Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Is Joe Burrow Poised to BOUNCE BACK in Bengals' Matchup vs Dolphins?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Thursday here on the Locked On Network, and we have a crossover between the Dolphins and Bengals to non-playoff teams in 2025 with plenty of interesting storylines down the stretch. You are Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another crossover Thursday here on the Locked On Network. I am Kyle Crabs, host of Locked on Dolphins, joined by James Rapine, host of, Locked on Bengals, and we want to welcome you to this crossover Thursday episode.

Starting point is 00:00:41 It is your teams every day here on the Lockedon Network. We don't just say it. We live it. We want to give a special thank you to everyone who has helped make the Locked-on Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in the world. Today's episode of crossover Thursday is presented by prize picks. Download the prize picks out today. Use code Locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

Starting point is 00:01:02 And James, it's been a little bit since we had a chance to, kind of cross streams here on the crossover Thursdays and a disappointing season for both the dolphins and the Bengals. I want to kick it to you first. I'd be a terrible host as the home team. If I didn't give you first crack it, what's the big storyline right now in Cincinnati after a tough loss this past week?

Starting point is 00:01:23 What changes could be coming, not coming, will anything change? And I think frustration has really reached super high levels among the fan base, and rightfully so, with the way they performed against the Baltimore Ravens in week 14, their season, week 15, their season on the line, essentially. And they get shut out for the first time in Joe Burroughs tenure.

Starting point is 00:01:47 And so naturally, it went to Zach Taylor in his future, Bengals director of player personnel, aka the pseudo-GM, Duke Tobin, in their future with him. And it sounds like both guys are going to be back. And so that's where it starts. That's certainly not where it ends, right? Joe Burrow is going to continue to play. And I think that that's an interesting storyline in and of itself. And you talk about this matchup because you could make a good argument.

Starting point is 00:02:15 And I certainly would buy it. If you said, we're going to shut you down, Joe, with that grade three turf toe injury that you came back from so soon. But that's not going to be the case. So a lot of looking into the future, wondering if anything is going to change and wondering if the Joe Burrow led Bengals are going to get back to the playoffs in 2026 or if this drought is going to continue. Yeah, and changes the theme in South Florida as well, where I'm not going to lie, I was sweating a little bit as we were in our pre-production kind of text back and forth. I'm like, hey, this can be like an all-time weird recording if we don't get the news. And sure enough, about 30 minutes before you and I hopped on to record our crossover Thursday, the news comes out.

Starting point is 00:02:54 The Dolvins are making a change of quarterback with Tuatung of Aloha in the first year of a four-year contract extension that has more than $50 million in guarantees next year. And they're returning to Quinn Ewers, the seventh round rookie pick out of the University of Texas, who Mike McDaniels had his eyes on for quite some time. It's become very evident that he is fond of Ewers and his skill set and their overlap with what the Texas offense does versus a lot of what Miami does schematically. So Chua going to the bench, he's regressed in a number of ways to become all the worst things that kind of the debate that's centered around Tua Tung of a Lowe for a really long.

Starting point is 00:03:35 time was on is things that he's like unequivocally been for much of this season. And it's been very disappointing for Miami, who had started awful for the second consecutive year. They climb their way back to six and seven with a chance to get back to 500 and lay an egg in prime time, which is an all too familiar story for Miami. So it's kind of the same parallels that exist in Cincinnati where, hey, there's these issues that we know exist, we're concerned about, we're frustrated with what's going to change? Well, the dolphins play their game and nothing changes with the outcome of the game. But now you've got this quarterback change, but not just a quarterback change. They also released Matthew Judon, who'd signed a one-year contract with the team late this

Starting point is 00:04:18 summer to kind of come in and bolster the team's pass rush. And it's that same concept of leaning into who's playing. Let's get young guys on the field. We need to start assessing these guys and all that through the backdrop of the dolphins having a general manager change this upcoming offseason at a minimum, there should be a lot of urgency to play the game for the guys on the field because you're playing for your livelihood. And if there is upheaval and they got large portions of the roster, you never know how that story is going to end if you're a player that ends up flooding the market and where you may go. So both of these teams, I think, are going to be uniquely motivated to play this game to the best. of their ability, despite the fact that neither one of them has playoff implications on the line at this stage of the year.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Yeah, I think one, bummer, and obviously the NFL was hoping that this would be a good game. It gets flexed down to a 1 p.m. game, which I'm not complaining about. I'm sure you're not complaining about either. But, yeah, this was supposed to be a really fun back in December matchup in Miami with playoffs stakes, and we don't get that. It doesn't mean that there aren't guys playing for different. things. It is interesting, though, because in Miami, you're like, all right, well, should this coach be the guy that ushers in the new era or the next back? In here, everyone's talking about,

