Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Can the Cincinnati Bengals' defense right the ship against Andy Dalton's Carolina Panthers? | Week 3 First Look

Starting point is 00:00:01 One city's named after a queen. The other one is not. It's week four. It's Panthers Bingles. It's a locked on NFL crossover Thursday here on Locked on Panthers and Locked on Bingles. You are locked on NFL crossover. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Welcome in to another edition of the Locked on Panthers and Locked on Bingles podcast. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, where you can listen to all the Panthers and Bingles coverage every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Your team every day. That's our motto here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Subscribe or follow our shows for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Today is crossover Thursday presented by our friends over at Price Fix. Go to PricePix.com slash Lockdown NFL and use code all lowercase, lockdown NFL to win $50. instantly when you play $5.

Starting point is 00:01:09 I'm Julian Counsel, the host of Locked on Panthers, joined by Jake Liscoe, one of the hosts of Locked on Bengals, the one and two Panthers facing off against the, shockingly 0 and 3 Cincinnati Bengals at 1 o'clock here in Bank of America Stadium in Uptown. Charlotte, Jake, how you doing, man? Oh, great. As great as an O and 3 team could be on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, whenever the folks are listening to this episode,

Starting point is 00:01:34 we're bad. We're down bad. The defensive line is bad. We're going to talk about these things. Personally, I'm doing okay. The Bengals not doing okay. Yeah, I have a coworker here in Charlotte, who's a Bengals fan. And I talked to him on Tuesday morning asking after that loss against Washington on Monday night, how are you doing?

Starting point is 00:01:52 He's like, nope, I'm done. He honestly said he was done with the team, Jake, after the week one lost against a New England. So maybe he just wasn't into it at all this season. I have another friend from Ohio who's a big Bengals fan. He's refusing to talk to me this week, which is fine. I'm sure if the result goes his way, I'm going to hear from him around 410 Eastern Time on Sunday. Looking at this team, like they're 0-and-3.

Starting point is 00:02:15 I did not expect when looking at the schedule that the Bengals would be an 0-3 football team when they came to Charlotte. I was expecting to see a team that looked like an AFC title contender. And they may very well be at the end of the day. So what's the biggest story and what's led to this 0-and-3 start for the Bengals, just looking at the offensive side of the ball to start off? Yeah, the offensive side of the ball to start off. Yeah, the offensive side of the ball, you can say that things look fine and they looked as they should against what I thought was the worst defense in the league until the Bengals defense challenged that assumption on Monday night football.

Starting point is 00:02:47 The commanders don't have a good defense either. And so the Bengals did what they should have done against that defense. They scored or had a field goal attempt miss on every drive. The missed field goal attempt and missed two-point conversion where there was a clear DPI penalty as Bengals fans are aware. could have made a difference, maybe, but it's hard to make an argument that you had any business being in that game when your defense literally couldn't get a single stop.

Starting point is 00:03:11 Literally, a single stop. You got a football once. The first time was what, 1940, there was not a punt or a turnover in an NFL game, right? Is that what I saw? I believe so. It's also a number of firsts. And I think Lockdown Bengals listeners have heard this,

Starting point is 00:03:27 but teams had never lost when scoring three touchdowns and not turning the ball not punting or something like that. Teams have never lost when going for the amount of yards the Bengals went for, not turning the ball over. Teams, the Chiefs became the first team to win in that situation of yards and points and turnover differential and third down percentage.

Starting point is 00:03:50 So the Bengals have been on the wrong side of some like 101 or 201 now statistics in the last two weeks. So you can very easily make an argument that says this team shouldn't probably. be 0 and 3. You can make an argument that says they were a play away from winning in week 1. They were a DPI away from winning in week 2. They were literally one stop. That's all they needed for potentially winning in week 3. But even if they've played better than their record in some facets of the game, even if they have these arguments to make, they're 0 and 3. And in the NFL, you are what your record is. And so it is time to panic in Cincinnati. The

Starting point is 00:04:32 margin for error does not exist the rest of the way. And suddenly the Panthers look competent with a quarterback who doesn't have to jump every time he throws a ball. Yeah, suddenly, all of a sudden, one of the famous sons, if he still is in Cincinnati, Andy Dalton is the quarterback here in Carolina. We'll, of course, get over to that in a moment. We talk with the Panthers side of things. And yeah, man, like, it's interesting to me because I was looking at this team,

Starting point is 00:04:54 Cincinnati, and just under Zach Taylor, five out of six years. They've started off O and two. This is the second time they have started off O and three. like what Gibbs? Like why can the bingles outside of, I guess, 2021, when you went, was 21 or 22, I think the year went to the sewer rolls. The only time you got off the ground in September.

