Can a Joe Burrow-powered Bengals TAKE DOWN Josh Allen & the Bills? 🍿 | First Take

Can a Joe Burrow-powered Bengals TAKE DOWN Josh Allen & the Bills? 🍿 | First Take

As much as I hate to say this, I have never been a person that thought coach Tomlin was a great coach, I thought he was a good coach. A good coach gets you to play to your potential. And right now, the players we have on that team, I have seen play. I know they can do it. I have seen them do it. and they’re not playing up to their potential. And I know the Steelers historically don’t move on from coaches, but I think it’s time that history be made because right now the only history we’re making is being the worst Pittsburgh Steelers team statistically almost in the history of the organization. Okay, so that was Steelers legend James Harrison with obviously very strong words for Mike Tomlin RC. You know James very well. You obviously played for the Steelers. Are those fair comments by him? First off, James is one of my close friends. I don’t just know James, right? Like you know my my son, my kids call him Uncle Debo. So I think that’s the first thing. So before I would ever talk about him, I’mma talk to him. And initially I was like Debo that’s wrong. I was like well who’s great then? And he was like, “Well, Bill’s great and and andy’s great.” And I was like, “So, I get it. That’s your only criteria.” I was like, he’s like, “So, you tell me why he’s great.” And I was like, I said, “It’s leadership.” I said, “The way he connects the locker room.” I said, “The way that every week you went into a football game, when you went into that football game, you knew the exact path to winning and you knew the exact path to losing that with Duck Hodes and Mason Rudolph and last year Justin Fields and and Russell Wilson. He got those teams to overachieve. To me, Mike Tomlin is one of the best coaches that’s ever lived, and he’s one of the greatest coaches of this era. And what makes me sad is when you watch the product that’s on the field right now, you have to agree with what James is saying, you have to say that Mike Tomlin is not getting this team prepared to play up to their potential. That there should be a conversation between Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan. Not if we should fire Mike Tomlin. I’ve said this time and time again. Mike Tomlin is unfireable in my opinion, but maybe it’s best that Mike Tomlin’s voice is elsewhere. Maybe it’s best that you tear this entire thing down because what’s happened for the last 10 years and Stephen A knows that this is the worst place to be is they’ve been in championship purgatory. That’s right. And that’s not a place where the Pittsburgh Steelers need to be. Since 2016, the Steelers are the number one team in the NFL, winning 60% of their games, who have not won a playoff game. Um, James Harrison. I’m not tight with him like RC is, but I got mad love for for James Harrison. He’s always been good to me. And, you know, and I like my life, too, because that brother is he will hurt people. He’s not acting either. He’s not acting. You understand? I mean, I had he I ain’t going to say the person’s name, but somebody ticked him off one time at a podcast. He wanted to hurt the brother. Like, let me talk to Let me talk because I wanted the brother to live. You understand? This is James Harrison we’re talking about here. Here’s my only problem with James Harrison and what he said. What he said about Mike Tomlin this season is more than fair. It was the line when he said I never viewed him as a great coach. It was like damn cuz he played for the man. You see what I’m saying? And it’s like damn did you have to say that? You know, and the reason why I say that is because if you’re going to do it, and I don’t want to use the word respect because I got profound respect for James Harrison, but if you really really wanted that element of the comment to be respected, then go Terry Bradshaw. Say it about him while he went. See what I’m saying? To say it now. What you’ve been feeling about the totality of his coaching resume is an ouch moment. and you found yourself saying, “Was that really right? Was that really necessary?” Terry Bradshaw said it years ago about Mike Tomlin when Mike Tomlin was winning. Whether you agreed or disagree is the four-time champion, Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers that said that about Mike Tomlin when he was winning. That’s different than saying it now. But you So, so here is here is why I reached out to James. Sure. Terry Bradshaw saying it isn’t a man that’s connected to Mike. Agree that. That’s right. Right. And so, and so when Terry Bradshaw says it, Terry Bradshaw to me is saying it as a steal or great, but also as an analyst outside of the locker room. When James Harrison says it, people give more credence to it because you played for him, right? You won a Super Bowl with him. You were the defensive player of the year with Mike Tomlin. And so the question starts to be asked, well, why do you say it? Give me the specifics. And so for me, there’s always that level of respect, that level of love, where the insides and the insights of what I know about him are between me and him. And if I ever got to the point where that was that strong of a statement, Mike Tomlin wouldn’t know that before I said it, right? And I called James and James told me that Mike T already knew he felt that way. Got it. Okay. All right. Well, that clears some things