I'll be the first to eat crow.

I always liked ZT as a head coach, but always thought his offense was lacking. It was set up on go balls to Chase and his offense wasn't sustainable.

After the first half of the season, a lot of us complained about the offense and how we couldn't beat cover two.

Well, this offense has evolved remarkably since then. They are using the entire field, throwing intermediate, and running with consistency.

I think we need to give ZT and his offensive staff a TON of credit for adjusting on the fly and turning this offense around from one dimensional to completely fluent.

Bengals EPA vs Cover 2
First 6 weeks: -.07 (28th in league)
After week 6: .36 (1st)

That is incredible.

Literally every complaint made a lit Taylor was valid at the time. Is he a garbage coach? Nah. One of the best in the business? Same answer. If Burrow is Mahomes daddy, Stefanski is Zac's. Time for him to put that to rest this Sunday.

Uh, WE ALL didn't say that. I've said since the day he was hired and spoke about his vision for the team that he would be one of the greatest of Bengals coaches, and I maintain that. As it is, he is one of three to take us to the Super Bowl.

(12-06-2022, 03:13 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Uh, WE ALL didn't say that. I've said since the day he was hired and spoke about his vision for the team that he would be one of the greatest of Bengals coaches, and I maintain that. As it is, he is one of three to take us to the Super Bowl.

Yep, we didn’t all say that. There’s like 10 people here who didn’t.

Good post, Weezy.

May I add that I am surprised with how good a DC Anarumo turned out to be? Imagine settling on your 6th choice for a DC and he ends up being so good he'll most likely leave for a HC position?

(12-06-2022, 03:21 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Good post, Weezy.

May I add that I am surprised with how good a DC Anarumo turned out to be? Imagine settling on your 6th choice for a DC and he ends up being so good he'll most likely leave for a HC position?

Zac is excellent in some areas and in others well, I guess we just have to accept the occasional ridiculous play call. 

I’m still up in the air. Burrow is playing at a higher level than any QB in the league right now so of course Zac will look good.


But as Zac’s biggest hater even i have to admit that QBs don’t have games like we’ve seen with NO HELP AT ALL from coaches. Zac is giving Joe some great plays. From what Iv read and seen in interviews Zac gives Burrow 2-3 different plays and Burrow picks the one he wants to run. So that means Zac in every big situation is producing 2-3 plays for Joe and more times than not these plays are working. So yeah Burrow is a QB god right now but Zac DESERVES but more so has EARNED credit and respect for his part. Callahan must be doing well too. I know the plays that are proposed to Burrow are a product of Zac, Callahan and Burrow.

I won’t say I’m going to eat crow yet because Zac still has some insane blunders, but Burrow bails them out. The furthest I’ll go right now is to say Iv loves the playcalling lately and Zac is earning his keep. He’s definitely a great motivator. He had that even when i hated him. He made my ass want to run through a wall for him in some of these post game speeches.

For the 1st time ever I’m willing to say, we may have our long term guy.

Here we go with that stupid ***** "eat crow" bullshit again...

(12-06-2022, 03:34 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Here we go with that stupid ***** "eat crow" bullshit again...

Just make sure you don't INJURE yourself while eating crow. 

(12-06-2022, 03:13 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Uh, WE ALL didn't say that. I've said since the day he was hired and spoke about his vision for the team that he would be one of the greatest of Bengals coaches, and I maintain that. As it is, he is one of three to take us to the Super Bowl.

Kudos to you. 

At the time, the criticism was deserved...to an extent. To me, they felt unprepared coming into the season on how to beat certain kinds of defenses. The EPA shows that. 

Burrow and ZT have matured and evolved a lot this year. 

(12-06-2022, 03:32 PM)Housh Wrote: I’m still up in the air. Burrow is playing at a higher level than any QB in the league right now so of course Zac will look good.


But as Zac’s biggest hater even i have to admit that QBs don’t have games like we’ve seen with NO HELP AT ALL from coaches. Zac is giving Joe some great plays. From what Iv read and seen in interviews Zac gives Burrow 2-3 different plays and Burrow picks the one he wants to run. So that means Zac in every big situation is producing 2-3 plays for Joe and more times than not these plays are working. So yeah Burrow is a QB god right now but Zac DESERVES but more so has EARNED credit and respect for his part. Callahan must be doing well too. I know the plays that are proposed to Burrow are a product of Zac, Callahan and Burrow.

I won’t say I’m going to eat crow yet because Zac still has some insane blunders, but Burrow bails them out. The furthest I’ll go right now is to say Iv loves the playcalling lately and Zac is earning his keep. He’s definitely a great motivator. He had that even when i hated him. He made my ass want to run through a wall for him in some of these post game speeches.

For the 1st time ever I’m willing to say, we may have our long term guy.

First of all I really like your post.

