Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals season effectively ends with another pathetic defensive showing

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Bengals lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that's just about it for their competitiveness in the 2024 season. 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 Rapine. We are locked on Bengals on the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team. every day.

Starting point is 00:00:38 We're on YouTube where everywhere you get your podcast. So shout out to the everydayers who came back for another episode. Shout out to all of you who make us your first listen. And if you are new to the show and you want to hear us talk about

Starting point is 00:00:47 firing coaches the rest of the season and talk about who the Bengals can draft, well, that plus evaluation mode is what we're watching. The rest of the way and you're in the right place. We will have plenty to talk about for the rest of the year here on Lockdown Bengals.

Starting point is 00:01:01 So you can subscribe wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube. Today's episode is sponsored by game time where you can save $20 on your first purchase of tickets in the app using promo code locked on NFL and James with another loss where the offense scored 30 plus points, the team scored 38 points. The Bengals dropped to 2 and 4 on the season when scoring more than 30. And it's curtains, essentially, and it goes back to the same things that we've watched from this team all year. that is unfathomably and I'm out of words to describe just how disappointing they are.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Yeah, I think you come out and you have the pick six and you're like, oh, well, you're ahead of the game there. And it's like, all right, well, force a punt or two. And you're feeling pretty darn good about that first half. And what's crazy, Jake, is they had the pick six. they Joe Burrow completed 80% of his first half passes Chase Brown was averaging 7.6 yards per attempt had a touchdown, had a long run of 40 yards, Burrow had a touchdown pass.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Like all of these good things happened and they were trailing at half time. And it was just like, what in the world is going on? And it's because after that pick six, the Bengals gave up three straight touchdowns, three straight back to back to back. It just can't happen. And yet it does. did happen and yet it has happened. How many times this year have we said, oh, well, the defense

Starting point is 00:02:37 gave up back to back to back touchdowns or six straight scoring drives, which is what it ended up being for the Steelers. And really the only one in there that felt all right was the block field goal, right? And so this defense, I don't really know where to be, like where to be positive. Like you insert Jordan Battle. Didn't really notice Jordan Battle. much different than any other time. Still noticed Gino Stone taking so many bad angles. That guy failed geometry class, clearly. And by the way, I wasn't good at geometry either,

Starting point is 00:03:12 but I'm not the one taking bad angles on the field, so I can make that joke. And so, yeah, the play that's wild to me, so you take that 7-0 lead, you have some momentum. How does George Pickens just walk into the end zone from 17 yards out on a screen pass? He didn't do anything special on that screen. It's just a bad angle by Gino Stone, poor tackling,

Starting point is 00:03:33 and suddenly he's into the end. And really poor contain from Cam Taylor Britt. Gino Stone is actually the guy that's supposed to be where the play is redirected too. Like he's the inside guy there. Cam Taylor Britt's on the edge trying to set an edge, and he doesn't. They both end up in the same place.

Starting point is 00:03:48 And so I don't necessarily think that that's like purely a Gino Stone problem. There's obviously poor tackling there, and Gino Stone is at the play, doesn't make the play. But it's another instance where you have two guys in the same spot. It's assignment sound. It's the same thing we've seen for this defense all year. And you're talking about trying to find positives on the defense or just aren't any in this game. The one positive play that you could talk about is a special team's player,

Starting point is 00:04:13 where Joseph Osaya, as you mentioned, gets through for blocking a field goal, which gives the Bengals their last glimmer of hope, realistically, in the game outside of a miracle needing an on-side kick to have a chance to go win the game at the end, where they obviously don't make the on-side kick because that's a 1% proposition at this point in the NFL. which is pretty close to the Bengals playoff odds after losing this game. But it's part of a series of events for this defense where it's the same stuff we talked about all year except a solid one game, right? Like you have guys covering grass and an assignment soundness issues in the secondary. You have the entire lack of a pass rush again.