Starting point is 00:05:11 Like, why can't they ever start off without having all these issues? It's different things every year and years past. It's been, you know, Joe Burrow hasn't had a training camp. He had an appendectomy and he missed training camp. He was coming off the ACL, had a limited training camp. He had the calf last year and he couldn't move for the first. four or five weeks of the season. And so in the past, we've mostly chalked it up to Joe Burrow has had some sort of ailment

Starting point is 00:05:39 in the summer or the early part of the season. And as a result, the offense and Joe Burrow haven't looked good to start the season. And Joe Burrow didn't look good in week one. It looked a little bit better in week two. He looked really good on Monday night football this week. He looks like himself, contrary to what some on the social media apps would have you believe. And some people for some reason have chosen this week to nitpick Joe Burroughs

Starting point is 00:06:01 game when the team just scored 30. Oh my God. I saw that. Yeah, on ESPN. Like, what are we doing here? Yeah, I mean, it's two. It's not, it wasn't just Shannon. It was also whoever is on the morning show. I can't remember. You probably, yeah, that, that was insane to me when I saw that. We don't like to acknowledge those as serious individuals. So we, we don't need to. But in years past, it's always been a, well, Joe Burrow can't start fast. And this year, it's a, well, Joe Burrow was there for all of training camp and didn't miss time and is a full participant in all the practices. And if there are lingering effects from the wrist, they're not meaningfully, in my opinion, impacting his play at this point. In week one, he was sped up and his eyes

Starting point is 00:06:48 dropped. He became a runner in the pocket. The way that we were used to seeing Andy Dalton kind of crumble in the facial pressure when he was in Cincinnati back in the day at this point because it's been a while. But that is not something that we got used to with Joe Burrow. And it's always taking him a little bit of time to kind of get comfortable with the speed of the game and get those reps under his belt. But we've always kind of chalked that up to he's not had training camp in the past. This year, there was a little bit of that in week one. And then the inevitability or the DPI or whatever you want to say, make one more play, hold on to the ball, Joe, whatever you want to point to in week two. And then all of a sudden, this thing that we've been fearing all year that they didn't do enough to backfill for the loss of Jesse Bates and DJ Reader.

Starting point is 00:07:31 And even Chinobe of Uzié, who they lost to an ACL before they lost him from the team. And suddenly the defensive front has no talent. And in their defense, BJ Hill, Sheldon Rankins couldn't play last week. They've got hamstring injuries. A couple years ago, first round pick Miles Murphy on, or last year's first round pick, Miles Murphy on injured reserve right now. This year's fourth, sorry, second third round pick, McKinley Jackson, also on injured reserve. So they got four defensive linemen that are unavailable last week.

Starting point is 00:07:59 But the defensive line did not look like an NFL. NFL caliber players. And as I said, somewhere last week, I don't remember where exactly it was. If you can take Trey Hendrickson away, the Bengals have literally nothing on the defensive line right until somebody steps up and shows that they can do something as a pass rush. If you're watching Monday night football, Jane Daniels is throwing from, as it's been described, college pockets, or as Troy Aikman called it, he's essentially playing seven on seven on seven. I don't care who you are. If you're able to play seven on Sundays in the NFL, you're going to dice up a defense.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Yeah, and Dice Up, he did. I was watching that game. It was impressive, but man, that was so depressing to see it. Now, you talk about the injuries and maybe even kind of the devoid of talent in certain spots on that defensive front of the Bengals and in the back in, are they able to write the ship, you think? Or is this just going to be what this defense is going to be in 2024? Well, I don't think any secondary is holding up when a quarterback can sit in the pocket for

Starting point is 00:08:54 three seconds. And it's a big pocket. And he's not throwing because he has to. He's throwing because he's hitting a third wind. on a slant. I mean, I've never seen, I don't think of the,

Starting point is 00:09:03 I mean, maybe it's technically a second window, but Christian McAfree, or not Christian, his brother, Luke McAfrey, Luke takes a slant. I think it,

