Rex Signs With Pats

[*SHRacerX*]

(03-14-2017, 06:22 PM)PDub80 Wrote: I finally have a name for the Bengals strategy.....

Subtraction by subtraction.

I gave this rep because I chuckled and it might best summarize all of our feelings about now....especially when clowns like Adam Jones are still on the team.  Then I thought for a while about what could the potential positives be.

If we remember, the Bengals team that started the Dalton/Green Era wasn't supposed to win a game.  The quitter took his ball and went home and the Bengals were supposedly dead.  Instead, the infusion of youth brought the team to only their third playoff appearance in the Marvin Lewis Era.  In it's first season together.

In 2005, we would hear all the time about Odell Thurman not always being in the right place, etc, but the guy could make plays.  5 INTs and 5 FFs his rookie season, if memory serves.

We also saw the offense soar with the infusion of Chris Henry.  He seemed to be the missing piece of the puzzle.  

More importantly, the old Bengals stigma or mindset of "here we go again" seemed to be dead and buried.  That team fought hard and knocked off pittsburg in pittsburg late in the season (one of the more hysterical moments in message board history was the number of sig bets that had 80% of the steeler fans with a vine of Houshmanzadah wiping his shoes with a terrible towel).  

I understand that team wasn't built in a single year, but it gained some key pieces in the draft that made an immediate impact.  Playmakers.  That is what they drafted.

That is what Jimmy Johnson always said about his teams.  He didn't need the biggest or fastest or strongest, but he wanted guys that had a nose for the ball and simply had a history of making plays.

This "turnover" of our roster has seen the departure of several key pieces of the initial Marvin rebuild which had the difficult challenge of changing the culture.  Well, now the team is going to get a lot younger.  Geno, Dunlap, Burfict and Dre Kirkpatrick are your defensive leaders now.  They may not be the "good guy, let's all be friends" Peko, but they all seem to care a great deal about winning and they are also the most talented on the team.  

On offense, you have to think it is now Dalton, Green, Boling, Lafell, and perhaps Gio that are the leaders.  We all heard what a great leader Whit was in the clubhouse, but we don't know how this group will handle the job.  Maybe they become better overall players with the leadership roles handed to them.  

Good or bad, we are seeing change and the previous leadership couldn't get it done.  I am somewhat optimistic that this could also signal a change of our HC after the season.