Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals remain in must-win mode as they look to conquer whatever's holding them back in Cleveland

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals remain in must-win mode for their trip to Cleveland to start their series with the Battle of Ohio 2024. Can they get the Cleveland monkey off their back? Let's get into 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 Liskow. He's your host, James.

Starting point is 00:00:36 We are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. James, of course, also doing his thing at Bengals Talk, S.I covering the team every day. And we're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. So if you're new to the show, you're looking for a consistent source of Bengals News and Analysis. You're in the right place. And you can find us on Twitter, of course, with the handles on YouTube that you can see on the screen or at Jake Liscoe at James Rapine. And you'll see all of the various things that we are publishing with thoughts about

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Starting point is 00:01:33 is brought to the people by Fandle where they can place a $5 bet and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. They can get started. You, the listener at fandle.com. James, big game. And they're all going to be like this. For the foreseeable future, we're going to be talking about a lot of must wins for this team until they're out of playoff contention or squarely in playoff contention. And that remains true this week.

Starting point is 00:01:58 No doubt. It's a huge game because they need their first AFC win. They need their first AFC North win. They need to win in Cleveland for the first time since Marvin Lewis was, at least had decent job security. Decent? Not perfect. Like, think about that when, uh, since, since Joe Mixon's rookie season, let's do it that way. Let's talk about it like that, right?

Starting point is 00:02:22 Like that feels like ages ago. So they haven't won in Cleveland since then. And, and so you need to get this game. And with all of the. talk and one of the offseason narratives. And I think to a certain degree it was true, but was really annoying, was, man, this team just isn't built to win the division when they had one back-to-back division titles. Like last December, people were saying that and they had back-to-back division titles and their quarterback was hurt. And yet, I get it. Like, you can be built

Starting point is 00:02:54 a little better to win the division, to compete, to be more physical in the trenches, all of those things. And so hopefully they are. Hopefully, Omarius Mims and Orlando Brown Jr. are able to hold up because they'll be tasked with dealing with Miles Garrett the most, even though he will move around. I think the run game, will they be able to average 4.6 yards per carry, which they've done through six weeks. Well, there's a lot of questions about that. Will the tight ends and the 12 personnel stuff help them? There's a lot of questions. But regardless, Jake, to your point, They have to win. And we'll break down the path and all of those things.

Starting point is 00:03:32 But finding a way to win, getting to three and four, one in one in the division, your first AFC win because you're 0 and 3 in the AFC right now. You've got to find a way to get one. And they have a shot on Sunday to do so. The Bengals didn't get their first AFC win in 2023 until week nine against the Buffalo bills. They didn't get their first AFC North win, obviously, until week 8. with the Cleveland Browns visiting Cincinnati with deep backups playing Jake Browning playing quarterback

Starting point is 00:04:06 obviously in that game. They can't really deal with that kind of repeat of last year. They're already repeating some worrisome trends from last year and in some ways, worse trends from last year. Their two wins are against NFC opponents. They're a win behind their pace from 2023. And they're still trying to catch up. They're around the point, though, where they started turning it around in 2023.

Starting point is 00:04:31 And while they, Zach Taylor, Joe Burrow, et cetera, constantly tell us that they don't compare the current year's team to the previous year's team. The number of times this question has come up for either of those guys, there are trends that are similar year over year, which is why the questions are brought up in the first place. Around this time last year is around when we started to see them have a convincing win, the 14 point win over the Arizona Cardinals in week five. They scratched went out against the Seattle Seahawks in week six. They kept their by. Then they get hot and look like a great team against the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills. If they look like a great team this week against the Cleveland Browns,

Starting point is 00:05:13 so they can look like a great team next week to get to four and four. Then you might be feeling against the Philadelphia Eagles. Then you might be feeling like, okay, they're back where they need to be. and they have the momentum they need. But that starts this week in a place where they haven't had success. And the Cleveland defensive line plays so much better. You might go look at Miles Murphy's,

Starting point is 00:05:37 or Miles Garrett's, sorry, productivity this year. And against Dallas in week one, he has three hurries and, or sorry, three pressures against the Giants in week three, nine pressures. And the Bengals just saw that giant's team. The commonalities in those answers that the Browns are at home, And the Browns defensive line playing at home versus playing on the road where they've played their last three games is a significantly different unit when they have the advantage of crowd noise and silent counts to time up getting off the ball. So that is something that the Bengals will have to deal with this week.