Starting point is 00:09:10 I mean, it felt like a third window. You know how there's like a first window on a slant, and then you clear the first lineback, you get a second window. It was on the other side of the other side of the numbers. It's like video game stuff, right,

Starting point is 00:09:21 where you wait for the slant to get all the way to the other sideline. Yeah. That's what it was. So I think that the back seven is okay. I feel fine about those guys for the most part. They maybe need a little bit more speed at safety. They maybe need a little bit more physicality overall. But for me, the root of the issue right now is a defensive front,

Starting point is 00:09:40 just not having enough depth, not having enough talent across the board, and injuries also depleting that further. Well, that's not ideal for the Bengals as their 0 and 3, but they are coming to Charlotte where I'm expecting, considering all the Ohioans who live here in the area, there will be, I'm not going to say, a partisan bingles crowd, but there's going to be plenty of bingles fans in there and possibly making it a neutral site, which is unfortunate.

Starting point is 00:10:05 But that's because David Tapper has done a terrible job with this organization and a lot people are checked out. But after what they saw from what panther fans keep calling the Red Rocket, it's the Red Rifle people. So stop saying the Red Rocket. What they saw from the Red Rifle, Andy Dalton, your boy on Sunday has people excited about what this team potentially could do after just one win at Las Vegas. We'll talk about the Panther side of things here in this week for,

Starting point is 00:10:28 I'm Julian counsel. Host of Lockdown Panthers. He's Jake Liskill host of Lockdown, Bengletons. It's a lockdown NFL crossover Thursday, and we'll be back right here in just a moment. Football season is back. And the best way to get to games this fall is with Game Time. Game Time has a new feature called Game Time Picks. That makes getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier.

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Starting point is 00:11:39 I'm Julian Counsel. Those of Locked on Panthers, he's Jake Liskill, one of the two hosts of Locked on Bengals. James Rapine is busy doing journalistic work at Bingles practice as we're recording this, but that's not important. You'll talk to them on Friday as you guys talk more about this on Locked on Bingles. The matchup here, week four between the O and three Bengals and the one and two. Carolina Panthers. And as shocking as the Bengals are in three after the first two weeks of the season here, Jake, it's shocking that the Carolina Panthers sitting here at one and two.

Starting point is 00:12:07 And Andy Dalton became the first quarterback in the NFL this season to throw over 300 yards and three touchdowns in a game. How is the feeling there in Cincinnati? Because we were talking about this via X DMs or Twitter DMs, whatever you want to call it, about Andy Dalton always finding a way to play the Bengals. What are the feelings about Andy Dalton all these years after? He spent that, what, nine years in Cincinnati? Well, there's no ill will for Andy. I think that it was just the end of his time in Cincinnati. He had a great run.

Starting point is 00:12:36 It was very unfortunate that his best year was cut short by a thumb injury in 2015. When he was legitimately putting up MVP-level numbers in the Hugh Jackson offense, and that team looked like the best version of the Andy Dalton years. And like they have had issues with Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton, they seem to be having issues right now with, the beginning of Joe Burrough's second contract kicking in, and the Bengals haven't figured out how to build teams around second contract quarterbacks.

Starting point is 00:13:04 But Noah will toward Andy. I think, you know, obviously would like to see them beat him. They're one in two, I believe, against Andy Dalton, as he's been the quarterback for other teams in various circumstances and various capacities. But this will be the fourth team that the Bengals have seen Andy Dalton play for against them. And let's see. All of them are in the NFC, which is crazy. Dallas, Chicago, New Orleans. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Yeah. So despite him going to the NFC, the Bengals have managed to play him four times in five years on other teams. But did you transform things for that Carolina offense? Is that really the big story that, oh, you've got a veteran that knows how to run an NFL offense and suddenly things are not as bad as it seem in Carolina? Yeah. It transformed the offense from being non-functional to functional. And I asked my listeners prior to the season beginning what their expectations were for this Panthers team. And all they asked me was they wanted competence.

Starting point is 00:14:03 And the Panthers overall offensively, defensively special teams aside from Eddie Pinero making field goals, also known as Eddie Pinheiro, the offense Pinero. They needed to go out there and do something and try to figure things out offensively. And their best bet was, I guess, to Bench Bryce Young. I didn't love the idea of the move considering the Panthers did so much to help. him to get things to actually be good around him. But he was terrible, week one and week two. And I understood that eventually they were going to have to bench Bryce Young be played like that for the sake of Bryce, but for the sake of the locker room.

