Good Morning Football Host Jamie Erdahl joins, the Bengals Jake Browning Era | Bengals Beat Podcast

can Jake Browning make it three wins in a row for the Cincinnati Bengals we'll see as the Bengals get ready to host the Minnesota Vikings here at payor Stadium on Saturday hey everyone it's Kelsey Conway here at the inquire studio with Bengals beat podcast producer Sam green we are here at the inquire Studios to break down this exciting matchup between the Bengals and the Vikings and there's a lot to talk about in this matchup but most of the conversation will be about the quarterbacks playing in this game Kirk Cousins the Vikings starting quarterback out for the season with an Achilles injury and Bengals quarterback Joe burrow out for the season with a wrist injury so both teams will be playing their backups and for the Vikings it's their third backup this season Nick Bolan is going to get the start over Josh dobs who was brought in to back up Kirk Cousins a couple months ago and for the Bengals it continues to be Jake Browning and we will see what we get out of him on Saturday so let's talk about this matchup a little bit before we bring in this week's podcast guest the Bengals have been on a role on offense and it's been the biggest reason why this team has won the last two games they played outstanding on offense in Jacksonville with a very well-balanced offensive attack led by Jake Browning but really the biggest difference right now for the Bengals has been the Run game coming alive throughout the season so far the Bengals have been one of the League's worst rushing attacks this year and they've recently picked it up and they're getting a lot from Rookie Chase Brown he has been a nice mix with Joe Mixon as this kind of one-w punch that Cincinnati's been able to get a lot from and it's really taken the pressure off of Jake Browning in having to do everything so if the Bengals can continue with this well balanced attack back that sprinkles in the Run game the screen game has really come alive for the Bengals and getting easy completions for Jake Browning and then when he can of course hit Jamar Chase for these 50 yard plays that lead to touchdowns that's what you want for Jake Browning make it as easy as possible and then he can take advantage of one-on-one matchups when he gets it with his wide receivers in t Higgins and Jamar Chase while the Bengals are very healthy for this point of the season right now on offense they will have all of their offensive starters for Jake Browning and then on the defensive side of the ball other than cam Taylor Brit who is on injured reserve right now the Bengals defense will have all of their starters so the Bengals for this being middle of December um they're they're doing well from the injury report standpoint Jamar Chase was on the injury report um at the start of this week but he assured reporters that he is going to play on Saturday and he'll be going up against one of his best friends and one of the other best receivers in the NFL and Justin Jefferson who is going to play he's been battling injuries all season so um the the Vikings are expecting him to play and the Bengals are expecting to have to deal with Justin Jefferson but it's been a struggle for the Vikings on offense the last couple of weeks with out Kurt Cousins and Josh dos kind of slumping uh they only scored three points in their most recent win over the Raiders last week but they' remained in the playoff picture and that's why this game has so much riding on it because both teams need it in terms of getting into the dance I wrote a story a couple weeks ago on cincinnati.com and I encourage listeners to check it out if you have questions about how many games the Bengals would need to win to get into the playoffs who can they not afford to lose to every playoff scenario you have questions about I tried my best to break it down for you but basically the Bengals need to win this one and they need to win next week against the Steelers they put it into a dream situation for themselves if they won out and went 4-0 down the stretch but I think 3 and one that gets you to 10 and seven on the year gets you a chance to have that final wild card spot but you have to beat the Vikings you have to beat the Steelers if you lose to the Chiefs it's not the end of the world but then you would then have to beat the Browns in that final week of the season but they can't even think about that because right now they need to focus on the Minnesota Vikings and I've talked a lot about the offensive struggles for the Vikings but one thing that is certain about this Minnesota team is how well their defense is playing under Brian Flores the defensive coordinator in his first year with the Vikings they Blitz a lot they're going to be pressuring Jake Browning and this is the game where I think you're going to find out a lot about Jake Browning yes he has showed flashes of just Brilliance over the last couple of weeks but this is a different type of defense and you'll learn a lot about him because how he Maneuvers things at the line of scrimmage and how he deals with the gauntlet of pressure that Flores is going to bring will tell you a lot and if he's able to take care of the ball that's the key here can't turn the ball over against this Minnesota team that's struggling on offense because that's what they want you to do they're riding their defense hoping that the defense can win them games and how Jake Browning protects the ball will be the biggest key to this game and it's fortunate for the Bengals that this one's at home because if it was in a in Minnesota it would be a problem the Vikings have one of the best home field advantages in the NFL and that's not something the Bengals have to worry about with Zach Taylor and ening Bengals fans to be very loud this week and help them win against the Vikings and if you beat the Vikings then you can really start thinking about the playoffs for this team because you're one step closer but you can't Overlook the Vikings just because they're starting Nick Bolan so we will see how this Bengals team looks on Saturday and to get us ready for the game I am going to bring on one of my favorite people in the sports media landscape and you will definitely recognize her if you like the NFL her name is Jamie erall she is the host of good morning football NFL Network's very popular show for mornings I watch it every morning as I'm getting ready for work or going through press clippings it's just really nice to hear um that crew they do a great job of just making football fun and easy to understand