't matter. You can run, you could do your little quick, it doesn't matter. I'm going to be so physical with you, even if you do win with that speed, it's not going to be super clean and it's going to give Jake a chance or Chase Brown a chance and it's much, much easier
Starting point is 00:15:19 said than done for me to say it that way. But our job is to say it. Like you said, I like that line. That's a good line. It is. Like, that is our job. You know? And that's, look,
Starting point is 00:15:31 I'm not the one that has to deal with blocking him, but you got to block him. And that's the job. And in finding ways to win, well, how does Orlando Brown Jr. win? well, he's going to win with physicality, right? And Amarius is more athletic, but both of those guys need to be extremely physical,
Starting point is 00:15:50 this entire offensive front. They need to, I know I mentioned 6040 is like a reasonable outcome that you would take from a who wins. From a physicality standpoint, the Bengals need to be at least as physical, if not more physical. And that will lead to them getting to that 60-40 mark.
Starting point is 00:16:12 Because if they're not, they're a little more passive. If they're getting just beaten off the line right away, like that can't happen. Like Orlando is going to have to play big and let Nick Bonito feel him early and often. Well, and like you said, it's all these guys. And it's being more certain about your assignments, not having unblocked, unblocked defenders in the A gap because you didn't block the right player. You didn't block the nose tackle. Can't have those mistakes two weeks in a row.
Starting point is 00:16:42 And you can't be getting shoved into the backfield. And I can't imagine being more motivated than this offensive line should be this week to, I don't know if avenge is the right word, but to reclaim some honor, I guess. Like they were not good last week. They know they weren't good last week. Ted Karras talked about this in the locker room. Everyone to watch the film knows that it was not good last week. Zach Taylor's up there trying to say, like,
Starting point is 00:17:09 you don't really want to be talking about the lack of physicality in the run game. You don't really want to have to, you know, Zach Taylor's having a hard time talking around it when asked about the run game. Hopefully, that lights a fire under them and that helps. I mean, I still think, obviously, talent, preparation, your technique, like all those things are what matters when it comes down to actually playing football. But hopefully that extra bit of fire, extra bit of motivation, starts to play out this week. and we see some improvement because if we don't see improvement,
Starting point is 00:17:41 I've talked a lot about this death spiral idea, James. Like if they don't get better in the trenches starting this week with Detroit and Aiden Hutchinson coming next week with Michael Parsons, Rishon, Gary, Green Bay coming the next week after that, like it's not getting easier, man. No time soon. Does it get easier? And it's so important for this office to start figuring things out
Starting point is 00:18:04 before the season totally just evaporates. in the first quarter of the season. All lies on the offense. Top to bottom. Stars need to be stars. By the way, Orlando Brown Jr. is a pro bowling. Amarius Mim's first round pick. They need to be stars. And that's part of it.
Starting point is 00:18:21 Now, are there levels to it? Of course. I'm not expecting Orlando or Amaris to be Jamar. But they need to be like your fifth and sixth best players on offense, right? Or third or fourth or whatever. But they need to be higher. They can't be 10 and 11. And that's what's tough, is the Broncos are set up.
Starting point is 00:18:43 Let's say one of your guards is 10th on 1 through 11 on your offense. Broncos are set up to take advantage of that. And it's not just Bonito. It's all the depth that we talked about on our last show on the interior, and whether it's Franklin Myers or all these veterans that are really good. I just, I think this is a really tough test. But the Bengals should play angry, and they should be angry. And I think they are angry, by the way, this offensive line.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And they should be because it was embarrassing. And they know that. They hear it. They see it. And I think that's a good thing. And so we're going to see, like from top to bottom, how Zach Taylor adjusts, how Jake Browning responds, how Jamar and these guys respond to this offensive line. Your response to adversity and poor performances, that says a lot about who you are. coaches and players. And so we're going to find out, I think a lot about this team, find out a lot
Starting point is 00:19:40 about this team and this offense on Monday night. Yeah, need to. Need to figure out how they're going to answer another defensive challenge. And it just continues. It's so important that they start to find some momentum and get out of September with some semblance of confidence on offense. On the other side of the ball, you got Bo Nix, who's been one of the worst, if not the worst quarterback in the NFL this year, despite how he played against the Bengals last year. That's something the Bengals need to take advantage of when those opportunities present themselves. We'll go to the defense to finish up this game preview coming up next. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade with five-hour energy.