Starting point is 00:05:43 should this coach be the guy that gets Joe Burrow for the rest of Joe's prime, essentially? And so it's an interesting back and forth. And yeah, I think what's a, but a weird spot, I would say, for, for just like coverage in general, the Bengals have finished the past two years. Like they finished four and two two years ago without Joe Burrow. Last year they go five and oh with Joe Burrow and miss the playoffs. If they win, I think some of the fan base will care. I also think a lot of the fan bases can be like, yeah, we've seen this story before, this finish strong, send them home. Yeah. Storyline with missing the playoffs. Send them home happy before. And so that's something I'm keeping an eye on as well because people are just frustrated. Yeah. And that reflects very similarly

Starting point is 00:06:29 to Miami where they start two and six last year and finish six and three across the final nine games right now I think there's different motivations for for this time around because you're looking at Mike McDaniel and his uncertainty is the head coach of the team and you've obviously made this massive change with a quarterback who you advocated to the owner to help get the contract extension done with so if you're Mike McDaniel and you make this change I think everybody within the organization if they don't see two as the long-term answer is comfortable with the idea that, hey, let's not put him out there and risk injury guarantees for the rest of his contract or anything. So everybody's universally motivated in that regard if they don't see him as the answer.

Starting point is 00:07:14 And they want to protect from getting locked in for future years of money. But if you're a part of that decision to give that contract out and you make a change with three games left to play and you go with a rookie over a guy in Zach Wilson who was given $6 million and free agency this year to come in and be the backup quarterback, you better be right. And you better be able to finish strong and have some momentum or else it's just going to be another notch on that ledger of pros and cons when you get to the end of the year and try to figure out,

Starting point is 00:07:45 do we keep Mike McDaniel? Do we move on from Mike McDaniel? So he in particular, with this change, I think there's a lot of assessment that's going to come off of what the results are the last three weeks and how well, Quinn Ewers plays and what the offense looks like with a non-to-a-tong-v-a-tong-v-low quarterback, because under Mike McDaniel, it's historically been awful without two-a-tong-v-v-low behind center. I'm surprised, well, how surprised are you that they didn't give Zach Wilson at least a half of football?

Starting point is 00:08:14 I was very surprised. Not surprised through the lens of, like, you can tell Mike McDaniels see something in Quinn Ewers, and a lot of that goes to translatability of the reps. but Quinn was the backup for one week this year in week seven. And then they went back to Zach Wilson being the quarterback that dressed behind Tua. And yours continued to be the emergency backup third quarterback as recently as last week. So for them to make that leap, is it being able to run more of the things you run with Tua to diminish the interruption of the offense? Is it you feel like he's a better option than Zach?

Starting point is 00:08:53 In which case you're asking, well, why was the Zach the back? backup quarterback, right? It's that part of it is for me why it's surprising that they chose to go right to the rookie. Yeah, I was surprised as well, especially on Monday night when I was paying attention. Obviously, everybody was and guess who was the backup? It was Zach Wilson. And I was just like, oh, well, if they go that route, it's going to be Zach. And it's not. And given the fact that they paid him, I do think that's interesting. Maybe it's because they think he could get them through a game better than the rookie and they didn't want to put the rookie in that type of situation. If Tua did get hurt, I get it, I guess.

Starting point is 00:09:29 But it's still interesting nonetheless. And I certainly think as we get ready to go to our first break, it's worth noting the GM that gave that contract out. Chris Greer is no longer here. And if you're going to bite the bullet on the Tua contract, you'd probably prefer to be the guy on the rookie contract getting minimum salary as the transition as compared to if it were Zach Wilson, you'd have to re-up Zach Wilson from a financial standpoint. So a lot of layers, it's very complicated, but it does set the stage for some good drama,

Starting point is 00:10:02 despite the fact that these two teams do not have playoff implications lingering for the rest of the season. Now, we're going to start to get into some of the matchups of this game on both sides of the ball for both teams. That's going to come your way next here on this crossover Thursday. Make sure you guys stick with us. Today's episode of crossover Thursday is brought to by prize picks. The holiday season is one of the best. times for sports because there's bowl games, basketball matchups, playoff pushes, all happening at once.

