Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Heavy Favorites: Cincinnati Bengals Must SHUT DOWN Miami as Dexter and Defense Face Young Dolphins
Episode Date: October 7, 2026The Cincinnati Bengals search for answers after back-to-back losses and red zone struggles. Can Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ offense solve their late-game woes, especially with key injuries to Ja'Mar...r Chase and Tee Higgins? Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins showcase a roster packed with rookies, aiming to accelerate their rebuild and find a winning formula. Kyle Crabbs and Joe Goodberry break down pivotal matchups like Dexter Lawrence vs. Aaron Brewer and Chop Robinson vs. Amarius Mims. Key topics include each team's issues covering tight ends, how injuries impact offensive strategy, and whether Malik Willis has shown enough promise to be Miami’s long-term answer at quarterback. Photo Credits: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images, Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Everydayer ClubThe improved Everydayer Club brings you access to ad-free audio, the Subtext insider club where you can text Jake and Joe and get Bengals updates in your text messages, and Joe Goodberry's members-only Discord with over 1000 other Bengals fans—all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more: https://lockedonbengals.supercast.com/ Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TempoFor a limited time, Tempo is offering my listeners SIXTY PERCENT OFF your first box! Go to http://TempoMeals.com/LOCKEDON60. QuoTry QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/LOCKEDONNFL. OdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.Butcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.AppleYou can earn up to 3% unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase you make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA. Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apple-card-dot-com.https://learn.applecard.apple/unlimited-daily-cash?cid=apy-318-2000008800000-400000000000039&itscg=2030032&itsct=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnsiteid=133087&mttnpid=LockedOn%20%28Audio%29&mttnsubad=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnsubplmnt=&mttncc=USPrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Thursday here on the Locked On Network means it's time for a crossover.
Bengals, Dolphins, Week 5, we got you covered.
The Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked On Podcast Network.
Your team every day.
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to crossover Thursday here on the Lockdown Network.
He is Joe Goodberry of Locked on Bengals.
I am Kyle Crabs of Locked on Dolphins.
And we are getting you ready for keys to victory, primary matchups,
and top stories for Bengals versus Dolphins,
a rematch from a game late in the year.
Last year,
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Joe, it's great to see you.
How's the start of the season here in 2026,
treating you.
And welcome to the first crossover that you and I have a chance to do here
in the Lockdown Network, man.
Yeah, I'm happy to be back with Lockdown.
But yes, the Bengals started off very nice.
We're having a good time at 2 and 0.
The defense was not just functional.
It was really good.
And everyone's thinking, yes, skies to limit this year.
And then you dropped the last two where the defense hasn't looked as good.
And compiled that with Joe Burrow not coming through in the clutch.
Well, we've had a very opposite end of the spectrum for the first four weeks.
How about you guys in Miami?
Oh, well, we didn't start as good of a time as you did.
And we're still not having that great time.
But two very different teams, right?
I think that's at its core.
Cincinnati kind of it felt like.
Joe kind of expressed his displeasure with like, we need to be more competitive, right?
And the Bengals, they get aggressive and they trade the pick right in front of the Dolphins in the
2026 NFL draft.
Well, Miami was, hey, how big is your payroll?
What age are you?
Goodbye.
And that was like, that was it.
That was the whole thing.
So they're starting anywhere from seven to nine rookies on any given week, depending on what
personnel they roll out and to start the games.
That could be fun, though.
You know, we're draft guys.
that's fun. It is fun. And it's, it's, it's not as rewarding as like winning games, but seeing what guys get a similar look and don't make the same mistake they did the first time they saw it is like, it's like watching these guys kind of grow up a little bit. And, and it's rewarding, even if it's not fulfilling from a wins and losses perspective. So that's, that's really where Miami's at. And the last two weeks have been, well, opportunities to make plays in the last five minutes of the games and potentially put yourself in a position to win them. And they haven't done it yet. And that's the big talking.
point for them is learning how to win the games.
