Today's Enquirer Article

[Joelist]

(07-28-2015, 03:13 PM)BengalChris Wrote: The opponents in the playoffs are all good teams. No ******* allowed.

To me, the Bengals are a bubble playoff team, barely good enough to get in (as indicated by them never getting a bye) but not good enough to do much of anything once they arrive.

Last year we saw them lose badly to NE, Indy and Pittsburgh in the regular season, while taking care of the Ravens and Denver. That was the AFC playoff crowd. Only the win over Denver was convincing. They had to come from behind in both Ravens games. The Bengals just plain weren't even in the NE and Indy games or the second Pittsburgh game.

Almost everyone and his 5th from cousin from Mars has come to realize that Lewis' in-game adjustments are completely inadequate, if they even exist at all.

The problems are team wide:

Offense:

 - Bad ball security
 - Weird play selection
 - Failure to control line of scrimmage

Defense:

 - Can't stop the run
 - No pass rush

Note that the issues on both sides have a common thread - in all four games we got blown off the ball on both lines. Now the 2014 game was a mess from the start when we were running Burkhead out there as a WR and lost Hill by halftime to boot. But even there we saw the same problem of both lines getting owned by the opposition. 

On defense we need to step it up on the DL big time - if we can't get pressure then at least we have to stone the run. On offense (remember this is talking about the line) at least we need to give enough time for short throws and open holes for the RB. 

The weird play selection (like the deliberate non-use of Green for an entire half in 2012) is coaching. The turnover problems go to players needing to be sharp - QB needs to be careful for defenders trying to jump routes and not sail the ball and receivers have to run their routes properly and be in the correct position. Backs have to hang on to the ball no matter what and so on. 

Ultimately this goes back on the coaches a lot as many of these issues go back to proper game preparation. It also goes back on both lines as if the lines do their jobs the rest falls into place more.