and entertaining to listen to so I've known Jamie for a couple years now she used to be the CBS Sports sideline reporter for the mainc game every week and also does CBS sideline reporting for March Madness she's a for basketball player so she is great and she just recently became the host last year of good morning football and has done an amazing job and what reason I wanted to have her on is because she's a Minnesota native and a Vikings fan but as the host of good morning football she has to talk about every team and this past week when NFL Network's good morning football crew gives out their game balls which they do every Monday all four of the members of the crew give out a game ball she gave her game ball to Jake Browning and so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to have Jamie on to talk about the Vikings a team she knows well and to talk about what she likes most about Jake Browning and what this Bengals team is doing so for more from Jamie erll here's my conversation with her and I am so excited to bring on our guest this week as the Bengals get ready to take on the Vikings for what a couple months ago we might have not thought was going to be such a good game but now you could argue it's one of the better games of the week in terms of just interesting story lines and my guest today is someone who I admire so much and I had a chance to meet her a couple years ago and you know when you hope one of like your Idols is as nice and awesome in person as they look like on TV well Jamie erle the host of good morning football is exactly that and more and she's been kind enough to give me a couple minutes today and the reason I want to have Jamie on for this specific game is for those that don't know uh Jamie is from Minnesota and is a Vikings fan but as the host of good morning football she of course has to follow all of the NFL stories and this week when good morning football gives out their game balls which they do I think it's every T Monday or Tuesday Monday um she gave her game ball to Jake Browning so I thought this was the best time to have her on So Jamie thank you so much for joining me thank you Kelsey thank you so much for the introduction it's wonderful to see you and if only the extra thing you could say is that I was on the sideline for this game I know my my neighbor that I sit next to at the gmfb table Jason McCord will be there he rolls his eyes when he gets assigned Vikings games because he gets you know approached by all like my the people I used to intern for in Minnesota all this stuff he's like can you just be here so you can say hi to them so I don't have to talk to them for you um so I wish so badly I was there for you but I will be in Indianapolis instead I will watch your game and then I'll knock out the Steelers Colts game you might be giving more game balls to Cincinnati we'll see uh because this two game stretch the Bengals season it's funny when I watch you guys they started off obviously with all the talk about Joe's CF and and just how bad the offense looked without him and then you go to he comes back and he has that amazing game in Arizona and then they go on a little win streak they beat Seattle at home and then he gets hurt in that Thursday night game against the Ravens which you could argue had the makings to be the best Thursday night game of the year for where and I think the Bengals would have ended up winning that game because of the drive that Joe had them on yeah and then you go into their first game without Joe looks pretty horrible against the Steelers they run the ball only eight times you don't know what you think of Jake Browning and then the last two games Jake Browning has been outstanding Zack Taylor has made some adjustments in the way that he's calling the game with Jake and it's just been really fun to to cover the Bengals right now because when you see someone like this and and Jamie also covers March Madness and and we talk about those stories about the team that comes out of nowhere and makes a run at the sweet 16 like you've covered so many of those what have you enjoyed most when talking about the Bengals as much as you do when you look at like the season as a whole I like looking at teams and and oftentimes we do this very naturally through the lens of the quarterback and the head coach and and really the personalities that drive those teams because I think those are your leaders in the clubhouse I think those oftentimes are the gentleman there's the rare occasion where it is somebody else in those roles that's doing that but those are the two that are setting the tone and the tenor for your team that season having covered Joe burrow at LSU when I was with CBS I got to know Joe very well in his two years um with LSU and Jamar as well so I knew what he was about and how he handles himself in a new locker room in a new city not that Cincinnati was a new city for him but in a new organization so I was not surprised to whatsoever that the beginning of his career um has gone the way it has with the Bengals um from a personality standpoint so just wanted to set the table that way when I saw Jake Browning come in and had when I've seen him subsequently in his press conferences and his family members and the suite and the fact that Joe gave up the seats for Jake I think there is something there that like those two seem to have something going on their personality seems similar they have this kind of dry smirky sense of humor they obviously have an incredible talent and work ethic Joe's different than Jake that got them to these various points in their careers but there is something for somebody to be able to pick up where you left off and the fact that this team had the makings of things going well at the right times and the fact that it was such a gut punch when Joe went out but the fact that Jake even though it took him a minute to figure it out skill set aside you need somebody who's just gonna keep it going the way Joe was and I think what I really applaud Jake for is everyone just seems so comfortable with him being in this role and the fact that he's playing fantastic doesn't hurt either when you look at this specific game against the Vikings a team that when they had Kirt cousins was operating a really high level then now this week the Josh do story was great but Nick Mullen is going to be the starter so it's going to be Nick Mullins versus Jake Browning which a couple months ago you would have been like yeah I don't know about that game but now you're like okay because the Vikings have so much to play for and so did the