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Starting point is 00:11:33 Back here on this crossover Thursday, Locked on Dolphins, Locked on Bengals, Kyle Crabs with James Rapine. I want to thank each and every one of you for helping to make Locked on the number one sports podcast network. And if you are an every day, it's time to make it official. You can join the Locked on Every Dare Club, get ad free audio,

Starting point is 00:11:49 access to the members only Discord for the NFL channels and more. All built for our most loyal audience. You can find the sign up link. in the show description below. James, we shift our focus to matchups in this game, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on one that you are especially intrigued by. Joe Burrow versus himself, and I know this seems really weird and a weird one to bring up, but we saw such, so many uncharacteristic and admittedly uncharacteristic mental mistakes with him against the Ravens. He had the wrong call on their first drive protection call,

Starting point is 00:12:26 and he has a rusher right up the middle and Ted Karras comes up to him after the Bengals Center, obviously former Dolphin, and is talking to him about it. Joe Burrell doesn't make those mistakes. And we saw them. We obviously saw an ugly pick six. And so just decision-making the mental side of it,

Starting point is 00:12:44 can he get that ironed out? And so that's kind of, certainly the first time I've ever said Joe versus Joe in his tenure, but we're in odd territory right now, Kyle, nowhere. I think it is worth noting that that's an interesting spot because normally I would expect Joe Bro to bounce back after playing the way he did last week. But it's been a weird week plus. And so does he go to Miami and put up huge numbers? The Joe I know would, but it's unique. So I do want to see if he can be just refined in his process and what he does and what makes him great,

Starting point is 00:13:20 which is the mental side of the game. I think that's the first thing. And then the one that for the next three weeks matters a ton is obviously protecting Joe. And I thought this Bengals offensive line really over the past two months during the Flacco era and the end of that run and so far with Burrow in the mix here and starting, they've played well and probably the best they've ever played with Burrow at quarterback. And so can that continue? There are some things you can build on. And I think that's one of them, especially when you look at it, the only guy that it isn't under contract next year that's in the starting lineup right now is Dalton Reisner at right guard you could easily sign him to to a new contract this

Starting point is 00:14:00 offseason so if they finish strong starting on Sunday I think that this offensive line you could feel pretty confident in going into 2026 and I'll I'll stay on that side of the ball and talk about Jamar chase and the matchup with the dolphins corners and what's what's odd is like you had the major beat writers in Miami predicting them the dolphins were going to give up 400 passing yards a game. And in the summertime, with the cornerback situation being what it was. But Roussel Douglas and Jack Jones came in late. Like Jack Jones signed the first weekend of training camp. Roussel Douglas signed after training camp was over. And they have largely been good producers for the

Starting point is 00:14:45 dolphins. Their performance from a yardage conceded to perimeter wide receivers is, in the top 10 in the NFL, they are much more susceptible in the middle of the field to tight ends and running backs and slot receivers. And that was on full display in the game against Pittsburgh on Monday night where it was the tight end show. And what you can get with the running backs in matchups that the dolphins have gone up against this year. And I think about Jamar Chase and do you put Rasul Douglas on him because he's the bigger, more physical player and shade the safety over the top? Does T. Higgins play in the game? and now you've got a size mismatch on the other side with Jack Jones, who's not a big physical guy and has struggled at times playing press

Starting point is 00:15:27 and being physical in the contact window amidst the dolphins. And what their season looks like does Rasul Douglas as a veteran get less playing time in favor of somebody else, right? Like those are all questions for me coming in. And then I look at tight end and I see, okay, the dolphins were in on Noah Fant at the beginning of the season. And he chose to go to Cincinnati. And there's certainly a lot of familiarity with Mike Gaseki in the production there.

Starting point is 00:15:51 So I'm really fascinated as far as target distribution, what it looks like in this game. The Dolphin safety's Minkin Fitzpatrick had a calf injury against Pittsburgh. Might meet Daniel said it was week to week. There's three weeks left in the season. I don't know that you're going to see Minkin Fitzpatrick again the rest of the way if it's week to week, right? So I think you could be in a big time blowup spot for the tight end room,

