Quick Hits: Why Bengals Are December Dominators; Geoff Hobson

There are a few good reasons why the Bengals' Zac Taylor should be in discussion for NFL Coach of the Year.
Here's one.
Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (shoulder) is the only Bengal who didn't practice full Wednesday, the biggest workout of the week in prepping for Saturday's game (4:30 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in Pittsburgh.
With Chase yet to practice and Thursday's final practice of the week coming, it's a big hole to fill, as is the season-ending quad injury to Pro Bowl-worthy nose tackle DJ Reader.
But the remaining roster that healthy this late in the season continues to validate the player-friendly regimen sketched out by Taylor and implemented by his strength and conditioning staff headed by Joey Boese and assistants Todd Hunt and Garrett Swanson.

It's the structure of how we do things. Zac talks about this with the team.  Everything we do is structured around playing our best football in December, January," said captain and left end Sam Hubbard. "We've definitely tried to lighten the workload early in the year. You don't need to be winning the Super Bowl in May and June. OTA practices are more about technique."
If Wednesday's injury report doesn't validate pushing back the off-season workouts by a couple of weeks or the alternating days in training camp (two days on the field, one day off), the wins do. The Bengals are riding a nine-game winning streak in December dating back to 2021 and since that season they're 16-4 in December and January, not counting the 2021 regular-season finale where the starters sat.
"There's also the training room staff and the front office and scouts," Boese said Wednesday after another shorter practice.  "It's a connected team. In the end, it comes down to players. We've got a lot of good players. They've found us players and given us players who think football is important and they're passionate about it."
The Bengals put together this three-game winning streak in a 12 scant days. "Hard to do," Boese said. Taylor shaved about 15 to 20 minutes off the last two practices after giving them two days off following Saturday's overtime victory over the Vikings.
It's a glimpse of how Taylor manipulates schedules with the help of the daily GPS data culled from each practice and charted into a narrative by Hunt and Swanson. You might say Taylor has that Marvin Lewis gift of "I see better than I hear."

Zac has a great feel. He knows when to pull them back and amp it up," said Boese as the Bengals come off that punishing stretch. "It's life in the NFL. We've changed up some things with the tempo of practice. Whether it's walk-through, or jog through, or full speed. We've backed some guys off the last couple of weeks, backed off some workouts in here. It gets back to Zac and how he manipulates what we do on and off the field."
 Boese also has a good enough relationship with the players that he can sense after a game if there's a position group that's beat up or how a player might feel after getting tweaked. And he knows he can communicate with Taylor because Taylor relies on him.
"That's what I mean about being a connected team," Boese said. "Communication with all areas."
Bengals defensive line coach Marion Hobby, who played in the NFL for three seasons in the early '90s before becoming one of the top assistants in the college and pro game, is charged with rotating his guys during the games so they stay fresh and he'll be adjusting without Reader.
"(Taylor) does a good job all year. He does a great job making sure players are fresh and coaches are fresh," Hobby said after Wednesday's practice. "And he sticks to his schedule. If things aren't going good, he stays with his schedule. You see some guys, things aren't going good and it's, 'We have to change this, have to do that.' But he's very consistent. And our players respect that."

hmmm gotta have them ready to play from game 1 we come out flat every year

Off the field, Taylor is terrific. On the field... not so much.

(12-21-2023, 01:34 PM)Science Friction Wrote: Off the field, Taylor is terrific. On the field... not so much.

LMAO

Joe Goodberry 12-11-23 “If you are a Zac Taylor, Brian Callahan, or Frank Pollack critic it’s hard to be. How can you do it? You can’t. This offense looks like the bests in the league “

https://x.com/joegoodberry/status/1734759731976138799?s=46&t=oRdMuHpC2b0Xldr1TrExDA

(12-21-2023, 01:34 PM)Science Friction Wrote: Off the field, Taylor is terrific. On the field... not so much.

lol, his first few years were not great, and the first was disastrous. He has overhauled almost the entire team and since year 3, this team has the 6th most wins out of 32.