Bengals what what are you expecting from the Vikings with Nick Mullen well for as much as I would love to opine about how Nick Mullins could do the same thing that Jake Browning has done I can't speak on that because I probably I just I haven't seen it I don't know it I don't believe that that you know necessarily could pan out that way what I do believe is that this Vikings defense can travel and um whatever Mullin has to do you know we talked about this with Zach Wilson a few weeks ago just like we were trying to was it Zach Wilson or was it when uh his back whatever we were trying to create a standard for a Jets quarterback whoever it was playing we were like just throw for 120 yards and don't turn the ball over and maybe rush for your own 40 and it was just this kind of what I found condescending standard but it was like just do enough because the Jets defense was so good a little bit I feel that way about the Vikings at this point just coming off of what they did against the Raiders last week in that three- nothing game it's like your defense can hang with anybody at this point the Vikings posted this video of their D coordinator Brian Flora is like bopping around the locker room after that game and a little bit I was like really you just won three nothing but I was like hey shout out a shout out what are you gonna do um so I don't know Nick Mullins I don't know how this is going to work the Josh dos thing was also really fun to watch but when I said about Jake when I gave out this game ball which is to me quarterback backup quarterbacks go through a phase of three steps I go it's cute what they did and then the second game I'm like okay and then the third game you have to see you're like okay now this is actually happening this way so this is the Jake Browning third game for me that I really want to see transpire Nick Mullins I'm not even at the like that was cute that was nice what you just did I haven't even gotten there yet with him so but the defense is playing out of their minds right now and I feel this way about the Ravens offense and it took some time for the Todd M Todd monin thing to take effect I think it took some time for this Vikings defense and the Brian Flores thing to take effect and now it has and I think the Bengals the Lions team should look out that the Vikings are going to have to play offensively no idea Justin Jefferson no idea what's going on with him but can if the defense can do it they did last weekend I think everyone's probably should be on their radar well a fun note for you guys I don't know if you um have already talked about it I didn't get to watch the show this morning but Brian Flores and Zach Taylor got a little bit of a spicy relationship dating back to that 2019 game and it's funny as someone who covers the Bengals on a daily basis like Zach is always he speaks usually glowing of all the other coaches and this week I and I wasn't covering the Bengals then and I obviously know of what happened because that's how the Bengals were able to get Joe burrow because had they won that game they probably would have him um Joe I said you know Zach last week I asked him about chain Sten and he was like great I think he's doing a phenomenal job I'm such a fan of his like what do you think about Brian for as his defense he's like they bring a lot of pressure next question like he was so abruptly short and as someone who's seen Zachs like every press conference I was like okay there's something here so yes I don't know keep your ey on that that handshake post game because I think it could be depending on how this goes a little IC because there's some history there absolutely that's good call that is Curious Case um I think Flores too has a lot of things to be coaching for just like in his life and his professional you know development and whatnot and so the defense has bought in the guys are playing great they have that undrafted rookie Ivan Pace who's just been playing out of his mind Cincinnati guy Cincinnati guy yes um so that's a great that's a great story and so how it transpires you know this Nick Mullen Jake Browning thing like like you said two months ago we were like wow really and now we're like okay because it's kind of make or break for a lot of the games this weekend for some of these teams well and they flexed this game we didn't know if this was going to be the Saturday night game and they moved it to the one o'clock game because they were like but now you're like well maybe it should be in prime time because I mean I just I think this game's going to be weird I think it's going to be low scoring and weird so um before we let you go cuz we know you have a very busy day I want to just get your prediction and maybe something that you think will be a defining factor in the game well let's go back to what we just talked about I think if Ivan Pace can kind of keep playing in a disruptive manner in a way that rookies play sometimes they don't really realize how good it is before they get in their heads or before people start to and also him coming home it could go one of two ways he could totally blow a tire uh on the way in and just like not re and just could come down to earth if you will and it and he might be a total non-factor or he could blow up Jake Browning's life and he could show everyone in Cincinnati who watched him and knew he was good because he was like an All-American at Cincinnati right and then to play out of his mind and just be totally disruptive so I think Ivan Pace has a hell of a day I also agree lowc scoring um but I actually do think the Vikings Will Come Away with this one wow well I find I think that because it's that payor if it was in Minnesota I would say for sure but um I just think the Bengals will will do enough and the nick nick Mullen is just my xfactor here I just don't know what to think of him but I'm just excited to watch the game I think it's going to be fun and it'll be a fun way to watch the Vikings the rest of the season and the Bengals So Jamie thank you so much for joining me I hope I get to talk to you again soon and maybe if the Bengals make a playoff run we could have you back on the podcast anytime happy to great stuff from Jamie I was expecting it to be awesome but really appreciate her taking some time to chat with us she is doing the sideline reporting for a game on NL Network this week so she's got a lot going on so Jamie we appreciate you so much for taking some time to join Bengals beat podcast so that is it for this week's episode thanks so much for tuning in everyone and we will talk to you guys next week