Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals make one too many mistakes in Kansas City | Bengals-Chiefs Week 2 Takeaways
Episode Date: September 16, 2024The Cincinnati Bengals made a ton of big plays to put themselves in position to win Sunday's road game with the Kansas City Chiefs, but made one too many mistakes, culminating with a Daijahn Anthony d...efensive pass interference penalty late in the 4th quarter. There are a lot of positives to take away, but it's a gut-punch when you grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.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-bengalsFor your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Arena ClubRight now, you can get 10% off your first Slab Pack or card purchase by going to Arenaclub.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl.RobinhoodThe new gold standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold Terms apply, for product specific disclosures visit robinhood.com/gold. Investing involves risk. Rate may change. Gold membership is offered by Robinhood Gold, LLC. DoorDashUse promo code LOCKEDFALL24 for 50% off up to $10 value, when you spend $15+ on your first order. Limited time offer. Terms apply. Promo is not valid for orders containing alcohol.PrizePicksGo to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code lockedonmlb to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.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.FanDuelNow through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Cincinnati Bengals had their chances to win on Sunday in Kansas City but made one too many mistakes.
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.
I'm your host, Jake Liscoe.
He's your host, James Rupin.
We are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network here on Lockdown Bengals.
covering your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast.
Welcome back to the everydayers who are sticking it out even after a tough loss in Arrowhead.
And shout out to the everydayers out there.
The first listeners, everyone who makes us part of their routine.
If you're new, of course, you can subscribe.
I think the arrow is pointing up for the Cincinnati Bengals or rest of the season.
It's not always going to feel like this.
We will be there for you either way.
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And that was a seizing defeat from the Jaws of Victory game,
which is not something I thought I would be saying after the Bengals traveled to Arrowhead,
but very characteristic of some of the Bengals' previous performances in contests
between these teams in a lot of ways where it's coming down to a play here,
a play there, a very tight game that comes down to a,
a play or two in the end over the course of the game.
Welcome to the best rivalry in the NFL.
That's what it is.
And that's what we saw today.
And it was a reminder to everyone that that was the case.
And yeah, it's a heck of a game that the Bengals shoulda, coulda, would have won.
But for every good thing that we're going to discuss, there's a bad thing on the other end.
For as good as Joe Burrow played, he had a fumble that went.
for six the other way for as good as Evan McPherson was the missed extra point which really
didn't hurt them because then the chiefs went for it I've seen some people blame the extra point
the extra point actually didn't matter at all but yeah looking at it that Bengals made a ton of plays
today and they made a ton of mistakes and when you do that and you leave it up to a a judgment call
at fourth and 16 right and it's close sometimes you're
you're going to get that call, sometimes you won't. And the chiefs got that call today. And it does,
it feels like every time it's Bengals chiefs, it comes down to one or two plays like you mentioned.
That's why I think it's the best rivalry. I do. There was never a moment in this game from the
start where I thought, oh, the chiefs are going to run away with this or, oh, the Bengals are just going to run away with this.
And any time one team punched, the other team counterpunched, and the Bengals did have a few
chances to really take control, which I'm sure we'll get to, and they didn't. And the chiefs deserve
credit for that for hanging around. The Bengals, that's part of the mistakes that I mentioned. And you
look up and the Bengals are 0 and two for a third straight year. But I will say it does feel different.
It doesn't look different in the standings. But today, seven days after what happened last Sunday,
certainly feels different with the how. And sometimes the how does.
matter. And so they played much better. Like this Bengals team, if they played like this last week,
they would have beat the Patriots by 20. Instead, we're talking about a team that's 0 and 2 and is going
into a must win on Monday night football. Yeah, there are a number of positives that we can get to,
and we will get to. But I have a hard time after a loss starting that way. Even though I'd really
like to, I'd like to, you know, go to silver linings right away. But there's a reason they're called
silver linings. The cloud is gray and dark and depressing. And then you get to the silver linings
in the outside, and that's like the one thing that you can grasp onto if you're looking for hope.
