This is one of those week's where you just laugh and hope it's all fixed by next week.

I think you're high on something if you aren't quite seriously concerned about just how awful we looked today though. Joe Burrow clearly not ready to play this game.

... In which case, you have to ask why the hell the team started him? I personally have some serious questions of Zac Taylor for allowing Burrow to play if he really wasn't that ready to go. It's not like he was 'just off'. He was playing like a QB who the team put in there so they can tank for the #1 pick. I'd have had a better game at QB today in all honesty, and I'd have done it for far less money.

An appalling lack of readiness to start the season once again. It's not good, and you just have to hope this can be like last year, where we can discount a slow start and get rolling when the games mean more. I cannot currently see us not being 0-2 after next week though, which will be a big hole to be in.

It's one game out of 17, that's about the best I can say about it!

Taylor needs to give up play calling

Myles Garrett went everywhere Zeus wasn't.

(09-10-2023, 05:34 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: It's one game out of 17, that's about the best I can say about it!

Yeah, plus the Chiefs lost at home and the Steelers got stomped...so there's that. 

(09-10-2023, 05:35 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Myles Garrett went everywhere Zeus wasn't.

Karras had a rough game. Ton of high snaps, and got beat like a drum up the middle a few times.

Burrow looked like he spent a lot of time celebrating that new contract before today's game. Like he just went to bed a few hours before the game bad. I wonder if he is still dealing with health issues. The weather didn't help but man it was ugly. The defense held their own for the most part and probably just got worn down not having a lot of time off the field. Special teams looked bad again overall similar to last season. Kind of of because Simmons' special teams squads used to be solid.

(09-10-2023, 05:36 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Yeah, plus the Chiefs lost at home and the Steelers got stomped...so there's that. 

We looked a hell of a lot worse than the Chiefs.... the Steelers did get destroyed in their first week 1 home opener in 10 years, which is quite funny.

Each L counts the same at least. I don't see it likely right now, but if we win next week this defeat gets quickly forgotten about.

Thoughts

Burrow- Awful. That can't happen again. He's earned the benefit of the doubt that it was an anomaly.

OL- Tough task. I thought generally they were ok. Still can't run consistently which is the one thing I think has really hurt this team the last two years on offense.

Defense - I have no real complaints. Everyone I can think of had a splash play here or there. Reader, Hendrickson, Pratt and Hubbard should all grade out really well.

Punter- Holy cow. It's one game in a rain storm. But I wouldn't be buying any expensive purchases for a bit if I was him, because there won't be much patience for many more performances like that.

Taylor- It didn't end up mattering much, but punting from the opponents 37 on 4th and 3 was infuriating. And who knows, if they hit and score that drive maybe it is a different game

I know this is an emotional overreaction but, at this point, I wouldn't be disappointed if they sacked every coach besides Anarumo before next week.

Burrow didn't make a single play after everything broke down. That's his special. Something was not right.

Look at it this way, we killed 2 birds with one stone.

1) We never come out week one looking great (A Zac tradition)

2)Browns always own us first meeting.


So we got those both out of the way in one game instead of two..



Heads up. We are losing next week too. Then we will see the engine burners kick in week 3 against the Rams on Monday night.

Let's just not start with well the offensive line looked bad because the Browns D Line is so good.. Cause guess what? So will the Ravens, and so will the Steelers and so will the 49ers and so on and so on..

People already comparing this pathetic game to the Steelers game last year (Week 1 game). We scored 20 points against the Steelers on that game, and we were an extra point away from winning it. What we just watched today was an absolute disaster, the offense did NOTHING the entire game. This offense just wasted a lot of opportunities and got the defense tired after these pathetic three and outs.

Preseason and training camp mean something in the end of the day, a pity Burrow had to deal with another injury this year.

(09-10-2023, 05:32 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Yeah, it's frustrating...have dropped 9 of last 11 to them. 

I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Browns make the playoffs.  Great OL and DL can take you a long way with a middle of the pack QB who can run the ball and a good RB. 

That was bad on so many levels but I do think the Bengals defense is very good.  The offense will come around for sure but I doubt it comes around next week and the schedule is ominous. 

After spending the past hour swearing at thin air I’ve calmed down a bit there are a couple although slim positives.

Defence looked good Trey looked like a beast and didn’t look like we missed Bell or Bates.

Although the run game was still shit Mix pulled off a couple of nice runs.

Apart from the ***** awful the line is still a shambles please fire fat Frank

Tee and Joe looked like they had never met.

McPherson missing a kick you would expect him to make 10 times out of 10

Jones punt returning erm no thanks.

Our punter has about as much power in his leg as someone who’s stepped on a landmine.

The olay calling same old shit really wasn’t it?

Burrow has played in the rain before and never looked that bad the ball was floating all day he’s been throwing for weeks by all accounts to put in a performance like that was pitiful.

Bounce back performance against the rats next week is badly needed even if it’s a loss they can’t look that bad again.

His calf on slippery terrain. That is what was not right with him. He’s not going to risk re-injury on slippery terrain. He basically skipped a big step in rehab with this game. Ideal progression is game on dry turf. Browns are a big ask without an injury to consider. Joe shouldn’t have been playing on wet turf for another couple of weeks in the perfect rehab situation. That’s why he didn’t do anything clutch to get 1st downs etc like we are used to.

It’s hard to see this team winning the Super Bowl. Joe Burrow was god awful. Mixon, Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and the line were average at best. None of our receivers were consistently getting much separation. The defense was good but not amazing. This was even worse than the score indicated.

(09-10-2023, 05:43 PM)BengalsLUFC Wrote: McPherson missing a kick you would expect him to make 10 times out of 10

52 yards in the rain?

Typical Taylor era game one.

Nothing else to say.

It's unreal to me how this team can be so unprepared for the begging of two straight years. Zac had done great things here, but his lax approach to the preseason gets a bit old. Marvin always heavily emphasized starting fast. Teams are going to lose games, but getting behind in September puts a lot of pressure on teams.

Things looked bad last year even as late as Halloween, where we saw a similarly humiliating beatdown from the Elves. It all worked out with a deep playoff run, but it took winning 8 straight to clean up the early shortfalls. Expecting to win 8 straight every year is not a likely or wise strategy.

It looked like a bunch of random guys that had never played together going up against professionals all day.

I've been half jokingly calling Burrow the wheelburrow for years, but I must say when he's on IR or the bench or just plain bad this entire franchise reverts to the 1990s. I expect Burrow to be elite more often than not, but I've seen other coaches and teams win or at least look decent when a QB puts up ghastly numbers...have we done that in the ZT era? The defense and running game bails the QB out, right? Maybe it happens and I'm not giving them enough credit, or maybe Burrow is just so unlikely to have bad games that it hasn't had a chance to happen. I guess last year in week 1 Burrow turned it over 5 times and we were still in the mix for the W against the odds.

Anywho, it just seems like the entire strategy of this franchise is "Put Burrow on field" and even by the QB-driven modern NFL it seems rather simplistic.