Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film review of Bengals' offense was JUST AS BAD as it looked!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Usually when you put on the tape of a bad loss, it doesn't look as bad as it felt when you watched live. Unfortunately, that's not the case for this week's Zach Taylor offense. That's right good day. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liscoe joined today by Mike Santagadab, Bengals underscore Sands, on socials, where he will tell you all about his favorite coaching clinics and the things going wrong with the Bengals offense.

Starting point is 00:00:47 That's the case this week, a run game disaster. I'm Jake Lisco, and I'm one of your regular hosts of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, where we've had you covered daily as a one-stop shop for all things. Bengals going back to 2016. And if you're new, join the everydayers. Join those of you who make us your first list as we navigate what has become a very tumultuous Bengal season that threatens to spiral and maybe even death spiral

Starting point is 00:01:13 depending on how the next few weeks go. And it's not like it gets easier, but today we're going to take a retrospective and look at how the Bengals approached this game in Minnesota. What went wrong? What can be fixed in the next few weeks, realistically, as the defenses remain difficult on the upcoming schedule?

Starting point is 00:01:31 And maybe we'll get to the defense at the end of the show time permitting because the defense mostly was the same defense that it has been. They didn't have any takeaways this week. That's the difference, obviously, with the Bengals giving the ball away infinity times in this game. So we'll see what we have time for on the defensive side of the ball. But the meltdown on offense, it's not just the fumbles, right? As we were talking earlier, Mike and DMs, it's not just the fumbles that you can't necessarily lay directly at the coach's feet. but the ineptitude in the run game is staggering when you look at it on tape.

Starting point is 00:02:10 But before we get to what went wrong and why it went wrong and all those things, as you reviewed what the Bengals tried to do in the first half, which is really all we're talking about here because then the game was over, what was the Bengals game plan going into this matchup with the Brian Flores, Minnesota Vikings defense? The game plan seemed to be one, we're going to be. one, we're going to establish the run and make our presence felt and try to work the game off of that. They were going under center, running the ball a lot on first down.

Starting point is 00:02:41 And if you think of the very first sequence, it was a run on first down and then a screen, a quick screen on second down, and then third down in completion pump. And that felt like kind of what they wanted to do was just, let's make this easy on our quarterback. Let's give them a run game. Let's give them some screen game, maybe some tap pass type stuff. jet sweeps that he can lean on so that we don't need to ask him to be Joe Burrow. And we'll get there, but it didn't work. I think you realize that this offense needed a Joe Burrow to work out against

Starting point is 00:03:16 at least the Brian Flores high-level defense. We have seen the Bengals play against, by DVOA anyway, two of the best three defenses in the league and the Cleveland Browns and the Brian Flores, Minnesota Vikings. And then I think the Jags were seventh, and that's probably on the strength of them having played Carolina and Houston outside of their game against a half of Joe Burrow and a half of Jake Browning, in which they collected multiple turnovers on the defensive side of the ball themselves and had several sacks. So it's not like their defense by DVOA probably even measured up that poorly against the Bengals. So they've played some top defenses so far this year. That has something to do with the results. It's not like it gets easier, though.

Starting point is 00:03:56 The Packers are won in DVOA for Dengals. defense. They're a couple of weeks away. Denver is one of the lower, and I think everyone thinks they're better than this number. I think they were like 13th or 14th by DVOA, but they have a very, very good defensive front. And obviously the defensive player of the year at cornerback, not like that gets easier. Detroit, maybe is the quote unquote easiest defense this team will see in the first six games of the season. And, well, I think that's a pretty well-coached unit. That being said, that's not really an excuse for the performance that we've seen from this team. When you have that approach to a game, you would think that it would look like you have practiced these plays before in some cases,

Starting point is 00:04:42 especially in the run game. What other easy buttons did the Bengals try to use early? Was there anything that we saw different from them in the passing game before this thing got out of hand that you thought, that's a nice wrinkle that they put in for Jake Browning to try to take some of the load off his plate mentally. Maybe one would just be the play action keeper's stuff. I think they tried a couple of those and didn't work too well. The bizarre thing on one of them,

Starting point is 00:05:08 and this was a completed pass to Noah Fant, I don't remember how long it went for. He took forever to get the ball to Fant. Like he's sitting wide open in the flat. And this is where like you don't have an offensive performance as bad without everybody having some level of stink. Like Browning was just off. And you see the two picks, but it's more than that.