So we will get there.
And there is a lot of good in this game.
But when you list out the mistakes, the Bengals made, the list is just a little bit too long.
Not that the Chiefs played a clean game of football, but from the end of the game to the start of the game, there are drops that really hurt this team.
There are penalties that really hurt this team.
There were red zone issues, settling for field goals.
early that really hurt this team.
There were not as many tackling issues this week.
Give them credit for that, but injuries to the interior defensive line and then playing
a lot of J2FELA and Zach Carter because that's all you have left.
And those guys getting bodied, unfortunately, in the run game hurts you in this game.
And the big ones that stick with me the most James are actually drops and the red zone issues.
those are the two that I am circling the most
because both, and PFF charted three drops,
I'm not sure where the third one was,
but both of the crucial drops in this game,
Mike Gaseki drops a pass that clearly can go for a first down.
Andre Yosevaas drops a pass.
It's not a perfect pass,
but should have gone for a first down.
It's again, one of those plays you need to make.
It's a clean drop.
The ball wasn't deflected.
It wasn't anything like last week for Tanner Hudson,
where the ball is deflected.
And those two drops directly lead to Kansas City getting off the field or Kansas City getting points off of a Joe Burrow turnover.
And Joe Burrow is behind the sticks and he's scrambling on a third down on that fumble that goes for six.
And then on the last drive of the game with the Yosevaas drop, you get Joe again unaware on third and down of a slot pressure coming from Jamar Chase's isolated side of the field.
And you're not in either of those situations if you stay ahead of the six because the Bengals' offense in this game was actually fine when they were.
head of the six. But then when they got to second and 10, or they had some penalties to put them
even in worse situations than that, that's when things started to get hard for them. It started
to go off the rails for them. And both teams were really bad in third and longs in this game.
The Bengals and the Chiefs both, I think, were Ofer in third and longs. But those drops directly
led to Kansas City stops or Kansas City points. And that's one huge, huge bullet point for me,
if you're talking about missed opportunities and the other one is those red zone drives that
they settle for field goals. I would say probably half of Joe Burroughs incomplete passes today came on
passes into the end zone in the red zone. One of them played a play that he could have kept it
and scrambled instead he throws it and goes off Trent Norman's face mask. Maybe T. Higgins catches
that ball. Maybe Trent Norman could have made a different play to catch that ball. But those
kind of missed opportunities really hurt because they're their four-point plays in some cases. And in other
cases they're even bigger point swings because of plays you left on the field for
unforced error entirely. Well, yeah, that's that's it. Andre Yosevach has two touchdowns and then
also has the drop. Mike Gisicki is their leading receiver and then has the drop.
Had a good game, but had the drop. But that's it. Joe Burrow, much better this week. But that's
the theme is it wasn't, you don't have to play perfect and you're never going to play perfect
against the Chiefs. But you can't have all of those things happen.
and they all happened.
And they still had a shot.
And that's what's tough is it felt like the offense needed to punch one more in.
And whether that's, honestly, whether that's just wasting more time and getting another field goal.
Or whether it's, heck, you mentioned the drops.
The Jamar Chase penalty is huge.
I mean, that takes you from a third and seven to a third in 22.
You have a real shot of picking up that third and seven.
Third and 22, there's zero shot.
You're not even trying to.
you're just trying to get back into field goal range.
Like what a swing there that is where you're just hoping to get the field goal.
And obviously you did.
And obviously you take the lead there again, 25, 23.
But there was just there were there were so many things like that that, that changed momentum.
And the Bengals responded the right way.
Heck, the defense, it felt like they were going to respond with the stop.
And they didn't.
But when you leave it up to when all of those things happen that you just mentioned,
when you struggle in the red zone, when you have drops.
The margin for error is already pretty damn thin.