Starting point is 00:04:54 You have poor tackling. You have guys in the same gaps. You have the various. play calling issues where Lou can't find the right lever to pull at the right time they're sending blitzes that Russ sees and diagnosis so quickly I mean he caught them up it was it was Mike White Jets

Starting point is 00:05:17 like at times especially early in the game and then later in the game Russ is doing whatever he wants essentially and and so this game is a microcosm of the entire season on defense in a lot of ways when you look at all the things that went wrong and there's really no positive. Like in other games, at least we've been able to say,

Starting point is 00:05:39 but Trey had a good game. But B.J. Hill was pretty good. There's really none of that in this game to speak of, where despite getting a pick six to start the game, they give up 44 points to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the fourth time in team history, James, that the Bengals have given up 26 or more points to the Pittsburgh Steelers and a half of football.

Starting point is 00:06:01 They've played the Steelers. a ton of times in their history. Just the fourth time that's happened. It's the first time it's happened in Cincinnati. The other three were in Pittsburgh. Just an example of this defense being historically enough. And if not for that 2018 Tara Lost in year, we'd have to go back quite a ways to find a defense that was close

Starting point is 00:06:21 to as bad as this one is playing, especially at this point in the season with their season on the line. Yeah, I think... they don't obviously they lack talent but when you talk about all of their shortcomings and we're going to spend a lot of time talking about all their flaws they also just don't have any leaders they're like who who do you think is like hey we need to tackle better play better take better angles like what guy in there is playing well enough and is also the leader that can do that was DJ Reader, not there.

Starting point is 00:07:05 Logan Wilson isn't a leader. I'll say that. So it's not like, oh, well, we didn't have him on the field. So no, not a leader. And by the way, not every guy's a leader. Trey Hendrickson's not a leader. He's not going to lead you. Mike Hilton, I think, is a good leader.

Starting point is 00:07:19 He's not at the level of play-wise where you can bank on him being that guy. And so in the past, I would say it would be DJ Reader. because he he was just a monster and also had that vocal stuff that you need to be that kind of of guy too. And so to me it's both. Look, it's a dumpster fire right now. I mean, you got 520 yards. You give up 520 yards to the Steelers.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Russell Wilson throws for 400 plus yards for just the fourth or the third time in his career. He hasn't done that. This isn't Joe Burrow thrown for 400. Joe Burrow wakes up with 400 yards passing. This is the Steelers. And it wasn't just the moonballs. I know you were worried about Russ and the moonballs. It wasn't just that.

Starting point is 00:08:10 It was everything. And you know what? The thing that irks me the most, and it isn't really Jermaine Pratt, but this is the example of the lack of leadership. After the game, and I posted this video, it's tweeted now by the time you guys have seen this, but he kept bringing up quick game. Oh, they're just running quick game. Quick game.

Starting point is 00:08:31 Oh, they're running quick game. Well, they ran quick game for 500 plus yards on offense. And you couldn't stop it. And you forced one punt. You can't dismiss it as quick game when you can't get off the field. It isn't just quick game. And I do think that that was, he said a little bit more than that, but not really. I mean, it wasn't like he gave, said that the Steelers were given them fits.

Starting point is 00:08:56 and that they need to do this or that it was it was pretty dismissive of oh yeah it's a quick game well that quick game whooped your tail that's why i talk about the mike white example that's how it felt for a lot of the early part of this game where they're just off in zone and then they can't tackle and so you get checkdowns to darnel washington or naji harris and then they run for like eight to 20 yards because nobody like the amount of tackles that happened at the point of contact the initial point of contact in this game for the bengals of percentages it's just far too low. But it's like we've seen for them all year. It's the same stuff we've seen from them all year. And on the other side of the ball, it's largely the same stuff we've seen from them all year

Starting point is 00:09:34 too, where Joe Burrow was awesome again. Jamar Chase produced T. Higgins produced, Chase Brown, produced. The offense scored 31 points against the defense has given up 17 points per game going into this game this year. They just did that to the Chargers defense. It was the best scoring defense in the NFL too. So it's the same frustration, the same stories we're talking about. And that's just who the team is. There's also just like the crazy stats to keep accumulating. A lot more to talk about in this one, James, as we continue wrapping up effectively the Bengals season, but specifically this game against the Steelers coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Ice Shaker.com. Look, Bengals fans, I know today was tough, but if you're like me, the holiday shopping list is quite long.

