07-09-2015, 10:30 PM
(07-09-2015, 03:35 PM)PDub80 Wrote: Actually, in the SD game the defense played really well. It's a misconception that the D or coaches (game plan) cost the Bengals that game. That one is squarely on the shoulders of one Andy Dalton.
1st half
- Bengals D gave up 7 points. (Bengals up at the half 10-7)
2nd half
- D gave up 7 points....
- Then came Dalton with back to back to back (yes, count 'em: 3) turn overs in a row: One on the Bengals own 25, the other on the Bengals own 3, the 3rd on the 50. Chargers came away with 6 points out of all that. But the clock was eaten alive.
- The long 50 some yard TD was in garbage time with 3 mins left.
Basically, the SD playoff game Andy filled his pants. The D gave them a great chance to be in a position to win for most of the game.
2nd Houston game?
The D gave up 1 TD and 4 FGs. Dalton completed LESS than 50% of his passes and put up an INT for a passer rating of 44.7.
Because the offense couldn't move the ball, the D was on the field twice as long. It's easy for the Texans to run the ball that game because the Bengals couldn't score to put pressure on them to pass it. It was 7-9 Texans at half time. That's good D. The D only gave up 10 points the whole 2nd half. The OFFENSE is the one to blame... yet again.
Time of possession that game:
21:11 Bengals, 38:49 Texans
First Downs that game:
12 Bengals, 24 Texans
It's a common theme around here to forget how good the Bengals defense has been and how much the offense has squandered it. I don't understand it.
It's sad that the best defensive performances you can come up with are these 2 gems, when the D gave up an average of 178 rushing yards and allowed the opposing QB's to complete an absurd 75.9% of their throws with a 93.9 passer rating. I guess that's why you have to excuse these 2 games by blaming the QB.
Andy could've played better. The defense also could've played better. Why blame the crap performance of one on the other? It'd be like me blaming Andy's performance on the fact that the defense couldn't get off the field or force any turnovers (I'm not). You act as if the offense can hurt/help the defense but the same isn't true for the defense hurting or helping the offense.
The fact is that the entire team played like crap and neither the offense nor the defense did each other any favors in any of these games. The rare exception being Leon's pick-six in the 2nd Texans game (one of two turnovers from all six games combined). I can provide numerous examples of QB's turning the ball over multiple times and the defense still playing an excellent game. Russell Wilson's 4 int's in the NFC title game come to mind. The Ravens defense carried Flacco to some playoff wins early in his career. Peyton played like crap during his entire SB run in Indy. Boomer played like crap all the way to the SB.
I'm not saying that a defense should have to do this, I'm only saying that blaming the QB for the shoddy defensive performance is lame. There's plenty of legit stuff to bash Andy for, but you lose credibility when you start blaming the QB for everything but the weather. The defense has 5 total sacks and 2 forced turnovers in 6 playoff games. For a defense that's been so stout in all of those years, that's ridiculous. Period.
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