Starting point is 00:16:15 but will the Bengals run their offense there or will Miami kind of juggling their personnel put Cincinnati in a position to have a blow-up spot for the wider seers on the outside, which Miami has been better at preventing this season. And normal Joe will pick his poison. And if he needs to target Mike Gaseki a bunch, he'll do that. He had a good rapport of the first game plus with Noah Fant. And I thought he was going to be a big part of the offense. Since coming back, it hasn't been as much, but he did have some nice moments with Joe Flacco as well. And so, yeah, I think both of these teams struggle with tight ends. And so one, how does this Bengals passing game go? Chase Brown was

Starting point is 00:16:57 second on the team in receptions last week. As nice as Chase Brown is out of the backfield from a reliable hand standpoint, you needed to be someone else after Jamar Chase. And whether that is one of these tight ends, whether it's T. Higgins, maybe it's Andre Yosevash stepping up and making a player or two. We've seen that. But he's had an inconsistent season. On the other side, and Kyle, when you mentioned tight ends, I was just like, man, Darren Waller, it's just whenever he's out there, and I know the Bengals, like Greg Dulcich before the draft, and he's kind of bounced around a little bit,

Starting point is 00:17:31 but these past catching tight ends have just been a thorn in the Bengals side all season long. So I think about that, and then I think about the speed of Devin A. Chan, and just what he can be as a runner, causing chaos in every which way as an offensive weapon, and not just a running back, but as an offensive weapon. And those are the two areas that really stand out as areas that this Bengals defense is going to be challenged with and have to try to contain.

Starting point is 00:18:00 Yeah. And I know that's, you know, with the transition to a young starting quarterback, I would expect leaning on the run game to be even more prominent than this, right, it might make Daniels whole background and roots were run game coordinator in San Francisco and, oh, I got my inroads with the running game. and then he comes to Miami and he's hired to Miami with the outlook of building up a pre-existing quarterback who'd struggled and had a coach that didn't believe in him. And then they trade for Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle's already there, right? So they hit the ground running in such a big way with the passing game.

Starting point is 00:18:34 And then Hill goes down to his regress the first month of the season. They've really leaned into the running game. And it really, I can't help but wonder what the path would have looked like in Miami and been different if the Tyree Kill trade hadn't come about to be available and what this offense would have looked like this whole time as far as the identity of it and being a running game because I think that's where if you were going to get the most out of Tuatunga Volo, it probably would have been

Starting point is 00:19:01 as the play action passer off a run heavy offense and not investing the money and the draft picks into Tyree Kill. Well, we're kind of at that point where we've seen the flashes of it and this is a matchup against the Cincinnati defense that has struggled defensively all year and you got some young players on the second level and Demetrius Knight back there at a critical spot at linebacker. And you have a chance to run a lot of misdirection and put the eye candy on stuff and get

Starting point is 00:19:25 explosive plays out on the edges. And like that's your pathway to making Quinn Ewers' first start not a high stress experience. And I would expect that to be the case. And I would expect A. Chan, I love to see Jaylen Wright after he went for 100 yards. when A-chan went down against the Jets by falling on the ball, he got four snaps against the Steelers on Monday night football. You felt like you had momentum with another running piece, and he never got going.

Starting point is 00:19:53 So I think the running game in Miami against Cincinnati's defense and A-Chane in particular with and without the ball, and what that means for Bengals' defenders' eyes is going to be a really big piece of this. It's huge. And from an overall grand scheme of things, the Bengals linebackers, They just need to be better. They're obviously two rookies.

Starting point is 00:20:12 They're banking on them. Demetrius Knight had his best game as a pro last week with a couple of sacks. And we'll see if he can build some momentum. But it's the things that you lean on with a young quarterback are the things that, one, the dolphins certainly have positions of strength and talented players there. But two, there are the things that have beat the Bengals all season long. And so whether it's your first running back or whether it's right, you know, A-Chain or right, I would bet on one of them having a good game

Starting point is 00:20:41 and averaging four and a half, five yards of carry or winning in the passing game. And then good luck trying to cover Darren Waller, who's a nightmare for a lot of people, a lot of teams in the red zone, but certainly this team, this Bengals defense. We are going to get into some of our game predictions,

Starting point is 00:20:56 keys to victories on the other side of our latest break. So make sure you guys stick with us. Back here on this crossover Thursday, locked on Bengals, locked on Dolphins Sunday, one o'clock, flexed out of the prime. in time slot, James, you joked about it already, but especially on the heels of Monday night last week, I was like, thank goodness, one o'clock kick, not mad about it.

