This team is a mess. It's the biggest disappointment I can think of as a Bengal fan heading into the season with huge expectations. We haven't scored a TD yet in the first half through 4 games and the odds of going to the playoffs at 1-3 WITH an injured Burrow? Next to nil..

We could make a book out of the things wrong. Play calling, preparation for a game knowing your putting a QB with zero mobility on the field and defenses ready to blitz him every chance they get and on and on..

But one of the many glaring issues is the coaching for the offensive line. Frank Pollack has been here years and this OL never looked good in any iteration he has coached. Why is he still here? We pickup Brown this offseason, move Williams to the right side and on paper have a solid OL. Not the best but certainly not what we've experienced this first quarter of the season. And yet...he is still here.. the man who wants glass eaters and instead has produced a bunch of ass eaters.

Why isn't something being done about this? Taylors play calling is atrocious and blaming Burrows injury on that is a cop out. Adjust this isn't a new injury. These dinks are a joke and a Pee Wee football team could adjust to the plays called by Zac and company. I won't even get into Zac because he's not going anywhere. Hell Marvin didn't win a playoff game and was here years past his welcome.

So, I'll focus on Pollack, why wont the Bengals see the big issue here and make the change now? It can't get worse.

(10-01-2023, 10:17 PM)GodFather Wrote: This team is a mess. It's the biggest disappointment I can think of as a Bengal fan heading into the season with huge expectations. We haven't scored a TD yet in the first half through 4 games and the odds of going to the playoffs at 1-3 WITH an injured Burrow? Next to nil..

We could make a book out of the things wrong. Play calling, preparation for a game knowing your putting a QB with zero mobility on the field and defenses ready to blitz him every chance they get and on and on..

But one of the many glaring issues is the coaching for the offensive line. Frank Pollack has been here years and this OL never looked good in any iteration he has coached. Why is he still here? We pickup Brown this offseason, move Williams to the right side and on paper have a solid OL. Not the best but certainly not what we've experienced this first quarter of the season. And yet...he is still here.. the man who wants glass eaters and instead has produced a bunch of ass eaters.

Why isn't something being done about this? Taylors play calling is atrocious and blaming Burrows injury on that is a cop out. Adjust this isn't a new injury. These dinks are a joke and a Pee Wee football team could adjust to the plays called by Zac and company. I won't even get into Zac because he's not going anywhere. Hell Marvin didn't win a playoff game and was here years past his welcome.

So, I'll focus on Pollack, why wont the Bengals see the big issue here and make the change now? It can't get worse.

Burrow playing on one leg is the truth not a cop out. Everything is affected by this injury on this team.

(10-01-2023, 10:21 PM)J24 Wrote: Burrow playing on one leg is the truth not a cop out. Everything is affected by this injury on this team.

Yep. Hard to really evaluate when things look this bad.

(10-01-2023, 10:21 PM)J24 Wrote: Burrow playing on one leg is the truth not a cop out. Everything is affected by this injury on this team.

(10-01-2023, 10:27 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Yep. Hard to really evaluate when things look this bad.

Sure, but even with a two legged Burrow last year there were plenty calls for Pollack to be replaced last season/offseason. 

He has drafted nobody good, he has developed nobody. He has contributed Billy Price, Jackson Carman, and Cordell Volson to this team. It seems like they change or talk about changing blocking scheme 3 times each year for the last 3 years.

Guy stinks.

(10-01-2023, 10:31 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Sure, but even with a two legged Burrow last year there were plenty calls for Pollack to be replaced last season/offseason. 

He has drafted nobody good, he has developed nobody. He has contributed Billy Price, Jackson Carman, and Cordell Volson to this team. It seems like they change or talk about changing blocking scheme 3 times each year for the last 3 years.

Guy stinks.

Duke is the GM not Pollack! Also the offensive Line got drastically better as the season went on last season after they changed from a zone to man gaping scheme.

(10-01-2023, 10:21 PM)J24 Wrote: Burrow playing on one leg is the truth not a cop out. Everything is affected by this injury on this team.

Burrow makes up for the offense coaching staff shit play calling and prep. When burrow is hurt everything is exposed.  My point is Zac and company had time to adjust knowing the severity of Burrow's injury and this is their answer? When hired, we were told Zac was this brilliant offensive guru, and he cant make the changes knowing his QB is going to be playing nowhere near his normal production.

