Our pal Solomon Wilcots of Sirius XM Radio joins Nestor from his hometown of Cincinnati to discuss the changing paths of the Bengals and Ravens after a classic AFC North 41-38 OT shootout on Sunday. Bottom line: The Bengals need to be more than just Joe Burrow.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Bengals struggles, Ravens victory, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, defensive issues, special teams, game management, offensive line, running game, under center, coaching decisions, momentum, injury impact, offensive improvement, AFC North
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Solomon Wilcots
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W N, S T Towson, Baltimore. Am 1570 hoping you set a spot out on your radio dial, if not in your social media hearts. It is our birthday week. Luke’s birthday this week, my birthday this week. We’re gathering on Friday for the most delicious pizza anywhere in Baltimore. We’re going to be in Essex pizza John’s giving out Marilyn lottery scratch offs from the Ravens scratch off variety, pretty lucky batch over Costas. And week before that, down in fade these, we had a beautiful week of possibilities for baseball didn’t go so good. Then the football thing happened over the weekend. Didn’t go so well, down 10 points in the fourth quarter. And lo and behold, somehow, the magician la marvelous. Lamar Jackson is not just la marvelous series, even the marvelous throughout the league. Solomon Wilcox knows this first, and he’s out in Cincinnati, Ohio, and brags of all things, Bengals when, whenever he can. But also you can find him out of Sirius XM hosting his nightly radio show, as well as the belief podcast for all things bangles. Solly, I’ll tell you what, man, we’re feeling okay here three and two. Jane Daniels, Baltimore, Washington, licking our wounds from the baseball problems that we had here. By the way, congratulations on Tito Francona out there. Um, but 10 point lead blown at home twice. Kicker, spin ball, sit on the ball, try to kick a 56 yard field. Tough times in Cincinnati at one and four this week,
Solomon Wilcots 01:28
huh? Yeah, listen, I think everyone, I think Joe burrows a realist. I think he’s one of the bright, shining stars in this game, along with Lamar, right? Lamar, I’ve always said it’s must see TV. You know, we watched him only about an hour here from Cincinnati. Just south of us is Louisville, Kentucky, where he played collegiately. And, you know, we watched him all those years just amaze people. That’s why he won a Heisman as a freshman, right? And so he continues to do that. But Joe burrow said, going into that game on Sunday, that he felt he was going to have to be perfect, and Marlon Humphrey knew it was right, and when he made that interception, you know, that’s when Joe, I think Joe burrow looked and said that was the mistake that I could not make. And it’s unfortunate when you have a quarterback that good that believes he can’t make a mistake because he can’t get consistent help from his defense. He can’t get consistent help from special teams. Can’t even hold the ball on a field goal kick to help him win a game. And that’s that’s why we should not be putting win loss records next to the name of quarterbacks,
Nestor Aparicio 02:42
Solomon Wilcox is here with his wisdom, as we always have here. What a great name, Solomon. I never liked my name. My name was Solomon. I would think it’s awesome and biblical. How many other side you don’t meet other Solomons? Do you not often, right? Oh,
Solomon Wilcots 02:55
I know not, unless it’s their last name. But no not having met anyone with the first name. I’m sure there are some others out there. Of course, well,
8Nestor Aparicio 03:03
Kings as well, as I might point out. So, you know, Nestor was the Greek god of wisdom. I want to point that out to you. So we got, you knows, a lot of wisdom going on here, um, for you with coaching and for where end of the first half, and we see this again and again with hardball, like he still got the red flag out looking at the screen the stadium talking about, we have a system and other coaches. And I, like, I did it with Marvin Lewis couple weeks ago. He’s supposed to be that guy in the ear for it, you know, for the Raiders, that coach sort of to be there to manage other things they’re not thinking about with the wisdom that comes with all of that. John call, just a ridiculous timeout that opened the door for the Bengals at the end of the first half, and then Zach Taylor sitting on the ball at the end, saying a 56 yard field goal is just going to be fine because my kicker can handle that. I don’t know. Man, there were some coaching questions, and I’m not the coach killer here every Monday. Solly, I’m not at all ask around, but I’m I’m scratching my head that this far in with the amount of help they have around them, timeouts, game management, because they’re thinking about plays, they’re not thinking about they can’t think about everything in the middle of all that, I think it would be computers would have a hard time modeling that.
