I'm Alex Frank and Joe Burrow played football on Monday.

When could we see a return to game action?

Could it be next Sunday against New England?

And how much will it matter with the defense that needs to prove that it's not the worst we've seen in the last 25 years?

Well, hey, as soon as we clean up that training room and get those players back out, who knows?

Today, it's the Bengals Squad, everything Cincinnati Bengals every week.

Breaking down all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Queen City,

the way only the Locked-on Podcast Network can Queen City the way only the locked-on podcast network can.

From the jungle to the playoffs, the Bengals Squad show starts now.

Now, potentially three and six to the playoffs, if this season goes the way, we hope it goes

the rest of the way. Hey, welcome to Bengals Squad. It's the debut episode. I'm Alex Frank alongside Jake Lisco and Art Valero. I'm on Twitter, by the way, Frankie underscore Natty. Jake, as you see on Twitter at Jake Lisco, Art at Coach Art Valero. This is not a replacement to lockdown Bengals. This is actually a supplement to lockdown bengals. Part of the lockdown podcast

network, now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. Lockdown Bengals, we're

going to go twice a week, including after every Bengals game. It's a long form conversational show

where we talk everything, Bengals, and we get you ready for the upcoming game and so much more.

My name is Alex Frank. I'm a lifelong Bengals season ticket holder, third generation, lifelong Bengals fan, covering the Bengals for Cincy Jungle over an SB Nation. As I mentioned, I have the privilege of being joined by Jake Lisko and coach Ard-Vilero. Art is a former Super Bowl winning head coach. Not head coach, excuse me, but he coached with John Gruden. He was the tight ends coach of the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gentlemen, it's so great to have you. We're going to talk all things Joe Burrow being back. We're going to talk about this defense, Joe Flacko, and of course, it's Steeler Week. Jake, you know what that means, right? It's a pretty big week in Cincinnati. Big week in Cincinnati. Big week for any potential playoff hopes, I would say. I mean, at 3 and 6, it's a narrow path to get there. You get the extra game that helps a little bit. You know, you're not on a 16 game schedule anymore. So there's a little bit more wiggle room. I think you probably

need at least 10 wins to win the AFC North. And the division matchups are going to be the most

important thing. So coming out of the buy for the third time in four years against the Pittsburgh

Steelers, which is a weird scheduling idiosyncrasy, it's absolutely a big game if they're going to make Joe Burroughs

return relevant. Yeah, that's a great point there. You mentioned three of the last four seasons.

The Bengals out of the buy have played the Steelers. They won in Pittsburgh in 2022. Joe Burrow

was terrific in that game through for four touchdowns, three of which were to Samagee, Pete,

Ron. They lost last year 44, 38.

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