And with all these young guys, that's,
that's kind of the big thing with the dolphins.
What's, uh, what's the big talking point?
I have a feeling I know what, what is, but what's the big talking point this
weekend, Cincinnati ahead of week five?
Well, uh, not finding way to win games, even though it's a veteran team.
That's two last two weeks.
They had the ball thriving to put the game away or win it or tie it.
Uh, tie it in the Steelers game could have easily won it.
They're in Evan McPherson.
his field goal range was a weapon over 50 yards as a kicker. And Dalton Reisner gets beat for his first
loss of the game versus the Steelers gets beat by Derek Harmon. Joe Burrow tries to make a play,
fumbles it. It's recovered by the Steelers. And everyone's like, man, what a really good game
other than that one play for Joe Burrow and Dalton Reisner. You got to find a way to finish and
capitalize. Well, you get the same scenario versus the Jags. You're down by five and Burrow doesn't
have T or Jamar or Andreos. He's down three receivers at this point and he's dealing.
bro look great on tape last week other than the big plays that will haunt you.
And then you drive down to the end and you pass four times in a row, you only complete
one of them and you just come away and go, yeah, man, you got to figure out how to capitalize
and finish those games because it feels like the good quarterbacks do most of the time.
The good teams definitely do most of the time.
But when I hear you guys say that you're in the same situation with a very young roster
in an in evaluation mode starting the season that way, and here we are having the same
things.
It makes you think a little bit.
Well, and you can correct me from wrong.
I believe former Dolphin Mike Keseki was the target on the last interception.
Didn't he say he was supposed to cross face on that target here?
It wasn't an interception, but it was second down as they're going in.
They're on the 21-yard line.
They're trying to score, take the lead.
Gaseki is inserted into T. Higgins' X-receiver position.
So this is not his normal position on this play.
And they say, well, no T. Mike, you run this.
We're going to hit double post on this.
It's going to be open.
it probably would have been Travis Hunter did a great job.
As the route's developing, he is leaning inside and starts really heavily favoring the
inside for the post here.
Keseki's like, I can't beat him across the face.
But there's nobody over him.
And if I just run it straight, maybe Burrow will see it and just lay it up wide open for a touchdown.
Burrow hits that back foot, rips the post and no one's there.
And it falls incomplete.
And they're both like, ah, you know, I thought you'd see it.
I thought you'd cut.
And that's how it goes sometimes.
But it's like he has been very, very good so far.
Yeah, that's kind of the early season stuff for everybody, right?
Just like getting on the same page with this year's team on those kinds of looks.
And it's obvious to the umpteenth degree for the dolphins in, you know, the first two weeks on the back-ending coverage.
And okay, I'm deep third and there's a crosser.
And let me signal to the safety so he can cut the crosser.
And I'll just run and take the high post because there's nobody else on the backside.
And the safety doesn't get the memo.
So nobody goes with the crosser.
So it's like all of those little things, it's part of the,
of the bribe product, I guess, of kind of the amended preseason strategy that a lot of teams have
because they want to make sure their guys are out there in week one. And, you know, you don't want to
lose guys too early in the exhibition season. So it's a kind of damned if you do and damned if you
don't to some degree, right? And then you get supreme adversity where your top two receivers,
top three receivers go down and you have somebody else who has to fill the spot. So still plenty of
ballgame left in this season. And I think Cincinnati being a team that that I, that I
had pretty high expectations for. I picked them to win the AFC North. And although you saw what the
potential was those first two weeks, I'm really excited to see kind of how they can continue to,
I guess Joe doesn't really love the idea of balance, right? He says, oh, that's what he said. Yeah,
they said, well, the thing to say is like, I don't want to run the ball all, right? Let's just throw
more. We're good at it. It makes sense. So at times, because they are so efficient at throwing the ball.
and last week was the first time they got shut down in the run game this season.
