Al Golden

But to wrap up on the Bengals defense, Joe, I, I wonder what we'll see schematically this week.

That, that is a big question for me is what, what adjustments do we get from Al Golden? CJ Stroud in week one really good against the blitz.

He was-

Yeah

Uh, Houston's defense will give Joe, uh, and his offensive line fits.

But I'm thinking Al Golden's pass rush will do the same to C.J. Stroud.

The D line, led by Sexy Dexy, dominated a better Tampa Bay offensive line in week one.

They all played with nastiness.

Four sacks, they created four turnovers.

I think he's kind of working himself off the ass list a little bit here.

Credit Al Golden for that.

Um, the same, uh, for Houston on the-

And also, I like Bryan Cook, who, that, that's gonna help with their tackles because the Bengals struggled mightily last year and for years past without tackling help.

And I, I just like, I like the guys that returned, I like what Al Golden's doing.

I think that they can play these guys in waves, and they can rotate them.

And finally, they have a defense that can support this offense when obviously now with, uh, Joe Burrow and the back tightness, he's going to need some extra help.

So it's kind of mid-on-mid in the receiving game.

But I do think Montgomery and Woody Marks, though, what's really nice is Al Golden will do some funky stuff on defense, on passing downs.

So it's nice to have those protection backs.

I did think that the Texans' offensive line on review – the run game wasn't as clean as i thought on tv copy but they had some nice pop plays and i really just think this team because how burly their offensive linemen are i mean just look at their tackles should really lean into gap scheme a lot of pullers and that's a great way to kind of make it boom bust against that defensive line with dexter lawrence And maybe some aggressive defense.

Houston's defense will give Joe and his offense a line fit.

But I'm thinking Al Golden's pass rush will do the same to C.J. Stroud.

The D-line led by Sexy Dexy dominated a better Tampa Bay offensive line in week one.

They all played with nastiness, four sacks.

They created four turnovers.

I think he's kind of working himself off the ass list a little bit here.

Credit Al Golden for that.

The same for Houston.

for.

well I mean he's got the arm and you got the receivers to make the crazy plays so it's like and then you just saw this Texas defense secondary get dunked on like I guarantee you're watching that film was like well yeah we're gonna do the same thing and then to that note too like a big thing going to this game would be ball security like Stroud had two fumbles y'all forced four fumbles so like what are your thoughts on like the fumbles obviously you think like it sounds like they're attacking the ball and Is that something that Al Golden's been really emphasizing? Like what kind of went into those fumbles? Is that just Baker being Baker? What kind of went into those fumbles?

A mixture.

I think part of it was Baker because a few of those was on him.

But yeah, I mean, if you're able to get Chase Brown on one of those backers, obviously it sounds like Mike G, you know, on a backer or a safety would be, but I think overall speaking, you know, tackling will be paramount for the Texans defense, but we'll start wrapping up here in a second.

I'll just, I'll have to ask you about the other side.

If you're Al Golden, what would be your approach on the defense to combat what you expect the Texans offense to do?

Got to stop the run.

But up next...

Al Golden, is he the guy to lead this Bengals defense back into the top 10 of the NFL? We'll hear from one national personality on it and dive into that conversation next right here on First Word.

Welcome back to First Word.

I'm James Erpina alongside Marissa Contepelle and Jacob Tissot.

It's really midway through last year.

I would say the last third of last year when the Cincinnati Bengals started to say, all right, no one is noticing.

All anyone's talking about is our defense is so bad, and when are we going to fire Al Golden and all of that? But they really felt like they were getting quietly better.

Those stats paired up.

I'm

going to give them the same support they gave me when we had Al Golden.

Yeah.

They wanted you to keep Algol.

So that's where I could kind of see them like, well, maybe they look like we're going to, they're going to give all kinds of problems.

I would say Max Bulla, who's there now, you know, as a linebackers coach in code, you see, you see a lot of that Al golden influence with some of the stuff they do up front with exotic pressures and stuff, but you know, they're going to have, that looks great on third and long, but, if you play with that same kind of personnel and turn things, you can get run on at times.

And that, those are areas where all of a sudden, you know, Nolan James is breaking a 30 yard run or Niasse is breaking a 30 yard run or something like that.

And so I think there's some of that.