Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals keep hope alive into Sunday with their 5th straight win to close out the regular season

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals have kept hope alive into Sunday. Let's break down what went down at Accra Sure Stadium in the Bengals regular season finale. 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 Rupin, and we are locked on Bengals here on the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:39 We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. So welcome back to the everydayers of lockdown Bengals out there. We appreciate you for sticking with us all season for some of you, every season, and all of you who make us your first listen. If you're new, you can subscribe. That means you won't miss any episodes because you'll know when they're up there for you as we break down this game.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And the Bengals keeping hope alive into the final set of games. this weekend. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by LinkedIn Jobs, who helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. You can post your job for free right now at LinkedIn.com slash lockdown NFL, terms and conditions apply. And James, the Bengals get to 9 and 8.

Starting point is 00:01:21 It was not the prettiest game by any means. It started out real pretty and kind of devolved from there a little bit as the Steelers made adjustments and both of these teams made their share of mistakes. But they get to 9 and 8. And they send the Steelers into the playoffs on a four-game losing streak. So have fun with that, Pittsburgh fans. What's your big takeaway after this game? Yeah, it's they did, they handled what they could handle.

Starting point is 00:01:50 And to finish the year with five straight wins, and we don't know what's going to happen Sunday, so I'll just say it that way. And to finish with a winning record after just over a month ago when they played the Steelers falling to four and eight, that is, that deserves credit. And so that's, that's where I would, I would start it. I think that that game is, is a lot like the Bengal season.

Starting point is 00:02:21 All of the ups and downs that that game had. And in a lot of those, they ended up on the short end of things. But in December, they found a way to win, and especially over the past two weeks specifically, December and January now since we are in January, to win games against teams that are going to be playing next week, potentially. We'll see what the Broncos,

Starting point is 00:02:45 but as of now, they would be playing next week. And so they deserve credit for that. Those are some quality wins. Going to Pittsburgh and winning is never easy. The Steelers were a desperate team tonight. I think they really wanted to win that game. And the Bengals,

Starting point is 00:02:59 they controlled it. They should have won it by more. It shouldn't have been that close. They have their flaws. They have their annoying things that just always seem to come up when they can blow the doors off of a team. And there were times tonight where I felt like they could have done that. It didn't happen. But they still found a way to win.

Starting point is 00:03:18 And I think that the defense deserves some credit, a lot of credit. Trey Hendrickson deserves credit. And we'll obviously talk about Joe Burrow as well because he deserves a ton of credit for what he shoulders every single week. But overall, it's a flaw team. And we've known that, but they deserve credit for going to Pittsburgh and getting a W. Yeah, they had a couple of plays. You talked about the game could have been a larger margin than it was. The Bengals led this entire game after the zero-zero-zero tie, of course, at the beginning of the game.

Starting point is 00:03:46 They opened the game, and it looks as easy as it could be. But they have, do you call it a drop, a drop touchdown by Jamar Chase? Certainly a ball that he could have caught. I don't know, there was a little bit contested, but a ball that Jamar Chase could have caught in the end. zone, that's a touchdown that doesn't end up going on the board. They had the Mike Gaseki play where the ball is a little bit behind him, where he and Joe Burrow aren't on the same page. But that's a play called it worked. And the touchdown was there. It just wasn't executed. And that comes on the heels of a fourth quarter timeout where you want to be critical of them

Starting point is 00:04:21 taking two timeouts on that drive, I think, and not having those timeouts for the end of game situation. But that's a play where if you get the touchdown on that play, you effectively win the game on the spot. So I don't have a huge issue with that timeout before that particular third down play on the incomplete pass to Mike Keseki. But those are two plays that could have been touchdowns. And like you said, there are plays where they haven't had those plays quite often this season, but this is a game where they instead do enough because they get all the field goals. Cade York kicks five field goals in this game after having a disaster start to the game. I don't even know where the ball went on that kickoff. They never showed.