And at that point, he's like, I'm not doing this.
Let's just drop back and throw the ball.
And it got them back into that game.
Yeah.
And you mentioned some of the schedule in the last two weeks with Jacksonville and Pittsburgh.
And Pittsburgh, who knows, but at Jacksonville defense is the real deal.
So, you know, that's a great test.
I thought coming into last week, that might be a playoff preview between those two kinds of teams.
So you'll get a different flavor.
for a different team this week where there's no playoff aspirations this season in Miami,
but they are a team that certainly feels like they've, they're evolving quickly.
And it's just a matter of how quickly can you get everybody to see the same things at the same time
to kind of go back into that preseason feel of communication and guys being on the same pace.
Now, we're going to get into a bunch of the matchups in this game.
and there are some interesting ones that I'm really fascinated to see from Miami
and how they choose to try to match personnel with Cincinnati in a few places.
We'll talk about all of that next.
Here on this crossover Thursday, Joe Goodberry of Locked on Bengals, Kyle Crabs,
host of Locked on Dolphins.
Make sure you guys stick with us.
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Joe Goodberry locked on Bengals, caught crabs, locked on dolphins. And Joe, I'd be a terrible host
if I went first here. So I'd love to hear from you on a matchup of one thing that you're
interested to watch when the Dolphins and Bengals playing week five.
The most fun to watch so far for me, whenever reviewing tape, and it's showed up a lot in games as well, has been Dexter Lawrence, who the Bengals traded that 10th pick for.
He's been everything they had hoped for and has been awesome.
Even in the games where teams are hyper-focused on doubling him, it has left open other players to make plays and linebackers to make plays.
And that's fun because that's a direct impact.
But you can't double him every single snap, right?
And a lot of the time he is at nose lined up directly above the center.
And the dolphins have one of the best centers in the league in Aaron Brewer.
Like, how is this matchup going to go?
I'm interested in that, not just during the game, but when we review on tape,
because Zach Frazier gave him a decent test,
but they didn't leave him one-on-one almost at all.
They doubled heavily all-game.
And the other centers, Dexter Lawrence has really had his way with.
This is going to be a good matchup to watch.
Yeah.
And for as amazing as Aaron is, he's like 290 pounds, right?
He's not a big human being versus a very large human being in Dexter Lawrence.
So I'm hoping we'll get some looks at Caden Proctor versus Dexter Lawrence on some combos, right?
That's the planet Earth theory.
There's only so many human beings on the planet that are the size of both of those guys.
So I would expect double teams and I would expect, you know, he'll probably get them from both sides with Savi and I at right guard.
but Kate and Proctor just for like the listed tail of the tape for those two guys.
It's like a main event, old school WWF style Saturday night main event with a couple of heavyweights there in the middle.
This is funny.
We just had Keelan Rutledge and then we had Emmanuel Pregnon and now we're getting Kate and Proctor left guard for all three of those guys.
And those, the previous two rookies had their struggles for sure.
Yeah, it's a baptism by fire against the guy like Dexter.
I think that's a great call out.
I am very interested to see Chop Robinson versus Ameris Mims.
Oh, yeah.
Obviously, Mary's coming into the season had pitched a sensational shutout against Ruben Bain,
which was kind of a talk of between week one and week two with how well-regarded Bain was as a player.
And I talk about length and arm length and mims and how good he's looked.
And he's looked great every time I've had a chance to get eyes on the Bengals thus far this season.
And he's kind of, he's that same draft class.
as Chop Robinson and those are guys that,
they were both upside picks,
superb physical traits.
Amarius has put it together more than Chop has,
but Chop's probably coming off his best game
since the second half of his rookie season.
I saw those clips, yeah.
He was a terror against Minnesota,
and he tagged Brian O'Neill for a sack.
They moved him around the front a little bit.