And so then you combine that with now,
you're asking a seventh round rookie to go up there and make a play.
And a lot of people probably felt like he made that play,
that he went straight up and tried to make,
and that's what's tough is maybe that gets called 20% of the time.
But what if this was one of those 20% and now you're 0.2?
And if you make one of those other plays, maybe it doesn't come down to a fourth and 16 where it's honestly a borderline, Hell Mary from Patrick Mahomes, where he rolls out.
Trey Hendrickson's giving chase flushes him out of the pocket.
Trey Hendrickson, man, a bright spot in this game.
But yeah, it shoulda cut a wooda and you come up just a tad short.
I think that's the theme.
Let's get to more.
There are so many things we have to get to when it comes to the O and two Bengals losing 26 to 25.
We will do that coming up next.
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All right, Jake.
Let's continue the conversation.
Let's dive into Joe Burrow a little bit more because I think he checked a lot of the boxes
that you were hoping he would check, the 47-yarder to Jermaine Burton, his best throw
of the year, one of them, the explosive play to Mike Bessickey on fourth down to start the
game, the 37-yarder. It's like, oh, man, this offense is rolling. Obviously, they had to settle for a
field goal there. But, and he was as frustrated as, as I've seen him in a long time, probably since the
Houston loss. I don't want to go back too far. He's pretty frustrated after that loss last year.
But pretty damn frustrated after the game. But this was also a huge step in the right direction for
Joe Burrow. Did you see the helmet slam? I did not. When, when did he slam his helmet?
After the DPI call, I believe.
you believe?
I believe it was a D.
I mean, I know he slammed his helmet.
I believe it was after the DPI call on Dejan Anthony at the end of the game.
Gotcha.
I don't remember exactly when it was.
I'm pretty sure that's when it was.
I know Jemar slammed his.
I saw that one.
I did not see Joe.
He was,
he was very unhappy.
He thought that the game was won.
Instead, the game was lost in a flash before his eyes.
But regardless of his frustration, we can talk about the way he played and the way the
offense looked.
We can talk both about Burrow and then we can transition to some of the things.
we talked about in the preview that came to fruition in this game in terms of offensive adjustments.
But well, real quick, before we get to Burrough, now that you brought it up, what did you think of the DPI?
I initially thought it was a terrible call.
Yeah.
I get why.
I think a lot of people are going to be there, honestly.
And then I watched it in slow motion and then you get it.
But like, that's in slow motion.
The initial look, when I watched it live, it's bang, bang.
Dejan Anthony jumps, I think, a split second before Rishi, right?
Rice jumps and is just drifting slightly forward trying to make a play on the ball and Rashid Rice jumps
into him because he's jumping forward.
To me, I don't think that is always called, certainly in a Hail Mary situation, if that's 20
more yards down field on the last play of the game, there's a 0% chance.
That call happens because that happens on every single Hail Mary that has ever been hailed,
right, in NFL football.
But to me, you can make a very compelling argument that is a 50-50 ball that Dejohn
Anthony has just as much a right to that space as Rishi Rice does,
and Rishi Rice actually initiates the contact.
But the way it looks to the official who throws a flag is Dejohn's playing through the back of
the receiver trying to make a play on the ball.
And if you play through the back of the receiver, that is DPI, even if you are making a play
on the ball.
So I hated it when I saw it.
And I still don't like it in a fourth and 16 where Patrick Wilms is outside of the pocket.
And it's a duck.
and that's part of probably why the timing is off.
Like the ball is wobbling.
It's not a clean throw from Mahomes.
It's not a good throw from Mahomes.
And it bails them out.
So definitely don't like it.
And I'm not unambiguous about my feelings about it.
But also the more time has passed and seeing replays,
I can understand the call a little bit more.
Yeah.
That's my feeling.
And I think that was Zach's after the game as well.
And in the moment, I'm sure,
if Joe did slam, if that was when he did it and slammed his helmet, then.