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Starting point is 00:12:30 Let's continue with the defense. If there's no positives, in there aren't, right? No Logan Wilson, no Sheldon Rankin's. I don't think Jordan Battle did anything that was awesome. Akeem Davis Gaither and Jermaine Pratt led the team with 13 tackles apiece. Wasn't overly impressed with either guy. Where do they go from here?

Starting point is 00:12:54 What buttons do you want to see pushed? as we record this in eight days when they take the field for Monday night football against Dallas. And obviously we can elaborate on that. But I just mean like, is there anything you think Luke can do with these guys that is going to maybe turn it a little bit? I don't think there's much of an answer. Like I don't need to see Sam Hubbard playing the amount of snaps he's playing anymore. just because what's the point at this point? Like he's playing through an injury.

Starting point is 00:13:27 He clearly doesn't have whatever explosion he was coming into the season with with that injury is clearly affecting him. Not that the other guys are better, but at least Miles Murphy is a part of your future, right? One of the things that we talked about is getting into evaluation mode if this game got away from them. The game got away from them. So at this point, you go into evaluation mode.

Starting point is 00:13:46 And the pieces to evaluate on defense are like, if you're talking about, well, okay, let's just start with the players that matter the most. That's the defensive front. That's Miles Murphy, Chris Jenkins, McKinley Jackson. We can probably pretty well assume that Joseph O's on his way out as a free agent, so probably not that one. But he's still going to play because all these guys need to play enough to get through the rest of the season. But it's those three guys on the defensive line is where you start. It's a real shame that they lost Daxhailing and DJ Turner because those would be two other guys that you'd love to have had the opportunity to see finish the season to get that development in because development is a big problem with the defense as well. And then you get to some of the minor pieces, or maybe they're still major.

Starting point is 00:14:26 Like, you probably don't need to see Von Bell out there anymore. I think we've talked a lot about the idea of just trying someone else at both safety spots at this point. So with very little left to play for, it could help your team be a better team. Why not try it? The last one, and this is way down on the priority list, they need to stop doing the 5-2 defense thing. The five defensive linemen fronts, again, they went away from it in the second half for the, the second straight week against the chargers they started in it, against the Steelers, they started in it, against both teams, they went to three linebackers in the second half.

Starting point is 00:15:00 Obviously, that's much worse when your linebacker off the bench is Joe Bachi and not Akeem Davis Gaither, who you mentioned earlier, he had a terrible game, multiple penalties and couldn't find the ball in the air on one of them that could have been an interception on the ball that hit his back. Difficult play for him to make in that instance, but multiple mistackles as well. I was excited to see him in this game and disappointed with what they got. if you're going to go to that third linebacker, why not get Mumajong meta some run?

Starting point is 00:15:27 Like, we don't need to see Joe Bachi at this point, right? Like, those would be the things. And, again, way down on the priority list. But I'm more thinking about, can they avoid the dead cat bounce issue that they've had with this team where they see them get results late in the season and then hold on to coaches? Like, you have to remember what got you to four and eight. You can't forget the issues that have plagued this defense

Starting point is 00:15:52 all year, the development problems that you have, not being on the same page with your front office. And the front office is also to blame for this to some degree. And there's more time to talk about this. But that's one of the things that I'm worried about is like, you can't extend any leash. So is there upside to moving on in season from a defensive coordinator? A lot of Bengals fans would argue, yes. I don't know if we're going to get into that conversation today. The merit to it to me, James, is that then you don't have the issue late in the season where they're like, oh, but they finish so strong in those last three games so let's keep them and that's where you've seen this ownership group keep coaches a little bit too long so many times in their history yeah i think that that's

