Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals have won a football game! We take those, but there's a lot of work left to do.

Episode Date: September 29, 2024

The guys break down the Cincinnati Bengals' first win of the season over the Carolina Panthers, headlined by momentum building for a versatile offense, and lowlighted by a defense that has left us asking questions. So it's a mixed bag of reactions with plenty of positives on offense bundled with a few late-game questions, and a bunch of issues on defense.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsFor your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizePicksGo to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code lockedonmlb to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelNow through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cincinnati Bengals get their first win of the season. Let's break down how we should feel about it. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe. He's your host, James Rapine. The Bengals have won a football game.

I have mixed feelings about it. we will get into why we should feel good, why we should feel bad. I'm Jake. Let's go. He's James Rupine. Did I already say that? We're part of the locked on podcast. Not used to win it. Your team every day.

I'm confused. I'm out of sync here. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. Shout out to the first listeners. Shout out to the everydayers. Welcome back. Nice to be in the win column, James.

Today's episode sponsored by GameTime. Game Time. You can save $20 on your first purchase of tickets in the GameTime app by creating an account and using promo code locked on NFL. And it was a two-score win for the Bengals, James, 34 to 24. It was 31 to 14, I believe. You're right. And then the Bengals only scored three the rest of the way.

The Panther scored 10. It was never really scary, but it was a little touch and go for a team that had a three-score lead. and the key to the Bengals winning this game, in my opinion, James, was scoring going into the half and scoring coming out of the half. When the Panthers went down there and scored their second touchdown with about a minute left in the second quarter, I tweeted at the time, I said, look, the Bengals probably need to go score here,

and it's lucky they have enough time to do so, and they probably need to score coming out of the half. They need a two-score lead to give their defense a cushion. They got that two-score lead, and I think that's the turning point of the game. What do you think? Yeah, it's part of the turning point. I think there's a couple of things.

One, let's do all the positives first. The Bengals are one in three, and the offense is pretty awesome. That's it. I mean, they move the ball up and down the field today. There wasn't much that got in their way. They had a stretch, including the stretch you're talking about, where they scored four straight touchdowns. I mean, it doesn't matter who's playing defense if you're scoring touchdowns.

you're going to be in the game. And so they weren't settling for field goals much. And I know they didn't end on the high note that Joe Burroughs certainly hoped. But during that stretch and you're right, you defer and you get the goal line stop to prevent the Panthers from scoring. And then you score at the end of the half, a touchdown at the end of the half, and then to start the half. And now just like that deferring is absolutely the right call because it gives you a chance

for that separation that you're looking for. And so yeah, I think that that's a huge point of the game. I don't think that was the only point. But from a positive standpoint, I think that there were far more positives than there were negatives. And on offense, the beauty of it is as good as they were today. And there's a, you can't really debate that. I think there's far more positives on offense than negatives.

There's plenty to work on. And that's what you love. You love win, double-digit, win, a win that I was never really that worried about. I don't think you were either. Even when it was 31, 24, I thought the Bengals were going to win the game. But despite the offense producing explosive plays, getting the ground game going, especially with Chase Brown, kind of relying on their running backs and using the running

backs in a bunch of different ways, whether it's passing game on the ground. I mean, 36 touches for Zach Moss and Chase Brown combined. despite all of the issues coming in, they were able to do a lot of good things, I thought. So I'm encouraged overall by the team, and we can get into the positives and negatives, but offensively, you're right. I mean, that stretch to end the half

and to start the third quarter was a big momentum shift, especially because the Panthers had just tied at 1414. Yeah, I think that the Panther scoring with a minute left was significant. If the Panthers somehow managed, to go into the half on that touchdown and the Bengals come out of the half the same way with the 21 to 14 lead

instead of a 28 to 14 lead. I wonder how differently the game goes. But instead, with a minute left, and I think just one time out because they had to burn one for an injury to Jermaine Pratt. When he had an issue getting up after the Panthers went out of bounds

to play before the touchdown and they had a procedural timeout they needed earlier in the half. One time out in a minute, and they get all the way down the field and score quickly. They've had the ability to do that this year when they've needed to. They did it last week. They did it again this week. I do think the Panthers and the commanders are the two defenses in the NFL that by the time things are said and done,

we'll look up and are potentially challenging the Bengals at this rate for worse defense than the NFL. And we'll talk about the defense. I don't want to get on that train too early here. The Bengals took advantage of those bad defenses and put up points. I've liked it to have been cleaner in the second half and just go get the touchdown after you force your first punt in almost seven quarters. And then that's a 21 point lead at that point. And then you're really trying to just get to the end of the game.

