The long climb continues.
Bengals updated rankings:
Total O: 29
Pass O: 23
Rush O: 29
Scoring O: 24

Total D: 27
Pass D: 20
Rush D: 29
Scoring D: 16

Turnover +/-: 2t

DVOA O: 23
DVOA D: 19
DVOA ST: 5

I’m surprised with the defensive numbers. They have been playing great, that one is a bit of a head scratcher for me. I did see Lou say it’s not about the yards we allow but the points we give up in an interview when responding to questions.

(10-31-2023, 07:24 AM)GodFather Wrote: The long climb continues.
Bengals updated rankings:
Total O: 29
Pass O: 23
Rush O: 29
Scoring O: 24

Total D: 27
Pass D: 20
Rush D: 29
Scoring D: 16

Turnover +/-: 2t

DVOA O: 23
DVOA D: 19
DVOA ST: 5

I’m surprised with the defensive numbers. They have been playing great, that one is a bit of a head scratcher for me.  I did see Lou say it’s not about the yards we allow but the points we give up in an interview when responding to questions.

They gave up 175 yards in the 30 seconds before half & the Niners last 2 drives. Take away the one before half & the last one which were both garbage time & the D looks a lot better.

Wonder what the rankings are the last 2-3 games.

(10-31-2023, 07:24 AM)GodFather Wrote: The long climb continues.
Bengals updated rankings:
Total O: 29
Pass O: 23
Rush O: 29
Scoring O: 24

Total D: 27
Pass D: 20
Rush D: 29
Scoring D: 16

Turnover +/-: 2t

DVOA O: 23
DVOA D: 19
DVOA ST: 5

I’m surprised with the defensive numbers. They have been playing great, that one is a bit of a head scratcher for me.  I did see Lou say it’s not about the yards we allow but the points we give up in an interview when responding to questions.

We have been great in the Red Zone but given up a lot of yards. The Browns & Titans shredded us earlier. And the O going all "A Chorus Line" for the first 4-5 games (1, 2, 3, kick) did not help the D. 

The defense is top 12 in
QB Rating(8th), QB Hits per game(7th), INT(3rd), Redzone defense%(11th), and sacks per game(12th).

Keeping the other team from scoring is what it all comes down to. The Bengals are middle of the pack. That is not so bad after losing Bates, Bell and an undervalued Eli Apple. You also have to consider how bad the offense was the first few games that kept putting the defense in bad situations where it was hard for them to be successful having to keep going out there when the offense did nothing.

(10-31-2023, 11:32 AM)PCB Bengal Fan Wrote: They gave up 175 yards in the 30 seconds before half & the Niners last 2 drives. Take away the one before half & the last one which were both garbage time & the D looks a lot better.

Yup

They gave what 60 yards on those last two meaningless plays in the last 15 seconds of game. It's like am I going to risk injury to my all world RB by throwing him the ball in the last seconds of an unwinnable game? 

49ers HC - yup

The Run D numbers will take a while to recover because early on they were BAD against the run. It also shows you how trying to use these stats to evaluate units has big shortcomings. For example as already stated SF put up a LOT of garbage time yards - at least 105.

What we've really seen is a defense that started the year having issues with explosive pass and run plays, the pass plays from losing receivers in the zones and the run plays were almost all either cutbacks or deception type plays and in both cases failing to seal the backside was the cause. Over the course of the season the backside issue seems to have been fixed and the pass rush has emerged. The explosive pass plays are still an issue, and if we had that addressed before SF they would have had around 200 total yards not 460.

#Bengals rankings since the "Joe Burrow finally feels like himself" game at Arizona (week 5-present):

Total O: 17
Pass O: 14
Rush O: 21
Scoring O: 3

Total D: 30
Pass D: 27
Rush D: 19
Scoring D: 7

Turnover +/-: 2

Cue Lou saying "Yards don't equal points"

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 31, 2023

So many factors on why the rankings are so much lower than you would think.

The first few games were Burrow hurt and not himself and the Defense being on the field against great running teams
with top Defenses. I am looking at what we have done lately in order to judge better what we have. Garbage yards late
in the game like we gave up to the 49ers doesn't bother me. The score is what matters and we are a top Defense in PPG
and held a very talented 49ers Offense to just 17 points, that is all that matters to me.

This Offense now with a healthy Burrow, a running game and motion is going to be very hard to stop from here on out.

The only stats that really matter for me defensively are:

3rd down conversion %
Points allowed

If you are doing great on those, you'll be in good shape.

(10-31-2023, 04:50 PM)pally Wrote:

#Bengals rankings since the "Joe Burrow finally feels like himself" game at Arizona (week 5-present):

Total O: 17
Pass O: 14
Rush O: 21
Scoring O: 3

Total D: 30
Pass D: 27
Rush D: 19
Scoring D: 7

Turnover +/-: 2

Cue Lou saying "Yards don't equal points"

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 31, 2023

This is what I'm more interested in seeing, rather than a full season review. Our first 4 games were absolute trash, largely due to an injured QB... so of course we won't rank well, when that accounts for 4/7ths of our games played.

These 3 games also include a fairly mixed bag against Seattle, by the offence. This week was probably Burrow's first proper 'fully back at it' week, so hopefully we'll improve as we go.

In terms of the Defence... we seem to be improving. The effort in SF was prime playoffs defence and they did a good job against Seattle. It's not all about the points you give up.. giving up a ton of yards gives up TOP and you will risk opponents getting more into their groove the more they have the ball. Gives them more time to figure you out. But the name of the game is points, and if your scoring defence is good, that's obviously important.

(10-31-2023, 04:50 PM)pally Wrote:

#Bengals rankings since the "Joe Burrow finally feels like himself" game at Arizona (week 5-present):

Total O: 17
Pass O: 14
Rush O: 21
Scoring O: 3

Total D: 30
Pass D: 27
Rush D: 19
Scoring D: 7

Turnover +/-: 2

Cue Lou saying "Yards don't equal points"

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 31, 2023

Thanks Pally

(10-31-2023, 02:52 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Yup

They gave what 60 yards on those last two meaningless plays in the last 15 seconds of game. It's like am I going to risk injury to my all world RB by throwing him the ball in the last seconds of an unwinnable game? 

49ers HC - yup

Yeah that was kind of ridiculous

(10-31-2023, 10:57 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Yeah that was kind of ridiculous

Imagine if McCaffrey would of got hurt... 49ers fans would be in an uproar.

It was dumb.