Hi, get everybody.

I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast.

The Prostrated edition as the Bengals squander a late lead and lose by a point to the New York Jets thirty nine to thirty eight.

Coming up, radio replace and locker room comments.

Then, in this week's fun Facts Conversation, you'll get to know second round draft pick Demetrius Knight.

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It's the greatest thing, sayings.

The Plot Thickens.

Turner Classic Movies has a podcast called The Plot Thickens where they do deep dives into movies and TV shows and the people who make them.

There have been six seasons so far, and I just recently became aware of season three, about the life of Lucy O Ball.

I'm from Jamestown, New York, a small town south of Buffalo that happens to be Lucy's hometown, and it's the home of the Lucy Desi Museum.

Yes, that's a real thing.

I probably would not have started listening to the podcast if not for my hometown connection, but I highly recommend it regardless of where you're from.

The podcast is extremely well done and filled with amazing nuggets.

For example, the TV shows Mission Impossible and Star Trek might have never been made if not for Lucy's insistence as the head of a production studio.

So if you're looking for a good podcast other than this one, of course, check out the plot Thickens season three.

You'll love Lucy.

Now, let's get to the radio replays from Sunday's loss to the Jets.

After scoring a season high thirty three points last week, Joe Flacco and the Bengals top that by scoring on six of their first eight drives.

First down in goal inches away from the end zone.

Joe Flacco is under center sample gets right behind him for.

A tush push touchdown Bengals as Joe Flacco runs it in from inches away and give Cincinnati on nine to nothing lead.

Pending the extra points second and two from the forty four of the Jets, the Bengals have a ten to three lead.

Here in the second quarter, Flacco fakes a toss to the left, bootlegs right, throws it high and deep.

T Higgins catches, have the.

Five runs into the end zone, touchdown Bengals.

A beautiful rainbow downfield by Joe Flacco.

Higgins with the catch, He hands the ball to a spectator and the Bengals have their second touchdown of the day.

Flaco waits for a shotgun snap, catches the ball's shoulder high back to throw passes over the middle, Caught on the run, Chase Brown to the five, fighting for the goal line.

He's in touchdown Bengals.

Flacco accounting for his third touchdown of the first half.

Two throwing, one rushing, and the Bengals are up by thirteen for the pat coming out, here's a handoff to samajp Ryan runs up the middle inside the twenty, racing to the fifteen ten fe Pilon touchdown.

Sama jp Ryan and the Bengals push the lead back to two scores.

They're up by fourteen with a pat coming up a thirty two yard run for samajp Rye.

Second and goal from the one, Flaco and the gun back at the sixth Chase Brown off his right eight hip.

Flaco hands it off.

Chase Brown lowers the patshit into the end zone, touchdown Bengals.

The Bengals were up by ten at the end of the first quarter, by eleven at halftime, and by fifteen going to the fourth.

They were up by fourteen points with less than eight minutes to go, But after stopping the Jets on their first two drives of the day, the Bengals defense was only able to force one punt the remainder of the game, and New York took its first lead all day with less than two minutes to go.

First and goal from the four fields under center, Breese Hall behind him.

It's a toss sweep to the right.

Breese Hall looking to throw pump fakes throws into the end zone and it is caught by Mason Taylor for a tying touchdown and a pat can give the Jets the lead.

Taylor going up and over DJ Turner to catch that throw from running back Brecee Hall.

The Bengals still had a chance to pull it out, as they got the ball at their own twenty five with one forty eight to go.

A seven yard pass to Jamar Chase and a twelve yard run by Chase Brown quickly moved the ball to the forty four.

The Bengals were roughly twenty yards away from very makeable field goal range for Evan McPherson, but an incomplete pass to andre Yosi Vash, a one yard run by samaj p Erin, and an incomplete pass to Jamar Chase made it fourth and nine at their own forty five with thirty two seconds to go.

Bigans out wide to the right, Chase out to the left, Flacco back to throw.