Starting point is 00:05:01 us a replay. And so no idea where that ball went. And that was an ominous start. But then he was good the rest of the way. So credit to Kay Gjord for settling in there. But you have a Joe Burrow interception on a bit of a fluke play where he and Jamar aren't on the same page and the ball bounces off the helmet. You have a turnover on downs. You have a turnover off of DJ Avi's foot. And you also had a takeaway on a takeaway on a Shaqa Hayward force fumble for the Bengals. So winning the game, I guess they also had a turnover on downs at the end of the game, if you want to count those as turnovers. Winning the game, despite being technically negative, but if you count turnover on downs,

Starting point is 00:05:36 equal in the turnover department. After the way the game started is not how I thought the game would go down. I didn't think we were getting that nail-biter because that first drive looked as easy as offense has looked for the Cincinnati Bengals all year. Joe Burroughs getting rid of the ball, an average time to throw up two seconds. And my tweet at the time was, if Joe can do this the entire game and Pittsburgh's defensive line doesn't get to make it smart, it's going to be a long night for the Steelers' defense. but the Steelers did make an adjustment from there.

Starting point is 00:06:02 Yeah, they did. And Joe started six of six for 64 yards in the touchdown. Literally, it was what, so it was a handoff to Khalil Herbert, no gain. Mike Gisicki, first down. T. Higgins for nine yards, but it was actually 10. It was an awful spot. By the way, I don't know why. It didn't matter.

Starting point is 00:06:21 Weird. Ridiculous. But Mike Gisicki catches the second down pass, gets a first down. And then his last three completions of that drive went to Jamar Chase, including the 12-yard touchdown. And it's like, yeah, this was wildly easy. And then they force a three-in-out. And Trey Hendrickson gets a sack and takes the NFL sack lead.

Starting point is 00:06:43 And you're like, okay. And then Burrow goes six-for-six on their second drive. But he gets sacked. They stall out, but they settle for three. And it's like, okay, well, Cade York kicks a 48-yard field goal. Of course, you take that all day long in the cold. And now you're up 10-0. And you're right, this is one of those moments

Starting point is 00:07:00 and the defense at its probably worst moment of the night. One of them, I would say, because you have the touchdown in the second half to Pat Friermuth where he's so open that anyone could have caught it and scored. But you have a couple pass interference penalties,

Starting point is 00:07:16 a bad play where Josh doesn't get his head around and locate the ball on a third and 11 or third and 12, whatever it was. And the Steelers make it 10-7. And it's like, all right, you better score here. otherwise, you're only up 10-7. And then the offense kind of did its stagnant, stall out in the red zone.

Starting point is 00:07:36 They had the turnover on downs. And the thing that kept the Steelers in the game is the fact that they couldn't punch it into the red zone. Or punching into the end zone when they were in the red zone, just one for four on the night. And a big part of that is the running game is just so ineffective. You can see the difference between Chase Brown and Khalil Herbert, who is fine. He played admirably. But you can see the difference there. round is a different kind of player than Khalil Herbert.

Starting point is 00:08:01 You mentioned anybody could have caught that touchdown pass that Pat Firemanoth caught late in the game. Everyone except maybe George Pickens, the way he was playing tonight. But I just wanted to get that. I was wondering what punchline. I thought you were going to say me or something. Shot at George Pickens. Yeah, I don't know what he was.

Starting point is 00:08:19 Terrible game for George Figgins. Just wanted to get that shot off. Also, anybody but Pratt Firemuth on fourth and game at the end of the game. Yeah. Did you see last week? It was, yeah, it was the Christmas Day game. So technically it was last week. It feels like forever ago, though. George Pickens interrupted Mahomes' postgame interview and Kelsey's postgame interview and shook their hands and said good game. Did you see that? Like on the field. No, I did not. Weird. Oh, yeah, like on the field. He's clearly thinking about how he's going to join the Chiefs in the office season. And he's just like, hey, man, I'm not catching anything. I'm going to get myself to Kansas City. that had to be it. I don't know what he was doing, but he dropped some really easy, easy plays. Anyways, go ahead.

Starting point is 00:09:04 Yeah, Russ had his fair share of mistakes tonight as well, missing some open receivers at times. The Steelers had a ton of drops in this game. But going back to that early drive, the turnover on downs for the Bengals, one of a few head scratching moments in this game. And there weren't a ton. I think things got really difficult from a play calling perspective for Zach Taylor, really difficult to just play offense for the Cincinnati Bengals when the Steelers made that adjustment. They eventually found some answers and started moving the ball again. But when the Steelers stopped playing single high and letting Corey Trice try to defend Jamar Chase one-on-one,

Starting point is 00:09:37 which I can't, I just don't know how you get there from a defensive game planning perspective. Thank you, Terrell Austin. And then Mike took over after that or something. I don't know, but there's a couple of head-scratching decisions for me from Zach Taylor in this game on the offensive side of the wall, some game management things we can talk about coming up next before we get to some of the rest of the game, including the defense and some other special teams notes as we keep going with the Bengals final regular season game of 2024 coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn.

