The Orange and Black Insider: Could Josh Norman shut down A.J. Green?

On this week’s Orange and Black Insider podcast, we had Ken Meringolo of Hogs Haven on the program to help us preview the upcoming matchup between the Redskins and the Bengals. We talked about a myriad of items, including matchups to watch, Ken’s “man-cave” and epic Redskins-based t-shirt, as well as ending with Ken’s game prediction.

“A.J. Green’s awesome. Players like him are going to get theirs, so you’re not necessarily saying ‘Josh Norman, go shut down A.J. Green’,” Meringolo said of the impending marquee matchup in London. “You hope he (Norman) can, but you just can’t get worked up over a play here and there”.

It’s pretty safe to say no one has been able to completely shut down Green, and there’s no reason to believe Norman will.

“To be honest with you, it’s amazing how good Josh Norman is,” Meringolo continued. “We don’t have the greatest defense, so sometimes you wonder how the Redskins won the game...and you go back at the tape and you say ‘Oh, yeah. Josh Norman’. He’s not necessarily shutting the same guy down, but he’s locking it down, forcing the ball other places.”

We also addressed Kirk Cousins and not only the improvement of his play in recent games, but also the often-used comparison of the Redskins signal-caller to the Bengals’ Andy Dalton. Meringolo talked about Cousins’ resurgence to get Washington back to 4-3, with four straight wins after an 0-2 start, but also his respect level for Dalton.

“First, you can do a whole lot worse than being compared to Andy Dalton,” Meringolo said. “I think Andy Dalton’s a fine player—certainly one worth heavily-investing in for an NFL team. Every NFL team, at some point, has to choose who they’re going to invest in at quarterback.”

“You don’t always get a chance to invest in Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck or Tom Brady,” Meringolo continued. “Sometimes you have to develop a guy and believe in him and pay him. For the Redskins, that’s Kirk Cousins. And, if he compares favorably in any way to Andy Dalton, I’ll take it. I like Andy Dalton”.

Meringolo also talked about the Bengals’ weapons, the effect Jay Gruden has had on the club and the Redskins’ running game. Have a listen and/or watch the video of the interview below. You can download the show via iTunes, or both our YouTube and SoundCloud channels. If you want to get in touch with us, you can hit us up on Twitter @BengalsOBI or email us at theobinsider@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!