I'm sure a lot of people that are listening and watching did the exact same thing.
And we're really frustrated because it's such a close, subjective call.
And you have this really close game that's been back and forth, back and forth.
And they haven't really been calling that kind of stuff.
And then it gets called.
And it decides, because then it's game over.
Like everybody knew that how it ends.
And I hate that.
You know, it's like the Super Super Bowl 57, right?
Super Bowl 57 against the Eagles when that happened, right?
Like, even if it is the right call, it still sucks in that moment because then that's just kind of it.
I mean, you can go back to the AFC championship game, the Joseph Osai play out of bounds.
Like, it's a very similar feeling, which is part of why is so frustrating to be right there.
And that wasn't a stop.
This was a stop.
This was game over, we win.
Instead, it was game over, we lose in the throw of a flag that is not, is not,
is not totally unambiguous.
Yeah, by the way, I do mean Super Bowl 57 Eagles chiefs,
just for those wondering, because I could feel people be like, no,
no, I meant that, like, because it ended on the PI, basically.
That being said, yeah, I think it's like one out of five that gets called,
if I had to guess.
And that one out of five got called.
We didn't hear from Dejan Anthony after, obviously he's trying to go up and make a play
and make sure that race doesn't come down with it.
But, all right, let's get to borrow.
I guess, like, I don't know what else Dejanon.
on Anthony's supposed to do there.
If he tries to wait for Rishi Rice to make the play on the ball, he has no shot.
And so you need to be in better position.
You can argue, but he times it pretty well.
He gets his hand on the ball first, right?
And so, yeah, it's just really close.
And it's really too bad that such a close game comes down to that call.
And it looked awkward, I think, in the moment, like the bang bangness of that play.
Like, it's like, oh, well, Rice is up.
And like, he's getting.
And it was real easy to react, I think, if you're the official and say,
oh, it was interference, even though it was like literally the definition of a bang, bang,
play.
And you never see it called on Hail Marys.
And that's the whole situational thing on fourth downs, like fourth and longs, desperation,
and that's really what it was.
So that makes it really frustrating.
But we were talking about Joe Burrow, James, and I think you have to be encouraged by the
way he played in this game.
I think that, again, relatively mistake-free throwing the ball.
I am worried about ball security.
That's now two fumbles plus another.
one on a mishandled snap, plus one that was very nearly a fumble last week where he hits the ground
first. And so I'm a little bit worried about ball security for Joe Burrow in terms of holding
on to the football when he's taking contact. But I thought he looked significantly better.
I don't think he looked 100%. I think it was a step in the right direction. But to me,
was still a little bit hurried in terms of dropping his eyes and escaping the pocket a couple of times,
a couple of those leading to sacks. I thought the accurate.
is not as consistent as we're used to from Burrow, but still was mostly good enough.
Like I said, suffered two drops in this game, his adjusted completion percentage, according
to PFF, 81.3% with three drops that they recorded.
And I don't know if that even counts Trent Nervin's ball off the face masks.
So it certainly played pretty well, I thought.
And it's a huge step in the right direction, but I do not think yet that we've seen Joe
Borough at full strength.
Certainly the best we've seen of him, week two, perhaps in his career, or at least a long time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, because he played that crap week 2, 21.
No, week two as a rookie, he was awesome.
But anyways.
So he got one.
Okay, go back to those.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, but I was thinking like, hi, was he?
Anyways, clearly we've watched too much Joe Burrow.
No, far from perfect.
I'm not super worried about the ball security.
You just got to tuck it.
Like, if you're going to make the decision to run, because he just had a
here and there's a reason running backs don't run it with two hands on it. It was tucked.
Are you sure? Yeah. Pretty sure. I saw it tucked and I saw it come out when it was tucked away.
Right arm? Well, were the other ones tucked? I don't recall. You know what I'm saying?
