01-09-2022, 12:58 PM
(01-09-2022, 12:49 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: As much as i was part of this narrative, i don't think it really holds true. I did go back to their season records to find games they lead at the half, only to lose the game and then watched the 2nd half condensed versions of those games on GamePass. In every instance i watched, the Bengals threw more than they passed in the 2nd half.
That brings us to what i saw. It was a three-fold problem.
1. The defense was not able to stop the opponent
2. The running game was largely ineffective, and
3. Andy Dalton missed many, many passes to extend drives. A couple in particular, 2018 at Baltimore and 2016 vs Pitt. He was given many chances to hit passes and extend drives and missed a lot of them. That Pitt game was really bad where the threw a pick and threw several passes really late for breakups.
So, in conclusion, it wasn't really a problem being conservative, it was a problem with execution and not finishing.
I would tend to agree. The NFL is quickly becoming passing dominant, so teams are more aggressive from this front. However, teams are still conservative on fourth down decisions. I’m sure if we combed through the games we can find various 4th downs that Marvin probably should have gone for but the proliferation of fourth down attempts has been more of a recent trend so I can’t really say he was dropping the ball that much.