Starting point is 00:21:21 Let's see. I can get on the rest of my evening after we finish the postgame stuff. And we will have you covered on Locked on Bengals, Locked on Dolphins in the immediate aftermath of the game. And, of course, another show tomorrow on Friday to get you guys ready for this kickoff. Only a few games left this season. We've got to cherish each one. We have no matter what is or is it on the line.

Starting point is 00:21:38 James, I'd ask you, what's your biggest key to victory from the Bengals lens coming into this game? It's got to be Joe. And it's weird to say, and I do expect him to bounce back, but you still need to see it. And we'll know pretty early on. But are you getting the Joe that for three quarters went into Buffalo and felt like he was the best player on the field? And Josh Allen was awesome, that game as well. And are you getting that? Are you getting what we've seen over the past five quarters, which is shaky at best

Starting point is 00:22:14 and a guy who's had multiple pick sixes and a bunch of interceptions and mental mistakes? And so, yeah, it starts there. If Joe Burrow is the Joe that we usually are used to seeing here in Cincinnati, well, then I think they're going to have a shot not just against Miami, but maybe they do send everybody home happy and win the next three and go that route. But it certainly starts with Joe and him. playing at a really high level. And he needs to be, shocker, the best player on the field. The Bengals are built around him for a reason.

Starting point is 00:22:44 And so I think that's certainly the key for the Bengals to get a victory. What about you when you look at the Miami side, the number one thing for them to put the Pittsburgh loss in the past? Yeah, I think they need to do what they did not do against Pittsburgh, which is they had some early success running the ball, some early flashes. And it just felt like we wanted to continue to just throw the passes in there. And it kind of led to a clunky offensive operation where you had 90 yards offense through three quarters. It was like, oh, you're not going to win any football games. You play like this offensively. So they've had so much success running the football. I think the

Starting point is 00:23:22 young quarterback compound or only further multiplies that. But then also through the lens of you want to keep Cincinnati's offense and Joe Burrow off the field. You want to play the time of possession game in a game against a top flight quarterback. You want to to dictate the flow of the game. You want to limit the possessions, right? If you go 60 minutes and every team gets 12 possessions, what's the likelihood that across 12 positions possessions, Quinn Ewers is going to make more mistakes that are potentially turnover worthy plays

Starting point is 00:23:53 than what Joe Burrow is versus if you mitigate that and it's nine possessions each because the clock is running more. I think that has to be front of mind for Miami in this game to make sure they're properly managing the flow of the game. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And it was weird. Last week was weird because the Bengals were in control and had the time of possession. And Lamar Jackson was only 12. Yeah, like Lamar was 8 of 12. Derek Henry only ran the ball 11 times. It was just such an odd game where the Bengals had the ball in Ravens territory and scoring range multiple times. And for one reason or another, turnovers, bad sacks, et cetera. They just, they didn't score. And you look up and

Starting point is 00:24:35 a defensive breakdown here and there and suddenly it's 14 nothing and the bengal should have probably been up at least 10 nothing early in that game so yeah the the time of possession element of it in theory certainly is something that the dolphins if you're the dolphins you want to win because I really do I think Joe is going to play better and obviously Jamar put up monster numbers last week even though it wasn't a great game for him he had multiple drops I think that these skill guys are going to want to rise up and play better for Joe as well, because you could probably say six drops last week if you want to be critical, at least five,

Starting point is 00:25:13 that could have potentially changed the game, especially early on. Yeah. Another key to victory for me is generating turnovers in a responsible way, where you could tell the Dolphins defense, you got in the second half of the game against Pittsburgh, and they said, oh, the offense isn't going to do

Starting point is 00:25:33 anything for us, guys. So we got to try to make some plays. They do so in a way in which they're trying to attack the football. And it came at the expense of tackling with their technique. And the last time they'd had a really ugly game and yards after contact, both in the run game and the past game like that, was against Carolina, where Carolina tagged them for nearly 250 yards on the ground because they'd had this big preaching point of emphasis about attacking the football. They're trying to punch the ball out, and they haven't secured the ball carrier yet. Right? And so you look at Cincinnati. and going back to the game against Chicago before the buy,

Starting point is 00:26:07 three turnovers, two turnovers, a turnover, a turnover, two turnovers, two turnovers. They've given the ability for a team to take the ball away across the last six games that they've played. Now, Cincinnati's defense has also generated at least one turnover in their last four games, and they turned the Ravens over five times because the Ravens have poor ball security on Thanksgiving. So that element of it, it's always low-hanging fruit to talk about, time of possession and a turnover differential,