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Starting point is 00:10:56 That's LinkedIn.com slash lockdown NFL to post your job. for free terms and conditions apply. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is also sponsored by Rocket Money. And if you're wondering what Rocket Money is, it's a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. And the best thing about it is that it brings all that together in one place, whether it is those subscriptions or your spending habits or the goals you want to hit this year in

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Starting point is 00:11:53 Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rock. money go to rocket money.com slash locked on today that's rocket money.com slash locked on rocketmoney.com slash locked on all right jake let's get to some of the game management situations that stood out to you the most yeah i want to start with in the first half there were a couple of occasions in this game where the bengals opted to run the ball on two straight plays which i would not have a problem with if the bengals could run the ball And they had some running success today. They had some. But the reason that closing out games has been so hard for this team this year is because

Starting point is 00:12:37 the running game isn't very good. And for all people talk about this is the way Joe Burrow wants to play football. He wants it on hard mode. He doesn't want to get under center all these things. The guy wants a running game to average more than three and a half yards per carry, too. I promise you that. He's not trying to set downs on fire when he turns around and hands the ball off. Not that they were doing that tonight, but the first time they handed the ball off twice in a row on the first drive of the game,

Starting point is 00:12:58 they end up in a third down. It was their only third down of that drive. They converted every other second down they tried on that drive. On the turnover on Downs Drive, they hand the ball off on first and 10 to get two yards. And what do you do after getting a two-yard run? Well, you do it again, obviously. They hand the ball off on second and eight to get another two-yard run, and then you're behind the six on third down.

Starting point is 00:13:20 They only get five yards on a quick pass to Khalil Herbert on third and six. Leads to the incomplete pass batted at the line of scrimmage by Cam Hayward, who had an awesome game, just beating the crap out of Cordell-Voson, getting his hands into passing lanes the entire game. Mad respect to Cam Hayward on the other side. They're doing it at a ripe old age of one year younger than me old. He's 35.

Starting point is 00:13:41 But that sequence where they ran the ball twice, that's the only way they stopped themselves on those first two drives. Or on their first three drives, sorry. They didn't do it on the second drive when they scored the field goal. That was a sack issue. But that to me was curious, the way the game started. The way the game proceeded,

Starting point is 00:14:01 the way the Steelers just did, fine. They ran into some eight-man boxes, though. And so that's where I'm looking at it and thinking like, do we need to hand the ball off on second and eight, like hoping to catch them off guard when Joe Burroughs been dicing them up for two straight drives?

Starting point is 00:14:15 Or can we go back to the thing that's been working? I don't know. I mean, you have to look at the film and see what the looks were, right? But like, from a gut reaction perspective, that feels wrong. Yeah. It's tough.

Starting point is 00:14:26 It's tough because you're, you already dropped back like 50 times, you know, total 50 times tonight. Do you push it more? It's, I get it, though. I get it. And it's not like you go into this game thinking you're going to run for five a clip. And it's one of the many offseason things and topics that we'll have to tackle at some point, hopefully, and many, many weeks from now. But it could be as early as this week, right?

Starting point is 00:14:51 So, yeah, I think that's one of the many flaws. Like they're a flaw team and it comes up. And as great as Burrow is, it's not always going to be able to be the lights out pretty stuff, even though he's diagnosing it and all of those things. Like it's going to be ugly at times. And I would say this, when you don't invent, like, to me, they need like Chase Brown and Chase Brown 2.0, right?

Starting point is 00:15:25 Where you have a guy like Chase Brown, and then you have a guy that you're confident in that because I'm trying to think of who like a little better than Samaday P. Iran like that's their guy like Zach Moss if they would have Zach Moss it would be fine I don't know what what his future is like but not having him it was like they were lacking

Starting point is 00:15:44 a true guy that could carry a little load tonight and Khalil Herbert's fine but some of those dump offs like they had a dump off for minus four another dump off for minus two and it's like, ah, the Cleo Herbert on third and six, Burr finds it for five yards. That was the play where you really noticed. Troy Aitman pointed it out. It was just like, man, you got to have a little bit more burst and you just got to run through them to get six.

Starting point is 00:16:13 I thought he was a pretty good. Yeah, I thought he was a pretty good runner. I thought there were times he got extra yards running despite getting hit and pushing forward. But receiving wise, I think you really noticed. that there was a gap there. And so when I mention this off season, this back or that back, that's why. Because you want a guy that can go in there.