Starting point is 00:16:33 that's my question now is all right how does this team in general respond like today they were playing for their their football lives this season and i don't think they responded with the the amount of nastiness that i wanted remember the nastiness part that I talked. Oh, they did that on the first offensive play. They got that penalty, but it was a really good hit. And then by the way, fine with it. I was fine with it. I get it. He could have been, but finally, finally we see something. And then it just, what was that when George Pickens is trotting down for 17 yards? Like, those are the things that annoy me the most. Like, that can't happen. And yet they do happen. And it happens all the time. And then you have the

Starting point is 00:17:20 coverage breakdowns where Calvin Austin is just, he's pretending he's going up against the University of Cincinnati that he's back in Memphis and just running free for a touchdown where no one's near him. I think the thing I want to see, and Joe Burrow mentioned this, is, and especially, I'm glad that he's aware of this, but it's something we're going to talk about more this week for sure. We will refer, and we're paying attention to how Joe and Jamar and the guys that are going to be here who knows how many more that is there are others but who knows how many more that is yeah it's like james brown orlando brown anyway so the brown twins no i'm just kidding all right end of west yeah um amari is it anyways there are guys but it doesn't feel great and so how you

Starting point is 00:18:12 respond to this it is something we're paying attention to and i do think how these players and coaches respond to this. I do think it matters. Now, that doesn't mean that if you beat a Dallas team that doesn't have Dak Prescott or you go beat a lifeless Tennessee team or you beat a Denver team or a Browns team at home that we should really change anything here. The bottom line is, is this team has underachieved to the most extreme degree I could have ever imagined this season. they have because they're 4 and 8 in joe burrows playing great and jemar chase is awesome in t higgins when he's been healthy and he's been healthy a decent amount not all the time but a decent amount has been awesome and trey hendrickson's been good and they stink this team stinks they're a bad football team doesn't mean they don't have good parts to them but they're a bad football team they're one in seven and one score games they're oh and four in games where they've scored Or they've, no, not 0 and 4, but they've scored 33 points or more in four losses. Yeah, 2 and 4.

Starting point is 00:19:25 They're like 33 points or more. They've lost four games scoring 33 or more. Like, that's crazy. They're the fourth team in NFL history to do that. So coaches. Yeah, sorry, I was saying 2 and 4. They've won two of those games, Raiders, Panthers. They lost 4.

Starting point is 00:19:41 So 2 and 4 in those games, yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so how do you get to 2 and 4 when you scored 33 plus? Remember when my magic number was 30? Every dayers do. It doesn't make sense. Or remember where it turned into 40 this year?

Starting point is 00:19:56 Yeah. But part of that is on coaching. And so I want there to be pressure. Everyone in the building right now, and I'm in the building that I'm talking about saying this, should be feeling pressure right now. That pressure should be felt. And we can elaborate more on that this week. But that's a must because there's no way they should be four and eight. and yet they are 4 and 8.

Starting point is 00:20:20 And so that's something that we're going to discuss. And we can put a bow on this Bengals Steelers game as the Bengals fought of the Steelers. Another one score loss will put a bow on it coming up next. This episode of Lock on Bengals is sponsored by FanDul America's number one sportsbook. Maybe you're done thinking about games this NFL season as a Bengals fan, but you still want to look ahead to the draft at this. time of year. Well, FanDul still has something for you if you're ready to look ahead to the draft with some of their early draft odds available. The number one overall pick currently favored to

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Starting point is 00:21:45 Pittsburgh and what is most likely the season finale as Jake makes a face. Well, you can do that with game time. It's going to make it really easy. And that's the point and the awesome part about game time is it's not just NFL games. It's NBA games. Maybe you're thinking about going to a concert, one of your favorite artists and it's in another city. Game time is going to make it so easy, so simple to get tickets to your favorite live events. They have all in pricing. They have panoramic seat views that show you exactly what it's going to look like when you sit down in that arena. in that stadium to watch your favorite event. So download the GameTime app,

