Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals start slow, drop ugly 2024 opener | Cincinnati Bengals vs. New England Patriots Week 1 Reaction

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

It was a no good, very bad, absolutely terrible season opener for the Cincinnati Bengals. With a sputtering start and atrocious fumbles, they lost a game to a New England Patriots team they had no business losing to, and now face an uphill battle out of the season opener again. Worse, they didn't find consistent answers on offense and couldn't - or wouldn't - push the ball downfield in the passing game, and simply couldn't tackle on defense in the running game. They'll need to find answers fast.  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-bengals For 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!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.  HimsStart your free online visit today at Hims.com/lockedonnfl.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.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.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.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions 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/LOCKEDON 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.

Cincinnati Bengals slow starts to NFL seasons have gone nowhere. Unfortunately, you set three drives on fire. You turn the ball over twice. It was a hard day for the Cincinnati Bengals against the New England Patriots. 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 Locked On Bengals podcast. We've got you covered with the post-game show here on the Locked-on podcast network covering your team every day.

I'm Jake Liskow. He's James Rupin. We are the hosts of Locked-on Bengals. Welcome in if you're new and welcome back to the everydayers. And shout out to all of you who make us your first listen. Today's post-game thoughts are brought to you by Prize Fix, where you can use promo code Lockedon NFL to win $50 instantly when you play $5. Check it out at prizefix.com slash locked-on NFX. NFL and James it was a slow start to the season. It was a slow start to the game.

The offense sputtered for three drives and they really dug themselves a hole. If you were to draw up how this game should go for the Patriots to win as they did, it was going to look a lot like this game looked. It hit every mark or mostly every mark that they wanted where you're able to run the ball on offense. You're able to make the Bengals offense look stagnant. and stale and keep everything in front of you so you can come up and make tackles. And it's you take care of the ball. They force a couple of turnovers on defense. You're right.

It was the perfect elixir. And yet the Bengals had the ball, first down, down six, and a chance to completely change. As crappy as today was for 55 minutes, they started a chance to win. and that's one of the many things I think that stand out to me. The decision to punt, knowing that the Patriots have ran on you all day, knowing that you're, yeah, you've only given up 16 points, but it never felt like you were routinely stopping the Patriots rushing attack. And so I think that decision stands out to me.

But the other part of this, and let's call it what it is, everyone in that locker room for the past month and a half has talked about at one point or another wanting to get off to a few. fast start. And that start needed to be a win over the Patriots, whether it was 17, 16, or 71 to 16. They needed to get a win today. And they didn't get a win. They looked lost at times on offense. And that's, it's unacceptable, quite frankly. And it's one game, but for a team that was trying to win the second opener of the Zach Taylor era, the second opener of the Joe Burrow era, Zach 1 and 5 now in openers, Joe 1 and 4 in openers.

It's not a good look, and especially when you look at the schedule and you see who's looming. So it's a rough day here at Paycor Stadium. Yeah, I mean, there's no real way to spin this where it is a good thing. There are some positives that came out of the game. You will discuss those for sure, but it is not a game where it's like, oh, yeah, but they're moral victories here. There are no moral victories when you lose to the New England Patriots and week one at home when you're a seven and a half or eight and a half or whatever the line

closed that point favorite. And to me, James, it starts early. It goes all the way to the end. Like there was very few and far between for positive moments in this game. It felt like most things that could go wrong went wrong. It starts with going three and out on three straight drives and passes not going past the sticks. And that was a common theme today.

The passes that are short of the sticks in crucial situations on third downs, on fourth down, throwing behind the line of scrimmage. Joe Burrow not pushing the ball down field. We'll see on film what that looks like. Maybe it's the Patriots doing a great job of taking away. Maybe it's these Bengals receivers outside of Jamar Chase, especially not winning enough. And there's plenty of blame to go around for some of the receiving targets in this game

when we talk about the fumbles and the punt return, which isn't a receiving play, but those turnovers were brutal. But when you get off to that slow of a start, their first four drives go, three and out, three and out, three and out, fumble, and then you give up a five minute, nine second end of the half field goal drive to the Patriots.

I mean, you're digging yourself such a hole. It doesn't matter who you're playing against. When you have that much, when you just waste a half of football, you're making things very hard on yourself. And it was very hard on them, and that's why they couldn't win,

among other reasons. Yeah. It offensively, and you lose tea, which you didn't know about until Friday, to be honest. And you find out Friday. Jamar, Joe said that he found out Jamar was playing on Sunday morning, which I do believe, by the way. I think that's why they elevated Kendrick Pryor because they really didn't know. And they've never elevated someone from the practice squad and then made them an act. but clearly there was some some questions there.