Solomon Wilcots 04:17
Well, God, listen, I don’t think you could take the feel of what’s required, you need to have a certain feel and understanding of what’s happening real time. As a coach, you cannot use that Analytics to measure momentum. And momentum is a real thing. You see that in baseball all the time. It’s a real thing. Emotion is a part of the game, and that determines who has momentum. In other words, believability. If you if you gotta believe in probabilities, and you better believe in believability, because it’s all of them are based on past experiences, right probabilities? Are based on this mathematical equation of what’s happened in the past, right? Well, well,
Nestor Aparicio 05:05
we get your fourth down right now, right? Like, and
Solomon Wilcots 05:08
8that’s it. It’s just, and that’s what I think Zach Taylor, the Bengals coach, was like, Look, I know the Ravens defense, they’re going to make a play. They’re good, we’re good. But I also know my kicker, Evan McPherson, he can make this kick. So why? Why am I trying to get more out of it? Why do I need to put the ball in harm’s way to gain a few more yards? Maybe I break one open and hit another one. But I feel just as comfortable that I can make the kick. And guess what? He didn’t think it might. Can I hold or hold it? Well, what would you guess? Nope. He’s been holding it right the entire game, every single kick and every single extra point he’s held it. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t take the snap and then get the ball placed down in time for Evan McPherson to kick it. There’s nothing in in nothing in data analytics or in anything else that would have suggested that he was not going to be able to handle the snack. This is what makes humans humans, and you’re not going to find that in a spreadsheet. So look, games are won and lost on these things, because it’s that’s why we watch. That’s why we don’t walk away, right? Because we expect the improbable. Sometimes the impossible happens, and it does determine the outcome of games. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 06:32
they’re only human. Until Lamar fumbles the ball, runs out of center, gets chased down by Hubbard, pushes him off. The amazing part. Look, you tackle people for a living for a while. Um, getting him to the ground. We talk about King Henry and him with the load. And, you know, I mean linebacker safeties can tackle Henry, doesn’t. It doesn’t look like Fast Times at Ridgemont High that he’s just crushing everybody the way he be slapped the bills guy in the that film, Lamar, I’ve watched his six years. It’s hard to get an angle on Lamar. And if you do and you’re bigger and faster and stronger, somehow it always looks like the guy in the defensive side even wanted to say, even when it’s a safety or a corner, looks like they’re in quicksand. It’s the craziest thing. And I think he’s a little in their heads that guys are a little slower getting to him because they don’t want to go straight at him, because he knowing going to be there when he gets there. This
Solomon Wilcots 07:21
is coaching. I really do believe, and I we used to have these conversations about how to rush Michael Vick, right? I think you can say that Michael Vick and Lamar very similar in how slippery they are and how difficult they are to get a sack on and there are many times in the game on Sunday where I thought the Bengals had them, but you could tell a guy got sometimes a pass rusher will get greedy. Oh, I got him. I got him. You know. No, you don’t. Well, you can’t grab him from
Nestor Aparicio 07:56
the back anymore. So that’s and he’s running away from you. Let’s start with that, right? He’s
8Solomon Wilcots 08:01
a human being. You gotta tackle him. Where you wrap people up is you wrap up their legs. You You don’t try to grab them high because you got you’d be surprised how slippery jerseys are, especially when you’re sweating. You’d be surprised because the jerseys are tight fitting. They’re not this loose baggy. It’s not like this shirt on where you grab these jerseys are tight fitting for a reason. So when you grab something, you’re grabbing something hard that’s really tough to just grab cloth if you know what I’m saying, You gotta grab the body part. You’ve gotta be and you cannot be a reacher. As a tackler. You gotta be a striker. You have to be a hitter. More importantly, when you rush a quarterback like Lamar, the same as with Michael Vick, you rush to entrap him, to ensnare him, he will run to you more than you’re going to run to him. So if I’m rushing him, I know someone else is coming too. He while he’s trying to elude me the other guy is going to get. And while he’s trying to elude the other guy, I’m going to get. That’s there were many times in the game on Sunday where they had him trapped. There were two guys. Both guys took the same angle, and he just made them run into each other. He’s slipping out of there. That’s because they haven’t really been talked to about how you rush to trap them. Don’t necessarily rush to sack them, because where Lamar really has struggled is to make those deep throws from deep in the well with hands and bodies in his face. Most quarterbacks struggle with that. By the way,
Nestor Aparicio 09:36
he finds, you know, if he gets that second opportunity, somebody’s outside the
Solomon Wilcots 09:43
pocket, outside the pocket, sure, not that’s my point. You don’t rush him to blush him out of the pocket. You don’t rush to chase him out of the pocket. You rush to trap him in the pocket. Use the
Nestor Aparicio 09:57
8sideline as another player. No, no, no. You.
