00:00That was a great win for us. You know, it's not perfect. Week one rarely is. There's a lot of
00:04things you've got to correct, but I just, I loved our guys. Well, the win today, you know, found a
00:09way, something we talked about for a long time is closing this thing out in the three, four minute
00:12drill, and to see our offense be able to finish with the ball. A bunch of situational things that
00:17came up there that our guys excelled at, that we've worked on for a long time. Defense getting
00:21four turnovers, really taking a ton of points off the board. That led, I think, 24 points off the
00:27turnovers for us. And then our special teams was really big with Evan. You know, Evan coming up
00:31big and making those four field goals. He's the best kicker in the league. We're fortunate to have
00:36him. But just walk off the field, excited for the win, excited to make the corrections, and move
00:41forward 1-0. That's the thing about Mike G. It can come up at any time. I always count on
00:49Mike.
00:50He's got great awareness to break off routes, and he and Joe just have a good feel for each other,
00:55especially in that two-minute drill. I mean, there were some things where he just,
00:58he ad-libs a little bit, and it's, we give him that green light because he and Joe have that
01:03chemistry together. And so the coverage has got to be perfect to be able to take him away.
01:08And then to get in the red zone, I know it wasn't super sexy. He caught it and went down
01:11and rolled it in the end zone, but we'll take it any way he can get it. So Mike's always
01:14a guy we can
01:14count on. Joe's got a lot of confidence in him. He's got really good chemistry. So that doesn't
01:18surprise me when he comes up big.
01:19It seems like all the new additions on defense have played in some kind of role. I'd like to see
01:23all of them
01:23kind of make that kind of decision. Big time. You know, I think they all,
01:27you felt their presence, all of them today, I noticed as I'm watching. All those D linemen,
01:32D cook coming up with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. So it's just really fun to watch those
01:36guys get in the action and create all those turnovers, create that energy for the crowd
01:40early on. You just saw our crowd, I mean, delay games, timeouts. They had to use a timeout with 14
01:46minutes left in the first quarter today. So I know we don't, but never underestimate the role
01:52the crowd truly gets to play when we're in a home game. It's an absolute, I say weapon a lot.
01:56The crowd is a weapon for us. And I'm thankful that we got to play this game at home because
02:00that may have been the difference. You know, getting a couple of false starts, getting a
02:03couple of games in a one score win could have been the difference for us. So hats off to the
02:08crowd today.
02:09What did you like about the split score for the touchdown? And then how big was it to establish
02:12that momentum room?
02:13It was, you know, to get up 14-3, I think is big. And so for Demetrius to finish off
02:17that play,
02:19it gave us a lot of momentum there, you know. And so I think just early in the game to
02:23be
02:24down three to nothing, we had a three and out on offense. We needed something to kickstart
02:27us. And that was a big play right there that kickstarted us.
02:29On the flip side, the pick six in the second half, that kind of gave them some momentum.
02:33How did you, how did you guys respond to that?
02:36You did, you know, because it's, they really went one for one. We had a turnover for touchdown,
02:40they had a turnover for touchdown. So you just got to take a deep breath. Poise, it turned
02:43into a one score game right there. So it's a little bit different. Love the attitude of our
02:47guys to go down. I think we kicked a field goal after that. So, so it took, took some
02:51of the momentum away from them, able to get our crowd back in it, you know, after a tough
02:55moment like that. But, you know, excited for how the guys responded.
02:58Last year, there was a lot said about defensive mistakes. Do you think today kind of flipped
03:03that narrative?
03:03I think so. You know, I saw some big time tackles by our guys, just getting the ball off.
03:07Those four turnovers are a gut punch to an offense when you're out there. So we'll watch
03:11it. I'm sure there's going to be some corrections and things we clean up, but at least you're
03:16doing it after a win. And we've got a really tough one next week on the road. So we've
03:19got to get our guys ready for that.
03:20So you talked a lot about finishing and to finish, taking a knee.
03:25Yeah.
03:25That took you to that last drive and your strategy. There were a lot of throws. They
03:29were maybe safe throws. What was your strategy on trying to get to the point where you end
03:32up at it?
03:33We'd done that drill many times in training camp, that exact drill. And there's times we got
03:40in four-minute mode with three and a half minutes against our defense and got in heavy people
03:43and ran the ball. And then we were punting with two 30 left. It's like, well, is that
03:47really what we want to do? So we came out with more of an aggressive mindset. We did this
03:52drill against Chicago, which I think is really helpful, watching how they did it, watching
03:55how we did it. And came out and trusted our guys. That's the biggest thing. And so you're
03:58talking about Dante catches the first one, you know, off a fly motion, flat route. Makes
04:03people miss, has the awareness to stay in bounds, get the first down. Then they play
04:07base to 11, so now we're going to spread them out and throw it. Chase Brown does a great
04:11job versus man coverage, making one miss, getting a first down, getting down. So credit
04:15to our guys for understanding how we wanted to run the clock there, but still getting
04:18maximum yardage. And then we get a second and 10, because they got a great D line and
04:22they stopped us on first and 10. We had a situation where we were able to draw them off sides
04:25and get a free five. And if you don't do that, you run the ball on second and 10, you
04:29might
04:29be in a third and eight. And then you run the ball, it's fourth and six, you're kicking
04:32the field goal. So our guys situationally did some things we worked on for a long time, managed
04:38them really well, finished with the quarterback's knee, finished with the kneel, didn't have
04:42to try to have them back out there for his fifth field goal of the day. Just as you can
04:46see, I'm really proud of the situations we've talked about a million times when our guys
04:49went out there and just nailed it.