Oh let's dink it for a game and see what happens. And then surprise em and run up the middle. 

(10-02-2023, 12:13 AM)GodFather Wrote: Burrow makes up for the offense coaching staff shit play calling and prep. When burrow is hurt everything is exposed.  My point is Zac and company had time to adjust knowing the severity of Burrow's injury and this is their answer? When hired, we were told Zac was this brilliant offensive guru, and he cant make the changes knowing his QB is going to be playing nowhere near his normal production.

Oh let's dink it for a game and see what happens. And then surprise em and run up the middle. 

Im not sure what evidence there was for anyone to believe that Zac was a brilliant offensive guru?  He called plays for 5 games at Miami, losing 3 and averaging a whopping 17 points.  He was just as bad at UC averaging 18 pts per game and lost 8 games.

Being an assistant WR coach for a season and QB coach for 1 year under McVay doesnt really turn a coach into Andy Reid.

He has done well as a HC, I disagree at times, but he has more positives than negatives.

I still think Zac can be a fine head coach but I think we need a new offensive coordinator and a new oline coach as well and really have been needing one. Let Zac be our Dabo but for god sakes do what Clemson did during their success and hire quality coordinators.

(10-02-2023, 12:13 AM)GodFather Wrote: Burrow makes up for the offense coaching staff shit play calling and prep. When burrow is hurt everything is exposed.  My point is Zac and company had time to adjust knowing the severity of Burrow's injury and this is their answer? When hired, we were told Zac was this brilliant offensive guru, and he cant make the changes knowing his QB is going to be playing nowhere near his normal production.

Oh let's dink it for a game and see what happens. And then surprise em and run up the middle. 

We can't run the offense the way Zac wants to because Burrow is hurt. The offense is limited do to Joe's lack of mobility.

(10-02-2023, 02:25 AM)J24 Wrote: We can't run the offense the way Zac wants to because Burrow is hurt. The offense is limited do to Joe's lack of mobility.

Its more than that. Joe cant even plant his foot proper and it shows. Not much will improve until his health imporoves. It just is what it is....

Because they value continuity at the coaching spot. To a fault.

(10-02-2023, 06:05 AM)bengaloo Wrote: Its more than that. Joe cant even plant his foot proper and it shows. Not much will improve until his health imporoves. It just is what it is....

This is the biggest coaching blunder of the year. It's not the play calling or lack of offense. It's that ZT continues to roll Burrow out there. 

He's putting this team at a disadvantage every time he does so. It's ***** asinine. 

I don't care what Burrow wants. STEP UP AND BE A HEAD COACH AND REEL YOUR PLAYER IN. DO YOUR JOB. 

(10-02-2023, 07:53 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: This is the biggest coaching blunder of the year. It's not the play calling or lack of offense. It's that ZT continues to roll Burrow out there. 

He's putting this team at a disadvantage every time he does so. It's ***** asinine. 

I don't care what Burrow wants. STEP UP AND BE A HEAD COACH AND REEL YOUR PLAYER IN. DO YOUR JOB. 

I don't have a problem with Zac having Burrow start the game. But I don't understand why Burrow was still out there late in the game when down by 24 and the game out of reach. 

(10-01-2023, 10:21 PM)J24 Wrote: Burrow playing on one leg is the truth not a cop out. Everything is affected by this injury on this team.

It's a problem when the entire offense is designed and dependent upon Joe Burrow playing at a super star level.  Truly good coaching should have a contingency plan for when situations like injuries occur.  If they don't find some sort of offensive footing soon, defenders are going to start dropping like flies from playing so fatigued.  We're already seeing the level of play by the defense greatly diminished, after just 4 games.

(10-02-2023, 08:00 AM)Nepa Wrote: I don't have a problem with Zac having Burrow start the game. But I don't understand why Burrow was still out there late in the game when down by 24 and the game out of reach. 

Yep, beyond ridiculous that Burrow is out there getting sacked at the end of the game. Such ridiculous logic that you have to question the intelligence of whoever decided he should still be playing at that point.

As the HC, if we're going to give ZT the plaudits for the SB and AFCCG appearances, then he earns the criticism for this too. Though, I imagine part of that choice is JB's as well. 

I think he has to sit next week but I think we'll play him on every snap again. Wouldnt shock me if a loss to Arizona starts to change that narrative though.

