I get everybody on dan Board and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth podcast The Rocky Mountain.

We addition as the Bengals head to Colorado for a Monday Night matchup with the Denver Broncos.

This week's game is on ESPN and I'll talk to the voice of Monday Night Football, Joe Buck.

My one on one player interview is with Jake Browning as we discuss the challenging life of a backup quarterback.

And in our nother faux segment, we'll get the inside scoop on the one in two Broncos from beat writer Nick Cosmider.

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It's the greatest thing since Rudy Johnson, the former Bengals running back, passed away this week at the age of forty five.

I was working in local TV when Rudy played for Cincinnati, and I think you can make a strong case that he is the most underrated player in team history prior to this week.

If you asked one hundred Bengals fans who holds the team record for rushing yards in a season, I think the overwhelming majority would have said Corey Dillon.

And if they were told that was incorrect, and I guess again, I suspect their next choice would have been Joe Mixon or James Brooks.

The correct answer, of course, is Rudy Johnson, who set the team record with four hundred and fifty eight rushing yards in two thousand and five.

That was four yards more than the team record he had set one year earlier, so Rudy actually has the top two spots in the record book.

He also holds the team record for carries in a game with a mind boggling forty three.

That's tied for second most in NFL history, behind Washington's Jamie Morris, who ran the ball forty five times in a loss to the Bengals in nineteen ninety eight.

In the words of team president Mike Brown, quote, Rudy was a fine person and an excellent running back.

He was dependable and productive as a player, and very popular among his teammates.

Everyone liked him and saw him as a dear friend.

We are deeply saddened by his passing.

Now, let's get to my first guest.

Who will be in the National TV booth on Monday night in Denver.

It's the Bengals and Broncos on Monday Night Football.

And it is great to catch up with a guy I first met when we were broadcasting minor league baseball games many many years ago.

ESPN's Joe Buck.

Joe, you were behind the mic two years ago for Jake Browning's second NFL start.

I call it the Jake Browning Game.

He completed more than eighty six percent of his passes in an upset win in Jacksonville.

What do you remember about that night?

Yeah, I mean, it's like the Michael Jordan game, the Flu game.

It just gets a new name.

Troy and I, I don't know.

Halfway through that thing, we're like, damn, this guy's good.

Like he looked fantastic, and there have been It wasn't just that.

I mean there have been other games and other moments.

I know, you guys are coming off a bad one at Minnesota, but you're two and one and you want to flush it.

But yeah, I think there's a very basic scale that you can judge these guys on, and it comes down to can they play or can they not play?

And I think we both walked out of the booth that night like this guy can play.

He's got something to him.

There's something different about him than the typical guy coming in who's basically been standing there holding the clipboard and who I'm sure probably hopes is not going to come in.

I felt like he was confident.

He looked like the team was his.

I think that's another scale too, It's like, does it look like the guys around him are excited to play with and for him?

And I think the answer was a resounding yes in that game.

And I'm fully expecting he and they to come out and look a lot different than they did in Minneapolis when we all get to Denver.

It was a rough game last week.

Did it change your view of the Bengals at all?

The current Bengals the Bengals as they are now.

No, I.

Think this is a team that can definitely hang in there.

They can not only survive punches, but deliver them.

Troy and I are both and I don't want to speak for him, but I know he would say the same if he were on here and I wasn't.

He and I are both big Zach Taylor fans.

We had you guys in the preseason that game against the Commanders, and both when Zach hung up on our zoom call, we're both like, you know, we've talked to him a bunch of times, but we had a blast with him.

You can tell he's so smart, he's aware of every facet of that team, and we both hung up going.

We really liked that guy, and so it's easy to root for somebody like Zach.

The biggest fan of Joe Burrows in media is Troy because I think, even though he may or may not admit it, I think Joe reminds Troy of Troy and the way he played the position and the kind of you know, take no prisoners gunslinger confident.

