04-14-2021, 11:01 AM
(04-14-2021, 10:28 AM)PDub80 Wrote: In the weeks leading up to Burrow's injury the Bengals offense had started looking pretty lethal, with the exception of a bad outing against the Steelers.
There was a story from a player that came out after the 1st Ravens game. Burrow had played horribly & Joe was virtually inconsolable in the locker room. He was furious with himself and how he played. He blamed himself for the game and when players came up to pat him on the back and tell him it was ok he kept promising and saying to them that that will NEVER happen to him again. The player said he was legitimately angry with himself and already knew what had happened on the field. Like, he had already processed it and was ready to get into the film room.
The 3 next games the Bengals lit it up on offense and against VERY GOOD TEAMS. I believe the Colts had a top defense and the #1 defense against the pass when they played.
The Bengals went for 27, 34, & 31 against 3 playoff teams. None of that was garbage time stuff.
The Steelers game wasn't great, but in the Redskins game the Bengals were marching down the field and controlling that game. I have zero doubts they were going to hang a ton of points on yet ANOTHER playoff team. Burrow had a goaline fumble as he dove into the end zone in a freak play and fat Randy missed a field goal... all in the first half against a very good defense. Realistically, it could/should have been 20-7 at half time with the Bengals poised to pin their ears back and keep rolling... But the line leaked 1 too many times and that was that. Burrow had 203 yards at half time.
Anyway, my point is that the worst part about the Bengals the season is that it was starting to click just as they were rolling into the softest part of their schedule. To get that work in would have been HUGE.
I think that Goodberry's stats on the line looks to be addition by subtraction: Hart gone & Jordan basically 3rd string (once a draft pick or twe/FA are added). That's what I took from it all. Like, those 4 out of games where the Bengals offense started coming into it's own should have fans excited. I think the future is BRIGHT!
We did average a lot of points there for a stretch and Joe looked amazing (even without Chase or Pitts
), but we couldnt protect leads late in games when we had a lead because of the lack of running game and porous defense. Mixon getting hurt didnt help, but the truth is, he was getting hit in the backfield 95% of the time when he was healthy anyway. We need more than an air raid to be a playoff team. We have to be able to run and the better we can the better we will be. I think Pollack will help that issue greatly, but we still need upgrades, depth and youth on the OL regardless.