And for my way with all their young players up front,
you see when they try to run,
on the games. They're not necessarily on the same page. So the Dolphins' best opportunity and hope
to kind of get Joe Burrow off schedule with working through progressions. And his timing is to
have somebody who can win fast. And they don't really have that guy on the inside. And while
Josh Uchay's been pretty good as a one-year contract signing guy, chops the guy with the rare
first step get-off that would allow you to have success there. So how wide can you,
align him, especially against an offense like Cincinnati where you might dare them to stay patient and run the ball, right? You might line a little bit wider and try to get, get him to flex out to you a little bit more. I think that's a really interesting matchup for this game. Yeah, Mims has been charged PFF two pressures all season so far. So he's been pitching shutouts for the most part. And this goes back to last year as well, the second half of last year. He was Dominic, I think gave up one quarterback hit in the final nine games. So that's stretching into this year now.
He is a super athlete at that size, and he's tremendously patient and balanced.
It looks easy to him.
Its issue is honestly run blocking.
It's still not as crisp and clean, and he's not a destroyer, right?
For as big of the athletic as he is, he should crush guys.
He really doesn't.
And so that would be an interesting matchup as well, Chop Robinson, right, whose teams will
try to run at times.
So watching Mims go at him with that's not his strength either.
So maybe it's a weakness battle to see these guys and see who can.
sustain better. But yeah, if they want to go wide with chop, the Bengals also run the ball
inside more than anything. Like that's, they're running inside zone and do a lot of shock on a lot.
And when they do go to, uh, under center, which they, it feels like they're on the verge of
scrapping that completely because it hasn't worked for them. Uh, that's when they will try to hit
and bounce it outside. So it'll be interesting. And those will be the plays with the tight end on
that side and probably helping Orlando Brown is the is the, the, the, the weak link at tackle.
He is not moving well at all anymore. And not just that.
you would think with the size he would still have the power.
He has lost a lot of that power.
He's getting bull rushed pretty badly right now.
So maybe try and switch up, put chop over there a little.
That's how you know we're getting old, right?
I remember scouting Orlando coming out of Oklahoma about 10 years ago at this pace.
But yeah, and to your point about running inside zone and that is something I am really
interesting because the one thing the dolphins have done relatively well is stop the run.
And they're allowing 3.6 yards per carry.
What does it like to have competent linebacker?
And we really like to know over in Cincinnati.
And transitioning away from what it was a few years back,
like before Brooks got here in the first place,
and Tyrell Dotson last year is a guy who's kind of just a downhill thumper.
But it's been incredible to watch Jacob Rodriguez kind of come in
and make the plays that he has in the middle of the field.
And Minnesota just kind of stayed on schedule by taking checkdowns
and playing patient underneath.
So that's the balance they have to walk now.
But, you know, those linebackers are a lot of fun.
And you would have success with the duo working against Zach Seeler, in my opinion.
And that's why one thing I am watching is if they're able to get Kenneth Grant back in time for this game,
just because Zach is probably at this stage a little bit better suited to be a bigger N, be a four-eye,
get out of those true combination blocks that when he tries to parlay off of them,
he's at this stage in his career, he's just getting ridden up and he's given up ground.
So that would be if you're going to run between the tackles, I would look at 92 as a spot to maybe try to press the hole.
That makes sense.
And, you know, as a big draft guy, it seemed like the dolphins took so many of my favorite players as I was looking at matchups coming in and hoping that Jamar and or T play, at least one of them would be a big boost.
Chris Johnson was my guy last year at corner.
How has he looked so far for you guys?
You know, it's hard to talk matchup here.
I just want to know individual.
Is he hitting the ground running?
So the last two weeks, he's looked very smooth.
And I think for the first two, it was San Francisco in week two and then Kubiak in week one.
This is not great matchups from a play caller's perspective.
And San Francisco had an extra four days of net rest because they played in Australia in week one.
So it was kind of a nightmare scenario.