This might just be an out. I don't want to go there yet. I'm not trying to sound like too many, too loud of an alarm bell.
It's just something now that's like, it's two weeks. He's had some issues putting the ball on the ground. This has been an issue for him before.
or the wrist injury as well that I've pointed out as something to clean up.
And so it's just something I'm keeping an eye on.
I think, well, let's continue with Joe Burrow.
We have a lot to get to other than Joe Burrow.
I'll share one more thought on Joe Burrow,
and then we'll get to everything else coming up next.
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Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-L-N-FL-O-N-FL-L-O-N-N-F-L-O-N-L-W-T-E-L-W-T-E-W-T-E-R-E-R-T-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-W-E-R-E-E-R-E-W, I thought overall they held up pretty darn well, considering
how often they were throwing the ball.
And yet we are seeing him try to run, think about running, pulling it down.
And I think that's part of it is if you do that more, there's going to be hands in there.
He's so good, I think, at holding the ball in the pocket, in avoiding and moving, like when he's at his best,
and in keeping his eyes down field and keeping two hands on the ball.
But, yeah, I think that might be part of it is he does get, he is still getting rushed a little bit, is wanting to move,
wanting to get out of the pocket.
And so the ball security thing might be an impact of him tucking it,
or not tucking it early, but pulling it down, dropping his eyes,
and seeing something that might not necessarily be there.
But overall, I think it was a step in the right direction for him.
And then offensive line-wise, I mean, when you're dealing with Chris Jones,
I thought they held up pretty darn well, especially with the noise as well,
one false start, and I think one holding, other than that, this offensive line held up well.
Yeah, in terms of penalties, the Bengals had, I think, all of them on the offensive side of the ball.
Trent Brown had a false start early in the game.
Yeah, obviously, Dejohn. Sorry. Of course. Sorry.
I don't be sorry. I think everyone wants to forget that one.
What happened is I confused the chiefs had four penalties. The Bengals had nine, I think, and I confused that.
Anyway, Orlando Brown did have a holding penalty.
We had the delay of game on Joe Burrow going into the half that nobody cares about.
Trent Norman had the OPI, Jamar Chase had his penalty.
I want to talk a little bit about the offensive structural changes we saw this week.
After I agree with you that the protection was really, really good this week,
the only standout from a negative perspective to me was Cordell-Wilson,
but he's dealing with Chris Jones.
And I think whoever is dealing with Chris Jones for most of the day
is going to suffer for that.
I thought it was a bounceback game for Trent Brown for the most part,
especially as a pass walker.
There's one rep on Andre Yosevosh's second touchdown of the game
where he ends up doing a great job against Chris Jones,
and Chris Jones gives up on the play on a fourth down.
You don't see Chris Jones give up very often,
but when Trent has his hands on you, I guess,
and you have a little bit of help from Alex Kappa coming over afterwards,
I guess you're okay giving up if you're Chris Jones on that play.
That was a pretty impressive rep for Trent Brown,
the set out also on that play, Eric All was more or less one-on-one, a little bit of chip help
against George Carl Aftus, and he held up really great game for Eric All.
And some of the things we talked about in our game preview, James,
where could they get anything out of Jermaine Burton in this game on offense and would they go to
Morch 12th, personnel?
Answer to those questions are yes to more 12th personnel and yes to Jermaine Burton.
And I think that is encouraging.
The tight ends in this game, James had, I don't know if you would have guessed us.
would you think had the most snaps on or if you had to rank for most of these snaps for tight ends in
this game how would you how would you guess uh i would say honestly i think eric all played the most
he had the same amount of snaps as drew sample both of those guys at 33 mike de seckey
okay so so pretty even split but 64 snaps of offense for the bengals they also had an extra
tackle out there for apparently five plays. We've got Cody Ford on the field for five plays here
according to PFF's initial charting. And that means they had at least 30 plays, I think,
or something like that is how the math will work out with two tight ends on the field. I'm not sure
exactly how the math will work out. But I'm pretty sure they had a fair bit of 12 personnel.
