Okay we lost bad. Let's all breathe in and breathe out. It's also possible the season is a wash - same thing - breathe in and breathe out.

As is our want we all (me included) start riding our hobby horses whenever the team struggles. And to be honest that is a mark of true fans as opposed to casuals. So we've had fire [insert name of coaches we don't like], bench [insert name of player(s) we feel is not performing] and so on. It's therapeutic but we should also note we have no authority in these matters.

The team right now is in a rut that is actually pretty strange. Defensively, a lot of us expected the inexperienced secondary to have problems settling in but few expected we would be THIS bad against the run and blowing coverages THIS often. Hopefully they get their act together soon enough to be respectable.

Offensively I am pretty sure no one expected Burrow to be THIS off, calf or no. You can see it when he throws, his mechanics are off and as a result he lacks his customary pinpoint accuracy. He also does not roll, shift, climb the pocket or do anything - he is immobile back there. This is making it much harder for the OL to get into any rhythm. Arguments can be made both for and against sitting him - my position is that sitting doesn't heal the calf BUT if he can't operate the offense he probably needs to sit a bit.

And yes the line needs to do better but in the same vein we need to be calling plays that cater to their strengths (power). One of my hobby horses is the need for us to ditch the wide zone completely, so every time I see them wheel it out it aggravates. This line is not built for it. And also yes the receivers need to be better at not dropping balls and at getting off coverage. The offensive failures are unit wide like the defensive ones.

All we can do as fans is wait and see. Which is frustrating of course. Hopefully against AZ they can get it together enough to win so that the following game they can hope to get back to .500.

I mean, all we can do is wait and see for improvement. This is the worst I’ve seen from the offense since Ken Zampese

My Sundays are freed up. If there are any improvements I'll hear about them here.

Agree with your thoughts but I think Burrow and the entire coaching staff creating plays are going to have to make changes. What worked in college for JB with the empty sets with all wide outs isn't working now in the NFL. It worked the first 2 years because it was JB, Chase and Higgins lighting up defenses but now 3-4 years in opposing teams have basically shut them down. And we are still trying to be the long ball home run offense. Other teams are on to us and Zac and Co. haven't adapted or adjusted still relying on JB making homerun big plays. We don't run enough even with Mixon looking better this year. He is basically our only RB.

When Joe is in SG formation empty set the D knows a pass is coming. We use no motion or different look sets. And with his calf injury limiting his movement it's even worse. We are far too predictable on offense. Teams in the league see this and have adjusted but it seems we haven't and keep trying the same few plays over and over resulting in so many 3 and outs. Tough decisions to consider and decide on. Do they start Joe this week being 70%? Guess it would be a bad look sitting the 275 Mil QB.

(10-02-2023, 01:39 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: Agree with your thoughts but I think Burrow and the entire coaching staff creating plays are going to have to make changes. What worked in college for JB with the empty sets with all wide outs isn't working now in the NFL. It worked the first 2 years because it was JB, Chase and Higgins lighting up defenses but now 3-4 years in opposing teams have basically shut them down. And we are still trying to be the long ball home run offense. Other teams are on to us and Zac and Co. haven't adapted or adjusted still relying on JB making homerun big plays. We don't run enough even with Mixon looking better this year. He is basically our only RB.

When Joe is in SG formation empty set the D knows a pass is coming. We use no motion or different look sets. And with his calf injury limiting his movement it's even worse. We are far too predictable on offense. Teams in the league see this and have adjusted but it seems we haven't and keep trying the same few plays over and over resulting in so many 3 and outs. Tough decisions to consider and decide on. Do they start Joe this week being 70%? Guess it would be a bad look sitting the 275 Mil QB.

zac taylor needs to stop calling plays.I really do not have an answer as to who should be our play caller,looking for suggestions.

If the offense can't get back on track these next couple of weeks the season is over.
I have a feeling we'll get back on track against lesser opponents and somehow make it to 3-3 going into the bye.
I could defintely be wrong though.
Burrow needs to get healthy or this season is over.
Too tough of a schedule to have him playing like he is.

If Burrow can get healthy we can make a run this year.
If not, I'd almost rather we have a terrible year and sit Burrow and plan for next year.
A bad year could put the spotlight on the offensive coaching staff, but we all know how likely it is that we make any changes in that regard.

Overall, not a great year to be a Bengals fan in all likelihood.
If we lose next week its probably a good time to tune out and focus on hobbies like you said.
There's a lot more to life than television and sports.

(10-02-2023, 01:42 PM)fortyyearfan Wrote: zac taylor needs to stop calling plays.I really do not have an answer as to who should be our play caller,looking for suggestions.