Starting point is 00:14:37 And when I watch these guys on Sunday, the energy that they displayed is something I've not really seen since the Panthers brought back Cam Newton a couple years ago in that game against Arizona on the road. Like it feels like those guys on this team believe in Andy Dalton way more than they ever believe in Bryce Young heading into the season. and it was palpable. The defense had been god-awful. Now, they were terrible against the run.

Starting point is 00:14:58 The Raiders are the worst run offense in the league. That probably played a big role in it. But either way, they're getting up the field. It was a blowout. The game was over late third quarter. It was 33-7. And Annie was outstanding. Got the ball out on time, was protected,

Starting point is 00:15:11 trust to the pocket, was accurate. All the things that they were hoping to see from Bryce Young, the first two weeks, Andy Dalton provided as a veteran. And Deonté Johnson, the receiver the Panthers traded for in the offseason from Pittsburgh. He came in and said after the game on Sunday, what was different about Andy coming in? He said the veteran presence that the team needed someone like that, that they really played hard for Andy. He said, not to say, we didn't play hard for

Starting point is 00:15:35 Bryce, but I watched the game. I don't know if you saw it, but anyone who checked that understood that things were a lot different for the Panthers, energy-wise, focus wise, of Andy Dalton in there than there was a Bryce Young the two weeks prior. So he certainly changed that dynamic as they now have a functional offense. They were able to throw the ball down the field. And that is able to compliment what they have and what could be a dynamic run game. As Chuba Hubbard was outstanding last week running for over 100 yards. First time in like 13 games, the Panthers had 100 yard rusher and receiver. So yeah, and he's changed things for the team offensively. But I'm really focused on this week, the wide receiver play aside from Deonté Johnson, as you have Adam Thielen on

Starting point is 00:16:12 IR for the next four weeks in Carolina. We'll see how long he's going to be out after those four games. It could come back week eight against Denver Broncos on the road. But it's really to me, Deonté Johnson and Adam Theosan. Xavier League out of the draft in the first round. There's obviously a lot of fans want to see what he can do. I just cautioned him. He missed a lot of time in the preseason and even going back to OTAs to where it may take him some time.

Starting point is 00:16:33 But now he's going to be an Adan Theelan spot right there in a slot. He's going to get an opportunity. So can he get open? Can Jonathan Mingo get open the second year wide receiver from Ole Miss? And can they make plays and be able to make this be more than just one guy at the white receiver spot like we saw last year when it was only Adam Thielin in a bunch of guys who couldn't do anything at all? From my side, and we'll talk about this, perhaps, in the keys coming up in a bit,

Starting point is 00:16:55 if the Panthers are able to run the ball again, and there's no reason to believe that the Bengals can stop any running game right now, unless they get some guys healthy, which as of today, BJ Hill still listed as an estimated DNP on the Bengals' estimated practice report because they just sort of walked through Wednesday after playing Monday night football. Sheldon Rank is also a DNP. Those guys will see maybe BJ Hill gets back. Zach Taylor sounded a little bit more optimistic that BJ Hill could return on the defensive interior,

Starting point is 00:17:21 but you're hoping that Chris Jenkins can play a little bit more for you this week that Lawrence Guy, the guy they had to sign off the street is wearing 74 playing defensive tackle can do something in there. But I mean, if Shua Hubbard is able to go off again, everything gets easier for Andy Dalton. Everything gets easier from a play-calling perspective, from a game script perspective, from a doing what you want to do on office perspective. And that would give you the opportunity for some of these non-Adam Thielen, non-Diante Johnson from receivers to get comfortable as well.

Starting point is 00:17:52 That's what's scaring me. Do you see that playing out? Is that something that you think is going to be the way the Panthers attack this game? Are they going to start run game first on offense? I would hope so. I know throughout the offseason, Dave Canales, the head coach and play caller here, talked about being stubborn around into football. And in the first two weeks of the season,

Starting point is 00:18:08 and I understand they got down 30 nothing against New Orleans. You're probably not going to try to run the ball that much when you're down by that amount. The Chargers game, they were down the entire time, but it wasn't like they were getting blown out. he wasn't dedicated to running the ball. And Chuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders combined had 28 carries in the first two weeks. On Sunday, 21 for Chuba, seven for Miles, and they were able to do exactly what we wanted to do in large part because they were able to throw the football and actually be effective in the past game. So I do expect that they're going to want to ground and pound.

