(11-17-2015, 03:37 AM)West Union KennyG Wrote: Just going to the 1988 49ers team - first Super Bowl team I thought of:

They lost games that season to Atlanta 34-17;
And looked very flat losing to Chicago 10-9 AND losing to the Raiders 9-3.

Again, perspective.  I know we're not used to rooting for a good football team.  But it's really unreasonable in an NFL season to never expect your team to be flat in a game or two - heck, maybe even 3 - and still be a Super Bowl caliber team.  You don't go to extremes of being either the Patriots or the Browns.  And even the Patriots will have a game they look flat and lose in this season.  Just wait.

I hear ya, but it just seems like the games where we come out "flat" are fairly predictable.  The Bengals have just established a bit of a trend that involves prime-time flatness, followed by playoff flatness.  It's all just getting too reliable to see coming, too.

(11-17-2015, 03:27 AM)West Union KennyG Wrote: The game I watched they lost by 4 points.  I mean, yea, they were flat the whole game from the very first play.  But I'm sure I could look up Super Bowl Winning teams from history and find games they lost in those seasons much worse than that.  I'm upset they lost, just like you.  But let's get a grip on reality here - the sky isn't falling yet.  Let's see what happens next week.

that's a fair point.

(11-17-2015, 03:42 AM)Nately120 Wrote: I hear ya, but it just seems like the games where we come out "flat" are fairly predictable.  The Bengals have just established a bit of a trend that involves prime-time flatness, followed by playoff flatness.  It's all just getting too reliable to see coming, too.

I'm not sure that's a fair or valid point.  I mean, we won the last prime time game we played 31-10 (I think that was the score - going from memory instead of looking it up).  What I think would be a more fair observation that I'm at a loss for right now, is why when they have a bye week or an extended week like this past week do they come out flat?  That's the only predictable thing I'm seeing at this point and it's frustrating.  

(11-17-2015, 03:38 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I agree we need more Gio, but he wasn't very effective as a runner tonight. Not that either got many chances.

The fact that neither got that many touches is even more concerning to me. Everyone always looks for why this team struggles so much in primetime/ playoff games well maybe it's because we don't run the ball has much as we usually do in regular games.

I've made positive remarks about Hue's play calling in the past, but tonight, I could just find no rhyme or reason to anything we were doing.

Too much pastry, too much exotic shit, when all we really needed was to play solid football.

Yes, drops made everything worse, and frankly they shocked me. Even the best players make mistakes here and there, but Eifert looked like he never went out for a pass before. It's really hard to understand. AJ Green should have had two hands on that ball he lost, and taken it to the ground for the first down. We were actually going to be in pretty good shape to still pull the game out.

Throughout the game though, where were our mid-range passes, 15 to 20 yards downfield. Of course when we finally threw some, we dropped them.

It was just a shit game, starting with Hue, and ending with poor player performance. There's plenty of blame to go around. OK, it's over, it happened and we're 8-1.

On to Arizona.

(11-17-2015, 03:46 AM)West Union KennyG Wrote: I'm not sure that's a fair or valid point.  I mean, we won the last prime time game we played 31-10 (I think that was the score - going from memory instead of looking it up).  What I think would be a more fair observation that I'm at a loss for right now, is why when they have a bye week or an extended week like this past week do they come out flat?  That's the only predictable thing I'm seeing at this point and it's frustrating.  

I know, but in my defense when we beat Johnny Bag-o-Dicks and the Browns I said that I can't in good conscience declare the prime-time monkey off our backs based off this win, alone.  We have 4 prime-time games this season.  The Browns and Texans were losing teams and we're 1-1 so far.  The Cardinals and Broncos have issues, but they aren't the Browns.  The other one is against the 49ers and the thought of losing to Blaine Gabbert just seem too implausible to cross my mind HAD WE NOT JUST LOST TO TJ YATES.


TJ YATES.  We lost to TJ Yates.  I don't believe in curses, but I believe in this.

(11-17-2015, 02:24 AM)Utts Wrote: 1. Hue - think he's been reading his own press. All the exotic horseshit needs to be throttled down. Execute textbook football plays. Lineup and beat your man. Sit Jeremy Hill until he figures his. Shit out.

2. Andy - he's been getting all the credit. His deep ball was non existent tonight, and he looked spooked.

3. Eifert - the rare times Andy made good throws, Tyler drops them.

4. The rest of the offense. Lousy play topped off by a fumble by our best player that seals it for Texans.

The disturbing thing is if Hoyer stays in, I think the Texans lock it up much earlier.

Willing to chalk this up to an off night, not a lousy team or prime time curse. Unfortunately we've got AZ next. Yikes.

AJ belongs on this list

You can blame Dalton, but it doesnt help when you start out every drive 1st and 20 because of a holding or false start.

(11-17-2015, 02:24 AM)Utts Wrote: 1. Hue - think he's been reading his own press.  All the exotic horseshit needs to be throttled down. Execute textbook football plays. Lineup and beat your man. Sit Jeremy Hill until he figures his. Shit out.

2.  Andy - he's been getting all the credit. His deep ball was non existent tonight, and he looked spooked.

3. Eifert - the rare times Andy made good throws, Tyler drops them.

4. The rest of the offense. Lousy play topped off by a fumble by our best player that seals it for Texans.

The disturbing thing is if Hoyer stays in, I think the Texans lock it up much earlier.

Willing to chalk this up to an off night, not a lousy team or prime time curse.  Unfortunately we've got  AZ next.  Yikes.

I'll give you #1 above but #2 should be the O-Line.  They got beat badly last night.

Again, I think Hue was auditioning for his next job by using the bright lights of Monday night rather than game planning for the Texans.

No AJ, No Gio, No win. What's so hard to understand?