Unless ZT fires Callahan, which he won't especially not midseason, who would call plays?  Would our offensive HC and our OC really let a QB coach or some offensive assistant call the shots if we even have someone capable of that on the coaching staff?

Our best hope of getting a different playcaller in here was Callahan getting a HC gig and us being forced to dig up Joe Brady or something, right?  I can't keep all this stuff straight, but surely someone on this offensive-lead staff can call plays.  Maybe put Browning in and give Burrow the sheet and headset.

(10-02-2023, 01:07 PM)Joelist Wrote: ....my position is that sitting doesn't heal the calf...

Wait, WHAT?
Sitting does nothing BUT heal the calf... it certainly doesn't hurt it.

(10-02-2023, 01:39 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: ...Guess it would be a bad look sitting the 275 Mil QB.

How so?  They have an EASY "out/excuse" - just say "Burrow tweaked his calf again" (even if it's not true) and boom, he can sit the bench with no controversy whatsoever.

(10-02-2023, 02:10 PM)Tomkat Wrote: How so?  They have an EASY "out/excuse" - just say "Burrow tweaked his calf again" (even if it's not true) and boom, he can sit the bench with no controversy whatsoever.

Wasn't Burrow indicating his elbow (or L bone, as I call it) was bothering him while he was in there in the 4th quarter getting ground into the turf for no reason?

If the offense hangs the defense out to dry again, there won't be anything to see but several more blowout losses coming our way.

(10-02-2023, 02:13 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Wasn't Burrow indicating his elbow (or L bone, as I call it) was bothering him while he was in there in the 4th quarter getting ground into the turf for no reason?

I have no idea, as I couldn't watch the game.  But, if true... that's another injury "out" if needed.

(10-02-2023, 02:13 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Wasn't Burrow indicating his elbow (or L bone, as I call it) was bothering him while he was in there in the 4th quarter getting ground into the turf for no reason?

I floated an elbow issue around in last weeks game thread. Because Even on 1 leg you can unload a deep pass here and there. Burrow isn’t even TRYING to throw deep. That means something else is up.

(10-02-2023, 02:13 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Wasn't Burrow indicating his elbow (or L bone, as I call it) was bothering him while he was in there in the 4th quarter getting ground into the turf for no reason?

Burrow got his arm hit pretty good trying to throw the ball on one of those pass plays.

https://youtu.be/llbhvwP2Qs8?t=84

(10-02-2023, 02:16 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: If the offense hangs the defense out to dry again, there won't be anything to see but several more blowout losses coming our way.

Right on

As we speak our offense is junk!!! Joe Burrow is incapable and/or to scared to move, you can see it. The opposing D knows EXACTLY what's coming 95% of the time. Burrow is next to in mobile. Joe is very, rattled. He's lost all of his moxy, his confidence, his swagger. He needs to be sat down until after the bye. We can't win with this version of him.

You can go on and on about the Oline playing bad, the defense stinking, the playcalling being bad, and so on ad nauseum. But the main problem is Joe Burrow is like a statue in the backfield. We run out of shotgun and throw 3 yard passes.

Opposing D;s are licking their chops. We're going to suck at the top of the suckage scale until Joe Burrow gets better and regains his confidence.

Sit him down now

Joe really needs to sit until he gets healed up. He can't move and it's blood in the water for opposing DC's. You can't tell me that we would have gone 0-4 with Browning out there. Plus, the rest of the AFCN is struggling. Our best bet is to hopefully tread water until Joe heals, then go on a late run for the division.

Pretty apparent now that Zac is a great HC, but a lousy OC. It might be time to give Callahan a shot as the play caller to see if he has anything, then shop for an OC next year.

Hill and CTB have shown promise in the secondary, but Hilton has regressed and Scott just isn't starter quality.

He will sustain another injury trying to play around the calf injury. It could be anywhere on his body. A concussion won’t be out of the question, since he’s a sitting duck back there.

(10-02-2023, 03:13 PM)Whatever Wrote: You can't tell me that we would have gone 0-4 with Browning out there.

I know football is a team game, but the ZT era Bengals sans Burrow are lousy with losses.  I agree playing Burrow hurt and still getting L's is a worse case scenario, but this team without Burrow has been bowling shoe ugly.

We call the wide zone run every 1st down and it’s so easy to stop. That’s a call you call as much as we do when you have Saquon or Bijan Robinson. A guy that can break tackles and hit the edge. Calling that play with Mixon is basically giving up on every 1st down


You’d think a NFL coach would see this by now but Zac is a fuxking idiot

Don't care how much you paid him - bench the guy! He got paid for the long-game. He won't be around much longer if he's still out there. Just put in the backup to protect the investment. And now you see why we need a powerback.