Very winnable slate of games coming up.  Dalton is what he is but he has 1 year of experience in Zac Taylors system so the learning curve should be pretty short.  Next 4 are very winnable I have no doubt with our talent Dalton could go 3-1.  After these 4 we have a bye meaning Burrow wouldn't have to play again until October 29th.  Who says no?

The Ravens were gassed in the 4th quarter yesterday. We have a wealth of offensive weapons sans Tight Ends.
That said with all the weapons we can use we should run and gun the opposing defenses and have them exhausted.

3 defensive stats comparing the 0-2 starts:

2022:
1. Snaps played: 116 (11th fewest)
2. Missed tackle %: 9% (2nd best)
3. Open target % in coverage: 42.2% (2nd best)

2023:
1. Snaps played: 149 (5th most)
2. MT %: 14% (18th)
3. Open target % in coverage: 73.3% (2nd WORST)

— Andrew Russell (@Andrew_Russell7) September 18, 2023

It's a huge amount of money for an everyday person, but let's cut Joe some slack.

Mike Trout has a $426 million contract and he's hurt a lot.
Mookie Betts $365 million.
Plenty of baseball players make more than Joe.

In the NBA, Jaylen Brown just signed for $304 million.

I know that fans expectations for Joe switched when he signed that, but putting the dollar figure he got in perspective with other sports.

Joe is THE CHANGE in this franchise. Without Joe, we'd be here hoping to make the playoffs for a crack at a win. He's taken us well beyond that.

Too many of our best players get villafied. (Pickens, Dillon, Spikes, Palmer, etc.) Let's not do that to Joe.

'What has happened, though, is teams blitzing Burrow without any answers. He has been blitzed on nearly 53% of his dropbacks over the first two weeks and averaged a league-worst 2.1 yards per dropback against extra pressure. A year ago, his 7.8 yards per dropback against blitzes ranked second. Teams were loath to blitz him and get carved up in man coverage against Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase, but it has worked in 2023.'

From: https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/insider/story/_/id/38425127/ranking-0-2-nfl-teams-2023-season-patriots-broncos-bengals-chargers-eliminated-playoffs-super-bowl

Also, last year Burrow was great out of an empty backfield. This year, we're hardly using it.

Another point made in the article was that when we drop 7 defenders into max coverage and don't blitz...it doesn't work. We're league worst.

Havent heard a word about his injury. Was it bad? Did he come back in later?

Really don't want to rely on inexperinced first and second year players at safety against the Rams. Having Scott for this game against his former team would be pretty valuable.

So much for all the usual moaning and groaning and whoa is me that permeates this board after every loss. There ARE things that are looking up.
Defense had a bad game, but the offense looked vastly improved from the 1st game.
Mixon is running hard and not falling down at first contact.
Seems we once again have a punt returner who can take it to the house. He said he spent the week watching film of PacMan returning punts. Yea Ivy League!!
The line, for the most part, seems to be giving more time.
We are out of Division play for a couple of weeks and can even out the schedule. And, we can still split with Baltimore and Cleveland, and possibly sweep Pissburgh.

Zac loves to say have patience, calm down it will be fine, but in his 5 years as head coach here he's been 0-2 for four of them. That is pathetic. Today's constant 3-yard dinks by Burrow were obvious with his calf injury and Zac being the play caller should've adjusted accordingly. We have so much talent on the offensive side of the ball, and you see so many other head coaches do so much more with less.

If this team loses next week, it will be a quick season for Cincy. Going way back to 1980, there have been 176 teams to start a season 0-3, with only six of them going on to make the playoffs — a whopping 3.4 percent!

So, Zac better figure something out, because the Burrow injury is tough but don't use it as your excuse. We almost lost to the Ravens last year in the playoffs with a backup QB who got them there. We have a more talented offense.... let's see some innovative play calling and styles for a change to take advantage of the players we have.

I sat in a car ride home from the game with 5 other Bengals fans and listened to them trash Burrow for the game(s) he had. Twitter is a cesspool. Social media is on fire. People are throwing coaches, players, anyone under the bus. Everyone is dogging everyone.

But to dog Joe Burrow after two games, where he missed all of training camp, and clearly isn't 100% healthy? Man, some of you all stink. How short our memories are.

Seriously, it's embarrassing.

Same shit some of you did with Palmer, Votto, etc. Throwing trash on lawns and running guys out of town.

Better be careful for what you wish for.

So, I think most agree that the Browns are a bad matchup for us.

Lamar is now 7-1 against us when he starts.

Then, we know that the Steelers always play us tough.

What do we have to do to start beating these teams more?