Starting point is 00:06:11 I think when we're thinking about how the Bengals win this game, I keep coming back to Miles Garrett over and over and over. there are other players and matchups and scheme-based things that the Bengals will have to contend with this week. But it's hard for me to get past Miles Garrett as number one, 1A, and 1B for things to deal with for this team to come out on top this week. Yeah, I agree. And I think the path to that is starting so fast. like find a way to in the crowd's going to be fired up still because Cleveland is that they will be fired up they will find a way even if they do boo Deshaun Watson pregame but if you can score first and force a three and out instant booze probably go score again you want to neutralize Miles Garrett play with a lead play ahead of the chains be able to be efficient on offense like I I think that we've talked about the offense a lot, and it's especially from weeks three to five, it's like, man, this defense, what about this defense? And look, this defense needs to continue to take steps

Starting point is 00:07:27 forward. But to me, this is a game that the offense can really set up the defense and can kind of set the table to where they don't have to chase. Now, the defense has to show up early for them to get off to a good start. But I think that's the key. When you look at all these games, when the Bengals, they lose 41 to 16 here at Paycor just days after O'Dell Beckham Jr. was released. What happened? Joe Burrow goes down field, throws a pick six to Denzel Ward. They tied it 7-7, but if you don't throw that pick-six and you score there, it just feels different. Their last two blowout losses in Cleveland, same thing. You just get off to a slow start and you're like, all right,

Starting point is 00:08:05 are they going to be able to turn it on? Are they going to be able to turn it on? And then Miles Garrett can tee off because Joe Burroughs dropping back a ton. And so how do they go hand-in-hand? if you're playing with a lead, well, then you're not forced to essentially let Miles Garrett pin his ears back and be predictable. And so hopefully the Bengals can do that because we've seen that when they're not dealing with opponents like Miles Garrett when it comes to five starts. If you get off to a fast start against this Browns team, I think it's just going to feel different, both vibe in the stadium and what Miles Garrett can and can't do. A big week for vibes and momentum is what I'm hearing of saints.

Starting point is 00:08:44 it was it is i mean if you talk to people i mean we had jeff on yesterday i'm talking about booing the starting quarterback that delaying the the plans and the stadium stuff was announced on thursday they've had that done but they're the vibes in cleveland have been so bad that they didn't want to release it and so like that's a thing by the way like that's a very real thing and i'm sure it was met with that on thursday when the the stadium stuff gets announced It's like get off to a good start, get that crowd out of the game or into the booing number four game and go put James Winston in. Like that's what you want to hear early.

Starting point is 00:09:23 And I think the offense has as big of a chance to do that as anything. Go score 14 on your first two possessions and see how the Browns respond on offense. We've talked a little bit this week about the bones of this game potentially looking similar to the structure from a skeletal structure to continue. into the analogy of the New York Giants game, where there's a bad offense, some skilled players in the trenches, some skilled players on the defensive side of the ball for the Bengals' opponent,

Starting point is 00:09:50 and the Bengals needing to take advantage of that. You talk about GameScript a lot, too. Those things often do go hand in hand. I want to continue with some expectations around this Bengals offense and Bengals defense for this game and the things that we're looking to see them do this week coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Arena Club.