And there's not nearly as much pressure on you for the rest of the game. Yeah, that would have been an ideal way for things to go. It didn't go that way. But the offensive line played really well. Joe Burrow played really well. Got the offense into the right play for the right situation. more often than not by a dramatic margin. He was generally very good at the line of scrimmage today pre-snap,

very good to get protections set in this game, made really good decisions with where the football should go for the most part in this game, was on time for the most part in this game. And when you get all of that from your quarterback, and you also get Chase Brown having a little coming-out party 15 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns, and importantly, having an even number of carries, is that trends in a direction toward Chase Brown getting the ball more and Chase Brown getting the ball on all of their running concepts and not just the fancy designer stuff.

We're seeing a diverse offense with a lot of different tools in the bag, a lot of different clubs in the bag that go to a lot of different things. Eric All out snapping, Drew Sample today, by the way. And out there for one of Chase Brown's touchdown runs is the only tight end on the field of an 11 personnel. So we're seeing Eric All's role expanding and continuing. to make crucial blocks like Chase Brown's first down catch, where he's blocking a guy to give Chase Brown a path to the sideline to pick up a first down. So tons of good things on the offensive side of the ball,

especially early when they get out to 31 points pretty quickly. Again, would like to see them finish the game a little bit more smoothly. Second downs, not great down the stretch. The screen to Drew sample, I didn't love. Mike Gaseki going backwards on second down was rough. and T. Higgins getting called for that OPI, which was a bad call, by the way, was rough for a stretch of bad second downs for this team to put them behind the chains on third down and led to some issues for them down the stretch.

So you'd like to see them finish a little stronger, but tons of reasons to be encouraged about this offense being diverse, having a lot of answers, and trending in the right direction, being kind of the offense we thought they would be that we've seen the last week. Well, how many times did our listeners say, hey, you need to be under center more, you need to be able to run the ball more, You need to be able to end the game and lean on the ground game.

Well, Chase Brown averaged 5.3 yards per carry. They averaged as a team 4.5 yards per carry. You have Zach Moss who, yeah, he didn't average a ton per carry, but also had a 13-yard run. Chase Brown had multiple explosive runs, a 20-yard run. And Moss, the catch in the ability to stay up is insane. I hate that call. I don't even know if that's a play call. from the sounds of it that that might be a decision issue we'll have to i'll have to digest some more there

that was terrible though agree with you the throw going behind the line of scrimmage error crazy well it's it's so risky in zach moss combined with nick scott slipping was enough to get to get it and that's that's the bout like i like these running guys it's much like the tight end room i think the tight ends complement each other well i think that these running back running backs complement each other well these receivers to a large degree especially the top top you guys, Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, you saw how they can compliment each other well today. So you're right. This offense, it's taking a couple steps forward every single week. I think this week, did they, was it as fun with the explosives as the last week where it's two deep touchdowns

to Jamar Chase? No, it wasn't that. But I thought they showed a lot today and took more steps in the right direction. You're right. I thought Joe was awesome. Interception aside with the miscommunication with Jamar. By the way. No, that's an awesome highlight, real touchdown if they're on the same page. At least has a chance to be like it's at least at the minimum a contested catch opportunity. Yeah, well, I think I think he catches that thing, shakes off the safety and is gritty. Like I said, at a minimum.

And so the way Joe was moving in the pocket, by the way, after getting stepped on early in the game, I'm really encouraged by that. So a lot of positives. I'm sure people are awaiting the negatives. We'll get to some more positives. Get to the defense. We haven't talked about them yet. And I'm sure there are a few more notes on the offense coming up next.