I feel that, and so every time we do a game when Joe's in it and I'm like, there he is, Troy, there's your favorite player.

And and you know, every time we hang up with Joe Burrow, it's like, well, Joe, you know, we're big fans of yours.

That's kind of how we end every conference caller zoom call with with Joe Burrow.

So yeah, I feel like there's the shell there and within that, within that casing, there's room there for Jake Browning to do some good things.

There's obviously a ton of talent around him, and this team can win with Jake Browning and hopefully, you know, I'm not telling you anything you don't hope for every night before the end of the year Joe Burrow comes back.

Are you and Troy flabbergasted by just how rotten Joe Burrow's injury luck has been.

It's just a as a football fan.

For you don't have to be a Bengals fan or Joe Burrow fan.

As a football fan, it's got a crush you.

I mean, I can't imagine what it's like for Bengals fans.

I can't imagine what it's like for people who have Joe Burrow on their fantasy team.

But beyond that, I just think he makes the league better.

He makes the league more interesting.

Everybody they play, It's like, Okay, Joe Burrow's on TV tonight or today, I want to watch that game.

Because you don't have to be Troy Aikman.

You know, you can be just a casual fan and go, Okay, that guy looks different.

He's tough, and by the way, that should never be in question.

These these are legitimate, big time injuries.

He doesn't complain about injuries.

I don't feel like he ever gives himself kind of that built in excuse.

And you and I both met many athletes in the sports that we've covered that kind of always have that in the back, like, ah, I'm not really feeling that good.

I'm you know, in the case of Burrow, the wrist is he never does He never does that.

It's it's I'm good enough, I'm ready to go play.

So there's never a question of any of that stuff.

But yeah, I think the casual fan has to be mildly heartbroken that Joe Burrow is not on the field on Monday night or any Sunday or any Thursday.

Joe, you noted it.

The Bengals are still two and one.

They're tied for first in the AFC North.

What are some of the things you think they'll need to do to stay in the hunt until Joe hopefully returns sometime in December.

Well, I mean, obviously, and then don't fumble five times and lose three and throw two interceptions and pick sixes and fumble's return for touch.

Don't do any of that.

That would be a good place to start.

But I think find a running game.

I mean, the running game has been frustrating to this point.

Chase Brown is a really talented running back.

We left that preseason game I kind of I drafted on my fantasy team TAJ and kind of stashed him on the bench, thinking, you know, maybe by the end of the year, this guy between the tackles is going to be somebody that I may want to start.

Jury's out on that, But I think the ground game and figuring out a way to open up some holes.

I don't care if you're Joe Burrow, Joe Montana, Joe Namath or name him.

If you can't run the ball, good luck.

And we just did the game on Monday night with Jared Goff and with Lamar Jackson.

I mean, yes, those are two dynamic quarterbacks.

But Lamar's got Derrick Henry, it can run it himself.

And Jared Goff's got the best combination in the backfield easily in the NFL with his two running backs, and that's why he's so good off play action.

So you know, if you want safeties and linebackers to bite and come up and leave room behind him so that there's room for the great Jamar Chase and T Higgins and Mike Kasicki and everybody else to get behind him, and Browning or anybody else to find him find a running game and that can be the cure to what ails you.

Jill.

Let's talk about this week's opponent, the Denver Broncos.

They're one and two, but they've had the lead in the fourth quarter in all three games.

They lost the last two on walkoff field goals.

How do you viewed Denver and some of their strengths heading into this game against Cincinnati.

Well, everybody there, I mean, if you read the clips, and I read them every day, the Denver Broncos, according to their sports writers, are the worst team ever assembled.

So their defense is very good.

They've got an outstanding pass rush, they've got the reigning defensive Player of the Year in Patzertan, you know, as close to a shutdown corner as you can get in the NFL.

But offensively Bononix, they're calling a sophomore slump now.

They're talking about his footwork, and he's got happy feed and you know, on and on and on.