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Starting point is 00:12:12 Prize Picks, run your game. We had high expectations for the Cincinnati Bengals offense against the New York Giants. We were still concerned about the Cincinnati Bengals defense going into that game against the New York Giants. Those things are both still true. That's the thing. We didn't get the high-flying performance from the Bengals offense against the Giants. We didn't get the letdown performance from the Bengals defense against the New York. York Giants. Despite that, I'm looking for the offense to have a bounceback week. I'm looking

Starting point is 00:12:45 for the defense to continue its performance against the Giants and build on that against another bad offense. Because one of the things we've talked about is that the Bengals have played some of the better offenses in the NFL this year. Kansas City Chiefs and Washington commanders of Baltimore Ravens, all really good offenses this year by most metrics. The Giants, not one of those. the Browns, not one of those. So when we're talking about what we're looking for from this team in this game, just to say on the topic of the offense before we transition to the defense, in terms of things that would help me to buy back into this team,

Starting point is 00:13:21 it's having a compelling performance on both sides of the ball, playing that complete game that we haven't seen from them this year, instead of scratching and clawing to put things together. And we're still in a position where beggars can't be choosers about the way they win and just winning the game is still the most important thing. But if they want to take another step and start to get me, at least, to buy back in. And I'm sure many people listening, it would be more of a complete performance where, yeah, they get to 30 on offense and they continue their strong stretch of play that they showed against the Giants against another bad offense.

Starting point is 00:13:55 That does get Nick Chub back, but just lost their best skill player to date this year in Amari Cooper that has been through trials and tribulations. it has a sketchy offensive line. Get everything together this week. Let's not have the laundry list of plays we're pointing to where we're saying, missed opportunity here, a drop there, a bad penalty there. And let's just minimize that and have more of the dominant feeling that we were hoping to see from this team in some of these early games this year. Yeah, I totally agree.

Starting point is 00:14:25 And I think that that's when I laid out the entire offense fast start part, if you're Lou Aniromu, if you're this defense, it's this. It's smother them. It's literally be all over them. They lost Amari Cooper this week. Their quarterback has been awful and is thin-skinned and is ready to get booed out of the damn building. So make it happen, right? Because it can go one of two ways here. You can either give them some momentum early or you can just completely crush them early and the crowd's going to get restless and and he could press and make a bad decision or two. Or they're banking on thrash the rookie to be their third receiver now.

Starting point is 00:15:10 Maybe he runs a wrong route or is a step slow or Watson's just a step fast or whatever the case is from a timing perspective. Like take advantage of that stuff by making them press. And so getting out fast, not letting Nick Chubb feel like pre-injury Nick Chub in his first couple runs is huge. because if he, let's say he averages like four, three a carry, that's enough to get him into a rhythm, get the offense into a rhythm a bit, potentially. And you just don't want that, especially early in this game. And I do think at some point, Jake, Des Sheldon Rankin's game from a pass rush standpoint, an impact play tackle for a loss standpoint, because maybe it's against the run.

Starting point is 00:15:57 I'm sure the Browns want to run it a lot and get the ball out of Deshaun Watson's hands as much as possible. It's going to happen. I believe in Sheldon Rankin's. And so maybe this is the week. It's B.J. Hill last week. Maybe it's Sheldon Rankin's this week where he can kind of not control the game. I think that's unreasonable, but make some impact plays in the backfield to give the Bengals the momentum they need.

Starting point is 00:16:21 Because if they can do that, then I think it would go a long way. Because like I said, it's teetering in Cleveland right now. And number four, I mean, think about it. it. Think about the national reaction to Kevin Stefanski saying to Sean Watson has given them the best chance to win. Imagine what it's like locally, right? I mean, oh, so take advantage of that, use it to your advantage by getting off to a fast start defensively. It's a theme that I'm really hammering this week because I, it could go one of two ways. If you let the Browns go up, 10-0, then that whole stadium's going to be confident and it's going to feel like it's felt in Cleveland in recent years. or you can get up, get some momentum, and then I think it's going to be a pretty unique feeling

Starting point is 00:17:04 that the Bengals haven't experienced in Cleveland in quite some time. I'll just add to that. They'll still have to finish the game. They've had some fast starts this year, at least on one side of the ball. Like, you're right, but we just spent last week talking about finishing games too. And they managed to do it against the Giants, but it was tenuous. It was touch and go. they're walking a tightrope and very nearly fell off.