And so it is another year where there's drama and there's storylines that go into week one. And it's a distraction. Two months ago I said it would be a distraction. And it was. And it is. And I can't help but think that that's part of it. That's not an excuse, by the way, that if anything, it's the opposite. It's being critical because I'm sick of weird distractions getting in the way of, especially this open,

This opener is much different than the past two, where the Steelers, at least it's a division rival, and you know exactly why it was so bad. Last year, you know why it was so bad Joe couldn't move. This year, like, all right, we could talk about the wrist and not throwing it downfield, but he could still throw it. The offense was still able to move the ball. The defense, were they out there? Yeah, they were out there.

So there's really no big real. reason why you should have came in and ran nine plays on your first three possessions. And yet here we are talking about another slow start, talking about a team that failed on a fourth down to Andre Yosevash, Joe Burrow, most of his throws within five yards of the line of scrimmage. I think Ben Baby had the stat, for me, SPN stats and info, 16 of his first 20 throws within five yards of the line of scrimmage. That's fine if guys are running free, right? That's the Brady thing, where Brady did that for years and years and years with the Patriots, and people would say, oh, that's the scheme, whatever, if they're open and it's working,

this wasn't working. They weren't turning into huge plays. You weren't getting chunk plays out of these. The Patriots would just come up and make the play. And that's what was really tough about it is, it's one thing when it's working and you're breaking tackles or you're making defenders miss and it turns into chunk plays. They didn't have many chunk plays on offense today. And the first three drives were just kind of a preview of what we saw for most of the game. No, the disparity in tackling was also massive. You talk about the Patriots' ability to come up and make plays. Meanwhile, the Bengals have like 14 mistackles, I think, according to PFF's initial charting. And Dax Hill, unfortunately, on the spotlight on a lot of those, like the run game,

the run d was, we wrung hands quite often this week about the defensive line depth. And it wasn't great, but a lot of the issues in their run-dee this week were DBs tackling. They just didn't get the running back down when they had opportunities at or behind the line of scrimmage, but we'll get there. We'll talk about this defense. The defense wasn't perfect. They give up 16 points, and a lot of those coming off of turnovers, and turnovers were a huge story in this game, not only the slow start, but some of the worst turnovers you can imagine

in spots where you cannot have them, in spots where you cannot have them, in spots where you where it kills momentum in a bad way. We will get to those turnovers and how those also told the story of this Bengals' disappointing loss in week one coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by PrizePix. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members.

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This episode of Locktown Bengals is also sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp knows that if there's something you'd like to learn, like why the Bengals are throwing short of the sticks for the entire game, for example. Well, as an adult, it can be hard to make room for learning new things as often as you like. kids are always learning and growing, and we see that often, but as adults, we sometimes lose that curiosity. So whether it's something to do with the Bengals football team or gardening and new language or just maybe you want to learn how to bowl, therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder

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Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp at BetterHelp.com slash locked on. You'll get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash locked on. Turnovers. All right, Jake. Let's get to the turnovers here as we talk over each other. You're Tanner Hudson and I'm Charlie Jones, and we're both fumble it. I mean, that's clearly what happened.

Look, the Tanner one, they both stink because they cost you points. But the Tanner one, especially after the Gassiki overturn, it's just that much more painful because you get on the board. You've tied the game. And then boom, no, you have it because he didn't hold onto the ball. And then Hudson, I mean, if he just dives instead of reaches, I think he goes straight into the end zone. Like he's over six feet tall. He's over two yards tall. Like, just die.

You get a hit and that'd be it. You wouldn't even have to stretch it. But he does this weird stretch thing where the ball is away from them. It's not secure and it's really easy to get punched out. And that's exactly what Kyle Duggar did. All you got to do is just pull the ball into your chest, put two hands on it. You probably go into the end zone. Worst case, you have a first down.

Maybe he forgot that it wasn't third in goal. I don't know. But the ball security. He extends that ball out with one hand, well, two hands the first time, away from a defender the first time. And then the second time, he kind of brings it back to his body and then extends it out with one hand. And I just don't, I don't understand the thought process there. The Charlie Jones fumble, equally inexcusable, but I don't know.

There's actually no way to compare them. They're both terrible. They both are shooting yourself in the foot in a big way. The Bengals get a stop coming out of the half and then immediately have to get another stop to give the Patriots three points instead of seven. And it was a nice little return. There wasn't a ton of space. I was like, okay, routine return, Charlie Jones made a decision, got up field, picked up 10 yards, good job. Then the ball pops out.