The protection is good, he throws over the middle incomplete intended for Yosi Vash, and it would have been short of the first down anyway.

The Bengals fail and the Jets are celebrating with twenty seven seconds to go as the fans begin streaming toward the exits.

The Jets got their first win of the year, thirty nine to thirty eight, dropping the Bengals to three and five.

Here's Zach Taylor after a bitterly disappointing loss.

Not acceptable humbling for us.

Certainly never got a chance to really break that game open, like like we felt like we were capable of and you know, two opportunities there at the end of the game to close it out on offense and defensively to get guys on the ground and tackling wasn't good enough.

So we're not gonna look at anything and say anything was good enough after that loss and uh, humbling, and and we're gonna have to really dig deep to bounce back next week.

Why.

I don't know.

I mean, I I wish I had that reason for you.

You know, it's just someone's got to set them make a play.

Someone's got to make a play either way, just to separate that game for us.

Great turnover, get it on the ground, a third down win, offensively, explosive play in the game.

It just never happened for us.

When the defense started to face a burs feed, you feel like it's snowballed on that group.

Yeah, we just need somebody to rise up and make a play.

Someone just just hold the ford down, you know.

And and I didn't see enough of that today.

You feel like you've got to kind of improve being tangibles there and your first situations like that.

I think someone needs to step up and lead the group.

That's what I'm waiting to see someone step up and lead the group and and take some accountability over there and and get this thing going the right way.

From rush defense wise, why do you think they were able to gild it so much?

They got a lot of momentum.

I mean it's uh, they were a dangerous team that way.

That was certainly a strength of theirs, you know, with their offensive line, and so again we just we weren't good enough, you know, I don't know how many explosives.

It felt like, it felt like there was a decent amount of explosives there, so.

Very better both captain and get capitalized.

And also in draft picks on the defensive line out disappointing of the pass rush.

Yeah, we need we need somebody to step up and win some one on ones.

Where is loss pat Well, I'm not into ranking losses.

I'm into being frustrated that we lost this game, you know.

And it's uh, it was right there for us to grab and create some momentum for ourselves and and we just we missed the opportunity, quite simple.

And uh, you gotta give credit to the Jets man.

They we had them down multiple times, big scores, and and we just never delivered that knockout below and they just kept hanging in there, and they made play after play after play and their confidence rose and so then they were able to get that win.

And we saw this on tape.

We saw the five to one score games, we saw end of games.

They had their opportunities and they just hadn't been able to capitalize them yet.

And here we are worth the team that they got it against.

It's unfortunate the friends.

Game of things.

What you'll want accomplish the season now, how much.

Wo it's still on the table, It's still a long season.

You know, this is gonna be a difficult season for a lot of teams, and so you just got to be in the thick of it and give yourself an opportunity.

This is one that we had right in our grasp, and that's the disappointing part about it.

We were right there, we had this and so anytime you got a game like that that you can do and we got to get away from us.

Frustrating it certainly was, and while the offense got stopped on their final two drives, thirty eight points should have been enough against the team that was averaging about eighteen and a half going into the game.

Joe Flacco is terrific again, throwing for two hundred and twenty three yards with two touchdowns, no picks, and a passer rating of one hundred point five, and after rushing for a season high one hundred and forty two yards against Pittsburgh last week, the Bengals were even better against the Jets, going for one hundred and eighty one yards on the ground and averaging seven point nine per carry.

Here are a few of Flacco's most interesting comments from his postgame news conference.

I mean, listen, you know this league is most of the time it's going to come down to those last you know, that last minute or two and you know, obviously we had a drive before that two minute where if we go put points on the board, then it's a different game, and we just weren't able to do it.

I mean, we went down and scored, and then they scored, and we got the ball in our ot mindset was go down to score again, and we did it.

I mean, I don't think there was any I don't think there was any stepping off the gas.

I really don't.

Maybe we just didn't execute.

I would assume we just didn't execute as well as maybe we wanted to on some of those on those last six, seven eight plays.