Starting point is 00:18:38 They're going to look at the deficiencies there right now, do the health-wise for the Bengals defensive line and try to attack that. Now, the Panthers do have questions on their offensive line with Damien Lewis or left guard who they signed free agency out of Seattle. he's dealing with an elbow injury. Apparently has a UCL tear. The good thing is he's not a pitcher in baseball because he'd be done for the rest of the year. But he will possibly be able to play if he's not. Chandler Zavala,

Starting point is 00:18:59 the fourth round pick out of NC State from a year ago who really struggled his rookie year. He's stepping in there. And he's someone who they feel like is growing a lot. I'm still concerned based off of what I saw last year, but we'll see what he's able to do. I feel like this offensive line that really does have a lot of injuries last season

Starting point is 00:19:14 is in a better spot this year to be able to avoid, at least take on injuries half guys who can step up who have played in the past, like Brady Christensen, who started left guard a couple of years ago, having Zabala stepping in there as well. So, yeah, I expect them to want to run the ball and be able to open up things offensively that way in the past game by beating off the run, getting some play action in there as well.

Starting point is 00:19:35 But looking at defense, too, man, like just looking at where this team's at, I'm very curious to see how they're going to match up against T. Higgins and against Jamar Chase. This is going to be really the first test for the secondary where they had one bus, week one against the Saints and the Saints offense came out just blazing hot against both the Panthers and Cowboys who probably don't have the best defenses

Starting point is 00:19:56 in the NFL and the Panthers really struggling against the run. The first two weeks last week against the worst run offense in the NFL and the Raiders, they were able to hold them to 55 yards and that's exactly what you would like to see. Cincinnati though this has been really interesting to me because I saw that their second

Starting point is 00:20:12 in EPA when it comes to run offense, but they've only attempted to run the ball 30. There's 31st in the league when it comes to attempts and in 28 and yards. So like they can run the ball. It feels like they just don't run the ball. So the Panthers, if they come out and can't stop to run, like that's going to be really my chief concern aside from can the non-JC. Horn corners, that being Mike Jackson,

Starting point is 00:20:33 hold up against T. Higgins or Jamar Chase or even Yoseba. Is that last day how to pronounce it? The guy at Princeton who's looking pretty good so far for you all. Andre Yosevash, much more of a red zone threat than in between the 20th threat. But very interested to see that Panthers running. D as well. The Bengals took advantage of a porous run defense last week. They couldn't keep running the ball because they couldn't stop the commanders, but they ran it 20 times for 6.2 a carry. And they found some things. They were very diverse in the run game, which is a lot of fun to watch as well in terms of getting to a lot of interesting concepts from different and interesting alignments as they become more of a 12 personnel team. But that'll be a fun matchup in addition to those wide receivers against that Carolina secondary. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what I'm looking at always the trenches. And there's questions for both sides of the ball when it comes to that, especially. on that defensive line. So we'll see how it plays out on Sunday. We'll come back and talk about

Starting point is 00:21:22 what are the three things the Panthers and the Bengals respectfully need to do to win this game on Sunday and Uptown. Charlotte. I'm Julian Council host of Lockdown Panthers. He's Jake Liscoe, one of the two hosts of Locked on Binglets is a locked on NFL crossover Thursday here on our shows. We'll be back here in just a moment. Hey, NFL fans, you can start this season of a big return on Fandulul, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest. bats for you live play by play and so much more on the same page where you'll place your favorite bets. And looking at this game on Sunday, the Bengals currently are four and a half point favorites. The over under is at 47 and a half.

Starting point is 00:22:04 And if you want to bet on the touchdown score, minus 115 for Zach Moss, minus 110 for Jemar Chase, minus 10 for Chiborhubbard, plus 160 for Deonté Johnson and plus 180 for T. Higgins. So go ahead, place those bets over on Vandall. And when you do, you'll get start of a $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's vandal.com, America's number one sportsbook. Back here on Locked on Panthers and Locked on Bengals, I'm Julian Council host of Lockedon Panthers. He's Jake Liskill, one of the two hosts of Locked on Bingles. It's a crossover Thursday here presented by prize picks.