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think about how the second half was called there there are some people that don't seem to be super keen on some of the play calling. Again, that first half conclusion, touchdown to Zach Moss, I don't know if that's a play call. It sounded like, at least according to what I've heard, it maybe wasn't intended to be thrown behind the line of scrimmage there. So let's put that one aside for now, but let's focus on the second half.

To me, it was second downs where there were a couple of plays where I thought they got maybe a little too cute at times or maybe could have stuck with the run in some situations. and what are your thoughts there? Yeah, I think it's interesting because there's going to be a lot of people that look at the second half and say that are frustrated.

And I get it, especially with the way they ended. Heck, Joe Burrow mentioned it, right? How they wanted to end stronger and on a much higher note. At the same time, I think that's part of what we're seeing from this offense.

part of the evolution here is the balance, like they're, they at least appear to be on the cusp, Jake, of having a Swiss Army offense where the offensive line can protect, the offensive line can open up running lanes, the quarterback goes under center, they're relatively explosive on the ground, have tight ends that can beat you, we know about the receivers. Like, it's, it's not perfect yet, and there are still times when, they're refining it and you can see that. But I think that's part of the growth here. And I do think that for the first time in the Joe Burrow era, in the Zach Taylor era,

and really the first time in a really long, long, long, long time, this team can win, at least this offense can win any way that you can think of. And today was part of that. I mean, third and four, the Panthers expecting run, Joe Burrow goes up to the line to scrimmage, Eric all. I think it was Zach Moss and maybe it was Chase Brown. But T. Higgins and Jamar Chase are off the field late in the fourth quarter. And he gets them to jump off sides. And I think they were clearly going to run the play without Jamar without T on the field. How often have they done that in the Joe Burrow era where those guys are healthy and you take those

guys off the field? You don't, especially on third and four. That's shotgun, spread them out, let Joe read it and try to get five yards on third and four. They didn't need to do that. And they felt comfortable. And so I think part of it is the evolution that they're going through right now or the transformation that they're going through. And I think that it's overall going to make them a better team. Yeah, I mean, they're getting into 12 personnel almost half the time this week. Wild. Just wild. This is Zach Taylor, too, we're talking about here. Maybe it's not quite almost half, but it's in that ballpark. T. Higgins have 43 snaps, the least snaps for any receiver of the starters on 67 plays.

Jermaine Burton got on the field for four snaps. Charlie Jones was on the field for three snaps. Andre Yosevash in some of their heavier packages was the receiver. So Andre actually out snapped T. Higgins this week. Seems like they like him as a run blocker. A little bit more. He had 21 run blocking snaps, which led all receivers by a fairly significant margin, according to initial PFF charting.

Ten more than T. Higgins. So those nine more plays, eight more plays that Yoschew is. on the field than T were mostly run blocking or more than mostly run blocking. So just an idea of why Andreosovash is on the field more than T. Higgins, which is not something I would have expected to see in the snap counts after the game. But it's interesting to see this offense continuing to change its approach. And we'll see how that holds up, crucially, when some of the defenses are a little bit tougher. Because we saw them now in consecutive weeks put up 25 against the Chiefs, who we believe

has a good defense, 33 against Washington. who does not have a good defense, and they missed a field goal, and they left the two-point conversion on the field, and now 34 against the Panthers, who we also don't think has a good defense. Baltimore, we think, has a pretty good defense, although they've given up 78 points in three games before Monday night football against the bills tonight, where that number will probably go up, or Sunday night football tonight, where that number will probably go up. I still think Baltimore challenges the Bengals more than Carolina, more than Washington, and it's probably more similar to how the Chiefs challenged the Bengals to,

defensively. Mine is Chris Jones. But you have to see this offense and translate against tougher defenses. And that's the next step. And on the defensive side of the ball, you need the opposite. You need to not be a defense that we're talking about in the same breath that we're talking about Washington and Carolina. And with Trey Hendrickson sustaining what Zach Taylor called a stinger, potentially after the game

and his availability in doubt potentially in week five. And we'll see a long way to go there to figure that. that out. You hope you get some guys back. Chris Jenkins continues to show some stuff. Yeah. But between the way Cam Taylor Britt and these safeties played and the defensive line continuing to be short-handed, it is very hard for me to squint and try to find answers

on defense. Well, one, they at least had a couple splash plays. If this defense plays the way they did today against the commanders, the Bengals win that by 10 as well. Because Chris Jenkins makes a splash play on fourth down after Daxil, a really nice play in the red zone. Yeah. In the defensive line steps up.