You know, how do you keep it from evolving into we're doing our part and they're not doing theirs.

I think everybody, I think that slips into people's heads, you know, like it's hard not to, and I think it more slips into the gut decides heads.

Who's who feels like they're not necessarily, you know, living up to their standard.

But this is a team sport, and we're all in this together.

It's not offense defense special teams.

I mean, at the end of like, they're out there doing their job, but we are one.

We feel this as one.

So I think it's hard to maybe not be in your head when when maybe you're that side of the ball for a given stretch.

But man, like I always try to tell people like, I'm not I'm so consumed with doing my job, and everybody should be so consumed with doing their job that they're not worried about what other guys are doing.

And how guys you know, they put the binders on and go do your job.

And I think when everybody can do that, that's when you that's when you get out of those things.

There's no judging your brothers for not playing up to their expectations, their support and trying to give those guys confidence, because that's what it is.

A lot of times, you know you need to play this game with confidence.

And if you lose a little bit of that because you think your brothers are kind of looking at you like, oh, come on, like can't you just do this?

That's not a good feeling to have.

And hopefully we can all get across that that's not how we should be feeling towards our teammates.

Unfortunately, with an opportunity to even the record at four and four at home against an oh and sevent team, the Bengals let it slip through their fingers.

Here's Ted Carris.

Do you feeling collectively as a group offense defense?

Maybe you guys let up emotionally psychologically when you guys were up thirty one sixteen thirty eight to twenty four.

I know I didn't.

I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't relax till it's triple zeros, and obviously it's a three hour fight that we lost.

It's a pretty evident, I mean, Zach said postgame he needs someone to step up.

It's pretty clear on defense the leadership is lacking, and that's something that even the head coach is searching for.

You as the captain year in a year out, is there any way that you can help.

I know you don't play defense, but you're one of the biggest leaders on this team, Like, how how can you help fill that void on defense?

If you can?

I mean, I can be a leader for the team.

I'm not out there with the eleven guys on defense, So you know, I'm not.

Just gonna blame one thing.

We can't just blame defensive leadership.

We gotta look at a lot of different things.

Yeah, let the let the Jets come in and.

Be say horrendous, how do you dig yourself out of this?

Nice?

You guys.

You guys love asking me that one same way I always do.

Just coming to work tomorrow, coming to work Wednesday.

We've got a football game to play.

So I'm not gonna get quoted with a cliche this week.

So but we got we got the Bears coming into town, so let's go.

It seemed like the offensive line, you know, muscles, he had almost two hundred yards rushing.

She might be had at the Bobe game.

And then what you wanted to do?

It looked like there's a line.

I didn't score forty, So doesn't mean.

This loss change the outlook upon the season for you guys.

I mean maybe you can go through the numbers.

I don't know.

We're gonna we got the Bears coming to time, so we're gonna all summack this one for a night and uh get ready for a big week.

I mean, jeez, we gotta go.

The defense has given up a bunch of points this year, but in several games there were extranuating circumstances.

Five turnovers and two defensive scores in the Minnesota game, too many three and outs in the Denver game, leaving the defense on the field at high altitude for nearly forty minutes.

But there was nothing like that against the Jets.

The defense surrendered five hundred and two yards and it was nearly an even split.

Two point fifty four rushing two forty eight passing.

Here are safe these Jordan's battle and Geno Stell.

Anytime we give up thirty nine points in the game, you know, you feel like it's on us, you know, especially if be loser.

You know, even if we want it, it's still on us.

And that's just the you know, we got the attitude we have to have as a defense, you know, and we let up thirty nine points.

We should be mad, you know, should be upset.

You know, we should be should have come back hungrier.

So hopefully that's a that's a life lesson.

We let it, let it blow by, and then be want to know next week.

The offense at their job today, we can't say nothing about that.

I mean, they put up almost forty points.

Just so you know, there's a defense.

We definitely got to step up and do better.

That's all this, I mean, that's how the NFL is, you know.

Uh, you know, every team's good.