They ran some 13 personnel in this game. They ran some heavy sets with the extra linemen in this game.
They had a really cool shotgun formation with Drew Sample and fullback in the shotgun in front of
Chase Brown, and those were really effective runs.
And so I thought the adjustments from week one to week two, based on the personnel available
to the Bengals, based on where they thought they could get some advantages in this game,
was really encouraging to see.
On top of that, you get a good pass protecting performance from this offensive line.
The only thing that I'm left really griping about, really, like big picture, is the usage
of Zach Moss and Chase.
Brown? It's still a little bit too uneven. Let's get that closer to even. I know they're given
Chase the designer runs still and they're making it easier on him just like they did last year.
They're giving him some of the easier reads and some of the easier plays, but he looks good.
And so it would be nice to see that get even out a little bit if they can, but by a large,
pretty pleased with the offensive coaching adjustments this week. And let's wrap up thoughts there and
then praise this defense because I have a lot of nice things to say about the defense as well.
Well, yeah, let's just go to the defense because we're going to have plenty of time to reflect even more on both sides of the ball moving forward.
But, yeah, the defense, look, early on, I was like, man, they're not going to be able to stop these guys at all.
And to their credit, they found ways to do it.
And Trey Hendrickson played his tail off with what he did.
Last I checked, I'm going to check again, but he had four tackles, two for loss.
Yeah, three quarterback hits, two sacks, just played his tail off.
Drew multiple penalties, I think three out of the four Chiefs penalties were guys trying to block him.
Yeah, and really tried to wreck the game and came darn near close to it, right?
And in that they force the Chiefs to punt with just over seven minutes to go.
I think it was like 708 to go, and Trey Hendrickson's sack is what put them behind the sticks to do it.
And you're like, here's the chance.
Here's the chance to go score a touchdown and in this game.
And Trey put them in that position.
So that's one, the ability to force turnovers.
And even though you had given up 10 first downs, just as many yards, you look up,
and the Bengals had the lead at halftime, and they had only given up 10 points.
And as weird as it felt defensively, they were in it, and they had only given up 10,
and you're like, all right.
And just responding the right way to the Rashirai's touchdown, Kim Taylor Britt didn't think
the ball was going there.
That's what happened.
He hesitated.
And if you notice he slows down.
It doesn't think the ball is going there.
And if he doesn't do that, that doesn't happen.
He slows down and he misses a ball by a fingertip anyway.
Like he's right there.
And it was too bad that he slowed down.
Yeah.
So there was a lot of good, though, overall, considering the situation.
I mean, let me look real quick at rushing yards.
I mean, they average 4.7 to carry and had 150 yards rushing total.
But 29 of those was Patrick Mahomes.
Xavier Worthy had five.
Pacheco, 90 yards.
I would have taken Isaiah Pacheco at 90 yards to start the game.
I don't know about you.
I would have.
I would have been like, all right, I'm okay with that.
The run D is still a problem and it's not getting better.
But considering what they're dealing with, the issues this week and the mismatch
this week, like that is kind of what you expected.
The tackling was night and day.
They still had some mistackles, but it wasn't like it was, you know,
two-yard gain turns into 20-yard gain.
because of mistackles this week.
They didn't give up those explosives, really at all.
The only explosive play of the game is that Rishi Rice touchdown,
the Cam Taylor Britt is right there and very close to breaking up.
But the Chiefs were really good at keeping drives alive and getting down the field,
if not for turnovers, but you have to credit the Bengals for creating those turnovers.
Two great interceptions of Patrick Rahomes,
including perhaps the interception of the year,
the Odell Beckin Jr.ing of the ball by Cam Taylor Britt on a ball.
on a ball intended for the guy he specifically went out of his way to trash talk in
Xavier Worthy, who didn't do a whole lot in this game.