And then the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

Tray Hendrickson slash v. Von Bell combo for another splash play. Like, it's, you can get by with a bunch of different ways. Like, the Panther scored 10 points in the second half. It felt in the moment,

much worse than that. They only scored 14 in the first half, despite, you know, that they got the goal line stop. That's huge. It's huge. And so you can piece it together.

Now, Does it feel great? Hell no. I mean, they can't tackle you right now. I mean, I really wonder what is going on. Like some of these little screens where I know Vaughn had one, Dax had one, and there are others, but where it should be no game. And Mingo turns it into a seven-yard gain or Hubbard turns it into a huge run.

The bad angle by Gino Stone in the first half on Hubbard's run was just, I have no idea what he was seeing there. It was like he was running. to miss. It's like when you get your cursor at Madden and you're on a different player than you expect to be. And so you're running in the run. Like it wasn't that bad, but it felt that bad because the angle was that off. And so they have to figure that out. Like just do the basic stuff. Like we know physically that they're going to be a bit short right now, especially at defensive tackle. But just do enough. And I think if you can mix in a few big plays, which they did do today,

with basic fundamentals, you can be okay. And with the way this offense is playing, this defense needs to be okay. And they were okay enough today, but I get people's frustrations for sure. Yeah, I mean, if we want to stay on the side of positives here before we wrap up the show talking about the future

and where the concerns are on the defensive side of the ball, it starts with, you mentioned Daxhill missed a tackle, but he also saved a touchdown and was the Bengals' best corner today. He was the only corner that wasn't rotating off the field today. and I don't know if it was because Cam Taylor Britt was hurt or if because he just wasn't playing. Well, I didn't hear Zach Taylor's postgame presser to find out if he was asked about that.

But Dax was targeted, according to PFF charting, six times, gave up three catches for 12 yards. Had a pass break up in the end zone. That is a good day at the office. They were picking on D.J. Turner. They were picking on Camp Taylor Britt. They were not picking on Daxil. They're picking a little bit on Jermaine Pratt as well.

But Cam Taylor Britt and D.J. Turner were targeted 14 times collectively. gave up nine catches for over 100 yards. Most of that Cam Taylor Britt, five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown. Camp Taylor Britt did not have a good game. But I said we were going to stay on the positives here a little bit. So Dax Hill certainly a positive. Chris Jenkins, you mentioned, continues to make plays and show that he can be part of this defense and a positive part of this defense going forward.

Sam Hubbard playing a lot more inside this week. Their third down and long package was Sam Hubbard kicking inside. I found that to be a bit of an interesting wrinkle with Joseph Osai. playing a little bit better this week than he had in previous games this season. I think Logan Wilson had a solid game as well. And Zach Carter actually maybe not the black sheep on this defensive line. But there still are so many questions on this defensive line. And chief among them is the pass rush.

And that is what the most concerning thing is to me looking ahead to week five and looking for answers and was again an issue against Andy Dalton in this game. They did some things different schematically we can talk about too. But we'll continue the conversation with the defense and still looking for answers here to finish up the show next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. NFL fans, it's time now. We're four games in.