And then they don't fall on it. And you talk about missed opportunities in this game. You got the Gaseki play. You got to have that one, Mike. You got to have that one when you hit the ground. The ball can't come out like that. Tough play. Gotta have it.

Tanner Hudson, got to have it. Also goes to a third down later in the game when Tanner Hudson can't get his hand. I think it was a third down. Tanner Hudson can't get to say. hands on the ball on a pass this deflected. Tough play. Got to have it. Got to have that Gino Stone interception in the corner of the end zone.

It could save points. Didn't get it. Got to have that punt return, not be fumbled. Didn't get it. There's one other one that I cannot think of right now. The fumble that they forced, this was on the refs a little bit. They did not get an opportunity to recover that ball on the field. And so there wasn't a clear recovery that led to an overturn and the Bengals getting the ball on

that challenge. that was kind of an unfortunate situation, but all these plays pile up in addition to not getting the fourth down where you're throwing behind the sticks on a fourth and two, and Jamar Chase on the field blocking on that play, I mean, you add all these things up to go with the first three drives of the game, and it's just you can't overcome that many mistakes. They almost did.

They had a chance to do it, and then they made another mistake in punting the ball that you started the show with, James. you mentioned at the top, punting the ball when you haven't been able to get a stop all day. That's a turnover. D.Bs miss more tackles. That's a turnover, by the way. Doing that is a turnover.

You might as well, because I get it, and Ryan Rico is a bright spot. The best punt maybe I've ever seen, and it was a touchback. I mean, it's just insane. But, so shout out to the rookie. Hopefully he keeps it up. And was a holder on a 51-yarder from Evan. So there you go. at the same time, it's fourth and five and the game is on the line.

Go for it. Like, what are we talking about here? You have a chance to get a little momentum. It doesn't feel great. But your mindset going on to that field is, hey, we're going to score here, period. That's it. We're going to go for it on every fourth. Now, if it was fourth and 22 after a sack, fine.

You can't do it. You got to punt. You got to do that. It was fourth and five. And I agree with you on the Yoshi. the Yoshi play, the only way that works is if he's just in space by himself. Well, the numbers weren't even there for it. They have three on four over there.

That's a play you can or you have something else when the numbers aren't there for you. You got to have something else or call time out, anything but what they did. Yeah, it's I don't get it. And it's a huge point of the game from a momentum standpoint. And as you were breaking all of that down, it all combines and it stacks up from the turnovers. Well, you can win the game if you don't have the turnovers, right? Or you can win the game if you have the turnovers but not the slow start.

Or you can win the game if you don't have the turnovers, the slow start, and the awful decision late in the game when you're down six to punt when you trust your defense. Like that's what Zach said is, I trust my defense. There's no way you thought that that defense was for sure going to stop. the Patriots right. Were you confident in that? I was not confident in that. They clearly thought that, but anybody watching is like, I don't know about that decision.

The robot doesn't like that decision. Ben Baldwin's fourth down bot didn't like the decision. So both the analytics and the eye test and everybody just watching the flow of the game is like, man, you guys haven't been able to stop Ramadre Stevenson today. But okay. And by the way, the Patriots gave you a gift

by punting it to you then. Yeah, because that was a fourth and three from the 50 or something. They could have dagger. Just ran it with Ramandre Stevenson. You probably get it. Run a little play action. Jacoby Brissette was running all over too.

He had a couple runs, I feel like, for first downs. At least one, but a couple of runs. Yeah. Several plays that should have been sacks because Trey Henderson played really well, and he's just able to escape when Hendrickson's the only one getting reliable pressure and nobody else is able to clean it up. Like, they get Jacobi percent off his spot. They actually pressured him something like 40 percent of his dropbacks in this game.

And the Patriots didn't pass the ball. Well, 120 passing yards, 4.8 yards per attempt. Guess you also had 4.8 yards per attempt since that he must. Oh, I was going to say exactly. Passing the ball. Like Joe Burrow and Jacoby percent have equal numbers of yards per attempt, 4.8 yards per attempt. The passing game for the Bengals was not good in this game.

Oh, Joe was 5.7 yards per time. Overall, this includes sacks. Ah, I got you. Okay. I assume. Yeah. But yards per pass. I don't know.

Weird. But sack three times, the long of 28 is really deceiving because that's like the only one. That's like the only throw. So he had two real downfield throws. Yeah. One is the one to chase the 28 yard over the middle. And then the other one is Andre Yosevash. And I thought it was a good ball.