I think we all over and me included, we all over act to three weeks of an NFL season.

I think a lot can change between now and the end of the year.

And I believe Denver's a good team.

I believe they've got a really good head coach.

I believe they've got a good young quarterback.

He's getting picked on right now in the Denver media.

He missed him open throws last week and that's going to happen.

And he's still growing and learning.

He's in great hands.

They're running games a little bit better than Cincinnati's to this point.

They've got Courtland Sutton, who's a number one receiver.

They've got some good twos and threes behind him.

There's a lot to like, but that's not a team that's playing well either.

And like you said, they're one and two.

You can make an easy case they should be three and zero.

They could be oning three.

I mean, they have not dominated anybody or been dominated by anybody yet, so I think it's a good matchup.

I think it's a pretty evenly split matchup as far as I'm concerned going into the game.

But they've got a lot of talent.

They've got a coach that'll figure out ways to beat the Cincinnati defense.

That's what he does.

Sean Payton sits up at night figuring out ways to beat defenses, and I'm sure he'll be doing it for Monday night, so I'm looking forward to it.

Joe, what's your Sunday routine?

Do you watch the best game of the day?

Do you go red zone?

Do you watch the team that you're going to have the next week?

What do you do on a typical Sunday.

It's gonna make every football fan sick, but we kind of create our own little sports bar without the alcohol.

We sit in a conference room in our hotel.

We have multiple TVs that get trucked in and these poor people that have to put them together and set them up every week.

I watch him at the end of our Monday morning meeting, just lugging all this junk down back into the lobby and out of the door.

But yeah, we for lack of a better better way to describe it, it's our own red zone.

We've got, you know, two big monitors.

There's four boxes on each and we can kind of zoom in on a game we want to watch.

We don't have handsome yelling at us, but we've got a bunch of people in there.

You know, if something catches, I'm in there looking at my board.

I'm doing my work, I'm putting stuff on my board, I'm getting ready for the game.

And it's like look up, kind of survey it, look down, do it will work?

Look up?

And then when something happens, it's just good for everybody to be together and to watch it all together to talk about it.

It just takes a little bit of the guess work on what we're going to talk about with regard to the rest of the league when Monday night comes, because we're all there together watching it, and I kind of know where Troy's head is on Dallas or Green Bay or you know, right on down the line, and he knows where mine is.

And you know, if I've got a question something crosses my mind, or I'm doing my work, and it's you know, when's the last time player X did this.

I've got two stat guys or research people sitting there and I can just say it out loud.

The answer comes magically to me.

It's a pretty darn good setup.

That does sound pretty good.

Last thing for Joe Buck, You and Troy have had a great partnership for years and years, but it just sounds like you're having such a ball on ESPN.

Is it the primetime game?

Is that the standalone game?

Is there something about Monday that's just brought out the best and YouTube guys together?

You know, I think, without going into it too much because it's boring for everybody else, but when Fox had the Thursday game and the Sunday games, and we were doing Thursday Sunday, then Sunday than Thursday Sunday, so I think it forced us to be a little bit more run and gone and not so zeroed in on every detail of every game, which makes you pull back and have a bigger view of everything, which I think leads to more room for personality and fun.

And I think then we tap into what we've built over two twenty four years, which is, you know, a good relationship a lot of respect.

Knowing where the other person's coming from.

I know what's gonna make him laugh.

He knows what's gonna make me laugh.

And if I can get him to laugh, he's a very intense dude.

If I can get him to laugh during the course of the broadcast, I think it makes for a better listen.

I think it makes him loosen up and we're in a better spot.

So yeah, I think.

I think what happened during those years we did it for four years, maybe change the way we prepare and then I think ultimately change the way we interact when we're on TV.

Joe, this has been great.

Look forward to seeing you in Denver, and thanks so much for joining us on this segment.

All right, buddy, get to see it.