And they give up five touchdowns on five drives.
And that was a little bit of everybody.
But Chris does not leave the field when they're in base and four three or three,
three, four. He's an outside corner. When they go to nickel, he kicks inside and he plays a lot of
the nickel and they'll play some match up stuff with him. Halfley, Jeff Halfley oozed praise about him on
Monday after the game and just talked about how to the last two weeks it's really felt like it's,
it's kind of clicking in the place for him. And you're seeing a lot of him getting involved in run
support on the edges, but also being in position to, as that nickel player, he can push into a deep half.
he can push into the flat.
He could just stay there and drop into a hook.
Like they're really taking advantage of the versatility that his movement skills
allow him to have for somebody that has enough oomph to be able to live in the nickel
when you got to fit the run.
Man, I really hope then we could get Jammar back for this game to see him in the slot.
Because Jemar does a lot of work from there to see that matchup because Jemar can be outside,
can be in.
You could even shadow him with Chris or, you know, they're just going to end up together a lot.
Otherwise, T doesn't get into the slot too often.
the Bengals are currently using Dante Myers, who after Andreosovash went down, he's on IR right now.
Myers, a CFL, kind of fun star and talk from the offseason in summer.
Very electric, quick player, accelerations off the charts, but he's not the biggest guy.
So they're trying to get him the ball in space, let him move afterwards.
And he had a big game while the other guys went down.
So that would be a fun matchup in the slot as well.
Yeah, it's, I'll be interested to see if they do have to solve the try to solve,
the Jamar problem because they don't run a ton of man.
They are predominantly his own team.
Angles don't get a lot of men either.
Yeah, they get,
that Miami plays a lot of cover three.
And this year,
Jeff Halfley's cover six is up versus what it was in Green Bay.
So you get some split field zone match coverages too.
So that's why I think you've seen a lot of the passing volume that the dolphins are
giving up is not necessarily on the perimeter.
It's kind of stressing that middle.
as far as if you have split fuel coverage,
the guys on the inside of either half
kind of have to be on the same page
for stuff that's working into the middle.
And it feels like that spacing is still something
that they're in the process of sorting out.
Now, we got some keys to victory.
We are going to use keys to victory a little liberally
here when we're talking Bengals and dolphins in week five.
But we are going to get into those next here on this crossover Thursday,
Joe Goodberry, Kyle Crabs.
Make sure you guys stick with us.
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We are back here on crossover Thursday.
And Joe, what's something that you think the Bengals need to make sure they take care of
and bring this win home for them in week five against Miami?
I don't know if this has gotten everywhere yet to a national level
to where other teams and fans are looking at the Bengals matchups and saying,
oh, this is the game where our tight end goes absolutely off.
But it's been happening for quite a few years now.
Bengals fans tell you it's been happening 15 years.
It may have been.
But they cannot cover the tight end.
you can have a guy that's maybe he's got 80 yards coming into this game for the season.
He's going to have 80 yards in this one.
Dulcich may be a problem.
I bet even Will Casmaric gets a couple of,
you know, he gets targeted in this game and not just use as a blocker.
But the Bengals are struggling over the middle of the field.
As you were ending in that last segment, I'm thinking, yeah,
that's going to both these teams probably going to pepper and stress the middle of the field
and get these linebackers and safeties and nickel corners to communicate and do the right thing.
Bengals play a lot of middle of the field open defense,
and they just let you complete passes.
Honestly, when you watch it,
they're not even covering the tight end sometimes.
They don't even care.
And I don't know what is going on.
Four weeks now, something's got to happen,
and they've got to cover the tight end at some point.
Yeah, and that's for Miami,
that's very much been the same conversation.
Their bottom three in the NFL in yards per target,
completion percentage,
and passer rating allowed to opposing tight ends.