Starting point is 00:22:18 creating an account, use code, locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, creating an account, redeem code, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-O-N-FL-N-FL-L-N-FL-L-N-FL-N-FL-E-L-L-TOL. A lot of tired narratives and things that we've heard and said all year, present again in this game. Joe Burrow finishes 28-38 for 309 and three touchdowns, plays a game where he's evading pressure, jump passing, touchdowns while he's getting hit,

Starting point is 00:22:49 and the Bengals lose. They score all the points and they lose. The stats are just crazy at this point. And Joe Burrow continuing to play well in losses is just crazy at this point. But a couple of stats have really stood out to me, James, these historical trends or things that have happened this season, Ben Albright with one of them. The Bengals have more losses when scoring 30 plus points this year. and it's really 33 plus points,

Starting point is 00:23:15 which I wonder how that would look, but 30 plus points this year is, they've lost four of those games, right? We've talked about that. The rest of the league combined this season when scoring 30 or more points has only lost three times. The Bengals have lost more games than the rest of the league combined this season

Starting point is 00:23:35 than 31 other teams when scoring 30 plus points. That's the first one. I'll let you react to that before I get to the next one. Yeah. So that's a couple of things. Part of that is coaching. A huge part of that is coaching. Massive part.

Starting point is 00:23:50 Well, because everyone's going to say just defense. Like, oh, it's just a defense. I think that's coaching. In general, I think there's in-game decisions, obviously the defensive coaching staff, but in-game decisions, how you're managing things. Like, it has to be. To screw it up that bad with that many points, there's a reason my, my, My marker, my goal every week was 30 because you get the 30 and usually you feel really darn good about your chances.

Starting point is 00:24:20 So, yeah, that doesn't surprise me because we've watched it. But it's also shocking to hear at the same time. Yeah. When you put it in juxtaposition to literally 31 other teams, it's crazy. The other one that got me here is from Doug Claussen. the Bengals tied for the most or have the most losses in these situations in NFL history now. One, today set a record for the most losses in a season when scoring 33 plus points, which maybe you say that's an arbitrary number.

Starting point is 00:24:54 Maybe you say 33 plus. Why are you picking 33 plus? Okay, well, let's go to 25 plus points. The Bengals have six losses with 25 plus points this year. That's tied for the most with any other team in NFL history. The Bengals have three losses with 34 plus points this year, which is tied for the most with any team ever. And two losses with 38 plus points this year,

Starting point is 00:25:18 which is tied for the most with any team ever. This team is doing unfathomable things to lose games in bizarre ways when their offense, and in this case they had to pick six, but their offense largely is putting up points. Yeah. that's that is crazy in the the 238 point losses by the way in division in your stadium and 40 41 38 for the Ravens week 5 44 38 today just brutal I mean those are to take those out

Starting point is 00:25:56 and flip them say the Bengals win those we're having an entirely it feels much much different at six and six, three wins in the division, everything is in front of you. All of the things Zach Taylor says that are cliche would still be true. Now not so much. I'm so probably ready to fire the defensive staff unless the defense is, you know, making the plays in those clutch moments that, like, I know we don't want to talk about it too much today,

Starting point is 00:26:23 but I'm ready to make the move now, like today, tomorrow, like whenever it is, because I don't have confidence they're going to do it at the end of the season. Yeah, I think there's, there's multiple, I don't anticipate that, by the way, happening, if it does. No, I don't either. But, no, but I do think there's some nuance to it, obviously. And so that's probably where we'll go on our next show for sure.

Starting point is 00:26:48 Yeah. The last set of numbers here I've got for you, I don't know if you want to reflect on the offense more in this game. I mean, Chase Brown was good in this game too. They had success in the running game early, all those things. But the Bengals, remember the one-score game narrative with Zach Taylor, that went away for a while because Bengals went to the Super Bowl. They went to the AFC championship game.