In the last two times the Bengals played on Monday Night Football with a backup quarterback starting the game, they won, there was the Jake Browning game in Jacksonville that I discussed with Joe Buck And if you go back to twenty twenty, the two ten and one Bengals beat the eleven and two Pittsburgh Steelers twenty seven to seventeen with Ryan Finley at quarterback.

The Bengals were a double digit underdog in both of those games.

They are a seven and a half point underdog this week in Denver as Jake Browning makes his ninth NFL start.

I sat down with the bengals twenty nine year old QB for an in depth conversation this week.

Jake, I got a chuckle last week when you were talking about your seven starts in twenty twenty three and you use the term delusional confidence.

I didn't realize that's actually a scientifically based thing, which means a level of self confidence despite evidence.

Did you have to have delusional confidence to have the success you had two years ago?

Uh?

Yeah, I think I don't mean maybe not scientifically delusional, but uh you know, I'd never really played before and started a game in like olmost five years, and you know, I think I was probably the first person to come off four years on Peace Squad to start some games.

And you know, I think step one to winning the game on game days, going into it, feel confident that you're going to perform well.

And so you know, when I say delusional, it's probably from outside perspective.

But you know, I know I'm a good player.

I've shown that up for a long time in practice and training camps and stuff like that, and so, you know, I think from the outside looking in, it might be delusionable for myself, like it's it's rooted in fact that you know, I've put some really good football.

I just that was kind of my first chance to actually play.

You've got a Monday night game coming up this week.

Your second NFL start with a Monday night game in Jacksonville.

I call it the Jake Browning Game.

You completed more than eighty six percent of your passes in an overtime victory over the Jags.

Did that game help you have real confidence at the NFL level?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean I think my first start are getting even thrown in against the Ravens, I know it was kind of garbage time, but felt like operated well.

And then the first start, you know, just the chaos of the week and all that, and then kind of having that under my belt and knowing you know what to expect and stuff like that just throughout the week and you know those feelings on game day that you kind of have to go through to prepare yourself for the game.

And yeah, I think anytime you actually put it on tape.

You know, it's something to fall back on, like, hey, I am capable of doing this, and you never really know until you know.

We're visiting with Jake Browning, You and Joe Burrow good friends, you spend a ton of time together.

Are you just flabbergasted by his rotten luck when it comes to injuries?

Yeah, I mean it's super unfortunate, you know, as far as outside of that, you know, it's just it's unfortunate.

There's not really any other way to put it.

What you say to him, what could you say to him?

Sucks?

I don't.

I mean, I think one of the the reason we get along is, you know, I kind of know when he wants to be left alone, and I think, you know, something like that happens and you're in a high profile position, like think he knows, like I'm there for my favorite needs anything.

But you know, I'm not going to blow him up trying to make sure that he knows that.

You know, I said, hope you're feeling better and stuff like that's like, hey, did anything, let me know, but like, good luck with everything.

And you know, I think he's got obviously a ton of support.

But when it comes to the football side of things.

That's kind of where I fall in.

We're visiting with Jake Browning.

I want to go back to your crazy high school career for a moment.

You still hold the national record for most touchdown passes by a high school quarterback.

I got to know your tight end Josiadaguara when he was at the University of Cincinnati.

He told me once that you didn't really have running plays on your high school team.

It was like sometimes you'd scramble or you know, maybe fourth and inches you'd run, but other than that, you were basically passing every play.

Was that the case we did actually run the ball, you know, like five sweeps and stuff like that a decent amount.

And yeah, I mean we were just think my hometown that by the time you hit high school, you know, like the junior program's really good.

We're running the high school's offense.

And you know, my senior year, I graduated with probably like at least eight guys that I played with since I was eight years old, and we'd all been playing together for a long time.

So you know, I think he gets so many reps and then you know, you look at our coach and hit no business being in high school.