But I have to say - as I'm trying to remember to say to myself on at least a semi-regular basis - All the great coaches have made multiple insane blunders every season.

I do hope that he'll trend to a greater consistency in his quality play calling.  But other than Burrow's audible on the goal line (which was not Zac's fault), he called an amazing game Sunday.

It doesn't hurt that he's got Chase back, the O-line is coming into their own and Perine is playing like a boss.

One of the best games I've watched.   Felt like 3 hours of dessert.

Who dey!

(12-06-2022, 03:34 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Here we go with that stupid ***** "eat crow" bullshit again...

Having a bad day? Hope it gets better. 

Some others have said it, but the best thing might have been Chase going down for a month. It forced Taylor to adjust the playcalling and for Burrow to build more rapport with other guys.

(12-06-2022, 03:32 PM)Housh Wrote: I’m still up in the air. Burrow is playing at a higher level than any QB in the league right now so of course Zac will look good.


But as Zac’s biggest hater even i have to admit that QBs don’t have games like we’ve seen with NO HELP AT ALL from coaches. Zac is giving Joe some great plays. From what Iv read and seen in interviews Zac gives Burrow 2-3 different plays and Burrow picks the one he wants to run. So that means Zac in every big situation is producing 2-3 plays for Joe and more times than not these plays are working. So yeah Burrow is a QB god right now but Zac DESERVES but more so has EARNED credit and respect for his part. Callahan must be doing well too. I know the plays that are proposed to Burrow are a product of Zac, Callahan and Burrow.

I won’t say I’m going to eat crow yet because Zac still has some insane blunders, but Burrow bails them out. The furthest I’ll go right now is to say Iv loves the playcalling lately and Zac is earning his keep. He’s definitely a great motivator. He had that even when i hated him. He made my ass want to run through a wall for him in some of these post game speeches.

For the 1st time ever I’m willing to say, we may have our long term guy.

There have been wrinkles and schemes over the past 6 weeks that tells me this offense is really evolving. I follow a lot of guys on social media that break down film/all 22 and some of things they show the Bengals doing are really innovative/smart. 

(12-06-2022, 03:40 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Having a bad day? Hope it gets better. 

Yeah that felt extra

It’s a football message board and no one should be shit on for sicyssing football


Unless of course the thread is utterly stupid and/or it’s a duplicate of 19 threads already on the 1st page which i feel your post is neither.

Gotta respect everyone

(12-06-2022, 03:21 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Good post, Weezy.

May I add that I am surprised with how good a DC Anarumo turned out to be? Imagine settling on your 6th choice for a DC and he ends up being so good he'll most likely leave for a HC position?

Good luck to any team that hires Anarumo as their HC. The Bengals have the 3rd most % of their cap spent on defense in the NFL and are...

13th scoring defense
12th overall defense
16th passing defense (11th in YPA)
15th rushing defense (14th in YPA)
t-29th in sacks
19th in takeaways
22nd in 3rd Down %

...and have faced probably the easiest QB schedule they'll ever have through 12 games. They've faced exactly 3 NFL starting caliber QBs, only 1 of which is a good passer.

(12-06-2022, 03:43 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Good luck to any team that hires Anarumo as their HC. The Bengals have the 3rd most % of their cap spent on defense in the NFL and are...

13th scoring defense
12th overall defense
16th passing defense (11th in YPA)
15th rushing defense (14th in YPA)
t-29th in sacks
19th in takeaways
22nd in 3rd Down %

...and have faced probably the easiest QB schedule they'll ever have through 12 games. They've faced exactly 3 NFL starting caliber QBs, only 1 of which is a good passer.

I love Lou but his personality type doesn't scream head coach to me. 

(12-06-2022, 03:27 PM)Joelist Wrote: Zac is excellent in some areas and in others well, I guess we just have to accept the occasional ridiculous play call. 

Yeah, but people love those calls when they work....

(12-06-2022, 03:27 PM)Joelist Wrote: Zac is excellent in some areas and in others well, I guess we just have to accept the occasional ridiculous play call. 

I refuse to accept this...

(12-06-2022, 03:41 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: There have been wrinkles and schemes over the past 6 weeks that tells me this offense is really evolving. I follow a lot of guys on social media that break down film/all 22 and some of things they show the Bengals doing are really innovative/smart. 

They've actually been doing that for a while but i think they're very...i don't know if picky is the right word...they just don't do it a lot. Like the talking heads that say they don't use any window dressing like the 49ers and Dolphins do. I don't know anyone on the inside but it seems that Burrow likes things a certain way and Taylor is happy to oblige him as long as he gets the job done. 

Things like the plays Dan Orlovsky pointed out where they swapped where players lined up to create mismatches. I've seen several videos over the last year or so where a wrinkle or two is pointed out, but i think they just do it to spice things up and not put a lot on film for others to work on.