Starting point is 00:05:27 Like, by not getting the ball to fan earlier on that keeper, well, now he can't gain yards after the catch. And that's one of Noah fans' best attributes as a tight-out be getting yards after the catch. Same with the other play, he ends up getting that first down, but Browning puts it high and inside he has to jump and contort his body to catch it. It's like if we get that down, he can run fast.

Starting point is 00:05:46 You can turn to a runner faster. So a couple of the easy buttons, like those keepers, ended up kind of being a detriment because Browning didn't even, he missed the easy button. He missed pressing the easy button. So we have issues along the offensive line. Vichy's a quarterback. You got Jamar Chase putting the ball on the ground.

Starting point is 00:06:04 You got Chase Brown putting the ball on the ground. You got Samajie Piron putting the ball on the ground. You got Noah Fan putting the ball on the ground. You got Noah Fan putting the ball on the ground. I feel like I should never have to say putting the ball on the ground five times in a row about different guys. And yet that's part of the problem too. and that's not something you scheme up obviously,

Starting point is 00:06:23 but accentuates the errors, where you go from a potential 10-17 game to a 3 to 24 game to very quickly a 30-something to 3 game at halftime due to a comedy of errors in a few plays. Obviously ignoring how badly the plan went and how badly it was executed. If you turn the ball over five times,

Starting point is 00:06:49 including three times and four points. That's what a game is going to look like. I think that point has been made by Zach Taylor, by other observers of this football game. But the concerning thing, when you take a step back and you look at the film again and you think about what we've seen from this team through the first three weeks, Mike,

Starting point is 00:07:07 that I want to get to next is there are these trends in the run game in particular that are making the Bengals so easy to defend, even if Joe Burrow were out there. I think this would be pretty tough right now with the state of the Bengals run game. Maybe the run game actually performs a little bit better with Burrow. I think there's an argument that everything could be like just a touch better. If you still had your quarterback that makes your team go,

Starting point is 00:07:35 which is contrary to what a lot of people were saying last week, we tried to, when we talked last week, talk about how there's just a run game issue with this team and that played out this week. So let's talk about what went wrong. We'll do that as we continue the discussion and dissection of this offense with the caveat that it's only one game. Really is three games, so coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is brought to you by five-hour energy

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Starting point is 00:08:59 Mike, let's talk about just how wrong it went. And let's start with the running game because we've had three games now and the Bengals are by far the worst rushing offense in the NFL. They just had their worst rushing performance in the NFL is a worst rushing offense in the NFL. What trends have you noticed that were kind of accentuated in this game? and what was new? And like, what are they throwing at the wall

Starting point is 00:09:25 and why is it not working? All right. So we start with what's new? They went to wide zone. They went to some wide zone. And it looked like it had never been repped by this team. Perhaps it had not because it has been a few years since that was a primary staple of this offense.

Starting point is 00:09:43 But they went under center. They went pistol. They tried to work horizontally in the wide zone system. And then you think about knowing your personnel, I got Orlando Brown, Ted Karris and Dalton Rise, will this work? The answer was no. They tried that power play that they used to run with Eric All in different ways, either under center, but it's the same idea.

Starting point is 00:10:05 Motion the one tight end, have him kick out the end and have the other tight end come through and get the backer to back power. Well, that was a disaster too. And really, it's bizarre to see an NFL offense have this many missed assignments in week three and then also botched assignments. I think you just had both going, it was haywire. It went haywire. Because they tried to establish the run and be a run-first team to try to protect Browning,

Starting point is 00:10:39 it really put the problems to the forefront. A lot of times with Burrow, they're really just running inside zone duo, maybe a little bit of fun, something fun here or there, like that draw play where he fakes it and hands it off. But they're really running some simple concepts and keeping it easy on this offensive line in terms of the run game. Now they're going to try to diversify, run power, run counter, but run power, run duo, wide zone, inside zone, try to do all these different tags to it. And it didn't work because the offensive line just got manhandled. The tight ends got manhandled. And I hate to say that as a Cam Grandy supporter, but there's a play. of power that he's at fault for because he gets dominated by the defensive end.

Starting point is 00:11:20 And then Drew Sample on the kickout block doesn't get any movement on that kickout block. So the tight ends are not fully absolved here, but the offensive line just looked horrid in these run blocking situations. There's two play. I can't remember an NFL game where I saw two different plays where the offensive line didn't block the nose tackle in the A gap. Not that they couldn't. They just didn't. Not by design, right? Like these are places where someone has gone the wrong way.