Did he even have a catch?
Did Xavier Worthy?
He did have two catches for 17 yards.
Pretty quiet day for Worthy and an incredible play for Cam Taylor Britt there,
making more than up for his touchdown.
I think the touchdown is the only significant blemish of the day for Cam Taylor Britt
in coverage.
PFF had him giving up, in fact, two catchers on four targets.
and the one that wasn't the 44-yard touchdown was just a six-yard pass.
In addition to that, he had the pick.
Trey Hendrickson, you mentioned it.
Awesome game.
Made the Chiefs make a fourth quarter change at left tackle late in the game.
They had seen enough from Kingsley Suaumathia, who is getting his lunch,
stolen repeatedly by the bully and Trey Hendrickson.
Should have made the game-winning play in drawing the illegal hands-of-the-face penalty.
Akeem Davis-Gaither, also in limited snaps.
Awesome interception.
and then makes a beautiful stop on a little screenplay
to get the Chiefs to a third down.
In general, it was a much better performance from this defense.
The Chiefs averaging under five yards per play overall.
Patrick Mahomes had a,
characteristically, I would say at this point,
against the Bengals,
pretty bad day throwing the football.
And he cried at Lou's crew for cooking up a good game plan here.
The secondary, I thought,
played a pretty good football game overall.
And there are too many mistakes, obviously, but the defense, I'm not blaming too much for this one.
I'm just worried about BJ Hill and Shelton Rankins.
Both of those guys hamstring injuries.
Both of those guys declared out did not return.
And they are very perilously thin now defensive tackle.
Yep.
That is the major concern.
You have an extra day before the Monday night game.
And so we'll have to monitor both guys.
And I assume I'll predict that Zach Taylor on Monday will say we'll take it day to day.
with those guys and not say much, not give us much,
because the Bengals, they're back tomorrow,
and then Tuesday, Wednesday off,
and then they'll pick things up from a gameplay standpoint on Thursday.
So a lot of treatment, a lot of lick your wounds,
and hopefully those wounds for Hill.
And Rankins aren't too bad.
Because, hey, by the way, Rankins,
Pratt got called for the Force Fum,
I think Rankins did.
I think Rankins is the one that.
Rankins raked it out.
Pratt might have been involved there at the end.
I initially tweeted Rankins,
people were in my replies tell me I was wrong. I deleted it. I shouldn't have deleted it. I was right. I saw it right the first time. I'm pretty sure it was Rankins. They got me. They got me, man. Sometimes sometimes the mob on the internet convinces you of things. It gas slice you. Yeah. I mean, I will say,
oh, it's crazy. It's crazy that they were this close. And one in one would have felt a heck of a lot better. I feel like these vibes have been much, much different. But their own to Jake, for a third.
straight year.
Unbelievable.
A very different feel this year for me.
It sucks. That's a gut punch loss.
There's nothing that feels good about this game.
But I do think the arrow is pointing up.
If you had told me going into this game that you hold the Chiefs under five yards per
play to one of eight on third downs, you out-possessed the Chiefs,
you win the turnover battle by plus two.
I would have thought the things were going pretty well for the Cincinnati Bengals.
And they were.
And they were self-inflicted issues, I think, for the most part, that cost in the game.
because I keep coming back to those drops and those missed opportunities from this offense and this game.
And, of course, the penalties on defense that cost them weren't great either.
But a lot of self-inflicted stuff that I think they can recover from, that I think they can get better from.
T. Higgins making some progress pregame today.
We'll see how he does this week.
And the quality of competition dropping off a little bit here as well as the Bengals get ready for their first prime time game of the year.
And we will get there.
We will shift our attention there soon enough.
You will have to watch the tape and come back with some tape-informed takeaways from this game.
We will have that for you here in the near future on Locked-on Bengals.
Until then, thanks for listening.
Ho-Day and have a good one.
