09-12-2022, 09:30 AM
(09-12-2022, 08:59 AM)Wyche Wrote: Yeah, I can agree about the kicking game debacle for sure. It's just my point is we never should've been in that position to begin with. We should've steamrolled those guys. We kicked their ass in every single statistical category, but at the end of the day, the -5 turnover differential is the reason we lost. Those other things are inconsequential if you don't give the Steelers a TD with a terrible pick six and four other turnovers. Lap said it today, Taylor said it yesterday, and so did I and a few others. This is the only place NOT saying the five turnovers are what beat us....lol.
I do appreciate his ability to move on after mistakes, and I LOVE having him as our QB, I'm just not gonna trip over myself to absolve him. If our defense doesn't stifle Pittsburgh, I don't think he has an opportunity to try and get us back in the game. It could've been a lot worse. No team in the league has won a minus five turnover differential in over twenty years. You can't turn the ball over that many times at any level and expect to win. We can dissect every little nuance of the game to the nth degree, but the fact remains, the five turnovers are what sunk us....and caused these other issues to become a problem. In fact, we're not even playing OT without the pick six.
There were loads of things which sunk us. Only good things for me were Chase's numbers and the defence. It was about as awful a performance as anyone could've envisioned. Could also say the mental fortitude shown by tying the game in spite of all the errors, was good too.
Why I'm so frustrated with the kicking screw ups, is that we'd been so bad and still put ourselves in a spot to win... then screwed up AGAIN on what is the most straightforward thing in the entire game. It's the most Bengals of things to do, and we're meant to be proving we're past that baggage now. 'This team is different' etc.... well yesterday they were as Bungles as any. You should be able to make an extra point or a 29-yard FG with some guy from this forum snapping the ball. But you have to be somewhat prepared for one guy getting injured, and I just don't think we looked like we were.
Burrow was historical levels of bad, but just due to the chronology of the game, we did overcome that. He in part did, the defence massively did... then just simple things cost us again. Make no mistake, we go nowhere if Burrow doesn't improve massively, but people might be highlighting that less as he's generally proven he is the guy in the past, so people have faith he'll be fine. Basic stuff like bleeding the clock in OT, falling on bad snaps... attempting blocking on a game winning XP attempt... failing on those things is just so basic. But it's one game, we'll see over the course of the season.