Starting point is 00:11:47 It's not way. And that kind of makes me think like where was the wham and the trap and the counter? I guess you just run out of time because they tried running it first on four or five drives maybe on first downs. They were trying this early down run stuff. It didn't work at all. But maybe that's just not enough time. If nothing's working to get to the trap, the wham. I mean, they maybe ran one drawplay.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Maybe it wasn't even a drawplay. I thought Somaget P. Ryan's 12-yard run was a drawplay out of their own end zone. But you called it duo, I think, or inside zone, actually. Inside zone. Yeah, they're making room for the punter, and that was the best run they've had all year. What about Chase Brown? Because I think that I want to be clear about this. I feel like even Zach, when he was talking about the run game, kind of absolved his running backs.

Starting point is 00:12:43 I know that Somagie had a fumble. Chase Brown had a fumble. You obviously can't fumble the ball if you're going to be relied upon as a running back. And so that aside, are they missing things or is this like missed assignments from the blockers, guys getting blown up as blockers, guys getting run around as blockers? It's mostly the blocking. I can't really blame Chase Brown too much. I actually, I think the only time I wrote down in an actual.

Starting point is 00:13:13 missed read was a Samajapirian run oddly enough where I felt like he went the center gets blown back a little bit but he does establish leverage and he goes against that leverage and goes for like a three yard game where if he was able to get around him could have been I don't know six seven eight yards I don't know how fast Samaj I can get through there but uh chase brown I didn't really write anything bad down because it felt like he really took the brunt of the offensive line's worst plays both plays that they didn't block the nose tackle It was Chase Brown back there that had to take him on. I mean, the one play, nobody cares.

Starting point is 00:13:48 It looks like an Oklahoma drill. It looks like they lined them up, had the fans on the side and tried to just see who would win. The nose tackle or Chase Brown. Pretty devastating. Don't run Oklahoma drills in NFL games. That's not the goal. There's a reason the teams don't use the Oklahoma drill in practices anymore.

Starting point is 00:14:06 It doesn't really replicate a whole lot of game situations. What can be fixed in this run game? Obviously, you would expect guys to know their assignments a little bit better and try to block the nose tackle. But there are a number of plays that feature the entire interior offensive line on running plays where they're trying to get downhill, getting blown two, three yards into the backfield by a defensive line that, yeah, there's some guys on that defensive line that are good players.

Starting point is 00:14:36 And Jalen Redmond, I think, maybe chief among them. this game in particular, but this is not a defensive line that is, you know, quote-unquote run deep hill, like we've talked about the Bengals approach with some of their moves on the defensive line, the way they're approaching the game in the trenches on defense. And yet, you're seeing guys trying to run block getting blown two, three yards into the backfield instead of like, worst case should be a stalemate, right? Worst case, you should be not generating that vertical move. that you're looking for as an offensive line.

Starting point is 00:15:11 They're getting blown into the backfield. And when it's multiple guys on one play, it really makes me wonder how fixable it is within this year, given the guys they have available to them. One of my favorite clinics to bring it up was Howard Mudd doing Inside Zone in the 90s. Here we go. Clinic of the week. Howard Mudd Inside Zone.

Starting point is 00:15:30 Inside zone. Cool clinic. Don't know what year. It's like 98. He's in a bright yellow shirt. And rest in peace, Howard. But what he talked about,

Starting point is 00:15:38 and I've always thought about this, is in the NFL, unless you have a Larry Allen, you're not going to create a ton of knockback and just blast these holes wide open. What you're looking for are ways to get into an advantageous stalemate, where you've got your butt in the right spot, you're able to give the running back a clean read, you're not blowing that guy off the ball, but you're not getting blown back. You create that stalemate between force, and then you move to position yourself into leverage. I think that's what they need to do because there's not a Larry Allen on this offensive line. They need to be able to find a way to just at least get into a spot where the running back can read and get to the second level.

Starting point is 00:16:18 Just get your butt in the right place, not get blown back. I don't know if that's all physical. The main play I think of is that one Ted Karris gets knocked like four yards back on the snap. And then Dylan Fairchild also gets knocked to the ground at the same time. And that's another one of those. Chase Brow, he did nothing wrong. Like, what are you supposed to do? Two defensive tackles are right there.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Like, you need to be able to, they don't reset the line of scrimmage, and they won't with this unit. But they can't let the defense reset the line of scrimmage on these plays, which is what happened repeatedly in this game. That's just something you're a professional. When, when, when Mudd said, we don't get those because we don't have Larry Allen. Like, the defense also isn't supposed to be able to do that every play unless they have Aaron Donald. And credit to Redmond, 61, I believe. but he should not have looked like Aaron Donald on Sunday, but he sure did.