up. Regardless, Steelers are still six and six. They’re still tied for first place in their division. There’s still a lot of season left, and they could still make the postseason. All right, Dan Alaski likes to be definitive in his takes and so we’re going to play a little game of definitive Dan. He’s going to tell us what’s on his mind and then we will react to said definitive statements. Go ahead, Dio. Number one, everybody’s making way too big a deal about the Jackson Dart hits. Everyone’s constantly talking about Jackson Dart’s got to change the style of play. Jackson Dart takes too many hits. Availability is the best ability. We all We have heard this way too many times. We all know that Jackson Dart’s going to change the style of play, but everyone’s talking about the young man is a completely reckless style of player. That’s not going to get into his second year of the NFL. He plays quarterback. The talks about New England. He’s on the road versus one of the best teams in football. Another young quarterback. It’s Monday Night Football and everyone’s like, “Please, please stop making contact with the other team.” Will you guys stop being so soft? It’s a physical sport. You should know that as much as anybody. Jackson Dart, everyone take a deep breath with the he’s got to take less hits thoughts. Yeah, that’s wrong. And I mean, you you you know the type of hits that he’s taking and why as the quarterback, your responsibility goes above just any individual play. You are the franchise. And Jackson Dart, it’s not just about the Patriots. It’s hits he’s been taking all year long. And I’m This isn’t about being soft or physicality or whatnot. It’s about playing the position with long-term future in mind and also your capability to play from inside the pocket. He doesn’t have to take these hits to win games for them. First of all, that’s the wrongest take Dan has ever had. Right. Right. Like we can’t say it’s okay for Jackson Dart to get absolutely abused because he’s cool, because he wears a headband, because he’s some sort of rock star. Axel, last I checked, Axel Rose is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That doesn’t matter. It’s not about just taking hits. It’s the sort of hits that you take. It’s not like Jackson Dart ever delivers any punishment. He only absorbs it. And that’s the problem. When you’re running down the sideline and you’ve gotten out of the pocket, you’ve shown that you’re willing to compete. You’re shown you’re trying to get the extra yards. Don’t let Ellis slide your tail under the bench in New England. Those are the sorts of hits we’re talking about. Not those plays where you can help your team win and you and you kind of shrink from those things, but the unnecessary punishment. Dan is wrong. You are right. America, I want you guys to give me the names of some of the great youngerish quarterbacks that we have in the NFL. The guys that have maybe cemented themselves as great players, but they were young like two, three, four years ago. Give me the names. Josh Allen. Josh Allen took Josh Allen’s one. I like that. I watched his entire career. He does not take those. He did not take those hits. But this is the other thing though. People say Lamar Jackson, who’s a way better runner, does not take hits like that. Shouldn’t take hits like that. People say Jaden Daniels shouldn’t have taken the hits that it take. Cam Newton, who was the biggest and most physical to ever do it. We talked about the amount of hits that he took and the impact it had on his career. Jackson Dart ain’t none of them. And Cam Newton said he shouldn’t take those hits. He actually agreed with this. Okay. So, Jackson Dart’s got how many starts? Five. He’s got eight starts. Eight starts. Through his eight starts, Jackson Dart has been hit 95 times. In the same amount of eight starts, the Lamar Jackson was hit 121 times. It does not look the same. Okay, Jay, you’ve seen Okay, Jaylen Herz was hit 116 left with an inund different era. 116 times. Josh Allen was hit 108 times. Cam Newton, who you let me jump in here. Hold on. Let me finish. 100 times. Okay. So, all those guys have been hit more than Jackson Dart. So, you know, I love numbers. Sometimes numbers lie because when you watch Jackson Dart take hits, it looks different from all of the quarterback. When Lamar Jackson takes a hit, it does not look not like that Christian Ellis hit. The actual hits he’s taking are different in nature from the other young quarterback. You think the hits that Jackson Dart’s taken looked different than the ones that Cam Newton and Josh Allen took? Yes. Because you know why? Because when Josh Allen and Cam Newton were giving they they were delivering punishment. We watched Josh Allen slide before. When Josh Allen is getting extra yards, he’s lowering his shoulder and getting those yards. And you know what he does? He gets up and he gets in Cam Hayward’s face and he goes into the cuddle. You know what Jackson Dart does? He goes into the damn tent. A lot of those numbers are like are like snakes and short yardage runs or being We are talking about this quarterback being hit in the open field. Yeah. But listen, the thing though, we watched him we watched him lay on the floor sleepy against the Chicago Bears. We saw them. Then when he comes back, we see him getting slid under the bench in New England. You guys have made too big a deal about this. The problem is too though, he doesn’t want to change. He said