No doubt the Chase injury really sucks but sometimes when negative things happen something else positive is born out of that.

This is where we will hopefully see the potential of what our offensive game planners and personnel can do using different strategies and concepts. These next few weeks "could" be very telling and help us learn more about ourselves than we already know and help us moving forward.

Who knows, just a thought. Will someone when given more opportunity really step up? Evans, Trent Taylor, Lassiter, someone new? Just look what Geno Smith is doing in Seattle - crazy.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Think we've seen what Taylor, Morgan, and Thomas can do already and would think Lassiter would be the only candidate for surprise.

Thomas can be serviceable being Higgins and Boyd will draw most of the double coverage though.

Yet nobody is filling Chase's shoes and will have to be a team effort.

As far as the regular players go expecting Boyd and Hurst to really step up their games with more targets coming there way. Especially Boyd per believing he is very underrated

I think this is a good chance for Burrow to work on not focusing on getting Chase the ball so much and getting him used to going to his other weapons.

I think it’s an excellent opportunity for the FO to improve WR depth via FA/trade so if/when Chase comes back the team will be better than before.
Hopefully it also increases creativity on offense and pushes Burrow to become an even better QB and elevate the players around him!

I hope we get to see some Taylor
He has reliable hands and is a little nifty.

Lots of Boyd and Hurst of course too

If we are able to roll through these games without Chase, imagine how scary this team could be if he's able to make it back for the postseason.

There's no question the team is better with him in it, but this may force us to diversify what we do on offence. Find other things that work with regularity, which we could hopefully come to rely on when it comes to postseason play. My hope is that Chase will only be out for a few weeks, and that in that time the Bengals find other things that they can hurt opponents with.

Bit of a fight or flight scenario. Either we hold our own and come out stronger for it, or we prove Chase is just very necessary for this team's success. I definitely think Joe Burrow is great enough to be fine without Chase, and we have a seriously good group in TB/Tee/Hurst. That's a better unit than a lot of teams have even with their #1 guy.

If ever a time Hurst can prove he was not a 1st round bust is now, he is competing with no TE for time and now with Chase out he can have an expanded role... We need bigger chuck plays from Hurst while Chase is out.

(10-28-2022, 09:43 AM)Go Cards Wrote: Necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Think we've seen what Taylor, Morgan, and Thomas can do already and would think Lassiter would be the only candidate for surprise.

Thomas can be serviceable being Higgins and Boyd will draw most of the double coverage though.

Yet nobody is filling Chase's shoes and will have to be a team effort.

As far as the regular players go expecting Boyd and Hurst to really step up their games with more targets coming there way. Especially Boyd per believing he is very underrated

I look for Mike Thomas to get the majority of the reps at Z, while Chase is inactive.  He's surprised me before, with a nice grab here and there.  It's time for him to show that he can do it when he's really needed to.

(10-28-2022, 12:46 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I look for Mike Thomas to get the majority of the reps at Z, while Chase is inactive.  He's surprised me before, with a nice grab here and there.  It's time for him to show that he can do it when he's really needed to.

I really hope he somehow flashes but in 6 years he only has 366 yards and 1 touchdown. He also has under a 50% catch rate which is really bad.  

(10-28-2022, 01:11 PM)TheFan Wrote: I really hope he somehow flashes but in 6 years he only has 366 yards and 1 touchdown. He also has under a 50% catch rate which is really bad.  

If he can move the sticks 3 times per game, and average at least 12 yds/catch, he'll have proven himself reliable.  If he somehow makes a splash play or two, maybe even a score?  He'll more than have exceeded my expectations.  It's his 3rd year in this offense, he needs to show the team that he can be relied upon.

(10-28-2022, 01:16 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: If he can move the sticks 3 times per game, and average at least 12 yds/catch, he'll have proven himself reliable.  If he somehow makes a splash play or two, maybe even a score?  He'll more than have exceeded my expectations.  It's his 3rd year in this offense, he needs to show the team that he can be relied upon.

That would be good, unless it takes 8 throws to get those 3 catches. So far this year he has 8 targets and only 2 catches. If I remember right 1 or 2 of those were dropped TDs. Which could be a good thing because it indicates he was open enough to score but also bad because he sucks at catching as a WR.