Starting point is 00:17:13 And I think that is just like, take some pride in your work. I know they don't rep this stuff a ton. You think of all the install that they do that's all past game. They want to build the offense around Joe Burrow that way. But these guys do know these plays. Like you can't tell me Ted Carras, a 10-year vet or something, doesn't know how to run inside zone or doesn't know how to run these concepts.

Starting point is 00:17:36 Like he knows. At some point, it becomes players need to take pride in what they do and go out there. And even if the game stinks, and even if you're getting blown out, you need to be able to show that you can do this. And they didn't on Sunday. But I think that's just a player thing. You can't get blown back like that. Just have some pride. Have some pride.

Starting point is 00:17:57 Grenard Redmond and a fellow named Levi Drake Rodriguez, who is starting for the first time in not starting, getting rotation. for the first time this year, the second year player with the Minnesota Vikings, all had apparently excellent days with numerous run stops, blowing plays up, Redmond was noticeable. Grinard was certainly noticeable

Starting point is 00:18:16 in Orlando Brown's worst game of the season. It was very ugly for the Bengals up front. That's just in the run game. Let's talk about the impact on the passing game. Let's talk about what was different this week in the run game that made it worse because it was worse. And it's not been good this year,

Starting point is 00:18:31 but it was noticeably worse in this game. I don't know if we're going to get to the defense, Mike, this offense is a disaster that needs to get fixed sooner than later, lest it turn into a very ugly death spiral this season. We'll continue the conversation on this offense, this running game, what went wrong in the past game, and how the impacts are intertwined coming up next. The NFL season firmly underway at this point, and things are not going so well for the Bengals after three weeks, even though they're two and one, but Fandul can help you get ready for kickoff

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Starting point is 00:20:16 Mike, what was different this week in the running game? Was it just the violence with which the Vikings played? Was it that they just don't know how to run a wide zone? And it was just maybe too much for them in a week. But they tried it anyway. What were your biggest takeaways as why it was so much worse this week than an already bad performance from? this unit in the one game has been this year. Yeah, I think the wide zone and the power don't

Starting point is 00:20:39 help things. I think the other part is they tried to make it the forefront of the game plan. So it was front and center instead of being in the background. And then three, Brian Flores is a chaos creator as a defensive coordinator. He's a guy that tries to dictate things for the offense, not the other way or doesn't react to how the offense plays. I think there's certain coordinators that go both ways. And I think Flores is always going to do what he does for better or worse, which is weird because Belichick to me was a guy that I'm going to adapt to the offense I'm facing. Well, as the chaos creator, it worked too because it's not just the physical ability, the technical ability, and the missed assignments, but part of missing those assignments

Starting point is 00:21:17 was that they were bringing a lot of blitzes. They're playing funky fronts. They were bringing a lot of stunts. And when you're trying to rep wide zone, for example, and they're going to run a three-man stunt where two guys go out and another one loops inside, do you think the team that doesn't rep wide zone knows what to do in that scenario. Probably not. You have to hang back, pass those guys off like his past protection, and then be able to push them, displace them horizontally. But instead, they're just like, I'm blocking my guy. And then the third guy that comes around, Amarius Mims is trying to chase.

Starting point is 00:21:49 And people are going to blame him for that. But really, he can't do anything. What's he supposed to do? He takes his outside step and starts working that way. And the guy's going the other way. You need to be able pass things off. That guy's a better athlete. That's just these defensive ends are better athletes from the offensive tackles.

Starting point is 00:22:02 That's why they need to be technically stronger. So I think the chaos of a Brian Flores defense really played into it as well. That's why I'm not going to say the run game will be good. I don't even think it will be average or even passable, but it might look a little bit better this week because I don't think Denver does as much. There's a difference between missed assignments and getting your butt kicked and just getting your butt kicked. They might just get their butt kick this week. Or maybe they'll surprise me, but I'm assuming they get their butt kick this week.