Solomon Wilcots 09:59
You keep him deep in the whale. You push up the edges and you push in his face. You don’t let him climb the pocket, and you don’t let him escape outside. You’re like, sounds
Nestor Aparicio 10:10
easy? Solly, why don’t you come in? This is not that easy. Well,
Solomon Wilcots 10:16
it’s not impossible, and that’s how the Bengals remember when the Bengals beat, I think in 2021 when they ran what was the defense coordinator out of town? I forget they ran him out of town, the Bengals shredded him, but that’s how they beat Lamar. When they have played well defensively, that’s how you do it look. He’s not the only mobile, slippery quarterback, so is Josh Allen, right, so there’s some others too. And I remember Mike, Michael Vick is probably the best comparison you’ve got. You you rush to in to trap them in the pocket. Most quarterbacks don’t want to throw from deep in the well, when the vision is cloudy, you can’t get outside. Once I get outside and escape now I can see clear down the field. Yeah, you’re chasing me, but I’m rolling out you. You may not understand this as well as I do, but that’s where it’s easier for these quarterbacks who want to throw on the run, as opposed to have to throw from a cloudy look deep inside the pocket.
8Nestor Aparicio 11:18
Solomon Wilcox giving us his wisdom from Cincinnati. Find him out of Sirius XM Radio, as well as out on his own podcast, talking all things bangles, um, get off the Ravens for a minute. Stop at the Bengals at one and four and where they are, and the reality of that, what happened to the Steelers late in the night on Sunday and browns for wherever? Um, yeah, Ravens have now gone from Owen two to we’re kind of going to lead the pack in division. And the other part about it, Sally’s, the Ravens have been really healthy. They know Marlon Umphrey had an issue after the game on Sunday night, getting ready for this week, but they’ve been healthier than they’ve been. And you mentioned tackling, bad tackling in the league and stuff. Part of it is not practicing, that not having injuries happen on Wednesday, out during, during practices and different things that the Ravens have had. Seasons fall apart with injuries. Knock on wood. Early October, they’re pretty healthy going into this. I looked at the Bengal side of this and say they’re one in four right now. What is the upside for what’s going on and their quarterback saying, We’re just not good enough right now?
Solomon Wilcots 12:19
Well, their defensive line was decimated with injuries, particularly the interior part of the defensive line. They had given up 100 yards rushing coming into Sunday’s game against the ravens, They give up 100 yards again, but I thought they did a really good job against Derek Henry for the most part, until overtime, and then he broke it loose on that 51 yarder. But they did primarily a job where they forced the ravens to play from behind on the scoreboard. Even though the Ravens scored the first touchdown of the game, they trailed at halftime. They forced the team to become a ass, first run second offense, which is what you want to do. And the ravens, I thought if the Ravens would have stuck to doing some things like they did in the Bengals game, they’d have did that in the AOC championship game, they’d have been playing in the Super Bowl that mean, don’t get away from the run game, regardless of what the score is. But, but allow Lamar to become a better passer of the football, as he you could clearly see he’s improved in those areas. So we’re seeing really improvement from the Baltimore Ravens offense defensively, I think there are some holes there, and that’s where the Bengals, I think, really, are looking at themselves. Their offense is right now, scoring at a rate that’s third best in the National Football League. They have scored on 54% of their offensive drives. You saw that in the game on Sunday, defensively, they’re having a tough time stopping people, and then when the special teams is struggling to hold the snap or to be consistent, Joe burrow is thinking, Man, I gotta be perfect to win these games. Oh, by the way, he said that going into Week Five against the Baltimore Ravens, and unfortunately, he’s right. When a quarterback has to make all of the plays to help win, it’s not going to happen. That’s what you don’t want. I think a lot of people outside of the locker room think that quarterbacks can have a win loss record that they actually do win and lose games like a baseball pitcher? No, they don’t. There’s a reason why there’s 53 guys who actually play, because anyone can impact the outcome of the game, even if you are the holder on a field goal, even if you’re the kicker on the field goal team, even if you are a defensive back who gets a pass interference call like they did Week Two against Kansas City, Joe burrow had played well enough for them to have the win the league, and then one pass interference call puts Kansas City in a position to get the game winning field goal. Their problems are very clear. It’s no secret. It. The rest of the football team needs to get better, but offensively, they scare the daylights out of their opponents. Amazing,
Nestor Aparicio 15:07