Starting point is 00:26:36 but especially in a game like this one, with what the trends have been and how you saw the downside of it for Miami by trying to irresponsibly go about getting turnovers, I think it's a big piece for Miami in this game. It is. It's a huge piece for the Bengals as well. And it is because I don't think that they're,

Starting point is 00:26:57 even with Quinn Ewers at quarterback, I don't think they're going to hold Miami to three points. I think they're going to give up, y'all. and they're going to give up first downs and the the dolphins star players are going to make plays like we saw last week with the the ravens the ravens haven't been a good offense and the bengals started off pretty hot against them and you look up and they have 14 points at halftime and the second touchdown comes because gino stone isn't where he needs to be and so zade flowers gets open and so that's jalen wattle this week right or that's daren waller this week and so

Starting point is 00:27:28 those defensive breakdowns, I just kind of expect them at this point. The thing that can kind of make up for it is forced turnovers. The thing that you can't do if you're the Bengals is turn the ball over and put your defense in a bad spot where they're challenged to rise up again and be really what they haven't been all year, which is a reliable unit. Any final thoughts? Look, I think I have a feeling it's going to, it should be an exciting game. I think we're going to see a decent amount of points. I expect Joe to bounce back on the other side of it. I'm not sure this Bengals defense is going to be some lockdown unit against any NFL

Starting point is 00:28:08 quarterback right now. And you look at the skill guys for Miami, really a big fan of A Chan. We talked about write a ton pre-draft and lockdown Bengals listeners know. So like those two guys, you lean on them, we know what Waller can be. So yeah, I think we could see a mildly high-scoring game. last I checked on Fando it was 50 and a half as the over under. I wouldn't be shocked if it gets to that 50 mark for sure. Yeah, I'd take the over on that.

Starting point is 00:28:33 And I think the final thought that I have is Mike McDaniel has a chance. Now, the messaging behind the scenes through NFL Insiders all season since the end of September was really hard for Mike to run the offense he wants to run with the limitations that Tua Tunga Volo presents from. a skill set perspective, and then also a durability and taking hits perspective. What else do you have in the bag, Mike? Right? Like you're at the point now where you kind of have to empty the chamber. You're on your six and eight, eliminated from the postseason. The owner told you last January status quo was not going to be accepted.

Starting point is 00:29:17 You're six and eight for the second consecutive season. Well, now miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season. There's a whole lot of status quo going on for the dolphins right now. So if you want to have other elements to your offense, if you want to have more of a vertical passing game, if you want to have the quarterback get out on the move more, I think it's a big variable of this game that's the X factor variable because there's no tape on it.

Starting point is 00:29:41 There's no tape on running deep overs on calling big shots down the field and throwing the ball or accessing 15 plus yards outside the numbers to the far side of the field. But those throws, the dolphins have run them. They ran the very often early on in the season. And we were missing all of them because Tua could not hit them. So now that you have this other skill set, Quinn doesn't have the biggest arm, but he's got more juice in his arm than what Tua does.

Starting point is 00:30:10 What else do you have for us? And if you have it, now's the time to show it to inspire confidence that you should be the coach into the next iteration of team. And I think that just scared the heck out of Bengals fans that are hoping. hoping they leave Miami with a win because any unknown and first time starting quarterback, it just feels like they always have the Bengals number and the Bengals defense always gives up the game winning touchdown late. And so we'll see. But yeah, I think as you were discussing that, I'm like, man, unknowns, things that aren't on film, things that they can do that they haven't

Starting point is 00:30:45 been able to do in the past. That's right up the, that's the recipe for success against this Bengals defense. That's really flawed. These two fan bases can buy. bond over that as the team that first got exposed to Brock Purdy, which was the first, the Brock Purdy debut came against the Dolphins and he comes in and says, okay. Mike White's only game came against the Bengals, just to give you an idea. That might have been the same week, I think. I seem to remember being with a Jets fan and we were watching those games. So that might have been the same week.

Starting point is 00:31:17 That'd be interesting to go back and look. But that's going to do it for us here on this crossover Thursday. on Bengals, locked on dolphins. The game is at Hard Rock Stadium, South Florida, one o'clock on Sunday. We hope you enjoy the game. Enjoy the rest of your locked on programming. It is all of your teams every day. We don't just say we live it. And we hope you will come back and see us all again soon.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Is Joe Burrow Poised to BOUNCE BACK in Bengals' Matchup vs Dolphins?

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