And pass your appearance. Yeah. And it's like, all right, well, why are you testing them more? By the way, in a game, and I'm not going to be the one that advocates that Jermaine Burton should have gotten a ton of snaps. but if you don't have T. Higgins and you're wondering who's going to stretch the field, say, hey, 81, go run deep. Like if it's, oh, Jamar Chase just isn't there yet or all of these things. I don't care. At some point, you do have to throw it deep. Zach did say, we're not going to just throw it deep to throw it deep.

And so I think he could tell that the narrative was going to be the narrative. But they have to find, it doesn't even need to be deep. Can you get intermediate? it. Like, they have to, moving forward, be able to get the ball downfield. And I really wonder how much of that is what they're calling. Are they just getting got? And that's on coaches.

Like, Zach's talking about the first three drives of the game, not able to find a rhythm. That's on Zach. You got to be able to find the right buttons to push. You got to get off to a better start than that. And just the amount of short throws in this game, credit the Patriots defense on the one hand, but on the other hand, that's rough. Their defense isn't that good. It's not that good.

No. I mean, they were today, obviously, but that's, to your point, like largely on the Cincinnati Bengals offense for play calling, game planning, execution, all of the things that just didn't go well for them on that side of the ball. Yeah, it didn't. The week one weirdness, Jake. It wasn't even that weird.

Trademarked that stuff. It wasn't even that weird. The worst thing about it to me, and, we should move on and get to some of the other thoughts to finish up the show here. But it wasn't even that weird. It was just bad. There were a couple things that were a little weird. The fumbles were a little bit weird.

But even outside of the fumbles, there was so much that was just disappointing and bad. And now they have to find a way forward. Yeah. They do. And there's a bad man waiting for them in Kansas City. And I get it. The Bengals are 3 and 1 against them. But that's, you shouldn't have been 0.1.

you're supposed to win today. All right? That's it. You're supposed to win today. And I think that's, by the way, punning on fourth and five, when you're down 16 to 10 and you've gotten your tail kicked in all game, that is playing not to win.

I promise that's what it is. And they lost the game before that, but they could have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by going down field and scoring. And they didn't do it. And that clearly wasn't the mindset because they were comfortable punting on fourth and five. Awful. Go ahead.

And even beyond that, that drive just was so bad. And Burrow didn't look great. And let's finish up our thoughts on this game here. Talk about what's coming next. Talk about what we're looking for for this team coming out of this disappointing week one loss to finish the show next. Today's show is also brought to you by GameTime. Game time is the app you need to get.

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James, let's talk offensive. line here for a second. What were your thoughts watching the offensive line today? According to PFF from what I recall, it was like a 20%ish, give or take 5% pressure rate on Joe Burrow, not under a ton of pressure in this game, was sacked three times. But I think my initial takeaway on each of those sacks was at least part of the responsibility was either on the quarterback or on the play call or on the receivers for not uncovering when Joe Burrow wanted to throw the ball. Yeah, I think it's tough because they certainly had some of their losses. Run game-wise, I think they were pretty bad early.

But I think Joe had time. That's what's weird about this. It's not like he was getting glanced at a ton. He did run a little bit, but everything just felt really tight. They feel felt small. And I don't think that's the offensive lines fault. I don't think it was a lack of time thing where they were just running quick game the whole time. And that's it. I don't know what it is. But no, I don't think they were great by any means,

but from a past protection standpoint specifically, you can't be mad at it. And they average 4.40 yards per attempt rushing wise, Zach Moss 4.9. And that was mostly on their touchdown draft. But still, like, they were effective on the ground overall. And so you would take that. So I'm not putting a ton on the offensive line. I think that there's going to be others that are pretty critical of the offensive line. But I don't think that they were awful. It'll be interesting to watch on tape. It's one of those things that you always have to kind of take a step back and actually watch closely when you rewatch a game.

I had some concerns on the right side. Alex Kappa in particular, I just don't see that level of performance that we would hope to see from him right now. It wasn't like it was terrible, but there are a couple of plays where it's just like, you just need to be better there. Trent Brown was not terribly impressive to me,

especially in past protection where it felt like he had some issues, probably more issues than most of the offensive line in this game. Also had a couple of really nice plays in the run game. The left side I thought was pretty good in pass protection from the center to the left tackle. And so we'll see what that looks like when we have a chance to revisit on tape. But I did see some people that were like the offensive line is still terrible. And I didn't really come away with that takeaway. They could have played better for sure.

And this isn't a very fearsome Patriots defensive front, although Keon White played well, credit him for that. It will need to be better in the future, I think, but I didn't think that it was awful. I'll be very interested to see what Amariousman's next couple of weeks looks like, though, James, at the right tackle spot. If he comes back and hits the ground running, I wonder how quickly he'll get back in there.

