(09-12-2022, 01:23 PM)impactplaya Wrote: I was disappointed in Our DEs being unable
To really generate a pass rush yesterday
To me the Steelers DEs were a huge difference
In the game. TJ Watt alone was responsible for
A indirect Hand in the Steelers 16 pts on offense.
Hubbard and Hendrickson were stout vs the runs
But you have to get a QB off his platform
I didn't see Ossai make any plays either

I get that, the steelers out coached the bengals. They called much better plays.

Either way, would you prefer the defense give up 24 points a game and get 40 sacks in a season or 18 points a game and get 30 sacks?
Sacks are great but not everything. 

Also TJ Watt is better than any two of our DEs combiined.

If your DEs aren't disrupting the pocket
Then a QB has all day to go through his reads
And keep the chains moving
How many times did the Steelers have to play
Behind the sticks yesterday?
Very very little.
How often was JB facing 2nd 3rd and longs?
Alot more

(09-11-2022, 06:14 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: Burrow was the server of that shit of garbage

You must be in absolute heaven today. Burrow was bad yesterday and Jerbert wasn't. 

Just how great does that feel?

(09-12-2022, 11:26 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: On the last drive, Hubbard jumps offside and has a clear run at the QB and misses him. Trubisky throws one to Johnson for a decent gain on a free play.

Stuff like that hurt us.

Hubbard was also behind Trubisky on another play. Mitch holding the ball in one hand. Hubbard went for the strip and didn't get it.

That was Trey chasing him across the field. He swiped at, but just missed the ball on the tackle. 

(09-11-2022, 06:10 PM)M.W. Wrote: The offense turned the ball over 4 times in the first half and the defense held strong. The defense played very well all game, had Borrow not crapped to bed the entire 1st half the game would have been an easy win.

I think this defense will be very good on third down and run defense. The Steelers OL not good just couldn’t do anything in the run game.

I think our D was kinda blah. We didn’t get any pressure on a backup QB behind a suspect line. Gotta give them props for keeping us in the game, but any other decent offense in the AFC would have destroyed us. Not many positives if any from yesterday’s game.

(09-12-2022, 10:28 PM)TKUHL Wrote: I think our D was kinda blah. We didn’t get any pressure on a backup QB behind a suspect line. Gotta give them props for keeping us in the game, but any other decent offense in the AFC would have destroyed us. Not many positives if any from yesterday’s game.

Our offense was on the field like 43 mins.

Holding this up as a great defensive performance would be a mistake. The Steelers offense wasn't much of a test. The Bengals D did a good job of stopping the running game most of the day but they didn't get much pressure on the QB and they gave up too many long pass plays, including one for 26 yards in OT to help setup the winning FG.

The defense was good enough to win against a week offense. It's going to have to improve to get us back to the playoffs.

(09-12-2022, 09:31 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: You must be in absolute heaven today. Burrow was bad yesterday and Jerbert wasn't. 

Just how great does that feel?

I'd still take Burrow every single time...

The thing about our team, is we have to play complementary football. We aren’t elite enough on one side of the ball to carry our team. We don’t have a Pitt level defense and we don’t have a Buffalo/KC level offense. We have above average on both sides but one side can’t shit the bed (offense this week and defense against Jets last year) and expect to be successful. We are good enough on both sides that as long as we play clean football we can beat anyone.

(09-12-2022, 10:33 AM)Wyche Wrote: I don't see clock management as a problem. I wouldn't have blamed Marvin yesterday either. Did Marvin get blamed for Andy's 2.0 game? No. Did Marvin get blamed when Palmer threw pick sixes? No. Yet somehow, here in 2022, it's somehow the HCs fault when a guy throws a pick six and has five turnovers. You can't make this shit up.

I will say it seems like Zac and McVay made the wrong call about the preseason. Both offenses were flat. I could put some of yesterday on that aspect of things. But no sane person without an agenda is looking anywhere besides -5 in the turnover battle. It's been over twenty years since a team won a game with that stat. 

Tomlin played his starters in the pre-season and Najee Harris wound up with a Lis Franc sprain that was re-aggravated in the game, and Watt is likely out for the season. Hightower went off the field as well, though I don't know why. So how'd that work out for them, they wiill be down key players for the next few games if not the season. I'd rather have a rusty first half and have everyone healthy, but that's just me. If we had played the starters and Collins, Cappa or Karras had been injured, the same people saying Zac should have been playing the starters would be saying Zac shouldn't have played the starters. 

(09-11-2022, 06:10 PM)M.W. Wrote: The offense turned the ball over 4 times in the first half and the defense held strong.  The defense played very well all game, had Borrow not crapped to bed the entire 1st half the game would have been an easy win.

Yes, love our Defense. We needed a thread about them. DJ Reader and Logan Wilson are studs and with Trey Hendrickson
on passing downs we can both stop the run very well and rush the passer. Hubbard, Ossai, Sample, Gunter need to step up
though in the pass rush so we don't have to just rely on Hendrickson.

Our Secondary looks great too and Apple actually played very well on Sunday. Bates played great and Bell was hitting like 
his usual self. Want to see a little more of Dax though, but kind of hard to get him snaps when everyone is playing good.

Mike Hilton had another good day. Love this Defense.