Starting point is 00:17:31 He's a fumble. Thank goodness there's an out of bounds line. Yeah. But when you're talking about Sheldon Rankins, I'm saying, might not both get Sheldon Rankin's his big, splashy game, his first big splashy game is Bengal, but also let's see if B.J. Hill can turn back another performance like last week. The interior of this Brown's offensive line,

Starting point is 00:17:50 and none of this offensive line is playing well right now. But the interior, I mean, I like Trey Hendrickson against Jeff McWill's, The interior of this Brown's offensive line. Joel Betonio not playing like the Joel Betonio you're thinking of. Michael Dunn playing for the Brown. Zach Zinter, some young players in there giving up a lot of pressures, especially against the Eagles last week. I'm not saying the Bengals have the Eagles defensive line.

Starting point is 00:18:13 There's a strength of the Eagles team. It is probably still the pass rush. And we'll get more into that when the Bengals play the Eagles next week. But take advantage of these questionable pass protectors, especially on the interior. If you're talking about that, Bengals' defensive interior, and that would go a long way as well.

Starting point is 00:18:30 But yeah, I mean, I can agree with your idea of a fast start here. We just talk about it a lot. And while it's true, and GameScript is monumental against the Browns especially.

Starting point is 00:18:40 This year, the difference is where in past years, we had a lot of confidence in their ability to finish games. I'm not there right now. And so, yeah, start fast, but it's still like play a complete game

Starting point is 00:18:51 and finish the game too. Yeah. I get it. I do. I think that things are so rocky up there in Cleveland that if you start fast, then it just kind of unravels for them. Yeah. You have to make them feel that, right? Like, keep them in their hole. Keep them down. They're going to try to get, get themselves, pull themselves out of the trough they're in, but just push their heads right back down in. Yeah. Jerry Judy's like, oh, well, I'm a number one. I was that 18th pick or whatever, right? You know, like the- They're getting Nick Chub back. David and Jokke's help me.

Starting point is 00:19:25 The slot receiver thinks that he's, he's a second round pick with the Jets. He's like, oh, we're fine with that of Mari Cooper. James Strasch is like, I'm great. I can be the third receiver. Like David and Joku,

Starting point is 00:19:34 Nick Chup, like they are all probably confident. Now, are they confident in Watson? Is Watson confident? I would say body language wise, clearly not. So keep them there. And to your point, push them down another rung.

Starting point is 00:19:45 And if you do that, and I think the offense can do that as much as the defense, then let's see how they respond. Because then we must, we might not even be talking about finishing the game, which would be quite nice. I don't think it's necessarily realistic, and we can get to that coming up next as far as what I think and how I think this game is going to go. There are still certainly more scenarios and things we have to discuss, including my

Starting point is 00:20:08 prediction. We will do that coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Fandul, where you can right now get $200 in bonus bets with your first $5 bet. And if you've not used Fandul before, it's a very important. America's number one sports book for a reason. Not only do they have your garden variety of sports betting options, they also have tons of props available,

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Starting point is 00:21:22 My prediction coming up in just a few minutes, Jake. All right. So we've talked about fast starts. We've talked about the idea that they need to finish. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. But it certainly could. I mean, I don't know. That could be finishing in like the third quarter.

Starting point is 00:21:42 No doubt. Getting to 31-7 in the third quarter. It's just not letting them back in the game if you get to that point. You know what I mean? Which, man, again, and this is my point. is just, I think listening to us, if you just, this is your first episode, you're like, man, you think the Brown, or the Bengals are just going to roll the Browns. I don't.

Starting point is 00:22:02 I still think that this is going to be a dog fight. Like, I still think it's going to feel uncomfortable. I still think that the Bengals have enough flaws and there's enough talent on that Brown's defense where it's like, I don't think you're going to feel great about it. And it's still going to be one of these physical AFC North, just blah kind of games, much like Sunday night was against the Giants. I do think that there's similarities that are going to translate when we're doing our postgame show at 435 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. Yeah, maybe we've gotten too far into the show for people to hear this message at this point. But it's not necessarily the things we're talking about are things that we think are necessarily going to happen.