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Starting point is 00:22:19 Bo Nicks. Both teams in this game are going to be largely single high teams. The Broncos, just to finish up on their defense, going to play a little bit more quarters judging from what they've done this year, but the Bengals have been mostly with Al Golden, cover three, cover six, cover one team, a bunch of
Starting point is 00:22:35 single high, ends up middle of field, closed, defenses for the most part. Cover six is where you play. Cover two on one side, cover four and the other side. So I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be calling that single high. Point is they're both single high dominant
Starting point is 00:22:51 teams. Bo Nix, coincidentally, has played mostly against single high coverages this year. 51 of his dropbacks, according to True Media Pro Football Focus charting coming against cover three coverages. And against those, he's a pass rating of just 75,
Starting point is 00:23:09 This are in two interceptions, just 6.6 yards per attempt. Against cover two, the numbers are even worse, but the Bengals haven't run a whole lot of cover two. So I'm focusing on that cover three matchup, and then I'm focusing on, well, what if you can get pressure to Bo Nix? One of the best pass blocking offensive lines in football. Under pressure this year,
Starting point is 00:23:27 Bo Nix has an 8.8% turnover-worthy play rate. That's a lot of plays where if you can get pressure to Bo Nix, you have about a one out of ten chance to get Bonix to give you a chance to take the ball away. You get 10 pressures in a game, it's a pretty good chance of creating a turnover if you're the Cincinnati Bengals. Easier said than done, again, that's I guess the theme of the show today, against an offensive line that's been really good. But Bo Nix in general, one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL in terms of putting the ball in danger so far this year. Small sample size, only three games.
Starting point is 00:23:58 But we talked on Friday, James, about the opportunity for this team to turn the script on its head a little bit with takeaways, with even special teams play. but Bo Nix is where that starts if you're this defense. It does. It does. And if you, I think back, as you were describing that,
Starting point is 00:24:16 I was like, man, can you imagine a big, a big interception and a prime time situation? And I thought back to 2014, when Jay Kirkpatrick did it to the Broncos and Peyton Manning. And it's,
Starting point is 00:24:30 that's a random thought. But that's what they're going to need. They're going to need a few big defensive plays, a few big splash plays that you're like, oh, man, Dax Hill did that or Jordan Battle or Gino Stone. And so what's the easiest way? The easiest way is to get pressure.
Starting point is 00:24:44 And this begins and ends with Trey Hendrickson. Stars need to be stars. But the Broncos know that too. And they're going to do everything they can to make sure Trey Hendrickson doesn't impact Bo Nix. So who else is there? You're not going to have Shamar Stewart. He was at practice this week.
Starting point is 00:24:57 But I think that he has a shot, I think, to play against Detroit. But not realistic to come back this soon. But can my, Miles Murphy built on what he did last week. Can Joseph Osai? It was Chris Jenkins going to continue to do what he's done to this point. We saw BJ Hill week one. I thought he was pretty disruptive. Maybe it's him. I don't care who it is, to be quite frank with you. But someone's got to get after Boe Nix, make him uncomfortable. And then when they have the opportunity, this secondary has to cash in or these linebackers have to cash in. It's been a weird week for Logan Wilson. How does Logan respond to the questions and the possible rotation? and all that stuff. I just, I think there are a lot of guys that could really prove something on Monday night. And you could go one of two ways,
Starting point is 00:25:49 like proven veterans like a Joseph Osai, like a Logan Wilson. Maybe Osai is a little less proven, of course, but he's still a veteran fifth year, or a guy that's trying to explode on the scene like Chris Jenkins Jr. Or Barrett Carter or Miles Murphy or some of these other guys. But this defense, if the Bengals win on Monday night, Jake,
Starting point is 00:26:10 there's going to be at least two to three big splash plays, turnover, sacks, big tackles for loss, situations that we're probably talking about postgame. Yeah, there's probably things that we're not anticipating that would happen to. And that's why I brought out special teams
Starting point is 00:26:24 and weird stuff. But again, like, I thought last week would be weird. I thought week one, maybe a little bit of weirdness because you're in Cleveland. I thought week two would be more normal. And despite Joe's injury,
Starting point is 00:26:37 from a football perspective, if you ignored the injury, it was kind of a roughly more normal football game. A lot of turnovers, it was sloppy, but it was a little bit more normal. I think you get a step back toward normal this week. And so when you have a normal football game, is really capitalizing on those margins and finding those plays. But again, from a matchup perspective, like Marvin Mims Jr., we saw how that speed killed them last year.