We were so much better coach than everybody, it was ridiculous, and just geared everything around hitting that ten thousand hours, and I think we reaped the benefits of that.

Your current coach, Zach Taylor, is something of a savant when it comes to highly successful high school quarterbacks.

He seems kind of obsessed with it.

When you arrived in the building.

Did he know all about your days at fulsome high school?

I think when I arrived in the building, he knew that I had just come from the Minnesota Vikings facility and they were our week one opponent.

I'm not sure how much he really knew outside of that.

There.

It was out to the University of Washington.

You had a great four year career there.

You started your first game as a freshman.

How nerve racking is that when you're a teenager right out of high school.

Yeah, it was my first time on a sideline for a college game and I was starting, and you know, my college coach was Chris Peterson.

It was his first time going back to Boise and so it was a primetime game and all that.

But yeah, I think you just go into like, I have no idea what this is going to be like, and I don't really know what to expect, but here we go, and yeah, we lost a close game at the end.

Ironically, Brett Rippon was on the other team.

In some ways, is that more nerve wracking than what you're going to do on Monday Night against the Broncos.

I mean, I would say, so, I've played a decent amount of football.

Now, I've been in not a crazy amount of stars, but a decent amount of stars.

But I've been on the at least I've been on the sideline and kind of know like the rhythm of everything.

I mean, I remember I didn't know what a TV time out was because I had never played in college or anything.

So I remember the first time I run out there and there's like TV time I'm like, I don't even know what that was.

And so, yeah, I would say nerve wracking, probably more so in college just having no experience.

During the time you spent on the Vikings practice squad, what did you learn about yourself in terms of where you needed to improve?

Yeah, I recreated my entire throwing motion after college.

My throwing motion was I was always accurate, but I couldn't really push it down the field.

Very far was it was inconsistent a little bit, and so I changed the whole thing.

Changed my footwork, I changed my throwing motion, changed my body comp and just now I'm a completely different person in year four in the NFL than I was coming in.

And uh, you know, I think that was kind of what revitalized my career a little bit and allowed me to cotinue to stay in the NFL, stick around until I got an opportunity.

And when that opportunity came, it was kind of when I could show some of the things that improved on and that people inside the building knew, but nobody outside the building ever really knew.

Was it expensive going to these high profile quarterback gurus in the off season and try to remake your throwing motion.

I mean, yeah, it's not cheap.

I would say.

The more nerve wracking part is that you're doing in the off season not knowing if you're gonna have a job the following year.

You know, if you do have the job, then ad I mean, it's the best investment you could ever make, but you don't really know, and you don't know, Like, I'm gonna work hard all of February March and then April comes and they draft a quarterback and you're like, ah, there kind of goes my chance.

They're going to put that guy out there.

And so I think that's what something you're always kind of battling.

But I think for me it was you know, I couldn't imagine being in a situation where I didn't do it and then had the regret of like, I should have done that, and you know, whether I continued to play or if I just you know, if I was done after the Vikings cut me, then you know, at least I would have the peace of mind.

I like, hey, I gave it everything I had.

How close were you to starting a coaching career before the Bengals called twenty four hours?

I had it all, I had it lined up.

I was getting ready to leave to uh volunteer coach out of college, just because I didn't want to sit around waiting for you know, I'd lived my first three years of my life in the NFL just was so much uncertainty.

I didn't want to sit around waiting for somebody to call, not knowing if they're going to call, and just get Nancy.

So figured i'd keep myself busy with something.

Fortunately, you know, saved up some money where I could figure out by myself a little bit of a runway and uh and then yeah, I got the call.

I think Sunday night, But if I made it to Tuesday, I was probably gonna drive down to Corvallis and start helping out with my college coach.

People joke that backup quarterback is the greatest gig in the world world.

You're well compensated, you don't take the hits.

But as a competitor, when people say that, does it tick you off?

Yeah, I mean I think that both can be true.

Like it's it's obviously it's like you said, it's a high paying job.