Starting point is 00:22:39 We're painting a path to victory and a path to a best case scenario, really, so far in this show. We're talking about all these reasons that the Bengals, if they're the team that we thought they were in the preseason that they've proven not to be so far this year, if they're going to get back to that status, these are things that that team would do to a foundering and floundering Cleveland Browns team that can't find its way out of any of its own problems that are of its own design and just had to trade their most productive player on offense.

Starting point is 00:23:07 But as you said, James, this could still be a struggle. Nick Chub coming back is a overwhelming positive for the Cleveland Browns in this game if they want to run their offense through Nick Chub again. That is something that has given the Bengals plenty of issues over the years. different offensive line coach at this point in Cleveland, different offensive line personnel, not the same unit there as it was in the heyday of Nick Chub, but Nick Chubb could still be

Starting point is 00:23:30 Nick Chub. We don't really know yet. We might find out on Sunday. David and Joku was very productive for the Browns and his return from injury last week against the Eagles. Jerry, Judy, got that extension. These guys and Elijah Moore was a player that we really were thinking was a good addition for the Browns last year. Elijah Moore. I keep forgetting his name. I don't know why I always do. Loved him pre-draft. Hasn't really worked out that way. A lot of that goes back to the quarterback, but at any given point,

Starting point is 00:23:56 this team that has had your number could still have your number. And so that's why we're talking about these ways for the Bengals to overcome that. And that doesn't even mention, you know, Miles Garrett, as we talked about at the beginning of the show, J.O.K. at the second level, maybe this is a Zadaria Smith game going against the rookie on the other side. It's going to be a lot of Zadaria Smith and Marius Mims this week. The Browns are going to play a lot of man,

Starting point is 00:24:18 so it's going to be on these Bengals receivers. T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, Andre Yosevash, to beat that man coverage when they get those opportunities if they still get that. That's something the Browns have been able to successfully challenge the Bengals with in the last couple of years. And especially last year, Joe Burrow not healthy, obviously, for week one. But Jim Schwartz giving the Bengals plenty of issues in that game.

Starting point is 00:24:39 And so hasn't really been the case for that team this year. Everything around that team is down this year, but the Bengals have to keep them there or we're going to have some very unpleasant conversations after the game Sunday. But it doesn't have to go that way. It's just a monkey on their back and a big opportunity to show that they no longer are under that weight in Cleveland. Yeah, I think go show that this offense is versatile enough to go win a game that, yeah, Jamar might be dealing with Denzel a lot and T might be locked up a lot.

Starting point is 00:25:13 Not that either one, I don't think either one can be guarded like that in lock. up and just shut down. I don't. But I also think that clearly when you mix in this pass rush and these DBs, that they've just had the Bengals number and the numbers speak for themselves there. So is this an Eric Allgame? Does Mike Gisickeir merge? Andre Yosevash, we've seen him make some clutch plays and Red Zone plays. Is this the game where he has nine catches and just really goes off and helps move the chains? Is this the running back game where Zach Moss has seven catches out of the backfield and both running backs have a huge production out of the back. Maybe, maybe it's, that's it.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Or, you know, whether it's Brown Moss, whether it's Eric Al and Gisicki or a mixture there, but find the solution. Because if we're talking now about this offense and them not getting to, let's say they don't get to 20, well, then that's an issue. They should be able to go put 20, 20 or more on this Brown's defense. I feel confident in saying that, regardless of where the game is played. And so we'll see if they can do that. But I am intrigued by the offense to see if they can bounce back after last week,

Starting point is 00:26:24 which was kind of ugly, similar play style on paper. And so can they adjust, make the right adjustments, get off to a hot start, be productive, and win in the AFC North? And, man, what a win it would be. If they could get the three and four, then you're going to start to look at that. that AFC North, the Ravens play on Monday night, but it's going to feel a little tighter. It is.

