Bengals’ trash talking backfired, and created a rivalry with the Chiefs for years to come | You Pod to Win the Game

Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the Chiefs win over the Bengals in the AFC Championship. More specifically, the decision of the Bengals as well as the Mayor of Cincinnati to talk trash about the Chiefs leading up to last Sunday’s game. A tactic that did not workout as planned. Why poke the bear? Are the Bengals going to be back in the AFC title game? Did they miss a golden opportunity? How should Chiefs’ fans be feeling heading into the Super Bowl? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

FRANK SCHWAB: How could the Bengals be so stupid? A week ago they thrived off this whole, like, oh, give them their refunds back. We're going to-- we've been disrespected.

And then for the whole week they disrespected the Chiefs. Not that the Chiefs more motivation, but don't poke the bear. What do you think--

CHARLES ROBINSON: Frank, you don't say stuff before. You don't let Burrowhead get out. Your stupid [BLEEP] Mayor, which, look, they can't control the mayor. They can't.

And by the way, you're the mayor, OK? You're not tackling anybody. You ain't doing [BLEEP], OK? You're not running down on kickoffs. Shut up, dude.

FRANK SCHWAB: I mean, after the game, Kelce comes out and basically grabs the microphone from Tracy Wilson.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Oh, I know what you're talking about.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, yeah, just says, Burrowhead, my [BLEEP]. And Mahomes gets his shots in. And Kelce later on calls the Cincinnati mayor a jabroni. By the way, what is the Cincinnati mayor doing? That was one of the most cringe moments I've seen between politics and sports. Just politician status sports, it never turns out well.

CHARLES ROBINSON: There will be a lesson learned here about-- I said myself, the idea of lighting cigars after playoff wins, probably a bad idea. Because that's typically kind of a championship type thing. If you're not going to pop champagne after winning a divisional round game, you know, let's let up on the cigars.

I get it. I understand what you're doing. But you're learning a lesson here.

And there are going to be some teams, like this team, that you're going to go toe to toe with for 10 years, however long this goes. And they're going to keep track of this. And they're going to be pissed off, rightfully so.

So yeah, I think the Bengals got a little loose. They were feeling themselves. They proved a point against Buffalo. They had a good record going against Kansas City.

But at the end of the day, probably want to limit the amount of [BLEEP] you talk going into a game like that. Because they absolutely were going to use it. And clearly-- even Andy Reid brought it up. If Andy Reid's bringing it up.

FRANK SCHWAB: Right.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Everybody, at that point, is bringing it up.

FRANK SCHWAB: It's just amazing. Just, again, a young team that-- it's cocky. It's a cocky team. And that's part of what fuels them. But this kind of bit them a little bit. I thought it was just--

CHARLES ROBINSON: They didn't lose-- I don't think they lost--

FRANK SCHWAB: No, they didn't-- no, no, they didn't. They didn't. They didn't.

CHARLES ROBINSON: They didn't lose because of trash talk.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, I get that.

CHARLES ROBINSON: They just got embarrassed now, on the other side of the trash talk. Frank, when this game started, instantaneously, I'm like, man, you know what, the Chiefs are whooping they're [BLEEP] up front, like, defensively.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.

CHARLES ROBINSON: The Chiefs were stomping on their offensive line. I'm like, oh--

FRANK SCHWAB: Chris Jones, my goodness, did he have a game.

CHARLES ROBINSON: And early on, first couple of series, I'm like, they're in some trouble. If this is how-- if Burrow is going to get sacked, and pushed around, and pressured like this, this is completely different-- this is what we expected against the Bills. Did not happen. Now it's happening here.

And they're creating penalties, they're creating pressure, they're sacking him, they're pushing them into poor decisions. The thing I took away afterward, we said, you learn from wins, you learn from losses. Don't add any other little element to anything, when you've got to go into somebody else's house, period.

FRANK SCHWAB: Especially with a team like this. Yeah, don't put more gas on that. I think-- and I am sure we have a long time talking about the Chiefs. But real quick, with the Bengals, I think, look, they're going to be here. They're going to be here for a long time.

I don't look at this team as a window closing type of team. I look at this as, they're still there. They're still going to be fine.

But the windows close pretty fast. I mean, you start to deal with Burrow cap hits and all that kind of stuff. So a missed opportunity for them.

I thought, in many ways, they outplayed the Chiefs in this game. But just a few-- they got off to a bad start. The offensive line, obviously, did not play well. But they were without three starters.

But overall, I think the Bengals are going to be just fine. This core is really, really good. They'll be here for a while. They could be back in the AFC Championship game next year.

But they blew an opportunity. They really did. I mean, these things don't come along that often.

CHARLES ROBINSON: No, they don't. And I'll say what, if I'm a Chiefs fan, I'm feeling pretty good that, to me, this was a good game for Steve Spagnuolo.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, it was.

CHARLES ROBINSON: It was a game, I think, you needed to see. You needed to see them get pressure when it mattered. I thought the coverages were pretty good. And I'm feeling encouraged that Mahomes could put up a game that he did, what, 29 and 43, 326, two touchdowns, no interceptions. The fumble was a weird thing.

I think the Chiefs, you know, look, they're scrapping. I don't think the Chiefs, right now, even though they beat the Bengals, I think, because of the fact that Mahomes is hobbled, I still I don't think they're playing at their tip top. They're not 100% healthy. And yet, they were able to gut out and win this game. That was a really good game against an opponent they're probably going to see for a while.

FRANK SCHWAB: They need to get some receivers back for the Super Bowl. They were really thin at that position.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Marquez--

FRANK SCHWAB: And that's speaks to Mahomes, again. Yeah, that's--

CHARLES ROBINSON: Valdes-Scantling, how about that?

FRANK SCHWAB: Showed up, 116 and a touchdown.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.

FRANK SCHWAB: And I mean, he hasn't been there all season. But he was worth the money today, I'll tell you that. And real quick, we have to give some credit to Travis Kelce, too.

I mean, leading up to the inactives being turned in, it was like, this, hey, we don't know if he's going to play. I assumed he was. But he was 7 to 78 in the touchdown, looked good. Like I mean, if we're going to give Mahomes all the credit for playing through pain, let's give some to Kelce, too. Because this was a legendary performance for him, too.

CHARLES ROBINSON: All in all, it lived up. I think it lived up to everything that it could be. It was a really good game.

FRANK SCHWAB: Now this is a rivalry. Now this is a legit, like, these two teams don't like each other rivalry. I'm here for the next few years of it, man.