So Mike Geseki's spot,
obviously playing against his former team is something that I'm looking at as well as a potential
thing you can't let happen, right? It's one thing if Jamar makes the kinds of plays that
Jamar is capable of making. It's one thing if T. Higgins boxes you out at the catch point or gets
over top of you and wins one down the field and you can't compete with his wingspan at the catch point.
It's another thing entirely to kind of give up these body blow to body blow to body blow.
T.J. Hawkinson was targeted 13 times against the dolphins and caught 13 passes.
Like that's, and the last one was the biggest back breaker is Jordan Brooks is actually playing in phase in man coverage.
And he's in relatively good position.
It's just the ball is in the perfect spot up above the rim.
And Hawkinson adjust his body and opens up and makes the catch.
So I would look at the tight end spot as definitely one for both defenses to kind of focus on to say,
hey, let's let's not allow this to be methodical moving the ball up and down the field.
We had to play just like that too last week.
Bengals need a stop to get the ball back to Joe Burrell, right?
In order to win this game, Jags are about the 50.
You need a stop.
It's third down in eight, I want to say.
They're showing like a cover zero.
Everyone's off but sitting, you know, pick a fence at the first down marker.
And you know what's going to the tight end.
They even do a little motion before.
You're like, okay, safety versus tight end.
Oh, the safety is leaning to the outside leverage.
What do you think they're going to run?
Slant.
No one's in the middle of the field.
And it's like, what are we?
In a money situation, you still don't cover the tight.
And now I found out later that the middle linebacker,
Barrett Carter is supposed to get into that passing window.
He's lost in the sauce and watching everything in the backfield never gets over there.
So we're banging our heads against table over here.
Yeah.
And that feels like Miami lost their projected starting Sam backer before the season.
And Halfley wants to play with kind of that guy that can toggle on and off the ball.
And the guy who stepped into his place,
Willie Gay. And that that's kind of the story with Willie is when we try to be in personnel that
we don't have to match personnel when we want to say, hey, you can come out in 11 or you can come out
in 12 or 21 and we feel like we can defend you with the same group of guys on the field and
we don't have to start running guys on and off. Generally, that personnel package has been with
the Sam Backer and Willie Gay and a lot of times at the epicenter of a lot of these lapses in coverage
in the middle of field is that exact same thing.
So I think a key to victory for Miami is trying to get comfortable with using nickel
as your base a little bit more this week.
Especially against Giseki.
Especially against Gaseki and what his strengths and weaknesses are.
I think that's something that like if you can keep Chris Johnson in the slot more and
then have your base nickel out there, you should feel as though you're giving yourself
the best chance to have your best combination of players on the field.
Yeah, that makes sense, especially because the Bengals are a pretty heavy 12 personnel team, if you count Gaseki.
He's in the wide receiver or slot or out wide and about 91% of the time.
They really don't ask him to block too much.
You guys know this.
But the other one for this game that I'm really looking at, the Bengals need to do is last year when they played the dolphins,
Chase Brown had a big game.
He's coming off a really poor one where a lot of people are saying, well, he's not breaking
tackles, not making anyone miss.
He caught 11 balls, but that's because they had to throw to get back into it.
They threw 50-something times and the receivers were out of it.
But Chase Brown had a really good game in Miami last year.
And running the ball and receiving, it would be nice for him to have one now.
Whenever you go about four weeks without really having that type of impact,
when he's a guy who touches the ball as much as anyone other than Joe Burrow in this offense,
you kind of start to get a little bit antsy when that guy hasn't had that moment.
So I think we're waiting for that.
And I wouldn't be shocked if all week the Bengals are like, okay,
we need to figure out how to use Chase Brown and how to get this run game going a little bit more.
than it was last week, especially if they don't have T and or Jemar.
Yeah.
My next one is first down offensively for Miami.
Coming into week four, they were, I think they had the lowest EPA and success rate of any
team in the league is on first downs.
That's tough.
They were respectable on second down and they actually kind of overachieved on third
downs, but it's because of how far behind they were on schedule.