Starting point is 00:16:35 It's not like they trusted Trayvion Williams to take offensive reps tonight. Zero. Kneeled up. You see what I'm saying, though? So people are like, why talk about running back? Well, it's like, man, you need something besides Chase Brown. You need someone that can give you a little juice.

Starting point is 00:16:51 And that's why. in some of those situations, it stands out. I will say, though, Hayward had three pass deflections, and I know you mentioned him. And insane. He just, the way he's able to time it up and get a guy that gets in Hayward's chest and doesn't let him do that. I don't know who you find,

Starting point is 00:17:13 but that will be an offseason on the offseason to-do list, I would say. And some of it's hard because he's not engaged. He's off the line of scrimmage. He's, you know, trying to get into passing lanes. And he's a great player. Like I think he's I think he's the best player on that defense and I know T.J. Watt exists. I think he's awesome. And he certainly had that impact tonight.

Starting point is 00:17:33 He was the best tonight, no doubt. Yeah. And T.J. Watt was good tonight too. I mean, neither of those guys had terribly hard tasks, to be honest. But there was a lot of help given to try to slow them down. And the game plan at times worked obviously like the Bengals moved the ball in this game. But when when they needed it, you know, just going back to the. This isn't necessarily a game management issue,

Starting point is 00:17:55 but is related to what we were talking about earlier when they needed it on that final offensive drive of the game where they end up losing four yards because Joe Burrow gets sacked. They try to run the ball. They get two yards. So they're like, okay, well, we obviously can't run the ball when Pittsburgh knows we're trying to run the ball here. We're not going to be able to run the ball for a first out.

Starting point is 00:18:11 And they need a first out. And, well, they probably needed two first outs with the two-minute warning also happening to avoid giving the ball back to Pittsburgh altogether. And then they try to go to Marchease screen. Love it. Great idea. They get five yards out of it pretty close to breaking it off and getting a first down there,

Starting point is 00:18:28 but it doesn't quite do it. And then you're in third and three. And it's a straight dropback, if I recall correctly. Maybe I don't. Maybe it was play action. But you're not really presenting a significant threat of a run in that spot. That's where you wish you could run the ball a little bit. And you need some people that can move bodies.

Starting point is 00:18:50 And you need some guards that aren't going to get bullied. And, you know, we'll see what the film says about Volson and Alex Kappa tonight, but the way the running game wasn't there when they needed it in short yardage situations, I think, and it's been the case all year, it tells you what you need to know about the interior offensive line. The other game management situations that I wanted to call attention to that I thought were a little bit weird that we don't have to go into too much, but the hurry up after the Mike Kaseki conversion of the first down in the fourth quarter,

Starting point is 00:19:17 apparently that's because there was a chance that Kaseki didn't hold onto the ball, so they're trying to get the playoff. Didn't realize that when I was watching live. And then the timeout, or not the timeout, declining the penalty to push Pittsburgh back on third down to third and 25 was one that I've seen a lot of people talk about. Runs 40 seconds off the clock and makes Pittsburgh have to gain yards to get into field goal range. And Pittsburgh's pretty cowardly with their play calling there. If Zach Taylor played for a 55-yard-yard-field goal there, we would be killing him. And that's what Tomlin did.

Starting point is 00:19:48 He just didn't get punished for it. Yeah. I was fine with that. I was totally fine with that. The one with Zach that bothered me, because to me, it's like, oh, where you're giving Trey another chance to knock him out of field goal range. On the other side, it's like, well, what if there's another DPI with a DPI happy flag crew, you know, that that's what the other side of it is.

Starting point is 00:20:05 There's some risk to it. I get that, but it worked. Did. And you know what? You got to make plays. You do. I will say the other one, though, is at the end of the first half, I wouldn't have called my first timeout to keep the clock on fourth and one.

Starting point is 00:20:26 Instead of the 10-second runoff, Zach said, I'll use a timeout here to keep it at 49 seconds. They gave the ball back to the Steelers with 18 seconds left. Like time wasn't the issue. It was, oh, well, give Joe all of his timeouts in 39 seconds. That's fine if you get the stop. And they did get the stop. But that's a small one, but it gets lost.

