Dan Pitcher on Bengals Struggles on Offense, Learning From Mistakes

Thu, Aug 6, 2026

Video Transcript

Difficult is the defense making life for you guys?

Uh, it's a formidable group across from us for sure.

Um, so that's, that's really exciting to see, uh, for the team, for the organization, as somebody that in, you know, 3.5 weeks is going to be rooting like hell for them.

Um, that's exciting to see because it is , it's tough.

Uh, it's, you know, they're doing some really good things.

They're challenging us schematically, and then they're also just challenging us from a standpoint of, uh, you know, who they are and, and winning one on one matchups, so it's going to make us better.

I feel like I've been getting at least a really good run every day in video.

Uh, how do you feel about the running game?

So very pleased.

Um, it's not where we want it to be ultimately , uh, but we're seeing a lot of positive returns on some stuff we've invested in over the offseason.

And really spent a lot of time with our guys honing in on the details of what it is that we're trying to get done, and we've gotten a lot of really positive feedback and we've had success, not every time, obviously you're never going to be you're never going to bat 1000, especially in that phase.

But you got to stick with it and uh we're going to do that and I think we're we're seeing some of the benefits of that.

I know you guys really value continuity and Joe's trust with people is always something that's really important when it comes to, you know, potentially a battle between Andre and Kobe.

Obviously Andre's got the reps baked, but how does he take advantage of.

What he can do in this training camp, um, and is that, you know, a battle that you see potentially brewing, or you know, how, how does that shake out for you?

I mean, I think, you know, you highlighted two guys.

I think, um, I've always viewed the battle within the passing game and our offense as, you know, who's competing over the shares for the, the 3rd, 4th, 5th guy, you know, and I think those guys all come.

Really from three different rooms.

Um, and so I think you could highlight all of our individuals, whether it be Dre, whether it be Kobe, and you could, you could say, hey, there's, there's a handful of instances where they've done some really impressive things and then there's another handful of instances where we got to finish and that's the beauty of um getting to come out here every day and compete and.

You know, at the end of the day, the, the best players will play and the guys that we feel like give us the best chance to win in any given week.

So there's a long way left before we have to make those decisions.

What does the under center game afford this offense?

I mean, I think there's a lot that it opens up for you in terms of what the defense has to honor, um, and it, you know, creates some opportunities potentially in the run game to do some different things um that might have.

A little bit more high-end payoff, uh, you have to go execute them and you have to be ready to answer some of the unique challenges that are presented to you as an offense when you get under center.

Um, so we're just gonna keep doing the, the cost-benefit.

Uh, I can't stand here today and tell you what percentage we're going to be in the gun, what percentage we're gonna be under center.

We have a plan.

Everything we're doing right now is with a purpose, uh, and we're getting some really good feedback.

Following up on Colby, what's impressed you so far?

I think you guys see the size and the physicality and the ability to ward off contact down the field and make plays.

I see a guy who's really willing to do the dirty work and do the thankless jobs.

Everybody wants to run down the field and high point the 40 yard goal ball.

The crowd goes wild for that.

The crowd doesn't realize it when you dig out a safety on duo, and it might open up a lane that's a half a yard wider that lets Chase Brown make somebody miss and get 14 rather than 4.

We see that stuff.

I see a guy who understands that early on in his career that's going to be something we ask of him and he's going to have to perform it at a high level and if he does, he's going to have a role and then by doing those things it buys you more time on the field so that when the time is right and the matchup presents, you can go make the big play .

So that's what I've seen from him so far by no means perfect, but.

Positive about who he is as a player and a person and what he's going to bring to us.

How do you feel I think there's been mixed results, and I think that's what we expected.

I've been really pleased with some of the stuff we've been able to do in the run game.

Um, I know that's sometimes a hard thing to evaluate when you're not tackling ball carriers and bringing them to the ground and, um, really getting a sense for what, what's a good run and what isn't.

Um, we've had, we've had several explosive runs and, and we've been able to create some space that I'm really happy with.