(09-13-2022, 03:52 AM)Roland Wrote: Holding this up as a great defensive performance would be a mistake.  The Steelers offense wasn't much of a test.  The Bengals D did a good job of stopping the running game most of the day but they didn't get much pressure on the QB and they gave up too many long pass plays, including one for 26 yards in OT to help setup the winning FG.

The defense was good enough to win against a week offense.  It's going to have to improve to get us back to the playoffs.

Pittsburgh was the 21st ranked offense last year with Ben as QB. At worst Ben and Trubisky are equal with Mitch likely being better. 

The defense gave up 13 points in regulation despite the offense having 4 turnovers, 3 of which were around the 50 or closer. Even the TD Pitt did score was after a questionable PI following a failed 3rd down. Pittsburgh had 13 total drives:

1 drive of over 50 yards
9 under 20 yards with 6 being less than 10. 

What more do you expect a defense to do? This is the NFL.

(09-13-2022, 02:26 PM)TheFan Wrote: Pittsburgh was the 21st ranked offense last year with Ben as QB. At worst Ben and Trubisky are equal with Mitch likely being better. 

The defense gave up 13 points in regulation despite the offense having 4 turnovers, 3 of which were around the 50 or closer. Even the TD Pitt did score was after a questionable PI following a failed 3rd down. Pittsburgh had 13 total drives:

1 drive of over 50 yards
9 under 20 yards with 6 being less than 10. 

What more do you expect a defense to do? This is the NFL.

I don't know ...maybe do what the Steelers did....
Sack the QB, make him uncomfortable...
Maybe force some fumbles ....play thievery in the 
Secondary 
If the Steelers  D doesn't show up and play flip the field,  the Bengals win that game.
When a offense struggles, then 2 other phases in
The game have to take their games to another level

I believe this D will be middle of the pack at worst. Could end up a bit higher ?

(09-13-2022, 02:36 PM)impactplaya Wrote: I don't know ...maybe do what the Steelers did....
Sack the QB, make him uncomfortable...
Maybe force some fumbles ....play thievery in the 
Secondary 
If the Steelers  D doesn't show up and play flip the field,  the Bengals win that game.
When a offense struggles, then 2 other phases in
The game have to take their games to another level

So if the defense let's them drive 45 yards and then gets an int that's somehow better than a 3 and out? Our defense gave up 13 points in regulation. The Steelers defense gave up 20 points and should have been more. Our defense forced six 3 and outs out of 13 drives. 

I get wanting more sacks and turnovers, but I don't get how people think our defense did anything but play great on Sunday. 5 turnovers and we STILL had a shot to win (and we DO win if Clark Harris isn't hurt) because our defense stymied Pittsburgh's offense.

(09-13-2022, 02:26 PM)TheFan Wrote: Pittsburgh was the 21st ranked offense last year with Ben as QB. At worst Ben and Trubisky are equal with Mitch likely being better. 

The defense gave up 13 points in regulation despite the offense having 4 turnovers, 3 of which were around the 50 or closer. Even the TD Pitt did score was after a questionable PI following a failed 3rd down. Pittsburgh had 13 total drives:

1 drive of over 50 yards
9 under 20 yards with 6 being less than 10. 

What more do you expect a defense to do? This is the NFL.

The problem with the stats that you're quoting is that they could be the result of our defense playing well or their offense playing poorly. How do you judge that?   You eyeball it and then you look at the stats.

The defensive stats - sacks, hurries, tackles for loss, passes defensed, etc - confirm that the Bengals D didn't make a lot of impact plays.  The Steelers offense simply failed to take advantage.  Until the end when it counted.

I'm not saying that they played poorly.  I'm just saying that declaring them "the real deal" or "great" is a stretch after one test against a poor to mediocre offense with few real impact plays to show for it.

(09-14-2022, 02:59 AM)Roland Wrote: The problem with the stats that you're quoting is that they could be the result of our defense playing well or their offense playing poorly. How do you judge that?   You eyeball it and then you look at the stats.

The defensive stats - sacks, hurries, tackles for loss, passes defensed, etc - confirm that the Bengals D didn't make a lot of impact plays.  The Steelers offense simply failed to take advantage.  Until the end when it counted.

I'm not saying that they played poorly.  I'm just saying that declaring them "the real deal" or "great" is a stretch after one test against a poor to mediocre offense with few real impact plays to show for it.

If you eye balled it then you would have seen that the Steelers were doing a lot of quick passes, dump offs, sweeps, etc. Those make it hard to get sacks, hurries, and TFL or passes defended. Our defense is never going to be explosive as one like the Steelers because we don't have a player like Watt, Garrett, or Darnold. Ours is always going to be a controlling defense that plays sound football and limits drives/points. 

If you think sacks, hurries, TFL, and the other stuff you mentioned is what makes a defense and the stats I posted isn't that's okay for you. The eye test goes both ways and anyone who watched the games knows all of those were very limited for the defense based on the way the Steelers O was playing. 

Obviously you want both. But like I said to the other poster, I'd rather the defense force six three and outs than give up 3 long drives but get a sack or TFL at some point in them. 

(09-12-2022, 10:10 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: That was Trey chasing him across the field. He swiped at, but just missed the ball on the tackle. 

How the ball didn't pop out is beyond me. That was a hell of a play.