Starting point is 00:22:41 Go to prize picks.com slash locked on NFL and use code all lowercase locked on NFL to win $50. instantly when you play five dollars. Panthers, Bingles, Week 4, Panthers 1 and 2, Andy Dalton inserted at quarterback of the Bengals, surprisingly 0 and 3. But I still feel like this is a bingles team with Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase. I know they got to get things done defensively, figure that out, get healthy. I'm not going to write them off. I mean, obviously Pittsburgh is 3 and 0 is not going to lose more than eight games as Mike Tomlin refuses to ever have a losing season.

Starting point is 00:23:13 So you know you got at least get to 9, 10 to able to catch up with them. And then the Ravens haven't looked the best so far in Cleveland. Yikes, that's a problem. So there's two teams you got to catch up too, but we're really thinking about it, Jake. Just thinking positive vibe for bingled fans as I do really enjoy watching Joe Burrow all the way back his time at LSU. I'm always going to be a fan of his.

Starting point is 00:23:33 And hopefully entertainment state just for like football, someone's got to stop my homes and the Chiefs. And it's been the Bengals, Brohead Stadium, never forget. So looking at this game on Sunday. Yeah, please forget. Yes, I mean, a couple weeks ago it was top. We're looking at this game on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Bingles I last saw where I think what I say, four and a half point favorite in this game. One of the three things that they have to do in order to come out with their first win of the season on the road against where I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of Bengals fans here in Charlotte. I'll say tongue and cheek, get a single one, this many if you're watching on YouTube's stops on defense.

Starting point is 00:24:10 That would be a start. And like I said, that starts up front. So finding a way to get pressure to confuse Andy Dalton. We have seen him in Cincinnati, get confused in the past, drop his eyes, become a runner, break down the throwing mechanics in the pocket when what he wants isn't there, find a way to get him uncomfortable. That starts up front. And most of these keys are on the defensive side of the ball to me, stopping the run, forcing the Panthers into situations that are not third in one or third and short and making it actually challenging for the Panthers to convert is what I'm looking

Starting point is 00:24:44 for from this defense. The Washington commanders were able to stay ahead of the chains the entire game. And that's probably number two, which goes into getting some of those stops on first and second downs, stringing plays together, containing the run game, which I actually did a decent job of on first downs against the commanders. Perhaps to their detriment and past defense, though, right? And so Andy Dalton not presenting the threat as a scrambler that Jane Daniels is, maybe makes her job a little bit easier this week.

Starting point is 00:25:09 And last, it's continue what you have working on offense. Continue to protect well. The Panthers don't look like a team that should be able to heat you up too much as a passer. They don't have the best pass rush in the NFL. You should be able to take advantage of matchups throughout this secondary. You should be able to run the ball this week. So continue to look like the offense that you should be. And that should lead to another highly productive day for this offense.

Starting point is 00:25:36 I would say something about the red zone and nitpick there. Finish off your drives in the red zone that has been an issue for the Bengals this year that could arguably be one of the reasons there at 0-N-3 right now. But it's continue what you're doing on offense and find some kind of answer on defense. That's the basic gist of it. How do your three keys for the Panthers to win this game line up with what I'm talking about? Yeah, and this is actually one of my keys, but that's a good point you bring up there, but the Panthers pass rush.

Starting point is 00:26:01 It is the worst in the NFL. It was the worst in the NFL last year. And I think it's going to be the worst all season long. And now there was some updates on Wednesday from Dave Canales about potentially getting some guys back who are currently on IR or on Pup or on a non-futable injury list and a couple of their pass rushers are and they're hoping that potentially they can get Amory Barno who tours ACL, who is 16 last year back soon. They're hoping that they're free agent signing DJ one of them who they signed actually before Chenevianne can come back into near future and they're

Starting point is 00:26:28 going to absolutely, we're going to need some of these guys who have been out on popping on the IR to come back and help them on the pass rush. So that's going to be really the first test for the Panthers against a team that has a really highlight. level passing game to go up again. So that's something I'm certainly concerned about if Joe Burroughs is playing a sign to sit back there in the pocket and deliver the ball. Because on Sunday against Gartor Minchu, they were able to be fine as they were able to hold up, held back in the back in as really is just Devante Adams had to worry about.

