This season on the Inside the Jungle Bengals podcast, featured here at Cincy Jungle, the show's host, Nick Seuberling, has been bringing on far more guests during the season to join in on the conversation. Most of them have been fellow SB Nation contributors from the Bengals' upcoming opposition's websites, but we've also booked a couple of Cincinnati beat writers recently as well.
Jay Morrison from The Dayton Daily News has graciously joined us a couple of times through the first half of the season and this week, Bengals.com editor Geoff Hobson stopped by the program. As always, he brought a wealth of knowledge and insider updates about the club.
Seuberling began the interview by asking Hobson if was surprised by the 8-0 start and if he thought he would ever see a Bengals team start like this. Hobson responded that he thought the 2013 crew had a chance, especially with a defense that finished third at the end of the season the year prior. The conversation predictably turned to quarterback Andy Dalton and his outstanding play this season.
"Well, I think he's doing what they felt like they could do when they drafted him, in the sense that he's the right guy, if you put him in the right offense, with the right people and he's a facilitator," Hobson noted. "They always felt that he was a bright guy, that he understood the game and I think that, once he got comfortable and once he got confidence, they could be a team they could with the Super Bowl with."
In talking about the other players offense, I asked Hobson about the differences in Hue Jackson's 2015 offense, versus Jay Gruden's final Bengals version back in 2013. In both of us noting that Dalton and Jackson are clearly more comfortable with things now that Tyler Eifert and Marvin Jones are back this season, Hobson also noted that Jackson has been using more formations. The availability of all weapons has given Jackson the ability to be far more creative in his looks and ball disbursement to the offensive cast.
I also asked Hobson a question that has been on Bengaldom's mind for quite some time now this season: "What's going on with Jeremy Hill?" Hobson replied: "That's a good question. You talk to some guys around the club and I think they think he's trying to get it all back at once, in like a 70-yard run, you know? I think he'd probably agree with that--he's kind of pressing a bit, looking for the big one. I also think, the last couple of games, he's looked more like himself, more north and south--maybe not as much east and west. When you gain four yards a shot against Pittsburgh, that's a pretty good day's work. I think in the last two games, he's had three of his longest runs of the year. So, I see it coming--I'm surprised it's taken this long to get it going, but they've had Gio (Bernard) to turn to and it shows you how deep they are and the running game hasn't suffered all that much..."
Nick segued to the defensive side of the ball, namely to freshly-returned linebacker, Vontaze Burfict. Hobson talked about the team's lack of surprise with his return from the microfracture procedure, and how they're still being cautious with him after playing more than the coaches thought he would have to because of injury. He also mentioned that it had been a year since Burfict and Rey Maualuga basically played together (Maualuga left early against Pittsburgh and didn't play the following week against Cleveland--the first two games back for Burfict), and how seeing both of them out there should really shore up the run defense.
I continued by asking Hobson if there was a sense of disappointment in cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick's play in 2015. He hasn't created a turnover, one of his specialties in recent years, and has been hit-and-miss this season. "Well, he's still in there and they really like (Darqueze) Dennard. I think if they were disappointed with him, they'd put Dennard out there and that hasn't happened yet. Dre's had some moments where he hasn't looked very good, and he's had some moments where he's looked really good." Hobson also noted that some of the deep passes Kirkpatrick has been beaten on this season didn't seem to be because of physical deficiencies, but rather more of a communication issue.
All in all, Hobson spent about 25 minutes with us and we are extremely grateful for his time and the work he does over at Bengals.com. The audio clip of our interview with him is below.