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Fandul.com. That's fandle.com. All you have to do is place a $5 bet at fandle.com, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. James, this defense has issues rushing the passer, to put it lightly. Andy Dalton was pressured today on 19% of his dropbacks. That's a pretty low number in the first place. The Bengals amped up their blitzing this week, and that is a schematic difference. They blitzed, according to PFF, 38% of the time this week after last week, we were wondering, why didn't they blitz, Jaden Daniels. Part of that, I think, is because Jaden Daniels can run the ball when you blitz, and you run MAMBlitz. Isn't the Bengals? A lot of man blitzes

this week, and they have mixed success on those plays is kind of how I would put it. But Andy Dalton's yards per attempt when he was blitzed were just 4.1 compared to 6.3 when he wasn't blitz. So Lou Anirombo found an answer that was blitzing that seemed to slow

down this panthers passing offense. However, I'm still concerned about their ability to get pressure. They don't have individual guys winning. Trey Hendrickson had one big play this week. He's now dealing with that stinger. Hopefully they get some guys back this week. We don't know about that yet. But they're so depleted on the defensive front. And some of the guys that they will have available to them aren't going to be your game record pass rushers. And if Trey misses time, especially, and we'll see that they need

something there. And I just don't see that answer on the team right now. Yeah, I think that's the key is Trey can't miss time. I mean, you still, after all of that, you don't sack Andy. You can't. You can't sack him. And I get the Trey Hendrickson play, the splash play, and I mentioned, that can't happen. Andy Dalton, in that offensive line for Carolina, they're not that good, where, oh, they're going to throw the ball. And how often did they think? 40 throws. So 40 throws, they're down most of the game, and he's not sacked. That just, that doesn't sit well, especially if you are trying to blitz and in trying to get extra pressure. So that's a major concern. And I agree with you. And that being said, it's not like they're suddenly awesome

against the run. They were playing from ahead today, but they still gave up 5.3 a carry. Chuba Hubbard had a 38-yard run. They ran for 155 yards on this Bengals defense. Most of that was Hubbard. But Miles Sanders was all right as well, averaging 5.3 a carry. So just looking ahead, knowing the team's you're going to play. Well, of course, the Ravens are going to want to run the ball. And you're not great at that right now. You struggle at that and you're not getting pressure. And that's the trouble, Jake, is if you're going to make those splash plays I was talking about, the way to do that is to either get pressure or be able to stop the run to get them in third and long. So then they have to drop back and they have to wait. And they're not doing a ton of that. And so that's the difficult part

when you want to talk about with Trey or without Trey, obviously it would be much, much, much, much, and you could probably say it 91 times, since that's his jersey number, much tougher without Trey Hendrickson, if you're trying to get pressure. So how they figure that out is huge, and they also have to tackle.

Yeah. My God, the tackling, it's, it's so bad. The tackling and the angles. So bad. They go hand in hand, obviously. They go hand at hand. And I don't know how you fix that at this point. That's hard.

I, I, I like what Louana Rimo is doing schematically. I do not like how the players on this defense are playing. I don't like some of the approaches that they're making. Some of the fundamentals they're playing with on the defensive side of the ball just aren't good enough right now. And it needs to be so much better for us to call this team a contender. And they did have one really standout great play call in this game,

which was late in the game when they show zero pressure. they mostly bring zero pressure, but Jermaine Pratt drops into the window, where Andy's throwing the hot slant to Deontte Johnson and Jermaine Pratt almost gets that. He's in the window. He has a chance of an interception that ends the game on the spot if he can make the catch. And that's an awesome call. Yeah, either way, it ends the game on the spot, right? And so you have stuff like that where you're going in the bag,

you're finding schematic solutions, you're blitzing more, you're finding ways to slow things down. But they're just so inconsistent from a technique perspective on a play-to-play basis that it really, we're going to be searching for answers. And this defense is going to be searching for answers until they have them. And, you know, maybe Miles Murphy helps a little bit. Maybe the return McKinley Jackson helps a little bit. BJ Hill's return certainly helps a little bit. But they are so banged up and they've been so ineffective.

And I am joining the chorus at this point, I think, at least before I rewatch the game and we'll see how I feel after film of Jordan Battle certainly. like what are the odds he's worse than the safety player getting right now? Because this week, both of those guys had had major issues, both tackling, playing the run, in coverage. It was not great for the safeties. Yeah, I think it's tough because really, and I didn't notice Vaughn a ton outside, negatively outside of the, you know, it was a very big play. Hubbard getting inside the five where Turner forces him out. That play just never should have happened.