Starting point is 00:26:55 As far as the three things I'm looking at in this game, kind of goes back to what I alluded to earlier. You got to get somebody outside of Deonté Johnson to step up at wide receiver. Chuba Hubbard was outstanding in a run game last week. Expect him to have success again on the ground. Expect Deonti Johnson to be able to make some of his plays. but somebody has got to step up in the absence of Adam Field, not just on Sunday, but in the next three weeks moving forward,

Starting point is 00:27:15 and Xavier Lee gets the guy to everyone here is going to be looking to see. Last week, got a nice running catch for 35 yards. He has the explosion that led him to be a first round pick here in Carolina. I led him to have a breakout season last year at South Carolina. So everyone's trying to see what he can provide. Jonathan Mingo, great opportunity. Someone who really played well in the slot back in college at Ole Miss, who's really struggled playing the Z position here in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:27:37 So we'll see what he's able to provide for them on Sunday. Second thing we're looking at the run defense. I get it. The Bengals have not been dedicated to run the ball. They wanted to run the ball Monday night. Couldn't get a stop. If they're able to get ahead early with the passing offense, run the ball effectively as well, they can start leaning on the Panthers where I do think that defensively, they'll probably get more stops than they got last week.

Starting point is 00:27:57 The Panthers are not going to score on every possession. I'm pretty sure about that, Jake. Maybe they do, but I do not think that's going to be the case in this game on Sunday. So got to be able to stop the run. And in the third thing, the Bengals are own three. they're desperate. You got to match their desperation and energy. And number three,

Starting point is 00:28:15 they got a match at Bingless Desperation. History shows that teams that start off 0-and-2 do not make the playoffs. I feel like it's kind of a bogus stack because at some point in time with the expanded playoff, more of these teams are going to make. And I know Cincinnati is one of those teams in recent memory. And what's really the difference between being 0 and 2

Starting point is 00:28:30 and then all of a sudden being 2-and-to. If you're 2-0, then you're 2. It's basically the same thing. So Cincinnati is obviously going to want to win this game. It's got to match your desperation and energy in this game on Sunday if they're going to be able to come out on top in this game against the bingles. So we'll see how it plays out, Jake. Yeah, I think that desperation only gets you so far.

Starting point is 00:28:50 At some point, you also need to execute. They were pretty desperate last week as well, again, against a bad team, and they couldn't get it done. They were desperate against the Chiefs, and they got up for that game and couldn't get it done. So at some point you have to execute, obviously, but again, I think they're looking at this weekend. I know you said it's a four and a half point spread. Now that's probably good news for the Bengals. They have been seven plus point favorites twice and lost straight up in both of those games in this young season.

Starting point is 00:29:16 I think this game opened around seven and a half or was it seven and a half before week three's action has come down considerably. So the Vegas odds maker, see this is a tighter game with the emergence of Andy Dalton and the disintegration of the Bengals defense on Monday night football. And we'll see how that plays out. But for both of these teams, the vibe I'm getting from this conversation is whoever controls the game early. can get that early stop, can get that early lead will make things a lot harder on the other team. And with the Bengals defense being in the state it is, I find that I'm going to be saying that a lot this year, I think, where in previous years I would have felt fine with them going toe to toe and being in a back-and-forth game. At this point, if the Bengals can't make the Panthers one-dimensional, then I worry about their ability to get a stop at any point throughout the game.

Starting point is 00:30:04 Yeah, should be a fun one on Sunday. Panthers, Bingles, Week 4, Bank of America Stadium, won a class. clock Eastern time. That's going to wrap up this Lockdown NFL crossover Thursday edition of Lockdown Panthers, host by yours truly Julian counsel and locked on Bengals, host by Jake Liscoe and James Rapine. We'll both be back here

Starting point is 00:30:20 on Friday, checking out more about the game, talking more about what's going to happen and what we think the Panthers and Bengals need to do in order to get the victory on Sunday. Again, subscribe and follow the shows on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, and of course, check out our friends over at Price Bix who were able to sponsor

Starting point is 00:30:36 this show. Again, for James Let's go. I'm Julian Counsel, and we will talk to y'all on Friday.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Can the Cincinnati Bengals' defense right the ship against Andy Dalton's Carolina Panthers? | Week 3 First Look

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