Um, I think we got to continue to work through what we're going to look like as a, as a 1st and 2nd down passing offense, um.

And that will include some under center, some gun.

I can't tell you how much of each, um, but we have to be complimentary.

We have to make life hard on the defense.

And in order to do that, they've got to have to honor everything no matter what formation you line up in.

And so that's what we're setting out to do and figure out how we can accomplish that.

When you look at an unscripted period like that as an offense, what do you get out of that and as a coach, what do you learn from that?

Um, it's a stress, it's, it's a way to impose stress on the players in a way that scripted periods don't.

Um, you know, these guys all care very deeply about doing their jobs and so when they know they're going to be in for this set of plays and this is the, these are the plays that are going to be called, you know, I.

They go home, they study them, and you should see very little, if any, error when it comes to executing the mental parts of those plays.

Now you're getting a call it period, and that's much more like a game where, hey, here's the call sheet and there's 150 of these things that can come out of his mouth at any given time and you got to be ready to go execute.

And so the first couple of times you do that, you, you tend to see an uptick in alignment error, uh, motion timing, targeting in the run game, targeting and protection, um, but we gotta, you know.

We got to snuff that out quickly because um that's real football and so you learn a lot about guys when you when you go to periods like that.

Is that how you saw this unscripted, you got to get it somewhere.

Sure, yeah, for sure, I mean, yeah, we didn't, I mean, I think overall today we just, we didn't make enough plays, um, we had a chance to make way more plays than we did today and so that's disappointing, uh, but you learn from it and you move on and, um, we'll make more tomorrow and.

You know, we'll go back and we'll find out what are the reasons for maybe some of the stuff that needs to improve operationally.

I think by and large we've had a very good camp operationally.

This was the worst day.

Sure, I mean it's hot.

It's, you know, we're we're through 8 installs now, so it's a lot of volume that the guys are.

Responsible for we understand that, uh, that's by design.

We want to see how they perform in stressful situations and so, um, every day is a new day.

Learn from today, get better tomorrow .

So he's like Dante Myers has made a few catches every day.

How's his week?

What do you think?

Good, good, yeah, uh, pleased with Dante, you know, he's going to be one of those guys that.

is gonna have to, you know, do whatever he possibly can to help the football team, um, not only for us, but, uh, for Darren and.

But there's a lot to like there about Dante.

Uh, he's diligent.

He, he cares.

He's got real juice.

He can separate and he catches the ball well.

So, um, he's just got to stack days and then when he gets a chance, make the plays, and I think for the most part he's done that.

When y'all are installing as much of this stuff as y'all are, what's the discourse with Joe Burrow like as you kind of see what he likes and and kind of get his feedback?

What's that like?

Yeah, I think.

You know, way back in the spring, I, Joe and I sat down and I kind of laid out like, hey, here's We've talked a lot as coaches, here's how we see this thing progressing in May, and then in June, and then when we get through training camp, and then once we get into the preseason games, and so none, none of this has all been talked about and so we, Understand where we're at in that process.

Um, and then, you know, there'll come a time as we get closer and closer to playing real football games.

We're gonna do whatever we think it takes to beat the opponent across from us.

We're not married to any ideological, um, This or that, it's, we just want to have a lot of tools at our disposal, and that's what we're developing right now and he's, he's been great with that.

He's totally on board with that.

And if you don't take the time to develop those tools, well, when you get to the point where you got to decide how you're going to win the game.

You just have less there for you, um, and so we're trying to, uh, you know, load up that toolbox and have whatever we need.

Is the delay a game is more of an operational thing at this point, yeah, I mean, you know, that's, that's another thing that comes up is 3rd down day, right?

So 3rd down pressure period, we're trying to.

Recognize the front structure, manipulate it a little bit, figure out who's coming, um, get it blocked, and sometimes that takes time.

Now we got, that's, you know, we gotta be aware of it.

Now, thankfully we got the 5 right back on the next play with the, you know, by drawing them, you know, into the neutral zone, um, but, you know, we got to operate quickly in those spots and we'll learn from that.