You're not really doing a whole lot until you're thrown in there, and it's like no one is checking in to make sure you're dialed and that you know everything that's going on.

Like you kind of just have to self manage yourself and make sure that you know what's going on because everything else is gear everything, practice meetings, everything is geared towards the starter, and so it's on you to know.

And you know, like last year, I was, I was ready every single game, but nobody, nobody knows, So that's the part that's frustrating as a competitor.

You feel like you're working really hard and doing all these different things without the opportunity to play.

And so I think I think both can be true.

But I think it's throughout my whole career, like having both perspectives of like, hey, I'm I'm in.

I'm in the NFL, whether it's practice, squad active like you know, I'm not.

I'm not starving, I'm not.

There's a lot worst jobs out there, But am I where I want to be?

No, Like in the same thing as a backup, like it's a good gig, like I'm we're I'm not going to deny that, but it's not where I want to be.

And so I think having both those perspectives can help you continue to drive towards what you want without becoming bitter in an objectively good position.

After last week's loss, you said, I think you've got to sit in it.

What did that look like for you in the next twenty four or forty eight hours misery?

Yeah, I think anytime you know, you take it on the chin like that, it sucks.

You put a ton of work into it, and you go into it with every intention of it going well and then it just nothing goes well.

And you know, I think that is probably the biggest adjustment.

Like, you know, I've been the backup for games that didn't go away, that were super lobsided, and it just doesn't feel, it doesn't doesn't hit the same.

Like I think in those situations, you know, I'd feel for Joe or like want to be helpful, but you know, I'd go home and I'd go to bed because I don't really play, and like when you do play, you go home, it's hard to sleep, you feel miserable, and like you got to go through the highs and lows of being the starter.

And I think that's you know, the position that obviously I wanted to find myself in and I want to continue to find myself in going forward.

So having you know, a routine, whatever it takes you to mentally get over it, take obviously, take the the takeaways that you need to to improve, but then getting yourself in the back in the fight and continuing to get ready for the next game and put yourself in position to bounce back.

Best of luck on Monday night.

Thank you.

While the quarterbacks in NFL history who have thrown at least three hundred passes, which admittedly isn't a huge sample size.

Jake Browning has the highest completion percentage at sixty nine point nine.

Oddly enough, Joe Burrow ranks second on the list at sixty eight point five.

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.

Now time for this week's Know the Faux segment.

The Denver Broncos went to the playoffs last year, edging Cincinnati for the seventh and final spot in the AFC with a ten and seven record, but the Broncos are one and two this year.

They opened with an eight point win over Tennessee before losing back to back games on walk off field goals to the Colts and Chargers.

Nick Cosmider covers the team for The Athletic and discussed what's gone wrong in the last two weeks when he joined Dave Lapham and me on the Bengals Game Plan Show.

They just have not been able to finish they have had.

If you combine those two games, they had seven opportunities in the fourth quarter to either create a two score cushion or.

To go on a drive that won the game, and.

They have not been able to do enough in any of those situations to get that two score lead.

And you know, obviously, when you look at the root causes of that, there's been there's been different issues that they've been kind of uncharacteristically penalized.

If you compare it to last year, you know that they've they've had a few injuries that they've dealt with.

But by and large, I think that's the biggest takeaway from where they're at.

They could easily be three and zero.

Particularly defensively, they've they've created one of the league's best pass rushes and that's been dynamic.

They've had some sporadic success in the run game from JK.

Dobbins, who's been off to a really nice start, but in the moments that matter against good teams, they just have not been able to close the deal.

The Denver Broncos, I mean, when I play you know, back in the seventies and early eighties, the Denver Broncos defense was as good as there was in the National Football League.

I mean it was that was when when you were going up against the Broncos, you knew that you had to you had to be on your toes.

I mean, you were going to see a lot You're going to see a lot of different things, and they were going to play hard, and like you talk about, uh, they were going to finish plays and they they weren't going to make a whole lot of mistakes.