Starting point is 00:20:48 But I was like in the moment, like, what do you do it? Like, just run the clock. If they get the fourth down, then you're not getting the ball back anyway. It didn't come back to bite them either, that decision. But we have a lot of defense to talk about here, James, because honestly, the defense was a huge part in the Bengals of winning this game. And we haven't gotten to them in depth yet, aside from a few illusions to that, you know, we'll finish the show on that side of the ball coming up next. From big upsets to game winning drives, NFL playoffs are better with Fandle. And right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets guaranteed.

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Starting point is 00:22:21 Anybody can also look up that more than half of those sacks. 17 and a half, baby. I come from Trey Hendrickson, who was a monster in this game, both in closing the game and early in this game, contributing, I believe it was eight pressures charted by PFF. I think officially three or three and a half sacks. I'm not sure where it ended up in the end. Must be three and a half if he got to 17 and a half.

Starting point is 00:22:44 But monster game from Trey Henderson to close things out and put his stamp on a season that began with a trade request. and you know that contract is going to be coming up again, but this defense, including and led by Trey Hendrickson, closed out the game, had some help. Russell Wilson is slow and didn't throw the ball away. That was a mistake. Mike Tomlin's time management, not the best.

Starting point is 00:23:10 But Trey Hendrickson leading the charge for a defense that got off the field numerous times in this game, holding the Steelers to 17 points at home, a dramatic improvement over what we saw from them against Russ. in Cincinnati. Huge, huge. I mean, and you knew it from the get-go, but coming into this game, what do we say?

Starting point is 00:23:31 It's like, yeah, Lou, this defense, can they, will they? Or is it going to be the, oh, yeah, this is why they're going to get fired game. And by the way, that's what week 13 felt like. So it was like, this isn't Jane Daniels and the Washington commanders in that awesome offense. It's not Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.

Starting point is 00:23:51 It's the Pittsburgh Steelers. and on Saturday night, the Bengals defense needed to make the Steelers look like the Steelers. And they did. Scored 17 points. It's not a good offense. We know that. And they forced punts.

Starting point is 00:24:07 They got off the field. That critical third and fourth down, third and one. They stopped Russell Wilson. Fourth and one, they're able to stop what was, I think it was a handoff to Warren. Yeah. And get the ball back to the Bengals for a field goal. So they're up 13 to seven at half. and it felt like they should be up way more, but at least you're up six and not three.

Starting point is 00:24:27 It's those little things came up. I will say this. I mentioned Josh Newton and Kim, Tyler Britt earlier in the pod. Both guys came up big later in the game. Cam Taylor Britt on that fourth down, Josh Newton on multiple plays at a pass breakup on third down. That would have extended the drive. Also had a nice deflection with Mike Williams in the end zone. I think he got his hand on that one.

Starting point is 00:24:49 So, yeah, I think even the guys that gave up play. or had ugly moments. Also had some nice moments. And obviously, Trey Hendrickson, man. It's so funny. I think he knew Miles Garrett didn't get a sack. It's time for me to put this thing away.

Starting point is 00:25:07 And so he gets a sack to get 15. Ends up getting three and a half. This was his, to me, Jake, this was his best game of the season because it mattered. It was against a playoff team. It was on the road. The Raiders game,

Starting point is 00:25:21 that was maybe his most productive on. paper and in the box score. But I think that this was his most dominant and most impressive performance because of who it was against and what was on the line. Street this one in Kansas City and week two for me. And I lean Kansas City because that is a better quarterback, even though the chiefs have been going through it on offense this year too and early in the season and lower quality of offensive tackle.

Starting point is 00:25:46 Not that the Pittsburgh left tackle tonight is anything to write home about. But I'd lean that way to week two. But it's, I mean, it's certainly right there damn more. Two sacks, three quarterback hits, he had three and a half sacks, four quarterback hits, two of his sacks were in the fourth quarter on the final two drives. Yeah, for sure. One forces the field. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:26:11 Like they were impactful. Like the Raider sacks, you might have been able to rush Desmond Ritter and get a sack. You know, like it's much different in this. environment doing it. But yeah, obviously the Chiefs game was nice too. That was a big. I mean, I just remember talking about after the game that Trey almost single handedly won them the game. Yeah, except on fourth and 16. Well, he made the, but my point is, is like in those moment, in that moment, he made a play tonight. And heck, he might have gotten them into a fourth and 16 with the Chiefs way back in week two. I forget, but you get my

Starting point is 00:26:46 point. Yeah, I mean, he was obviously great tonight. That contract, will come up in the pretty near future, I would say, could be Mike Hilton's last game as a Bengal. Yeah. Solid game for him to go out on, if that is the case. Had a really great conclusion to the season, I would say, not as much as a blitzer tonight, but only giving up eight yards receiving on two targets tonight, not missing a tackle. Shaka Hayward, making an impact in limited defensive snap.