But you thought that these safeties were going to bring some stability and prevent the big play. And you thought Camp Taylor Britt was going to be the one guy that would be able to prevent the big play in the secondary. And you look at it and it's like you don't trust any of those guys right now. Like the only two guys in the secondary that I trust from a coverage standpoint would be Dax and Mike. Mike is certainly not someone you're banking on to cover the whole time. You want him in the run game and making plays there around the line of scrimmage. and Dax has struggled to tackle too. And it's another week of that.

But where you can't take him off the field, he's your best cover guy, period, right now. Like, he has to be on the field. But there's still a flaw there. And so the basic things, if Jordan Battle can grasp those things, then that puts them much farther ahead than where they were.

Maybe it's not a starting level, allotment of snaps. Maybe it's just some snaps. But some is better than none, especially if he can help make big plays. Yeah. Or routine plays, for that matter. Yeah, routine plays. That's what we're talking about. That is what's missing with this team right now.

It's another week where you have plays that should be tackled out or near the line of scrimmage going for explosives or whatever it is. And it's just, it's really tiresome to see that recurring and to see the lack of a pass rush recurring. And it's just in many ways, you're right. They made a couple of plays this week they didn't make last week. was better, but in many ways it felt a lot like last week. And that's with Andy Dalton, a quarterback, significantly worse, wide receivers, although I think Deontay Johnson's a fine player. The Bengals were helped by some drops in this game, too.

So it needs to be better. Hopefully getting a little bit healthier helps, but we will continue to search for answers here. And I know this is a really long and negative segment in the Bengals won, but I still don't feel very good about this defense. And so that is why we have to talk about it that way. I do feel pretty good about Ryan Rico. Ryan Rico had to punt a few times in this game.

First on the Bengals had punted in quite a while as well. He had a really nice game. And Dejan Anthony on that fake punt, shout out. Breaks up the pass. PBEU, Dejan Anthony on a fake punt coming over from his outside position. So a couple of specialists there. And Evan McPherson bouncing back with a couple of nice field goals, one of them 56 yards and one of them clutched to ice things.

the game in the fourth quarter. They were great on special teams today. There's one issue, but yeah, mostly good. What? You're talking about on kickoffs? Fine. Yeah. That's fine.

Negative Jake. Add it again. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just balanced, you know? But no, not balanced. The balance is Ryan Rico punning it to the moon and then Tyson Anderson making an awesome tackle. Yeah.

And we saw that a couple of times, including when the defense got the stop late in the fourth quarter, RICO pins them inside the 10. a really, really, really good performance by him on three puns. Average 56.7 had a 63-yarder. And then Evan, Evan McPherson, man. People were wondering, people were curious, 56-yarder just booms it. And then a 46-yarder to seal the deal. A really, really nice day from him.

So overall, I think the special teams, you're right. Kick returns, not ideal, especially one of the Travion Williams ones, where you're stuck, I think, at the 19-yard line. But outside of that, I thought special teams was really, really good today, led by Ryan Rico and Evan McPherson. Yeah, the special lists were pretty good. The coverage throughout the game was pretty good. We didn't have any kickoff mishaps this week,

which Evan McPherson mentioned, was not a called Squib that that second half kickoff last week was a mishit on the kickoff. Didn't do that this week. But when Carolina figured out that they could kick it to 32, and the Bengals that have a longer field, they started kicking it to 32. And 32 had two more yards on kickoff returns than Chase Brown on one more return.

So that's not good. That means you're averaging a lot less yards for all of you mathematicians out there. I'd like to see them make a change there, but that is pretty low on the list of issues that I think we're looking for the Bengals to clean up. So we'll have more on this game as we review. the tape, we'll have one more look at this game at least before we start to transition our attention to the Bengals first AFC North contest of the year. But the Bengals win. One in three doesn't feel great, but the win feels great. We take those. Until next time, thanks for

listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho day. And have a good one.