Bengals ran an empty formation on 2nd and goal from the 8 yard line. The offense has never evolved. Every year they implement things in the offseason they don't work they strike them out and go back to a very simple offense. Yesterday we seen Chase run the orbit motion from the RB position at least 3 times they were 2 handoffs to Mixon and 1 swing pass to Chase. They are taking their best offensive player moving him without creating a matchup just running a play.

(10-02-2023, 02:25 AM)J24 Wrote: We can't run the offense the way Zac wants to because Burrow is hurt. The offense is limited do to Joe's lack of mobility.

Thats when a coach schemes things to make it work. You guys act like teams can't win with bad QB play or a backup QB. It has a LOT to do with coaching. Yeah, Burrow is limited but a good coach will either scheme something that will work or put a backup in and scheme something with his skill set. If we didn't have such a good weapons I would say there's not much you can do, but good God we have arguably the best offensive weapons in the league with a solid OL. You have to be able scheme something with almost any backup QB in the league 

(10-01-2023, 10:17 PM)GodFather Wrote: This team is a mess. It's the biggest disappointment I can think of as a Bengal fan heading into the season with huge expectations. We haven't scored a TD yet in the first half through 4 games and the odds of going to the playoffs at 1-3 WITH an injured Burrow? Next to nil..

We could make a book out of the things wrong. Play calling, preparation for a game knowing your putting a QB with zero mobility on the field and defenses ready to blitz him every chance they get and on and on..

But one of the many glaring issues is the coaching for the offensive line. Frank Pollack has been here years and this OL never looked good in any iteration he has coached. Why is he still here? We pickup Brown this offseason, move Williams to the right side and on paper have a solid OL. Not the best but certainly not what we've experienced this first quarter of the season. And yet...he is still here.. the man who wants glass eaters and instead has produced a bunch of ass eaters.

Why isn't something being done about this? Taylors play calling is atrocious and blaming Burrows injury on that is a cop out. Adjust this isn't a new injury. These dinks are a joke and a Pee Wee football team could adjust to the plays called by Zac and company. I won't even get into Zac because he's not going anywhere. Hell Marvin didn't win a playoff game and was here years past his welcome.

So, I'll focus on Pollack, why wont the Bengals see the big issue here and make the change now? It can't get worse.

Why?

A couple reasons:
1) Mike Brown almost assuredly sees these coaches as the ones who got the team to a Super Bowl and two AFC Championship Games, so he believes in them.
2) Mike Brown is almost notorious for giving coaches too many chances to turn things around before moving on because he wants to give them opportunity to turn things around and knows that can sometimes take time.

One example where waiting has paid off - Anarumo's defense was garbage his first two years. It took until Year 3 to get personnel who could run it properly.


An example of where it's really not paying off? Frank Pollack.
The OL continues to underwhelm no matter how many new faces he puts out there.

With all that said, I'm not sure how much of a difference it could make replacing a position coach like Pollack midway through the year.
They'd have to have some plan to backfill immediately, and I'm not sure if there's someone equipped to take that over where it doesn't get worse this year.
And with a hobbled Burrow, you definitely don't want the OL to regress this year from where it already is.

Doug Pederson finished his tenure in Philadelphia with a 42–37–1 (.531) regular season record, 4–2 (.667) playoff record and a 46–39–1 (.541) career record. He spent five seasons in Philly and won a ring there. After the Super Bowl win, he went 9-7 in 2018 (lost to the Sains in the divisional round) and 2019 (one and gone on the playoffs), and was fired after a pathetic 4-11-1 in 2020. All it took was a losing season and he was gone. That being said, I don't see Zac being fired this season, even if Burrow gets destroyed next week and ruled out of the season plus a 1-16 record in January. He will get another shot next year not matter what.

Considering that they had a lot of time knowing they needed to adjust the play book for Burrows injury in the preseason there's no excuse that we should have only a handful of plays. There's no excuse for throwing the ball so much against the Rams, which possibly made Burrows calf worse. There's no excuse for not putting in the backup QB if there's no way to scheme with an injured Burrow in there. There's no excuse for this coaching staff, and it's rather obvious that Zac is a joke and got carried by Burrow the last two years. It's a joke we've never been a top 5 offense in scoring with the players we have and its a joke we've always been a middle of the pack offense with yards. Taylor is just a bad joke and a bad coach. At the very least get us a new OC and force Taylor to let them call the plays