They they weren't going to beat themselves.

They were going to you.

You had to go out and you had to beat the Denver Broncos.

And playing them in Denver, well, that crowd noise was, I mean just an unbelievable chore.

How close is this defensive football team to being that type of unit where the opposing you know, teams are fearful or apprehensive about playing against them.

Well, I think there's been slashes of them doing that pretty consistently this year.

And it starts with the pass rush.

Right now.

If you're an opposing quarter you know, particularly in Cincinnati's case, one like Jake Browning, who is you know, filling in for Joe Burrow there, I think probably is a healthy fear about that pass rush and just how many different ways you know they can beat you.

Nick Bonito right now, it was a second team All Pro last year he was he kind of came out of nowhere to get that, but he now looks like he has taken another level up.

He looks early in the season like one of the league's very best pass rushers.

He is incredible speed off the edge, and then you just have so many other really solid players, whether it's Zach Allen and John Franklin Myers creating that that interior pressure.

Jonathan Cooper I think is one of the more underrated outside edge rushers in this league.

Then they even have a guy like Jonah Ellis who's in his second season, who's, you know, come off the bench and done a really good job.

They've they've done a really nice job with with those things that The thing that they've struggled with quite a lot actually is is covering running backs out of the backfield.

That's been a major achilles heel.

In each of the first three games, they have given up big plays in the passing game to running backs who are either you know, completely unaccounted for or who were able to just win a one on one battle, and the result of those plays has always led to scoring drives and in close games that they've been in, you know that that's something that they have they have to clean up there.

There's some detail oriented mistakes that I think I have kept them from being, you know, kind of that that elite, elite unit that they want to turn themselves into.

I think it's in there and it's possible for them, but they still have a little waste to go in terms of bringing it all together.

Nick Cosmidori is our guest.

He covers the Broncos for the Athletic Let's talk bow Nicks.

We saw him late in the regular season last year.

Looked good, had a really good rookie year.

Looks like he's been so so, at least statistically this year.

Five touchdowns, three picks, passer rating in the low eighties.

How has bo Nicks performed?

Yeah, I think that's probably a fair characterization.

It's been kind of so so, a little bit up and down.

Probably not ultimately the start to the season that he wanted to have.

And again, it kind of goes back to, you know, the defensive side.

It's not all just on uh, it's not all just on what he's what he's not doing.

I think they've had a lot of offensive penalties that have kind of slow drives.

They've just had you know, negative plays in really up inopportune times, and that's left them in a lot of tough situations.

Like, for example, their average distance to gain on third down in Week three against the Chargers was eleven yards.

You're not gonna you're not gonna get any kind of offensive rhythm going when you're constantly staring at third and long.

So that's a thing that they have to really figure out a way to to be ahead of the chains on first and second down, to put themselves in more manageable third down situations.

Because he's a guy right now in his career bo Nicks, who you know, he's not gonna he's not gonna paper over all your problems.

He can definitely be part of a solution and part of creating, you know, a really efficient offense.

But but he is, he's not and shouldn't be asked to be this kind of guy that lifts all boats, and right now they just need to do I think a better job around him so that they're not in those situations where you know, opposing teams can really kind of get to all their different pressure looks and give him problems.

When they Broncos have had their biggest problems.

What what what type of offensive attack has been the toughest for this Denver Bronco defense to handle?

What?

What type of personnel formations motion, you know, change the strength or all that kind of thing.

What what what has been the biggest problem for the Denver Broncos to try to solve.

Yeah, you know, I think there's a couple of things.

They've they've been mostly good against the ground, but they've had their lapses there.

They gave up a sixty eight yard run in the second half to Jonathan Taylor that led to a scoring drive for the Colts.

You know, running backs just for whatever reason, whether they're coming out of the backfield, whether they're you know taking you know, whether they're being handed off the whether they're lined up in the slot, they've just been able to create some problems.

