What could Mike, Marv and Dalton do to sway your opinion of them?

[CJD]

(08-09-2015, 10:16 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: That's the obvious answer, but I was looking for a little more detailed answers.

What could they change that may lead to playoff wins?

Okay, I'll give a bit more depth.

Mike Brown:
1. I'm pretty happy with Brown right now. I think he's done a great job transitioning Marvin into a GM and handing the negotiations reigns over to Katie. But just in case.....give up any remaining power over decision making.

2. Convince Marvin to become GM so that we can bring in a new head coach. We already lost out on Zimmer, who should have been our head coach 3 years ago. But it'd be better late than never. 

3. Someone brought it up earlier, but it's amazing that there is not Bengals hall of fame. There's no centralized place to find out who the Bengals greats were. And it's a shame that there is no way to honor the constantly snubbed Bengals that deserve to be in the hall of fame. I don't know if other teams have halls of fame for just their team, but they have it in baseball, and I'd like to see the Bengals have one as well.

Marvin Lewis:
1. Officially transition to GM. He's great with personnel. He's great with a few other things I guess. But he's one of the worst time managers I've ever seen and one of the worst overall in game head coaches ever.

2. Stop holding out young players just because they are young. We've seen it time and time again. As a team, we've become less reliant on rookies unless they are far and away (and by a large margin) the best player at their position. Dre or Dennard should have replaced our two veteran corners earlier last year. Hall was struggling like crazy and was left in just because. In addition, in 2013, Gio couldn't make it onto the field as much as he should have because BJGE was older. Last year, Hill didn't see much time until the second half of the year, despite shining in his limited snaps. Clarke didn't get many snaps despite Gilberry playing like absolute shit all season. The list goes on. Lewis is notorious for not putting the best team on the field, just because he doesn't trust rookies and young players. It is very detrimental to the team.

3. Stop discouraging confidence. We've seen it with Burfict, now Dawson. He didn't like it in Ochocinco, nor did he care for it with Dillon. I'm fine with discouraging big egos. But you've got to realize that ego is part of this game. In order to be the best, you need to think you're the best. It's nice to see guys like Green, Atkins and MJ play well, because they're humble, down to earth and don't talk a lot. But who doesn't love the big personality that a team can rally around? Confidence is a good thing, and telling a young player like Dawson that he has negative personality traits just because he thinks he can be one of the best is ***** asinine. Don't let it grow into a TO type of personality, which is toxic to the team, but there is nothing wrong with a little egotistical confidence. It is what makes winners winners. Not everyone can be as humble as you, Lewis. Stop projecting your personality onto your players. A team's passion is a direct reflection of its head coach, and you can see that that is not working for this team.

Andy Dalton:
1. Stop choking! Do you know how frustrating it is watching him choke on his own tongue during the biggest games? It can't be a coincidence. Every time he's on prime time, or any time we are playing some kind of elimination game (whether it be in the playoffs, or when fighting for seeding in the playoffs), he has a seemingly terrible game. Stop it. And, granted, this has a lot to do with his head coach. Lewis chokes and sends the chokingness on down the line to all his players. But Dalton has some boneheaded plays when it matters most. The most obvious one is when he forced himself to fumble against the Chargers. Ugh. What a completely idiotic unforced error that only enforces the idea that he can't handle the pressure of winning when you need to.

2. Stop relying solely on Green. I know last year he was down to very few options, with Jones and Eifert out, but he still throws to Green way too often. Obviously, you want to use him more often than the other players on your team, but the fact that he stares AJ Green down almost every play makes it so obvious what he's trying to do. and the other team picks up on this and exploits it. I don't have the numbers on me right now, but he throws so many of his interceptions to Green, mainly because he's unnecessarily throwing into triple and maybe even quadruple coverage. You have other targets, notably your RBs, who are both excellent at receiving passes. Use them, as well as Eifert and Jones and Sanu and Alford. You don't need to pass to Green every play. It wasn't so exaggerated last year, as Green missed, I believe, 5 games last year. But in 2013, Green was targeted 180 times and only had 98 receptions. That's 82 passes in his direction that were not converted into receptions. That's a 54% success rate. That same year, Jones was at 64%, Bernard at 79%, Gresham at 70%, Sanu at 60% and Eifert at 66%. But even in 2014, his percentage to Green was only 59%. While his percentages to Gresham, Bernard and Hill were 78%, 73% and 84% respectively. Green is a long pass catcher ,most his percentage will definitely be lower than running backs and tight ends. But that's just ridiculous.

3. Cut down on the interceptions. I touched on this in the 2nd point, but it bears repeating. Stop throwing into heavy coverage. You have so many short to mid range targets at your disposal. If Green isn't open, don't force it to him. Dump off to Hill and let him make a play. Or run a few yards out of bounds if you have the opportunity. Or even just throw the ball away. The only thing worse than having to punt is to give the ball away. It's not a coincidence that the team with the least amount of turnovers wins the game more often than not. You can't rely on big plays to counterbalance your bad plays. It's better to just not make bad plays to begin with. Don't throw so many errant "hope" passes. Just throw it away or dump it off. Obviously, you want to give Green a shot to make a great play every once in a while, but you don't need to be reckless.