Some Fun Homework on Monday Night

[*SHRacerX*]

(09-29-2020, 09:57 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: You are spot on correct and here's why:  There is an unrealistic expectation among casual fans that merely having a franchise quarterback on the field will automatically raise the playing level of the players around him.  This is absolute hogwash.  It doesn't happen that way.  If you had a terrible high school band and you had the first trumpet from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra sit in what you would have is a terrible band with a great trumpet player.

Such it is with quarterbacks.  Look what the Colts did to Andrew Luck; he could have been the GOAT if not for being pummeled mercilessly.  I do not want the same to happen to Joe Burrow.  He has GOAT-ness written all over him!  Oh, sure, he can learn to get the ball out faster but if that happens we've just recreated Andy Dalton 2.0 and that's not why Joe Burrow was drafted.  He was drafted because of his ability to push the ball down the field but what is the longest play the Bengals have had in 2020 so far?  25 yards, maybe?  

The run blocking is unwatchable but let's focus on pass protection for a minute because that's what your fine post addresses.  The linemen should be "running through walls" for Joe Burrow.  Do you remember the preseason game in 2011 when Ndamukong Suh tried to twist Andy Dalton's head off?  Andrew Whitworth was in Suh's face after that play.  I don't see that from the offensive line now.  When Joe went down with the wind knocked out of him Trey Hopkins should have had words with  Malik Jackson.  Right now the line is gassed, dazed, and confused.  I am scared for our young quarterback and furious the pass protection was insufficiently addressed.

Actually that was Andre Smith, but I get your point.  These "good character guys that come from winning organizations" are missing something.  Faith in their coaching staff?  Are they being complacent and need a foot in their ass?  Judging by how we finish games, I would also point to conditioning.