after this is how I’m going to play. Those other quarterbacks you named literally tried to alter their game so they wouldn’t take those. That’s what I’m saying. They practice sliding. They practice running out of bounds. Like they practice. Nobody’s asking him to be soft. Like you’re asking like you’re acting like we’re asking him to be soft. Some people are what what I’m asking him to do is know when it’s over. Yes. Stop sleeping on the Miami Dolphins. Oh boy. The Miami Dolphins are going to get to eight and seven. The Miami Dolphins play the Bucks the week 17 and then the New England Patriots week 18. This has become one of the best run games in football. And it’s because of Devon Han. The the thing that we’ve said about Miami for years is when the weather turns, they’re not good enough. That’s different. They’ve completely changed their offensive identity. That guy’s become one of, if not the most explosive running back in football. Just so everybody at home understands, two is playing not good enough. He’s going to have to play better. I love their linebacker crew. But this is what I want to talk about with their offense. Han right now in the last three games and their three-game win streak. 428 yards, 66 a carry, 20 one first downs, 14 explosive runs. Those are runs over 10 yards. That that team’s dangerous right now. Don’t forget about them. That’s not what the take was, though. The take was that they were going to make the playoffs. Yeah, it’s not. Don’t sleep on them to make the playoffs. Yeah, that that that that was the take on the sheet. Now, what you just said, all that’s correct. The run game is awesome. The the run game is phenomenal. The the the changes they’ve made, putting it into Devon Achan’s hands has been a huge difference in what Mike McDaniel has done. I agree with all that. Even on the back end, this team has played well. If you would have told me Mike McDaniel has saved his job, I would have agreed that would be a good that take because that’s the take. It seems like you agree with this take this team. We was asking they have like a less than 1% chance to make the playoffs. They’d have to run the table. The defense, the teams you’re playing that describe the Bucks and the Patriots both have good run defenses. So, it’s tough matchups. Both of those teams will be able to put up, but I think they’re going to be eight and seven going into that Buck Patri if they don’t make the playoffs. Even if he don’t make the playoffs, here’s the challenge. I think, you know, this weekend they got to get play against the Jets. Supposedly, their nickel quarterback is going to be a superstar. So, that’s a big challenge. It’s a big challenge. Clark, shout out to Ryan’s son Jordan starting this weekend. So Miami block him and then they go to Monday Night Football against the Steelers and the chance to get the 500 in 7 and seven. Interesting. Down in South Florida team is a different team now, right? But the the week 17, week 18, even the Bengals those last three weeks little bit of could be a little bit of a struggle. Their linebackers, dude. Jordan Brooks and Dodson are playing phenomenal Brooks underrated. He’s played well the entire year. Even when this team was bad, nothing to talk about against the Bills. He absolutely dominated and I feel like that started this team going and playing the way that they have. Good job. Definitive statements on that was the worst job ever done. Don’t be mean for Dan O here yesterday. Mad Dog said that 9 and4 49ers are the scariest team in the NFC right now. Are you high on them as well? Do you agree? Well, that’s a dumb thing to say, Mad Dog. But um I will say this, Kyle Shanahan, who’s their head coach, has been to three Super Bowls. It’s his best coaching job. He’s had to play two quarterbacks. His star tight end missed significant amounts of time. Their number one, their number two, number three receiver, have all missed time. The number one receiver has not played this year. They lost their best defensive player, their second best defensive player, and their first round draft pick, who was a defensive player. The fact that they are nine and four is an unbelievable coaching job by him and his staff. It’s also Christian McCaffrey uh re-establishing the importance that he is to his team and how great of a player is. I would have him forth my MVP right now. Um what Kyle Shanahan’s doing right now and the fact that this is a playoff contending football team and feels like they will be in the playoffs as well is absolutely unbelievable. And they’ve won in Seattle, but they’re not one of the greatest team. Uh I think that’s scary because of the coaching factor. Uh quarterback showdown we have in Buffalo Sunday. Joe Burrow and the Bengals are going to vi visit Josh Allen and the Bills who are trying to keep pace with the Patriots in the AFC East. Meanwhile, Cincinnati will try to keep their slim but still have them playoff hopes alive. They are 3 and 0 in games Joe Burrow started this season. They have been 1 and8 when he is out. He will play though this weekend. Which offense though do we think will ball out more in this one? Ryan Clark, Bengals or Bills? Well, I think the Bengals are the better offense and I think that’s the team that will play better this week. That doesn’t mean that the Bengals win the game. Yeah. Like like that’s the that’s the first thing I want to say. What I have loved about what we’ve seen in recent weeks from the Cincinnati