Starting point is 00:27:07 It went away in 21 and 22. And that's it. Last year, just kind of got a mulligan, you know, just because of Joe. But they still got that deck house last year. Yeah. And I'm worried about that big thing. Go ahead. This year, they're one in seven in one score games.

Starting point is 00:27:25 Yeah. They averaged 28.25 points in those one score games. They've scored 30. We talked about these. They scored 33 or more in four of them, three of those in division now, and lost all four one-score games where they scored 33 or more points. So not only are they scoring all these points and losing,

Starting point is 00:27:45 but they're scoring all these points and losing in one-score games. And today didn't need to be a one-score game. Like you can call it a garbage time touchdown or whatever, but they had an on-side kick or like a few seconds on the clock away from having a chance at the end. By the way, I actually should have brought this up probably 20 minutes ago. it's third down. You're down six. Justin Fields just when you.

Starting point is 00:28:09 Russell Wilson just had his third 400 plus yard passing game of his life or of his NFL career. Not of his life, of his NFL career. They took him out. You think that they're throwing it with Justin Fields? How is no one on him? It is, it was unbelievable. And by the way, if you're going to be that undisciplined, then accept the holding penalty and make it second at long.

Starting point is 00:28:36 Yeah. But, but, but fine. But on third down, your guys better be ready to go and make the play when Justin Fields is on the field. Yeah. Like, it'd be one thing if it was a mistackle and someone was in position, how is no one there? And I don't care if it was on Josh. I don't care. The coach that's on coaching, you've got to be more disciplined.

Starting point is 00:28:59 That just sums up this year how they lose critical. moments where you can really pull victory from defeat. You get a stop there. You get the ball back. You're giving it to Joe with over 90 seconds. I like my chances. I like my chances there always. Might not always work, but I like it always. You're at home. He's rolling. And you can't get to tackle. Like, think about that. Like, as far out of it as they felt like they were. Just make that stupid little silly play that discipline teams do. And that is your argument, by the way, and I think anyone's argument. You want to talk about the coaching staff, anyone on it, certainly on defense,

Starting point is 00:29:37 a play like that shows it. That is the insane to me that they weren't in position to make that play. Yeah, and that's talking about just a single play out of a game. There are many examples of this throughout the season. You could talk about all the, like I've talked about, the Mike White stuff early in the game, when everything they were trying to do defensively was just getting picked apart by the Steelers, blitzing into screens, giving up, checkdowns,

Starting point is 00:30:00 Sanadji Harris over the middle of the field. that turned into chung plays, just like we saw against the Mike White Jets that year. And it's just that's just a game. Go through the season, lots of examples. And that's not even talking about the development issues or not being on the same page as a front office on certain players that we've seen from them over the last few years as well. They obviously haven't retained a couple of players there. They've spent nine draft picks out of their last 10 in the first three rounds on defensive players. I guess before Jermaine Burton this year.

Starting point is 00:30:37 I mean, there's like nothing to show for it. There's a development problem too. And that's not even, you can point to these good reasons without even getting to development is why I bring that up. The bottom line is to me, James, major changes needed. For those watching on YouTube, you see this on the background. Major changes are needed for this team to be a serious football team. For sure. You have to hope that's all you can do that they find a way to make those changes.

Starting point is 00:31:02 We'll talk about some of those changes. they could be, what they should be. As we go through this season, as we shift into evaluation mode, as we talk about what this Bengals team can accomplish or try to figure out over their last few games of the season, James? You got something? Emmanuel Forbes, claim him. He can join your group of guys who can't tackle.

Starting point is 00:31:23 Why not at this point? No, claim him. He's got good ball skills. Maybe he can make a player too. Never know. He did at one point. That's going to do it for. for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast.

Starting point is 00:31:36 Until next time, thanks for listening and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Cincinnati Bengals season effectively ends with another pathetic defensive showing

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