Starting point is 00:22:27 But it won't be, we left the nose tackle for the second time in one game. We left that linebacker just go through and kill. the running back. I don't think that'll happen as much this week, but that's part of all these missed assignments and why it looks so bad was Brian Flores is also a chaos agent. And part of why I talked about the defenses of Bengals have played so far this year. We just saw what the Cleveland Browns did against the Green Bay Packers, who looked like Super Bowl favorites going into week three. And now there's clouds of doubt over Green Bay's team success possibilities after you lose to the Cleveland Browns. The impact on the passing game, though, and again, you talk about the defenses

Starting point is 00:23:06 of Bengals have played, it doesn't help, but how does that go together for you, Mike, especially when we're thinking about how this offense with Browning is using more play action than with Joe Burrow. You're turning your back to the defense a little bit at times. You're trying to run screen game a little bit more, but the entire offense was that. It wasn't just the run game. And the run game got them behind the sticks and kind of doomed them. as they started to find adjustments, when they were driving to score that field goal to try to make the game 10-17 before the half,

Starting point is 00:23:39 they did find some little things that looked like they were starting to work in the past game, but is it just that they were just behind the six the whole game, or what were the passing game notes for you as you watched the Bengals trying to adapt with Jake Browning at quarterback? Despite destroying the Bengals run game

Starting point is 00:23:57 to a level I hadn't seen in a while, Flores also was respecting their ability, like T. Higgins and Jemar Chase's ability by playing too high over the top. And that's also part of what makes it so kind of embarrassing the Bengals' run game performance is that they weren't even selling out. They weren't even selling out to stop this run game. They'd rather stop the pass. They'd rather stop Jamar Chase T. Higgins and forced either the run game or Browning to win throwing to Fant Gisicki Yosevas. So when you say that, it makes me think of something that a lot of fans are going to bring up. It might even be thinking right now, like when you have tea and you have Jamar,

Starting point is 00:24:35 shouldn't you be able to use those guys anyway, even if teams are trying to take them away? Like maybe that's it. Maybe it's just you're so bad at running the ball. You can't make them pay for those plays where they're really selling out to stop Jamar and T. But like, shouldn't these coaching staff be able to put these guys in positions to make more plays than we saw from them anyway? A lot of middlefield open beaters in this game. And one, that Burrow doesn't really run is a. flat seven, which is smash, but instead of the outside guy hitching and the inside guy running a

Starting point is 00:25:06 corner, the outside guy runs the corner and the inside guy just runs fast to the flat. They ran that probably three, four, I think four times in the game. Browning never threw it, but I assume he likes it. Part of not throwing it is the offensive line. There were a couple plays that were like, okay, you just can't do that. But part of not throwing it was also he just would see it and didn't feel comfortable throwing it. I don't know if that's a Browning thing or if that was maybe Taylor really likes that concept as a quarterback, likes that concept as a coach, thought like, oh, I like doing

Starting point is 00:25:37 this. So Browning will probably find it easy too. He's better quarterback than I was and he just doesn't like it. They went to drive a few times, which was the play that Browning probably's most impressive throw against Jacksonville, other than like the go balls where he throws the deep one, he threw a pick this time. He didn't even look at the shallow. I think the shallow was Jamar Chase. and he threw a pick trying to throw the deeper one. So that may be questioned the other one where I'm like, maybe he just likes throwing the 12-yard in. Maybe he never even looks at the shallow route.

Starting point is 00:26:09 So I don't know, those are some different drop-back concepts they got to. But when the play-action game didn't work, the keepers didn't work, the screen didn't work, and the run game doesn't work, that's all you got. All you got left is your drop-back stuff. And they tried a couple of different things. Like, to me, Burroughs more of a sale guy. He likes sale.

Starting point is 00:26:24 He likes rap, race, whatever you call that, with a little short stop route and then the in route behind it. And they didn't really run those. So that made me take a little bit notice of like, so they're not running the burrow plays. The other part they didn't run, despite being middle field open team and trying to run a bunch of middle field open beaters, two high beaters,

Starting point is 00:26:43 is they didn't run Lyon, the two double slant concept. That feels like a missed opportunity because I've seen Browning make that play. So that one feels like, I don't know if they just got way behind early and just kind of tried to hurry up and figure out what play calls they would get to, but that felt like a missed opportunity because that's a chance to get Jamar Chase on the run. That's an easier throw in concept.

Starting point is 00:27:07 It's quick game. It's easy on the offensive line, too. So they're moving to these five-step, seven-step concepts that I talked about, like the flat seven, like drive, and not work in the quick game as much. So that was a little bit surprising to me personally, where I was thinking, I know Quick Game can be hard on quarterbacks, but Browning's a vet, and Browning also has shown the ability to work Quick Game before. So it's a little surprising to not use it here against this chaos creating defense.