So you can't have pre-snap penalties on first down.
and 10. Like every time you do, it is a almost, it feels like a drive killer for you because
you don't have Devon A chance. You lost some explosiveness there. And Caleb Douglas was throughout
all of training camp. He was like a really surprise high draft pick at 75. I thought he was
excellent in training camp. And he had over 90 receiving yards in week one against the Raiders. So like he
looked like he was going to be the big play guy and the explosive play threat on the outside. He's
missed the last two weeks. He's day to day. He hasn't practiced since the game against San Francisco.
So they're trying to get him up and rolling. But as that continues to be the case,
you have to have more consistent success on first down. But it's not as simple as turn around and
hand the ball off because Dexter Lawrence is in the middle field. So what is your first down plan
offensively to try to stay on schedule offensively? I think that's a big one for Miami in this game.
Kyle, can we finish with Malik Willis? How is he played? In your evaluation, I'm sure Dolphins
fans like a first quarter of the season update.
But yeah, the Bengals fans, very curious in how he's looked.
Yeah, it's been up and down.
And there's times, Minnesota especially, but also against San Francisco,
the other big road game against a really good team that he's looked like a quarterback
that's playing in single digit starts where the clock is moving fast.
But the sack avoidance, the last two weeks, has been very good.
He was sacked nine times the first two weeks.
He's kind of found his balance there.
He's been sacked twice against.
Minnesota and Kansas City combined.
So, you know, that element of it and him using his legs,
they're trying to get him rolling as far as design quarterback run game,
but a lot of those are popping with penalties.
So they're getting pulled back and they don't count.
And then you lose yardage.
So he's not getting consistent help either.
So he can play better, but you see the flashes.
You see the upside.
You see what they're willing to buy in on.
And as he plays in rhythm, it looks really, really good.
It's when you force him off schedule and he has to try to make things happen.
And the guys and the scramble drill rules are still kind of blurry and hazy.
Maybe he'll throw one and his guy's not expecting it.
So you have what looks like a really ugly miss.
It's just not been anywhere near consistent enough for Malik.
But if you came into the season and you said,
I think Malik Willis can be a long-term starter for the dolphins,
you see enough to say,
I still think Malik Willis can be a long-term starter for dolphins.
If you came in and said, we need to get the first overall pick because quarterback X at school Y is the path for us to get back to being a consistently competitive team, you're probably looking at his play and saying it's not good enough we need to draft this player still.
So it's very ambiguous, but that's what happens when you trade Jaylon Waddle and Devon A-chan goes down.
It's like it's a lot of young guys and guys playing an elevated spots they never have before.
And it looks like that sometimes in Miami offensively.
Well, that can still be fun though.
I wanted to hear that.
I wanted to know where he was at and where you guys,
because I'm sure half the fan base is already looking towards April
in that potential quarterback.
So, yeah, a lot of season left to go.
I don't know if this one's going to be very helpful.
The Bengals defense on first down has been good.
And the run defense has been good.
We maybe we should avoid the projections or predictions for this game and this one,
just because I could only look stupid if I try to do that.
I am predicting a Bengals victory.
But, of course, you do look at and wonder if both receivers
were somehow not to play, maybe it could get interesting, right?
Like, and that's, you know, they gave Minnesota a little bit of a scare.
I know the offensive metrics for Minnesota aren't anywhere near what Cincinnati's fully capable of,
but I do think it has a chance to be an interesting matchup.
And I hope everybody gets a competitive game and a healthy game on Sunday, right?
So that's going to do it for us on this crossover Thursday.
He's Joe Goodberry, Lockdown Bengals.
Make sure you hit subscribe, follow along.
They will have you prep for the rest of this weekend after the game.
I'm Kyle Crabs, host of Lockdown Dolphins,
here for the Miami side of things. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out
crossover Thursday and enjoy the game on Sunday.