Starting point is 00:27:16 Shout up to Shaka Hayward, who also had the great force fumble on the punt. a huge play in this game. And I think that, you know, you called out Josh Newton. That's a player that the Bengals hit on. And he's not necessarily like a great, awesome, you know, they found a top 10 corner in the fifth round kind of thing. But they found a solid player in the fifth round in Josh Newton. And I think you take that every time.

Starting point is 00:27:48 And for the ups and downs, they're there. but, you know, the flaws are there, but the way that he can play, the game belongs on an NFL field. And so it's nice to see that development from him late into the season. Joseph Osai adding another sack or half sack. I'm not sure what the official box score was, which gives him at least a half sack in what, four of his last six games or something like that, maybe five out of seven. I don't remember what exactly it was. And Miles Murphy, while he, again, didn't have a sack, did create a sack.

Starting point is 00:28:17 And so big offseason coming up for Miles Murphy, who hasn't done enough, think to make an argument that he should be the starter opposite tray next year. But, uh, you know, some investment needed there, but, but nice to see some of the flashes from Miles who big year three coming up for him. He also pressured Russ into a checkdown to Najee Harris. I think it was on their first, the first snap with the first play of their final drive. And it was brought down. He actually got tackled for for no gain. They couldn't do that on December 1st, but they're able to do that tonight. And that was a big play. I was like, oh, look at 99. I get a little pressure. And it was just a quick checkdown. And it went for no gain.

Starting point is 00:28:59 So those plays don't necessarily show up, but they matter and they make an impact. And I do think that this defense is playing better. And it's one of those things. We don't have to have the discussion now, but they're playing better. They've shown growth. You just mentioned a young guy that's showing some promise. I think a lot of people wanted to get rid of all this, the entire defensive staff, I think it's going to be a question now. And it's certainly a question that we'll answer at some point. It just depends on what happens on Sunday. It's a harder decision now.

Starting point is 00:29:32 And this is what we talked about after the last time these teams played, is the Bengals are about to play some bad offenses. This defense is about to look a whole lot better. And they did. But they made plays to help win the game tonight. It's hard to ignore that, even though you could have. And we did. We talked about the reason to if they wanted to move on from Lou, they could have done it after the last time these teams played.

Starting point is 00:29:56 And they didn't. And Pittsburgh tonight goes four or 12 on third downs, O for two on fourth downs. Average is 3.3 yards per play in this game. Pittsburgh only possessed the ball for 22 minutes in this game. 38 minutes to 22 minute time of possession in the Bengals favor. Bengals get four sacks. Again, Trey Hendrickson, awesome game. Russ average is 3.4 yards per

Starting point is 00:30:21 or yards per attempt, sorry, 119 passing yards, under 200 total yards for the Steelers' defense or offense. Not a good offense, as we said, going into this game, James. But the Bengals, the last time these teams played, did not show that to be the case. And tonight, they showed that to be the case and send the Steelers into the end of their regular season on a four-game losing streak,

Starting point is 00:30:47 which gives me a little bit of shot in Freud, joy. because of how we feel about the Steelers around here. And if the Chargers win on Sunday, and the Steelers have to go to Baltimore, and they miss out on the Houston pillow, that would be the best ever wildcard round game ever. I would love to go to Houston. I mean, I think that's a great matchup for any team to want to go.

Starting point is 00:31:13 So it costs them tonight. And the Ravens likely will have to deal with that Steelers. team, which obviously they can probably smile about because they should be able to beat them. And the Steelers having to go on the road for an AFC North matchup in the first round of the playoffs. Probably not something they're super excited about. The Chargers play the Raiders. There you go. There you go. That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Didn't talk enough about Jamar Chase tonight, who probably locked up the Triple Crown. hard to imagine him losing any of those categories.

Starting point is 00:31:49 Now 10 catches 96 yards. The touchdown will have to talk about some of the Bengals Award candidacy in the near future as well. But we'll see what happens on Sunday. And we'll see when we're back with you. We may or may not have an emergency episode depending on Sunday. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Hootay. And have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals keep hope alive into Sunday with their 5th straight win to close out the regular season

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