Finding something in the run game late also, I think, is an encouraging sign going forward. It wasn't great, but you know, you can imagine, the game going a little bit differently, were they able to lean on the run a little bit more because they haven't wasted the early part of the game and the running game late looks a little bit better. Interested to see how that looks going forward as well.

Of course, the competition will get harder next week and then in the future as well. So considering the competition, you take it, I think, from the offensive line, but I think it's kind of cautious optimism in some ways because I think the test will get harder. well, Trent Brown wasn't ready. And I'm not, he didn't play a lot.

He hasn't played a lot over the past six weeks. Like, he was talking about Jamar. Like, Trent hasn't played either. Hasn't had a lot of reps. And I think that's by design, but you're going to have, you're going to take your lumps. And you're not going to be perfect. And so hopefully he can grow from this game just from a getting ready for football standpoint and be even better next week.

I think, so there's one. I just, not that he was awful, but that's, that's part of it. And then I, to me, I just, from an offensive standpoint, it's more about the, all right, downfield stuff. Is that a thing? Is that not a thing? Are you going to be able to, especially if you do have a run game to your point, because it was encouraging. And you would take that. Like, if you tell me the Bengals average 4.4 yards per carry this year, I would sign up for that all day.

And it's not even close, right? And it's, I'm not worried about the run game right now. You know, I don't think that's why they lost. It would have been nice if they found it earlier, especially with the way they were dinking and dunking. Again, that's what's weird about. The why they're dinking and dunking is weird. Well, they don't even get to like screens.

They don't get to very, there's one screen, I think, in this game, which is a play action under center, really nice design, effective screen. They don't really get to screens in this game. They don't really get to the under center stuff very much. They get to the pistol down in the red zone where they run that air call. 12 personnel air calls coming across to block in motion. Drew Sample had a crushing block on the touchdown run. So shout out Drew Sample for that run blocking rep there on the touchdown for Zach Moss.

But yeah, I mean, the passing offense is certainly probably. Well, no, not probably. Certainly concern number one to me coming out of this game, when you can't throw the ball, you're built to throw the ball. that needs to be better. On the defensive side, it's tackling. Like, I thought I'd come away from this game worried about the defensive interior

getting blown off the ball. And they didn't really. Like, J.C. Felli actually played pretty dang well in the run game, and he's an up-and-down player, and he had an up game today, given against, like, Michael Jordan and some fourth-round rookie a guard for the Patriots. The Patriots interior offensive line

wasn't anything to write home about, but the interior defensive line, I thought, was okay. And then they couldn't get reset down when they got pressure. They couldn't get Ramandre Stevenson down in the backfield several times throughout this game, probably eight times at or behind the line of scrimmage and a lot of those on DB tackling issues. That's what I'm worried about is you can't have these mistackle issues chronically again in the run game. They need better tackling when they have opportunities to get guys down at or behind the line of scrimmage and they did not get it in this game. Yeah.

The tackling part is so, so weird, because if anything, you thought it would be the other way, like you said, where they're just getting out physicaled a bit in the trenches. And at the same time, that's what sucks is there's a realistic element here where the tackling better improve because they're not going to have as much success in the trenches next week. No, they're not. You know, or the week after, or the week after that. because the competition. There's no Michael Jordan on the Chiefs roster, just to be clear, on the roster. And I don't even know their backup guards,

but I bet you it's not elevated from the practice squad Michael Jordan. So, yeah, it's that's what's like my overall takeaway, and it really sucks to do this after week one. But man, are we going to be looking back at this game at week 10, week 12, week 15? Are we going to be thinking about that? that there's no way they should have lost to that Patriots team. Like, I think we will.

I think this is going to be one of those games. And it's really annoying for a bunch of reasons that we've already discussed. And they have to bounce back against one of, if not the best teams in the NFL on the road in a very hostile environment. Where they've won before, don't get me wrong. But this is not the way you wanted to start the season. And there's no way to spin that. said earlier in the show. There's no way to spend that positively. Like I said, there were some bright spots. So if we're doing game balls, which are not really, but shout out Trey Hendrickson,

shout out Ryan Rico. Shout out to Mark Chase. Those are the ones that come to mind. Drew Sample, mentioned that. Zach Moss, those are some positives. But need guys to clean up when Trey Hendrickson creates that pressure, looking forward to Miles Murphy's return and need to get better tackling. We've talked about all the things that need to get better. We will continue to talk about those things that need to get better when we've had more time to digest this game. We'll hear again from Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow this week as we get ready for a big week two contest in Kansas City. But that is going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay and have a good one.