And part of that is because the Broncos, you know, they went out and signed Drake Greenlaw in free agency thinking that he was going to be you know, part of the solution for a middle of their defense that struggled at times last year.

He has not made his Broncos debut.

He's currently on IR with a quad injury.

You know, so certainly they want to get him healthy and see what the defense looks like with him being able to do that.

But I would say that would really be kind of the thing right now.

Again, they do a really good job rushing the passer.

There's been some discipline issues again that kind of the breakdowns that have led to some of these easy passes to running backs in the flat.

You know that they've had some some penalties that have extended drives that they could have otherwise and did so.

I think just kind of the sharper focus on the details is what they really have to be after as they welcome Cincinnati on Monday night.

We're chatting with Nick Cosmider from The Athletic.

My final question has to do with the injuries.

You met Drake Greenlaw, who's on IR.

Broncos have seven guys on IR.

Are any of the other guys especially impactful or were these guys that were not likely to play big roles?

Yeah, I think really when you look at it, green Laws is probably the number one guy, and another inside linebacker Drew Sanders, entering his third year with somebody.

I think they were really looking to kind of take a next step.

He's very athletic player and could give him some of that sideline the sideline ability that they could certainly use in a number of different sub packages.

He injured his foot in training camp, so he's not eligible to come off i R until after this week.

Don't know, you know just how how quickly he will return.

He's a guy I'd say that they could certainly benefit from having right now and then.

And then another player who's not on IR but miss last week would be Evan Ingram again, the tight end that they signed this offseason to give them more of a presence in the middle of the field.

That's that's one area where the Bronco offensively have not got enough production in between the numbers, and he's a guy that is supposed to bring that through the first two games when he was available only four catches for thirty three yards, and then, like I said, miss the game against the Chargers.

They need him healthy, you know, as soon as possible.

We of course have not yet been out there this week.

Well, we'll get a better idea tomorrow as to whether Ingram is going to be a guy who can contribute to them this week.

The one thing that I remember about Denver as a former player when I in the seventies and eighties playing with the Bengals when he traveled out there again was the crowd noise.

I mean, it was ridiculous, loudest outdoor stadium I've ever been to.

Couldn't hear yourself think.

I mean when you get on the bus after the game and after you clean yourself up.

He had a headache.

I mean, it was.

It was a brutal experience, it really was.

Has it been like that for the opposition teams coming to Denver so far this season?

Yeah?

I would say that the the op the energy and the opener against the Titans that was probably, you know, like probably the best like season opening crowd that that I've seen here in quite a long time.

I Mean, this Broncos team entered this season with with a lot of expectations.

Sean Payton has not been afraid to say that he thinks this is a team that can compete for the Super Bowl, so so certainly, having lost these last two games in kind of excruciating fashion.

You know, the fan base is a little bit antsy right now, but I would say there's no doubt that, especially in a primetime situation on a on a Monday night, that the crowd is definitely going to be a factor, and I think they're going to believe that they can that they can impact the game.

Again for a guy who obviously Browning's got experience, but it is the backup and having to go against that defense in that scenario that that's obviously one area where the Broncos hope that they can have an advantage.

But I'm excited to see it.

I'm I'm bumm that we don't necessarily get the same you know, complexion that we got for that great game in Cincinnati back in December, but you never know, Monday nights things get weird.

So I'm really eager to see how it all shakes out.

Roncos have a six game home winning streak and have won those games by an average of nineteen point eight points.

Our thanks to Nick Cosmider, and here's a quick invitation to join Lapp and Wayne box Miller for the Bengals pep Rally Show this week.

They'll be at the on the Rhine Eatery on the second floor above the downtown Kroger on Friday from three to six.

If you can't make it, you can listen on ESPN fifteen thirty or by searching for ESPN fifteen thirty on the iHeartMedia app.

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