you know, arsenal of weapons on the Cincinnati side. Meanwhile, the Ravens now things feel a little more fixed. We’re worried a lot about the offensive line. And maybe this does speak to the fact that, you know, two thirds of the Bengal secondary was decimated with injuries after the offensive line, but they got some oxygen for Wallace. I mean, Andrews hadn’t been involved in the offense. Charlie Kohler, but more than that, Sally, I screamed for three years about Derrick Henry when he was available, and Dobbins was limping, and the GUS bus was where it was, and they’re trying to get Anthony Mitchell’s kid, who was a speedster last year, to run around and be that part of their offense. Lamar always needed something that looked like Mark Ingram looked here when he was young, and the Derrick Henry thing. I I’ve put down the flag of Derrick Henry years ago, the fact that they brought him in five weeks into this thing. This looks to be something you do not want to be defending in January, if it’s still flying
Solomon Wilcots 16:05
8two things. And I think you’re right. These are the Ravens of the Jamal when they had Jamal Lewis. Some of you guys probably haven’t been Ravens fans long enough to remember Jamal Lewis, who, oh, by the way, still holds a single game rushing record for the franchise, right? It
Nestor Aparicio 16:23
was against the browns, but then he went and played
Solomon Wilcots 16:26
for him. Matter Brown, it doesn’t matter 295 is 295 right? Yeah, that’s, that’s right. It’s the NFL man almost 300 yards rushing in the game. That’s back in the day when they couldn’t throw it, and when, that was when nine guys were in the box and he got 295 not not today. Like six guys in a box and you go getting 295 another thing, they put the quarterback under center. Lamar Jackson under center. Helps everybody. Those of us who really understand this game knows that, whoa, it helps Derek Henry in the power run game. Oh, it helps the offensive line and the protection of the quarterback and play action pass. Oh, it helps wide receivers get another inch, another yard open at the top of their routes, because defensive backs trying to figure, is it run? Is it pass on every single snap of the ball, the first job of every defender. You know what it is he’s got to decide, are they running it? Are they throwing it? That’s what putting the quarterback on the center does for you. It helped with the subterfuge of the offense, forcing the defense to pause just a minute on the pass rush, no flying up. Feel just a minute in coverage, right? Finds you a little more time in pass protection, a little more space when you’re running your routes, and it helps the offense immensely. And that’s what the Ravens got smart. Guess what? We’re playing real football again, guys that you’re seeing more and more teams do this, putting the quarterback under center, and it’s helping the offense to become more prolific.
Nestor Aparicio 18:07
I thought in the beginning, when he came in, all of that sleight of hand was going to be dangerous, that the ball was going to hit the ground a whole lot because of that RPO and sort of the way it was also being in shotgun, and lo and behold, the thing that almost cost him the game was a perfect snap that hit him between the Infinity upside down in shotgun, right? So you’re asking the center and the quarterback to both to have a different kind of communication, as opposed to being able to look up while you’re under center and still get the ball where you don’t have to look for the ball as well. So that really bit the ravens and could’ve cost him the game on Sunday.
8Solomon Wilcots 18:41
Well, look, these were the things that coaches argued against the shotgun when they first started moving in that direction. They were like, I don’t like my quarterback taking his eyes off the coverage. I don’t like my my quarterback having to look it in and then try to find where guys are, whether moving around when you’re under center, you can continue to see in the ball. It’s more rote memory that ball is going to hit your hands. It’s up to the center to get him the ball when you’re under center. So these things have been argued. They’re tried and true, and yeah, it came back to haunt. The Ravens almost cost him the game yesterday. I think Lamar would be kicking himself had the Bengals won and been able to make that field go after he turned it over on that play, he was
Nestor Aparicio 19:29
kicking himself anyway. Afterwards, that’s who the kid is. Solomon Wilcox is here. He has the wisdom that that everybody needs to know. He played the game at a high level. You find him at a Sirius XM as well as the Bengals believe in their podcast network for the one in four Bengals, for the three and two ravens going in this the other the other thing I want to say about the ravens and offensively and the offensive line and the problems that they had in the first couple of games, it does feel like the ravens are sort of figured parts of it. Defensively, they still got a ways to go back in the second. Area as well, but offensively, we’re not asking questions about what this thing is. This thing’s really blossoming a little bit more with Lamar five, six years into what John called the revolution.
