How about the great season we were GONNA have until AJ stepped on a pebble or whatever at Welcome stadium and Andy was still our QB?  One year later we were losing nearly every game, came in dead last then Joe Burrow out of the blue decides to light the college football world on fire and the Steelers drafted him instead and we got a bag of stale crackers.. 

(08-31-2022, 08:26 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Less predictable, yes, but also more efficient.  How many times did a penalty put them in 1st and 20?  How many poor rush attempts left them in 2nd and 12?  They did an amazing job converting those down and distances, but I can't wait to see a 3rd and 2 where they just hand off Mixon behind Cappa and Collins and get an easy 4 yards.  Of course, if safeties and LBs start cheating up (I bet we see more hard counts this year) then Joe will play action and throw over them.

They seem to know Joe's superpower is being able to read and diagnose quickly with multiple targets.  We will see plenty of empty, or plenty of RBs chip and go out in a pattern.  

My biggest concern right now isn't Volson at LG, but the health and ability with next to no hard practice time for Collins.  

Burrow told Zac to take care of the pressure up the middle and he would take care of the pressure coming off the ends. We just need Volson, Cappa and Karras to hold the pocket.

(09-01-2022, 08:19 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Burrow told Zac to take care of the pressure up the middle and he would take care of the pressure coming off the ends. We just need Volson, Cappa and Karras to hold the pocket.

Makes sense, pressure right up the gut is the worst no question. On the flip side on D. Hope Zach Carter can help here, we know
BJ Hill will and Reader at times. I thought the Jay Tufele pickup yesterday might be underrated as we had him on our board above
Shelvin from what I heard. But is a NT like Reader so not expecting too much pressure from him.

Just hope he can take on 2 blockers and is stronger than Shelvin, not much to ask from what I saw of Shelvin.

(09-01-2022, 12:34 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Makes sense, pressure right up the gut is the worst no question.

Yep that pressure up the middle just destroys plays. Hopefully we've got a handle on that.

(09-01-2022, 12:37 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Yep that pressure up the middle just destroys plays. Hopefully we've got a handle on that.

Volson is the question, but we can help him out. Defenses will definitely attack him as he is the rookie and clear weakness on
the OL. Heyward will be a good test week 1. Just hope we don't get called for a ton of holds. We all know this can happen when
playing these bastids.

Even if Volson turns out to be decent. Mixon in blitz pickup is a scary thought.

(09-01-2022, 12:40 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Volson is the question, but we can help him out. Defenses will definitely attack him as he is the rookie and clear weakness on
the OL. Heyward will be a good test week 1. Just hope we don't get called for a ton of holds. We all know this can happen when
playing these bastids.

I like to look at it like this. Last season we had one decent Olineman (most of the time) and 4 average at best/bad rest of the bunch.

This season we've switched it around. 4 solid starters and 1 question mark.

So there's that

(09-01-2022, 01:17 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I like to look at it like this. Last season we had one decent Olineman (most of the time) and 4 average at best/bad rest of the bunch.

This season we've switched it around. 4 solid starters and 1 question mark.

So there's that

And we shown we can be disciplined even with just average OL. Hope this continues, was a great thing to see last season.

Hope we can stay one of the least penalized teams.

(09-01-2022, 08:19 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Burrow told Zac to take care of the pressure up the middle and he would take care of the pressure coming off the ends. We just need Volson, Cappa and Karras to hold the pocket.

That is true, and probably a little bit of why Brady seems a little pouty right now...having lost Jensen to injury and Cappa to the Bengals.

I really think Collins as a run blocker next to Cappa and Karras in the middle will be huge on short yardage.  As someone that saw it happen to the Bengals for seemingly ages, there is nothing more demoralizing to a defense than an inability to stop the run.  

(09-02-2022, 09:26 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: That is true, and probably a little bit of why Brady seems a little pouty right now...having lost Jensen to injury and Cappa to the Bengals.

I really think Collins as a run blocker next to Cappa and Karras in the middle will be huge on short yardage.  As someone that saw it happen to the Bengals for seemingly ages, there is nothing more demoralizing to a defense than an inability to stop the run.  

Ha ha with Brady...

Loved taking Cappa from them right before he came back lol

Also, so true about short yardage with this OL now. Heard during TC we were automatic when our starters were in, even 
against our Defense with Reader and company who are really good against Offense's running games in short yardage.

(08-31-2022, 08:26 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Less predictable, yes, but also more efficient.  How many times did a penalty put them in 1st and 20?  How many poor rush attempts left them in 2nd and 12?  They did an amazing job converting those down and distances, but I can't wait to see a 3rd and 2 where they just hand off Mixon behind Cappa and Collins and get an easy 4 yards.  Of course, if safeties and LBs start cheating up (I bet we see more hard counts this year) then Joe will play action and throw over them.

They seem to know Joe's superpower is being able to read and diagnose quickly with multiple targets.  We will see plenty of empty, or plenty of RBs chip and go out in a pattern.  

My biggest concern right now isn't Volson at LG, but the health and ability with next to no hard practice time for Collins.  

And no depth at tackle

(09-02-2022, 02:51 PM)3wt Wrote: And no depth at tackle

I think Adeniji and Smith are solid backups at tackle and neither one is a guard.  Really glad they landed Sharping for depth there.  

(09-03-2022, 08:31 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I think Adeniji and Smith are solid backups at tackle and neither one is a guard.  Really glad they landed Sharping for depth there.  