You know, we gotta come very ready to play, you know, every week.

You know, obviously just lost a lot of close games, and we knew they were a tough team.

We knew we couldn't slouch, and we did that and we got we lost.

So I mean, like I said earlier, it's twenty four rules.

We gotta focus on the Bears.

We all got to step up.

It's not one person, it's not two people.

Whoever it is, everyone gotta step up.

Whoever's on the field got to step up.

I put myself in there included, so you know, at the end of the day, we gotta st get the ball back to the office, and we all got to do our job.

Whoever your job is on that starr and play whatever the call is is, do your job.

They'll try to bounce back next Sunday at home against the Bears, who are four and three after thirty to sixteen loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who did not have Lamar Jackson.

In that game.

The Ravens ran for one hundred and seventy seven yards in the win.

The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans.

Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.

Normally, this would be the time for the radio Guy's recap, But as you probably know, Dave Lapham was inducted into the Bengals Ring of Honor at halftime and had numerous friends and family members in town for the weekend.

So we'll put that segment on the back burner for a week and return with a postgame conversation with lap following next week's game against the Bears.

Now time for this week's fun fact segment, as we get to know the person under the pads.

Time for some fun facts with linebacker Demetrius Knight from Locust Grove, Georgia, less than an hour away from Atlanta.

Your jersey was retired last week.

Describe getting that news and going home for the ceremony.

Yeah, it was a true blessing just to just to be in that moment.

It's not every day you get to retire an old high school, high school jersey number.

You kind of think you're for your forguiden sometimes when you when you're you're off and doing other things.

But just having that to be recognized as is nothing but God.

You know, nothing, nothing but Jesus.

And that's what we stand on over there as strong Christian schools.

So glad to see that they're still doing their thing in all the sports categories.

But also good to see that, you know, they'll they'll leave a bit, a little bit of my legacy to see around.

So as my kids continue to grow, that'll be something I can, you know, rubbing their faces every once in a while as there has they're grown up.

Did your childhood revolve around sports or were you involved in a variety of activities.

It was pretty much valled around sports.

But Mom always made sure that we had had, you know, our minds opened.

She didn't want us to just solely focus on sports, so we were always doing uh, you know, little plays and musicals and and things like that, making sure we volunteer doing chorus and things like that.

It wasn't the what was the favorite thing to do, but uh as you got to get a couple of friends in there, you end up making.

It funs ended up working out.

Mother knows best.

I'm sure it enriched your childhood.

According to your bio Demitrius, you once caused a thirty minute delay in a basketball game by breaking the rim on a slam dunk, the rim the backboard.

What exactly happened.

It ended up being the rim I went up to try to flush it with two hands, and uh went in and out and I, I guess I was a little too heavy for that rim.

So it ended up giving way and was bent for good good thirty minutes.

And yeah, they had to go find another rim and you know, get the crews and nuts and boats to get it all off.

And I think we checked out pretty much after day.

It's a Tuesday night of late nights to it had homework to be done, so it was it was a long night.

You're a linebacker now, but you were a four year starting quarterback in high school.

Give me a comp what college or NFL quarterback were you most like.

I was definitely most like Cam Newton.

I was trying to emulate him and everything he did.

And then started to watch more college guys, started to watch Jalen Hurts, just knowing that I was a bigger type of quarterback and knowing that those are bigger quarterbacks, knowing that they can run.

But it also, you know, not just being the run, of also being able to, you know, be a lethal in the past game.

So as I continued to grow in my high school career, would you know, put the run first menality behind and you know, passed first and then run.

Second, we're chatting with Demetrius Knight.

Were you heavily recruited out of high school?

No, sir, not very much.

Tennessee Tech was pretty much the only offer I had going into my junior year and whatnot.

And I would go to a camp where Paul Johnson was still the head coach at Georgia Tech, and he's like, I don't I don't understand how you don't have more offers.

I'm going to give you a first one, and that they pretty much sold it for us.

So he made the offer, you chose Georgia Tech, and then he left before you got there.