(10-28-2022, 08:53 AM)Daddy-O Wrote: No doubt the Chase injury really sucks but sometimes when negative things happen something else positive is born out of that.

This is where we will hopefully see the potential of what our offensive game planners and personnel can do using different strategies and concepts.  These next few weeks "could" be very telling and help us learn more about ourselves than we already know and help us moving forward.

Who knows, just a thought.  Will someone when given more opportunity really step up?  Evans, Trent Taylor, Lassiter, someone new?  Just look what Geno Smith is doing in Seattle - crazy.

No time to panic that is for sure, we still have a lot of really good weapons, just need to add a guy that can take the top off
of the Defense, Lassiter could be that guy who knows, he is fast. Something good could very well come from this. Nice thread.

I am not getting into the doom and gloom crap, our OL and Burrow are just starting to play well. If we can get the running 
game going with this Defense we can still win a ton of games and win the Division starting with beating the Stains Monday 
night.

(10-28-2022, 09:52 AM)leonardfan40 Wrote: I think it’s an excellent opportunity for the FO to improve WR depth via FA/trade so if/when Chase comes back the team will be better than before.
Hopefully it also increases creativity on offense and pushes Burrow to become an even better QB and elevate the players around him!

Nice post, this is the way we need to think about this. Embrace this opportunity to grow as an Offense with Chase out.

It is adversity, but we shown last season that this team can handle it. Just need to show it again without Chase.

Great player but we have a damn good team still. The team could really grow together and become much better overall
because of this.

Chase has single-handedly bailed out the offense a few times and made game-changing plays that led to W's.
As much as I don't want to say it... I think the Bengals lose the next few games until he returns.

(10-28-2022, 01:32 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: No time to panic that is for sure, we still have a lot of really good weapons, just need to add a guy that can take the top off
of the Defense, Lassiter could be that guy who knows, he is fast. Something good could very well come from this. Nice thread.

I am not getting into the doom and gloom crap, our OL and Burrow are just starting to play well. If we can get the running 
game going with this Defense we can still win a ton of games and win the Division starting with beating the Stains Monday 
night.

Game speed is different than no pads but Lassiter only ran a 4.5 forty at his pro day. I'm not sure that will scare teams about us going over the top. 

(10-28-2022, 02:10 PM)Tomkat Wrote: Chase has single-handedly bailed out the offense a few times and made game-changing plays that led to W's.
As much as I don't want to say it... I think the Bengals lose the next few games until he returns.

If we can't win against bad teams because we're missing 1 WR then that's a massive black eye on Burrow. It's not like our next few games are Bills, Chiefs, and Eagles. We have three 2-5 teams lined up back to back to back.

Now is the time for Burrow to show he is a true MVP candidate. Trent Taylor could turn out to be our Hunter Renfrow/Wes Welker.

Don't underestimate the fortitude of this team. Someone will step up the next few games. The players truly loved one another on this team.

(10-28-2022, 02:51 PM)TheFan Wrote: If we can't win against bad teams because we're missing 1 WR then that's a massive black eye on Burrow. It's not like our next few games are Bills, Chiefs, and Eagles. We have three 2-5 teams lined up back to back to back.

Im more worried if Callahan can change the scheme up and make things work with only 2 good receivers. Bengals do not have a good enough 3 to successfully run 3 wr sets.

Teams will focus on doubling Higgins, and sometimes doubling Boyd. Most likely both at the same time.

The lack of a legit 3rd receiver hurts the entire scheme. Hurst is good, an should see more targets, but TE’s don’t reall stretch the field at all.

Shotgun was working so well, but idk if this is the best move with a poor 3rd receiver

Gonna have to be able to average at least 4.5 yards per carry

We've got 10 games left and we need to win 7 of them, at least. We dug a big hole early and our margin for error is small, SM ALL. Now is the time for the backup's to put up. For Mixon to really dig in and get it. For Hurst to ball out.

And for Joe Burrow to dig deep down in and get us through it. It's what playoff teams do. And I believe we will.