Hopefully Prince gets healthy cause yeah, all these guys are Tackles and now have experience. Still have hope for D'Ante.

He just needs to cut down on those damn penalties. He shows tons of potential with those long arms, quick feet and power.

(09-03-2022, 02:02 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Hopefully Prince gets healthy cause yeah, all these guys are Tackles and now have experience. Still have hope for D'Ante.

He just needs to cut down on those damn penalties. He shows tons of potential with those long arms, quick feet and power.

Me too.  I just hope their trying to force a square peg into a round hole (make them guards when they clearly are not) hasn't impacted their development too much.  

Sharping was a real find.  

I did have to laugh at the "He did well against the Bengals so they found a way to get him later" argument because I guess Sharping had 27 pass blocking snaps in that blowout win against the Texans where Brandon Allen was QB.  I was like:  "Yeah, but who didn't do well against the interior of that defense???".  It was guys off the street!

Still, I am encouraged they have him as quality depth should Volson implode, but with all his experience and his work ethic, I would imagine Volson will be just fine.  Interesting fact:  Volson turned 24 in June, while Carman just turned 22 in January.  

(09-04-2022, 10:43 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Me too.  I just hope their trying to force a square peg into a round hole (make them guards when they clearly are not) hasn't impacted their development too much.  

Sharping was a real find.  

I did have to laugh at the "He did well against the Bengals so they found a way to get him later" argument because I guess Sharping had 27 pass blocking snaps in that blowout win against the Texans where Brandon Allen was QB.  I was like:  "Yeah, but who didn't do well against the interior of that defense???".  It was guys off the street!

Still, I am encouraged they have him as quality depth should Volson implode, but with all his experience and his work ethic, I would imagine Volson will be just fine.  Interesting fact:  Volson turned 24 in June, while Carman just turned 22 in January.  

Sometimes they do that, try and put a square peg in a round hole like they tried with Carman putting him at RG when he
clearly struggles on the right side. Also agree that Scharping was a nice find in case Volson isn't ready but with the way 
Volson works so hard I could see Scharping just being a depth piece in case of an injury at Guard.

The age of both Volson and Carman honestly could be another reason why Carman hasn't got up to speed yet. That and 
all the other factors. I believe Carman has a ton of upside unlike a lot of posters on here and think it would be a major 
mistake to cut him like some have been talking.

(08-29-2022, 03:20 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Zac Taylor had a 6-25-1 record as an NFL head coach.

Joe Burrow had not played a single snap since his knee injury.

Our first round pick Ja'Marr Chase was having a terrible problem with drops in preseason games.

Billy Price was still a Bengal

But here was the good news after our third preseason game

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-preseason-week-3-game-recap-miami-dolphins-29-cincinnati-bengals-26

Bengals fans can’t help but be encouraged by what they saw from rookie Jackson Carman on Sunday. After a much-maligned start to training camp and first outing against Tampa Bay, the second-rounder has looked much improved the past two weeks. He didn’t take a single downgrade in pass protection on 20 such snaps in this contest.


I don't know what thsi 2022 season holds, but I guarantee something will happen that none of us saw coming.  And that is what is so great about sports.  They are the original "reality programs".

And very few posters on here thought we'd even make it to the Playoffs. I was one that thought we could, but SB run surprised the sh*t out of me... :) But i'll take it. This year, we SHOULD make the playoffs and SB run is not out of the question.

(09-05-2022, 01:31 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: And very few posters on here thought we'd even make it to the Playoffs. I was one that thought we could, but SB run surprised the sh*t out of me... :) But i'll take it. This year, we SHOULD make the playoffs and SB run is not out of the question.

Tons of people are sleeping on us again too. Everyone is picking the Bills to make it to the SB over us this season and they 
could very well start out with a loss on Thursday night and we should be 1-0 Sunday. If our OL and overall team stays some
what healthy the Bengals are definitely my pick to go back to the SB. We brought back all our coaches and players that were
instrumental in us going to the SB in the first place.

Al Golden is the only coach that left and he was replaced by Betcher a damn good Defensive coach.

Ogunjobi and Uzo were the only players we lost and Ogunjobi is now on the Steelers coming off of injury and Uzo is on the 
Jets playing backup. Zach Carter looked good in the preseason and Hurst could very well be an upgrade as a pass catching TE.

One year ago today I had a lot less confidence than I do now.

One year ago I was predicting dire doom for the Cincinnati Bengals. I thought Zac Taylor was the worst coach in the history of all sports and I wanted him gone. I thought Lou Anarumo was too soft. Ja’Marr Chase looked terrible in preseason and I didn’t think he would make the final 53. I wasn’t even sure Joe Burrow recovered completely from his surgery the year before. I think my prediction for the 2021 season was either 2-15 or 3-14; it wasn’t looking good in my eyes.

Never have I been so happy to have been so wrong about so much.

(09-04-2022, 01:43 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Sometimes they do that, try and put a square peg in a round hole like they tried with Carman putting him at RG when he
clearly struggles on the right side. Also agree that Scharping was a nice find in case Volson isn't ready but with the way 
Volson works so hard I could see Scharping just being a depth piece in case of an injury at Guard.

The age of both Volson and Carman honestly could be another reason why Carman hasn't got up to speed yet. That and 
all the other factors. I believe Carman has a ton of upside unlike a lot of posters on here and think it would be a major 
mistake to cut him like some have been talking.

I sure feel better already with Sharping first off the bench (eventually) if Cappa or Volson had an injury than I do with Carman.