(11-17-2015, 02:24 AM)Utts Wrote: The disturbing thing is if Hoyer stays in, I think the Texans lock it up much earlier.

Actually, I think if Hoyer stays in, the Texans don't score that TD. Hoyer would not throw it to a covered wide receiver like Yates did. Yates was just lucky that Hopkins went up and grabbed it AND held on to it. But, no way Hoyer even ATTEMPTS that throw.

That's not to say he wouldn't have led them to multiple FG drives, but considering that our defense held Hoyer to only 1 FG up until that point, I'm confident we may have won the game at 6-3 if Hoyer stay s in.

(11-17-2015, 03:24 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Agreed. Deep ball was off, but outside of that he was good enough to win. Final numbers would've been better without the 3 big drops from Eifert. He was looking like the hero before AJ's fumble.

The Texans really seemed to be daring us to run, yet we couldn't get anything going on the ground. Btw, I think Hue needs new tricks. The Texans seemed to have things all figured out.

Shake....this team has always had us figured out.  The more I watch performances like this, the more I think it's the WRs.  Look, against good, aggressive DBs, they simply don't get open.  Gruden saw it, it has happened multiple times against this squad, the Browns with Haden, and the Stoolers when Ike Taylor was still good.  They don't get open, and I noticed that when Dalton scrambled Monday....they didn't continue coming back to the ball, resulting in some passes defensed.  Go back and watch and see if my memory has betrayed me (and it has a lot in recent years  ).  Andy has had his issues before, to be sure, but I didn't see that Monday, and looking back, these issues at WR against teams like this, and his poor choices at times is what has killed us.  We kept it close because he was at least not turning it over.  This year, we were supposed to have an equalizer against teams like this....but he got the GD butterfingers, and ran a wrong route when he was wide open....according to him.

(11-17-2015, 02:34 AM)Wyche Wrote: Deep ball was off tonight....otherwise , I didn't think he was that bad.  We weren't getting open downfield...drops were back breakers , as were penalties.  I don't think he looked spooked....looked pretty poised on last drive.  We get another drop there , then AJ gives it away inside their 20.  Otherwise , I agree wholeheartedly.  Defense played pretty damn good.

This 100%, i was at the game and couldn't believe how our receivers never got separation.  Off night, Bengals are good team and 8-1 is pretty damn good!

(11-17-2015, 02:33 AM)Utts Wrote: If he was on his game, you really think we score 6? He was a big part of the problem tonight. 

My problem - besides the bad throw to Eifert - was that he kept forcing long throws down field.  One of them resulted in an interception,  the rest of them stalled what promised to be decent drives.  But between the drops and penalties he was badly hamstrung.  Not his best best game for sure, but not disastrous.

(11-18-2015, 01:32 PM)3wt Wrote: My problem - besides the bad throw to Eifert - was that he kept forcing long throws down field.  One of them resulted in an interception,  the rest of them stalled what promised to be decent drives.  But between the drops and penalties he was badly hamstrung.  Not his best best game for sure, but not disastrous.

....but that wasn't a bad throw.  Eifert said as much.  Apparently, that was a timing route that Eifert decided to ad lib and cut up field instead of across the middle.  He said that typically, Andy would see him, and adjust.  However, the pressure was there, so Dalton had already released the ball when Tyler came out of his route and had adjusted the route.

Quote:Dalton didn't target Eifert at all in the rest of the quarter or through the third, but in the fourth — on a third-and-2 from the Bengals' own 20 — the two had a chance at a big play, but a mental error by Eifert led to an incompletion. With his man slipping on the play, Eifert thought he could turn upfield for a big gain.


"The guy fell down and I thought I could throw my hand up and Andy would see that, but he was already getting ready to throw the ball, so I've got to stay in my route and not allow that to happen," Eifert said.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/nfl/bengals/2015/11/17/bengals-te-tyler-eifert-played-awful/75896462/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

(11-17-2015, 11:23 AM)Fresno B Wrote: No AJ, No Gio, No win. What's so hard to understand?

No AJ? Isn't he the dude who fumbled as we marched towards the endzone? Or am I thinking of someone else? 

(11-17-2015, 03:24 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Agreed. Deep ball was off, but outside of that he was good enough to win. Final numbers would've been better without the 3 big drops from Eifert. He was looking like the hero before AJ's fumble.

The Texans really seemed to be daring us to run, yet we couldn't get anything going on the ground. Btw, I think Hue needs new tricks. The Texans seemed to have things all figured out.

You can dare teams to run when they keep giving themselves 1st and 15, 2nd and 20.....

(11-17-2015, 03:21 AM)WildCat Wrote: except that they didn't just LOSE. they got beat.....bad.....

Stop it. They didn't get beat bad. 

3 drops by Eifert and a blundered adjustment on another route cuts down on a lot of success. 

Fumbling a 1st down pass away near the red zone with less than a minute left and losing by 4 points is not getting beat bad.

Not even in a fairy tale.

The Texans had a great defensive plan and they flustered Dalton, no doubt. And they still had a very real shot to win the game right at the end.

(11-18-2015, 04:36 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Stop it. They didn't get beat bad. 

3 drops by Eifert and a blundered adjustment on another route cuts down on a lot of success. 

Fumbling a 1st down pass away near the red zone with less than a minute left and losing by 4 points is not getting beat bad.

Not even in a fairy tale.

The Texans had a great defensive plan and they flustered Dalton, no doubt. And they still had a very real shot to win the game right at the end.

 Was it them, or Eifert that flustered Andy the most?

(11-18-2015, 05:11 PM)Wyche Wrote:  Was it them, or Eifert that flustered Andy the most?

I'd say Eifert. Early in the game Eifert dropped a crucial first down that led to our first FG.
He didn't just drop passes, he dropped important passes in big moments.