Starting point is 00:26:50 Yeah. And an opportunity to continue stacking wins into the second game against the Ravens, which is going to be a very difficult Thursday night, AFC North Rogue game. Just going to highlight a couple other things here before we get to your prediction, James. You mentioned a bunch of non-T. Higgins and Jemar Chase options

Starting point is 00:27:06 to emerge for this offense. How about just getting those guys in the slot, where Greg Newsom has not been great for the Browns this year? Or just going after Martin Emerson, who's had his struggles after a really good rookie year has been way down this year and is getting beat quite a bit. Emerson has had a good matchup against the Bengals, has played well against the Bengals, as has JOK in the past. But if you just need to target somebody who isn't Dunzo Ward, maybe go after the safeties where they maybe are getting Grant Delpit back this week but are still down a guy at safety. There are a lot of defenses you can, or a lot of holes in this defense that the Bengals can exploit.

Starting point is 00:27:39 and it'll be interesting to see how they go about doing it. Last thing, James, before your prediction, is be ready for Miles Gair to try to jump the longsnapper on any field goal tries. That is certainly a trend, I think, emerging in the NFL. But with that said, James, we've talked about how this game could go for us to feel really good about it. We've talked about some of the ways this could go off the rails and some of the reasons the monkey is on the Bengals back in the first place. And I know I keep saying that, but it's true. How do you see this game going? Well, one other thing I want to mention, and I'll get to the prediction, is the Ryan Rico-Tyson-Anderson connection.

Starting point is 00:28:15 Big. The other special teams part of this. Winning that, having a Ryan Rico, Brad Robbins, I talked to him about it, he hated that game. That was one of the many ugly parts of that week one game last year. The weather shouldn't be what it was last year, but you also expect it to be windy on that lakefront. So Ryan Rico, eyes on him to continue. you to do what he's done. That being said, I think that this is one of those AFC North slow-moving games, but the Bengals are going to get off to a better start. I don't think

Starting point is 00:28:48 they'll do what I said, which is score 14 points on their first two possessions. Maybe they do, but I do think you look up and it's 10-3 at the end of the first quarter. And then at half-time, Bengals, and then at halftime, maybe it's 13 to 3. And they just can kind of control this game. I expect them to control this game. I think that's fair to say and to expect, and I'll be disappointed if they don't. I'm going to take the Bengals 23 to 13. I don't think it's a blowout by any stretch. But again, I think that they should go up there, be able to control things a bit.

Starting point is 00:29:23 Limit the big splash plays from Miles Garrett. And if they have to punt a couple times, fine. They have to punt. The defense will hold up its end of the bargain. So I'll take the Bengals 23.20. The Browns aren't that physical... Or 2313. 2313, excuse me.

Starting point is 00:29:39 Jesus. I hope it's not 2320. It's another nail biter. I don't want any more nail biters. 2313. The Browns this year have not been that physical team in the trenches that has given the Bengals so many issues in the past. This is a game where you could be talking about missing DJ Reader this week

Starting point is 00:29:54 if it was that kind of Brown's offensive front. Or you could be talking about needing the Bengals' offensive front to play more physical against a bullying pass rush from the Cleveland Browns. But outside of Miles Garrett, they still have a lot of the guys. They're just not playing at that level this year. And so that should give the Bengals a chance to do what you're talking about and control the game. I hope they get to 27.

Starting point is 00:30:17 27, 13 would feel a lot better to me than 2313. I know it's not a huge difference. It's only four points. But that's finishing one drive instead of kicking a field goal somewhere. You know, I'd feel better about that personally. So there was, it was an opening, let's say, see, hold on, Bengals, 2005 results. Is it 05? Yeah, they beat the Browns 2713 to start the 2005 season.

Starting point is 00:30:42 So there you go. Yeah, let's do that game. 2005 was a good year until it wasn't. Oh, it was a great year. It was a really fun year. And guess what? The game in Cleveland. There you go.

Starting point is 00:30:56 Run that back. Almost 20 years later. DJ, play that. That's going to do it. for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. We'll be back with you after the game with post-game takeaways here on YouTube wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:31:10 Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Oudey and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals remain in must-win mode as they look to conquer whatever's holding them back in Cleveland

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