Solomon Wilcots 20:12
Yeah. And look, I I think what if you’re an NFL fan, here’s what you need to be comfortable with. Being uncomfortable. Okay, because there are no super teams in the NFL anymore. Our league is designed to make it almost impossible to build a super team. You don’t get to keep all of your talent because there’s a salary cap. You do have to turn some of that talent loose to the free market, where other teams get to pilfer from your defense or from your coaching staff, right, or from your offensive line, your players are now playing somewhere else. If you got to keep them, guess what? Now you might be looking at a super team. If you got to keep all those coaches, you’d be looking at a super team. Our system in this league is designed for some of that talent to go back out on the market. You cannot build a super team. Your team will have holes. That’s why a team right now, as we look at it, that’s one two straight Super Bowls. And even before the injury to Rasheed rice, they’re still complaining about the left tackle position. They’re still complaining about needing more at the Y receiver position. They’re still saying that Isaiah Pacheco is not back. What are we going to do about the running back position? They got rid of Tyree here. We had to turn him loose to the market, and then want to back to back Super Bowls looking to win a third in a row despite not having the perfect roster, get used to it, you’re going to have to learn to win with imperfection. If you’re waiting for a super team to show up in order to win a Super Bowl, you’ll be waiting a long time. That’s why good coaching does matter. Having depth does matter, and having some no name guys developing and becoming players absolutely matters. One
Nestor Aparicio 22:05
8thing I’d say to you, coming out there, and I even talked to Marvin a month ago about Cincinnati’s really grown something. There’s a $200 get in for a Sunday afternoon game teams one and three, that there’s been a real borough effect for the franchise and for the future of that franchise. That one thing I say going in there every year now, it really feels healthy. It feels like there, that’s a thing. And if it this year’s not the thing. You certainly have the quarterback there to over the next six, eight years. It feels like the Bengals are going to be relevant. He’s
Solomon Wilcots 22:34
going to keep them relevant. I mean, you saw the team win. Have a winning record without Joe burrow after he was lost midway point through the season last year. So that tells you they do have a winning mentality. What they have to do is really get back to playing good defense. You cannot play in the AFC North Division or in this league if you think you’re going to have a weak defense and just think that a great quarterback is going to lead you to wins every week. Again, quarterbacks don’t win by themselves. They need all the help they can get to win games. They need everybody else’s help in order to come away with a win. I think the more your franchise understands that, the more you can be relevant year in and year out. Joe
Nestor Aparicio 23:22
burrow, quarterback, holder, I don’t know that was the 1970s that we did that. Solomon Wilcox is here. He is there out at Sirius XM, always doing great work. Sally, thanks for picking up the phone and give us some time from Cincinnati after the loss. I hope we get together again, again later in the season. I it’s a good season. So far, we’re having fun around here.
Solomon Wilcots 23:42
No, it’s going to be good that you and I both know nobody remembers September. I could tell you that we get to, we get to the end of the season. Nobody, and I’m telling you, nobody remembers the month of September. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 23:56
the Bengals gotta figure out some stacking, some victories. If we can get back into the tournament here this year, we’re going to be getting into the tournament on Friday, birthday weekend for me, for Luke, for everybody, we’re going to be a pizza Johnson Essex. I will have the scratch also the Maryland lottery. Raven scratch offs giveaway. But a pretty lucky batch. We’re doing 26 oysters in 26 days, 26 ways to celebrate 26 years here at W NSD. All that brought to you by curio wellness and foreign daughter, as well as our friends at Liberty, pure solutions. One 800 clean water. They do all things water and plumbing. I do all things sports and Baltimore positive. I am Nestor, Lukes and Owings Mills. All week we are getting ready for Baltimore versus Washington. Good stuff ahead. We are W, N, S T A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.
