00:00I wanted to clarify with him, just so my suspicion was right, that he was not saying we should never
00:06run, let's just throw it every play.
00:08What he, or what I assumed he was saying was, the run was not working in that particular game, therefore
00:13we're trying to win, we'll do what it takes to win,
00:16and in this game, when you're banging your head against the wall and averaging one yard per run, you've got
00:21to throw it.
00:22But, when he comes out after the game and says, we should just throw it more, the national perception was,
00:28Joe Burrow hates the running game, it's his decision, they're going to throw it every time.
00:32So I felt it was important to clarify, he did clarify yesterday that he was talking about that specific game,
00:39he acknowledges they need to run it better.
00:42So, for every national person out there saying, it's Burrow's fault, all he wants to do is throw the ball,
00:47hopefully that shut them up for at least a day.
00:50Yeah, probably not a day, I'm sure they're going to twist that in some way or another, and that's why
00:55we exist, to help with that for sure.
00:59When it comes to Joe, how open is he, I know what he said, but from how you're reading it,
01:05how open is he to the under center stuff, to running it?
01:08If the plan is, hey, Jamar and T are out this week, which we don't know yet, let's run it
01:1250 times in Miami, do you think Joe Burrow is on board?
01:15Absolutely. I mean, the bottom line is, that dude wants to win as much as anybody who's ever lived, and
01:22if the formula for winning is to turn right and stick it in the belly of Chase Brown,
01:27or turn left and stick it in the belly of Samad J.P. Ryan, he will do that.
01:31They ran it 27 times in week one. It's not like they're not running at all, but in the game
01:36last Sunday, it simply wasn't working,
01:39and the real issue is, how do we fix the running game, not should we pass, should we run, no.
01:46The running game has to get fixed, has to get fixed fast.
01:49Under center was supposed to be a piece of fixing the run game. It hasn't looked great through four weeks
01:54so far.
01:55At what point do you dial back the under center and start running from the shotgun where they've had more
01:59success?
01:59I say keep trying the under center stuff, because if you think about under center run game, why is it
02:06effective?
02:07There are a lot of things involved. For one thing, it's easier to go in either direction when you have
02:13an under center attack
02:15as opposed to a running back lining up on one side or the other of your quarterback.
02:20Your running back is typically running downhill with some momentum when he gets the ball as opposed to starting still
02:26and then running.
02:27So I think it's still important to work on it and get better at it.
02:30Is this team going to suddenly be number one in the NFL at running under center? No.
02:34But there's no reason it should be as abysmal as it was last week, and I think it's very important
02:40not to abandon it now.
02:42Do you think there gets to a point in the season, if the Bengals still continue to struggle under center,
02:47where it's a let's just kick it to the offseason and continue to work on it kind of deal?
02:52Not there yet. I mean, could it happen at some point? I suppose it's possible, but I think we are
02:58a long way from that.
02:59We're four games in. They devoted a ton of time to it in training camp.
03:04And by and large, in training camp, I thought the running portion of the under center game looked good.
03:10They weren't getting a lot of explosive passes off the under center game, which people were hoping for.
03:15But the running game did look good in camp. It looked good in the preseason games, I thought.
03:20So I think there's something still there that they have to keep working on to try to get better.
03:26Now, the one thing that very few of us are really talking about is that Jacksonville's defense is elite at
03:32stopping the run.
03:33And the Dolphins' defense has been good at stopping the run, too. It's not as good as Jacksonville.
03:37So that was a factor last week. Not the only factor.
03:40But don't abandon it yet. It's important to have that as part of their arsenal.