Starting point is 00:27:07 And this year, Bo Nix has had multiple opportunities to get Marvin Mince for touchdowns when he's gotten behind defenses. Has been able to connect on those, not nearly enough. His deep accuracy this year has left a lot to be desired. And we talked about the weapons. It goes all the way down to Troy Franklin. Obviously, Cortland Sutton is still the leader in that receiver room. But you got to deal with those guys. You got to get pressure after Bonnix.
Starting point is 00:27:35 And despite all that, you got to deal with J.K. Dobbins in the run game, which hasn't been consistent for Denver. That's if you ask anyone who talks about the Denver Broncos, pays attention to the Denver Broncos. The run game hasn't been consistent, but it has been explosive. J.K. Dobbins has 120 yards on just five of his carries this year. On his other 36 carries, he only has about 120 yards, or 100 yards, sorry. But if you hold him to three yards to carry on, say, 90% of his carries and he busts off 2.30-yard runs, you're probably still in a pretty bad place.
Starting point is 00:28:09 If you're this Bengals offense and Denver has, just like every team has, seeing the Bengals deficiencies in defending runs to the edge need to be better at defending runs to try to bounce outside. That's been a theme all year. Needs to start to see some of those fixes this week in addition to the first drive issues we've seen from this defense this week, if they want to pull this upset off.
Starting point is 00:28:32 For sure. First drive is huge. I agree. Three and out. three and out. If they could do that, that would be huge. Also, you mentioned the name Troy Franklin, and I can't help but think what I coulda, coulda, shoulda, they didn't,
Starting point is 00:28:44 and it makes me mad. And every day, or is that remember last year's draft, would remember that. But yeah, could you imagine if I'm sitting there in Denver, Bowdo Nix drops back and finds Troy Franklin? I'm going to be annoyed, Jake. So don't let, don't let that happen,
Starting point is 00:29:01 especially because they passed on him twice for two guys that are going to be in active on Monday night. And so that's a whole other, that's a whole other conversation. But yeah, slowing down the run. And this includes R.J. Harvey, who hasn't been, is in the mixes, I think some thought he would as a rookie. You don't want to be the team that let's Bo Nix get going deep downfield
Starting point is 00:29:24 or let's the rookie running back go. And it's like, oh, remember that breakout game against the Bengals on Monday night? And I think a lot of fans, but when you just have, oh, he's in a slump or, you know. they instantly think, well, continue that slump. Don't let that slump buster be this Bengals defense. So that's a huge key. And I think that's why early, if you don't let Bowenix drive down field,
Starting point is 00:29:45 get a touchdown, build some confidence. That could go a long way to setting the tow. Don't be the get right team this year for opposing quarterbacks. They managed to hold up against, I mean, honestly, Carson once didn't play all that well. They've managed to make Trevor Lawrence pay for his mistakes a number of times in that Jaguars game. That's why they've won the game. Don't be the get right team for opposing quarterbacks. I feel like that was the case much too often last year
Starting point is 00:30:10 as this defense really struggled throughout the season. And Bo Nix has a need for a get-right game. Don't beat that game. That's all we're asking. We're just saying things that are easier said than done here, as that is the theme of this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. We'll be back with you after the game on Monday night football. And hopefully the Bengals can find a bowl.
Starting point is 00:30:34 way to write this ship. And we can talk about the adjustments they've made, the solutions they found during the one extra day of prep for Monday night football to get this season under Jake Browning back on track as Joe Burrow is trying to get back. That's what he said on Instagram anyway. We'll see you soon. Can't be soon enough, Joe. Until next time, that's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Thanks for listening. Who day and have a good one. Thank you.

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