Bengals is they’re starting to get Chase Brown going a little bit, right? We’re seeing some explosive runs. We’re seeing physicality in the run game. And when you watched Joe Burrow operate and you know it was something like you almost forgot, right? Because you saw Joe Flacco be able to create these yard this yardage and these explosive plays to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and you almost forgot just how damn good Joe Burrow is, how he understands exactly what he’s getting offensively and where to go with the football right away. The way he can place the ball anywhere he wants it offensively. And when you think about the back end of the Buffalo Bills and also how susceptible the Buffalo Bills are to teams who are willing to consistently call the run, I think the Cincinnati Bengals will have a day offensively. Higgins supposed to be back this weekend as well. What do you think? I think both offenses have a lot of success in this one. Um, but I’m in agreement with Brian. And I love that you highlighted the run game because it’s important given the matchup, right? This Bills defense has been somewhat better against the run last week. Played more base defense, Shaq Thompson on the field. They put three linebackers on the field though against Cincinnati. They’ll throw on them. And I think that’s what I love watching, you know, about this offense right now with Joe Burrow back at quarterback is they can beat you a number of different ways. I also don’t think the Bills corners match up well with these. Nobody matches up well with so I I think and maybe someone will make the case for Allen. I think he’ll have success as well. I just think this Bills Bengals offense can beat you in different ways right now. Whereas the Bills offense is more onedimensional. Yeah. Who gets the 35 first is what how I feel about the game. If this game was in Cincinnati, I would say the Bengals. This game’s in Buffalo. I’m going to say Buffalo. Uh Buffalo at home, 25 touchdowns. This year, 15 punts. Buffalo on the road, 15 touchdowns, 21 punts. It’s just a completely different offensive unit at home. Uh will both tackles play? I I I think it’s like it’s funny to talk about the game. It’s like what defense that we saw from each team last week is more real. Yeah. You know, like Buffalo defensively was really good against not a great offense in Pittsburgh, but at least they were physical and stopped the run. And Cincinnati, I was like, what? Why is Cincinnati’s defense playing so good? Barrett Carter at linebacker was all over the field. And so it’s like, which one of those units is a little bit more reality, I guess. Um, and just because Buffalo’s home, I would take their offense. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think the the the tough part about this is like for for Al Golden, they were still giving up explosive plays. Yeah. Right. Like Jordan Battle just makes an unbelievable play on the goal line on Isaiah Likely, right? Who who’s loose with the football and so you you think to yourself, the the Bills are going to move the ball. It’s going to be about who makes the most important play in that game in the critical football moment in situational football. Can one of these defenses come up with a stop? And I think that’s who says or that’s what says who wins this game. And I’d also say this, the one of the reasons that Buffalo is in kind of the situation that they’ve been in this year is they’ve given the ball away. And even last week, they had two early turnovers as an offense, and you’re sitting there going, “Is it going to happen again?” If they do that, they won’t win because if you turn the ball over with an okay defense versus this offense, they’ll hang 40 on you even in Buffalo. Just out of curiosity, you like the Bengals or Bills in this one. I I know I just said I think the Bengals offense, but I am taking the Bills largely because it’s at home. I also think with Bills games, it always comes down to a civil thing for me. Can they stop them on the ground? I don’t think Cincinnati can. Yeah. What do you Who you Yeah, I’ve taking the Bills as well. And that was the the difficult part about the question because I expect the Bengals to play extremely well offensively. But when you look at what James Cook does, especially at home, and Joe Brady just understanding who this team has to be, there’s no way he watches the film from last week and goes, “Now I’m going to come out and get shotgun and throw this football 40 times.” Yeah. I say Buffalo. The Buffalo defense is flawed, but they’re built at least strengthwise to defend the pass more than they are the run. This isn’t a juggernaut run game, although they do it a little bit more. I say Buffalo again at home. Bills are 12-2 when James Cook rushes for over a 100 yards. Have to do that. Yeah, good player. Let’s give him the ball. I hope. Yeah. Give him the ball. Uh, with that being said, Cincinnati, no wiggle room. They got to win this game if they want to make the postseason.

Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky and Mina Kimes join Shae Cornette on First Take to discuss all the biggest storylines around the NFL headed into Week 14.

0:00 Has Mike Tomlin’s time come with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
5:27 Definitive Dan on Jaxson Dart
10:29 Definitive Dan on the Miami Dolphins
13:03 Are the San Francisco 49ers scary?
14:04 Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/

#ESPN #NFL