How difficult was that for you?

It was pretty pretty difficult, just because I didn't know what I was going to get.

I was already getting comfortable with the former coaching staff and him.

Of course, that's that's this line.

That's a business decision that he and his family had to make.

And I didn't hate him or anything for that.

That's just just just the way life goes.

So of course I still wanted to be close to my mom and sister, uh not wanted to be too far away from them and to do places we were sharing.

So I was like of course, I don't know what the situation will be.

Yeah, I know there's there might be a possibility and now probably won't be quarterback, just because I know it's a new new group coming in.

But I at least figured it's it'd still be something on the offense.

Uh.

That was the complete opposite of the spectrum.

But uh and ended up working out for the best.

What was your reaction when they said, Demetrius, you're a linebacker?

Uh?

Pretty much?

Uh, world went upside down.

Uh.

I didn't know what to think.

It was kind of unreal, and I just kind of went with it for a couple of weeks, thinking, oh, they're just they'll see I'm no good at this linebacker thing, and moved me back to to the offense side of the ball and that quarterback And uh, now, how how God hasn't played?

God has it playing all the time.

Of course, you had to go through trials and tribulation and perseverance and you end up here in the in the NFL as a linebacker.

While you were in college, you got married and became a dad.

What your wife's name and how did you two meet.

My wife's name is gen C.

Gen C Knights, she is.

She's also from Lucas Grove and we met.

We went on a mission trip together my junior year, her sophomore year.

But the whole funny thing is, even though we spent a week out in Haiti doing the Laura's work, we did not say a word to each other the entire trip.

I remember sitting at her table with her and her friends and I didn't say a word.

And then COVID would happened and send send me home from campus, and she's finishing up her her senior year, and you know, two boy people at home that happened to remember each other and the rest of the history.

After four years at Georgia Tech, you transferred to Charlotte and had a breakout season, earning first team All Conference honors.

How important was that season and getting you to.

Where you are now?

Yeah, it was a lot.

It was very good for me just because it showed that I could play the lineback position.

Of course, Georgia Tech it was ups and downs, his and lows, and that made me the player who I was going into that situation not knowing who was going to be the coach, because they're getting it, they ever getting a new coach ended up getting coach coach Posy coach Biff and him coming in was was a great start just because everybody got to start from ground zero.

There were no politics involved.

It was come in and you know, earn a spot, and that's that's all I wanted.

I didn't.

I wanted everybody to be on on ground zero and if someone out out, you know, out plays me for the spot, then they just outplayed me.

But I wanted to have a fair shot and made sure that I made every rep count.

There after great season of Charlotte, you still had one year of eligibility left.

This is the ni l era.

You had a wife and a baby at home.

Did you look for the best financial offer you could find?

I did?

Uh, of course that was there.

There were other schools that I was gonna take visits to, but you know, when you when you have a wife, it ends up being you know, happy wife, happy life.

And we're already in North Carolina.

South Carolina was you know, an hour and some chains away, and you know we've got to pack up a third floor apartment and take it somewhere.

And she's like, yeah, I don't, I don't plan on going anywhere far, so uh, South Carolina might be as far as I'm willing to go because that's not bad of a drive.

But it's also close to family, so you know, you know, that's that's perfect to me.

Why not.

So it ended up bringing out very well for us.

We learned after the draft that you were a door dash driver in college to bring in a few extra bucks for your family even after games that you played in correct.

Absolutely, yeah, that's uh not what you hear every every day.

That not pretty much heard of.

I'm sure they're There are probably players at other smaller schools that do the same thing.

But being at a school like Charlotte, there were opportunities where got to make them count.

And DoorDash delivered that opportunity to make account where you know, we didn't have to scrounge and I didn't have to go apply for different jobs.

I had chick Flare or so, which I was definitely trying.

I'm applying left and right to you know, deliver for Amazon.

I couldn't get through with them.

But.

It ended up working out for the best.