04:51You talk a lot about situations, but then T levitates up to catch one.
04:55Yeah.
04:55Is that where that's supposed to go?
04:56So I'm glad you reminded me of that, because I kind of forgot about that play, and I meant
04:59to kind of bring it up to the team. That's as big time of a catch as you're ever
05:02going to see. And it's a little bit similar to the Kansas City third and 11 here, you
05:07know, to clinch the game. That was a slant route. This was a little bit deeper of a slant
05:13route. Joe trusts him. He sees the look. I kind of gave Joe two plays on the sidelines.
05:19I said, which one do you want? And he told me, hey, if we're in that situation, that's
05:22the one I want. And he just trusted T. And it really comes back to they jumped the out
05:26route we threw to T on second and 10 earlier, which made us maybe get to that call.
05:30At halftime, you're up a couple scores. T and Jamar each just have one catch. Is that
05:34just a pretty nice formula considering all of it? Yeah, I think T and Jamar understand
05:38when you get 24 points in the first half, that's just kind of the way the game went.
05:41And always awareness from us, I knew that. And we want to get them as involved as possible.
05:48But the way the game was going, I was happy with the way the game was going. So you don't
05:51want to force anything. You want to keep it going. I thought we were running the ball well.
05:54We stuck with those things. And then those guys made plays for us down the stretch.
05:57Is it a situation that they put up in the equipment? Is it to have a guy that can kick
06:01the ball? Yeah, because it's hard. You know, I'm calling a play and trying to manage the
06:07situation there. And Darren's just got, I have tremendous confidence too, but Darren is
06:13so quick to kick this ball. You know, do we punt in these situations? Do we kick it?
06:17Kick it. Kick it. He's going to make it. And he's made it. And he's tremendous at it.
06:22Zach, you talked about the energy of the fans. But what about the energy your team gets
06:26from the way the defensive line? It seemed like early on they were really winning a lot
06:30of that. That's why we did everything we've done. You know, it's because you know that
06:34that's an unbelievable energy boost when you have those guys that just dirty up the pocket
06:42the entire game. And credit to Baker. Baker got out of some really tough jams that really
06:46could have ended the game multiple times. And he pulled out of it. But our guys were
06:51there. And so we'll keep working to finish those plays. But you face a good quarterback
06:55that's known. I mean, he's getting paid. How much is he getting paid now to do that kind
06:57of stuff? He did it. And credit to him. But our D-line definitely gives us a boost.
07:01Zach, knowing that you'll give us more of the depth of the offense tomorrow when you
07:06watch the film, can you give us your quick thoughts on how Joe played? What exactly did
07:11they do to take Jamar as much out of the game as he did?
07:14Well, yeah. Yeah, I don't. I didn't feel that. I feel like we just weren't forcing balls.
07:18The ball was just going where it needed to go. At halftime, we're writing plays up on the
07:21board. And my question was, have we thrown an incompletion yet? It just didn't feel
07:25like that. And so it felt like we were in a really good rhythm. We weren't many second
07:29longs. We were in third and manageable. So performance on Joe, really good. He's going
07:35to be sick. I know he's already mad about the pick six. But managed the game really well
07:39for us. And there's some tough looks there at the end of the game. And he stepped up and
07:43delivered. Gave his guys a chance. And his guys came up big for him. And I thought the
07:47offensive line did a tremendous job. Some of the holes we had in the run game, especially
07:51early on, and then the protection overall, that is a really difficult blitz package that
07:56they have. And we had a long time to study it. They had a long time to study us. There
08:00was a lot of work. That's a huge credit to Dan Pitcher and Justin Hill and all of our coaches
08:04that put the time and effort to analyze every blitz they've ever gotten. And our guys stepped
08:11up and did a really good job handling it.
08:12Merritt and Demetrius both with some big plays from the fumble to stops in the backfield.
08:17Obviously, this offseason, putting the trust in those two young guys, what did you like
08:20the scene out of them in this first game?
08:22Yeah, they're just continuing to gain wisdom from the experience they're getting. And they're
08:26playing faster. And they've got great guys around them. And so they need to make the
08:30plays that come to them. And from what I saw, I thought they did an excellent job of that.
08:33Brian Cook makes some big plays. What does it mean for someone who's from here to come
08:37back home?
08:37There's just a different sense of pride. When you're from Cincinnati, I don't know if everyone
08:42knows this, but there's a great pride for being from Cincinnati. You're proud to say
08:45that. And I'm proud to live here. I've lived here eight years now. And I get it.
08:48And so B Cook plays with like a little different chip on his shoulder playing for his hometown,
08:55you know, Mount Healthy, UC, coming home, running out of the tunnel. I thought it was really
08:59cool to see him step up. I know how much this means to him.
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