Starting point is 00:27:35 Yeah. What would you change? You have a week to make some changes here. Are you making any personnel changes if it's you? Are you thinking about any personnel changes along the offensive line? Are you thinking about any personnel changes anywhere else? Yeah, I'm thinking about Jalen Rivers because I thought he played okay. at times. I don't think he was great, but I do think he wasn't getting blown back. He was getting

Starting point is 00:27:58 into the stalemate. So if I can get a guy that is at least hitting that stalemate part, I feel like it's easier to get him to start getting into the advantageous stalemate too, just get your leverage in the right spot that it is where Reisner was getting blown back. So it's kind of hard to go like, well, I need you to first get to the stalemate portion of this. And then we can work on getting into an advantageous position too. So I think about making that change. And the other one is Ted Karras is a real big concern right now. I think it's three straight weeks, and it's not even the highest quality of competition. He has not really faced, like, premier nose tackles yet throughout this year.

Starting point is 00:28:34 So I'm wondering what's going on, because it's three bad games in a row, where when does that least end and Matt Lee gets the nod to get a shot? Because his athleticism is he probably not getting blown back the same way. it might not be as good communication-wise, but communication stinks right now against these stunts and twists. So if that's the calling card for Karras is things are going to look right, they don't look right. So I wonder about bringing in Matt Lee, too.

Starting point is 00:29:04 I think Orlando and Mims and Fairchild, they're pretty set. You're kind of working those guys. I would also keep Grandy actively and try it again, because if the run game doesn't work against Denver, that stinks. But that is something that could really help you. And the only feasible run offense I can think of for them is the same. sample grandi combo maybe grandy fant so you get a guy a little more athletic in the f spot and just let grandie be the y but those are a couple of personnel changes i think about the running back stuff

Starting point is 00:29:32 i think is overblown i'd like chase brown to me is a good back i think he was i think he's still the best back in this group and they're getting really destroyed yeah it is nice to have a taj or p rind to be able to just fall forward but if you're at that point the run game is not going to help you in this in the game. Yeah, to the point that it's a detriment, it's making them easier to defend when you can stay too high and take away the guys on the outside

Starting point is 00:29:57 and just beat the numbers advantage. Like, plays where you have a clear plus one or even plus two in the numbers game and you're still getting blown up for no gain or minimal gains. A lot needs to change with this offense. and I think one of the more disappointing things for three weeks, Ted Karrison and Dalton Reisner,

Starting point is 00:30:23 just a fall off, the year-to-year falloff. I know that sometimes these things happen and they catch us off guard and we say there's a cliff and you can't see it, you're walking through the fog, and the end of that cliff is coming at some point. I don't know if that's the case for these guys. We'd love to see them bounce back, but if that's the case with Reisner,

Starting point is 00:30:39 especially Reisner, it's another case of them trying to get a guy who has had some solid, you know, average plus years, and then you just see this precipitous falloff happen when you get to Cincinnati. But this year for the entire offensive line, aside of maybe Amarius,

Starting point is 00:30:53 you know, Dylan Fairchild has been a little bit up and down, Amaria still can't run block, or hasn't been able to produce in the running game. Everyone's a little bit worse this year. And so, you know, you start to ask those questions as well because everything on this offense, burrow or not burrow looks worse right now. Also, fair to remember,

Starting point is 00:31:15 as we're closing up here. Browning had games like this against Pittsburgh in 2023, and then he had Superman games on the other sides of those Pittsburgh games. So we'll see the next few weeks. The difference then might have been the quality of competition that he faced those years

Starting point is 00:31:31 versus the quality of competition this year. The thing was just coming out against a bunch of defenses that are really good this year. And offense around the league is down in 2025 so far. So just some context to keep in mind for those of you that made it all the way to the end. end here. We appreciate y'all for checking out this episode of the lockdown Bengals

Starting point is 00:31:49 podcast, a film review episode that we do every week here, even after a bad one. You can find Mike's work at benglestalk.com where he'll do his film review articles every week. You can find him on Twitter at bengals underscore sands, and maybe he'll start posting his coaching clinics of the week so you can find the link to the Howard Mud video on YouTube. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast, Ho day. And have a good.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film review of Bengals' offense was JUST AS BAD as it looked!

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