DoorDash was it was quick and easy and you just get on there and right away you start making deliveries and luckily for me where you know, you live on a college campus.

You know, college kids love to eat, so that makes makes it pretty quick and easy to bring in a quick.

But yeah, I've got a student in college and I see those door dash bills, so you're absolutely right about that.

We're visiting the Demetrius Night.

I'm a sucker for an emotional call from a team to a player during the NFL Draft, and you got choked up when the Bengals called you.

Can you articulate the emotions that you were feeling?

Yeah, just just everything that my family and I had been through, wife and I had been through and kids, just knowing where we were and how unsure we were going from from Tech to Charlotte and it's like, okay, well you don't really hear about people coming out of Charlotte unless you you know, you're Alex high Smith, who's you know, doing his thing over in Pittsburgh and you know, I'm I can I make my mark here and ended up doing that, and uh, situations changed, and you know, like when life gets going, it gets going.

But uh that's.

When again you learn how to persevere, lean on the fade, lean on the Lord, lean on Jesus, and uh, and and here we are.

It's uh, it's never, it's never the end.

It's only just one chapter, finishing and and and onto the next.

You started the season opener in Cleveland.

It's your NFL debut.

You made tackles on the first play, second play, sixth play, eighth play, ninth play, tenth play, and eleventh play.

Seven tackles on your first eleven NFL snaps.

Did you realize while it was happening how crazy that was?

I did not, just at that moment.

I was once I run back through that tunnel and uh, I taking the end zone and pray one more time.

I'm pretty much suited up as a warrior at that point and ready to play.

So at that moment, I'm just locked in and you know, putting, putting the ball down anywhere, just making tackles, and you know, I tell my wife or tell my family, you know, when I when I'm out there on that field, I just kind of go into that that that state a state of mind where I'm not the smiley, friendly guy out there anymore.

I'm I'm I'm very lucked in, very competitive, and I think you know that's what that's what you need in the linebacker these days.

All right, a few wild card topics now for Demetrius Knight.

Who is your all time favorite athlete in any sport?

Bright Chris Fiano Ronaldo?

Uh, soccer fan because of my wife and my kids.

But that's my wife's favorite watching his game, he's pretty good.

It's between him and you know line on MESSI those guys getting they can get you up on your fee, and of course it's always righty at those games, so definite.

Definitely those guys who you know, make a lot of money doing it, So definitely those guys.

Have you checked out an FC Cincinnati match yet?

We get them on TV, so we're on TV.

We always tune in.

We haven't got to go to one yet just because of the busy schedule, but if we can get around to them, we definitely plan on being there.

You shared with me that you hope to be a movie producer someday.

How long have you been interested in the making of movies.

I've been interested in that since I was at Georgia Tech.

That's that kind of supports is why I got the degree that I got there.

Just so once football is done, you know, I won't be one of those guys just lingering around not knowing what I want to do.

I know once football is done, that's that's exactly what I want to do.

And no matter what that has to start from, I have to put together movie sets first and work my way up to that road.

I'll do it just because I believe all that's fun.

It all works together, just like football all works together.

Of guys doing there, they're one eleven.

It's the same thing with movie producing to make you know, a masterpiece essentially.

All right, final fun fact for Demetrius Knight, and this one's kind of deep.

If you could meet anybody in history, living or deceased, who would that person be?

I had to be Jesus himself.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall just to hear him speak, and you know, just to be in the room and be in the areas watching them do what he does, you know, washing them do the the miracles that only he can do.

That that would that would have to be number one.

And then if I, if I had to, number two had to be Noah when you know he told told them to build the arc, because I can't imagine He's all right, I'll build a big old boat, and you know, just to ask him about how did he persevere, you know, making making a big old boat going through adversity being laughed at by people around saying oh, it's never run to rain and then it until it happens.

So uh, they definitely have to be Jesus and a good old.

No excellent answers.

I appreciate your time, best of Fleck the rest of the year.

Yes, sir, appreciate you.

That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast brought to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals Official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans.

Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.

If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us.

I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.