Does he make baffling decisions at times, sure. But if you were a fan of any other team, I’m sure you would feel that way about your coach as well. Hell, Andy Reid is still trotting out kadarius Toney which is actively costing his teams games.

Team wins since 2021

Chiefs 35
Niners 34
Cowboys 34
Eagles 33
Bills 32
Bengals 30

Ravens 29
Steelers 25
Browns 24

All AFCN teams over the last year are in the top half of the league in wins, and .500 or better (cumulative) over a 3 year stretch, so our division is just (recently) better than every other one. That is 18 very hard games.

30 and 17 is a good record, on and off the field. But let’s hold some bad decisions (which all coaches have) and a bad early roster define Zac. Especially after the last 4 weeks.

F Geoff for jinxing us this week with this stupid article.

The Bengals .565 strength of schedule this year is still tops in the league.

Only 5 of the 13 teams with 8+ wins have a SOS over .500 currently

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) December 18, 2023

(12-21-2023, 01:58 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: lol, his first few years were not great, and the first was disastrous. He has overhauled almost the entire team and since year 3, this team has the 6th most wins out of 32.

Does he make baffling decisions at times, sure. But if you were a fan of any other team, I’m sure you would feel that way about your coach as well. Hell, Andy Reid is still trotting out kadarius Toney which is actively costing his teams games.

Team wins since 2021

Chiefs 35
Niners 34
Cowboys 34
Eagles 33
Bills 32
Bengals 30

Ravens 29
Steelers 25
Browns 24

All AFCN teams over the last year are in the top half of the league in wins, and .500 or better (cumulative) over a 3 year stretch, so our division is just (recently) better than every other one. That is 18 very hard games.

30 and 17 is a good record, on and off the field. But let’s hold some bad decisions (which all coaches have) and a bad early roster define Zac. Especially after the last 4 weeks.

This post is great but his playoff record of 5-2 should be mentioned as well.

This is obviously the time of year you want to play your best, so I cannot complain since it is the most intense and clutch time to be good. However, I really would like to see them start off a little better early on.

As this season shows making the playoffs is not a given, and those early season blunders really increase the difficulty of making the postseason. We will also never get the 1 seed unless we can come out a bit hotter the first half the season. Granted I know it is a bit tough because Burrow has been hurt/recovering basically every year in the offseason, and also the OL just cannot get the reps they need to play well. Last 2 years the later we got in the season the OL played better and better. I truly think if LC, Cappa and Jonah don't get hurt last year we beat KC and go back to the SB because they were playing well. They must just need a bunch of live reps to get up to speed, and you can't really do that in practice anymore.

So I don't have a good solution to make the early season better, maybe just some luck that Burrow stays healthy and our new RT comes out and plays well (Since I doubt we are retaining Jonah unfortunately). Still, it is refreshing to see the Bengals be a December/January team for once.

(12-21-2023, 02:19 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: This post is great but his playoff record of 5-2 should be mentioned as well.

For us Bengals fans that should be the only thing you need to say, nothing else should be necessary.  

(12-21-2023, 02:25 PM)Garrus Wrote: For us Bengals fans that should be the only thing you need to say, nothing else should be necessary.  

The posters on here slobber all over KC/Andy Reid & their FO. Well they are 9-5 with a full healthy Mahomes. We are 8-6 w/o Burrow 4 games and way less than 100% in 3 games. So many dumb butts on here in the Tee Higgins resigning discussion … cite KC’s average receivers and running backs and their low salary cap numbers as some golden rule lol. No KC receiver makes that play that Tee did Saturday lol. Well they went cheap with their tackles and like some of us said Donovan Smith would get them penalized to death. And Toney? Oh my! Proves the point OL matters. Ours has steadily improved to #20 per PFF but most of the year #28. Whereas all the teams posters cite as great offenses on here are top 10 OL. Give Taylor a top 10 O-line and the rest of the 31 fan sites will be calling him genius. Cincy has been # 8 the last 2 years in points per play. It’s efficiency guys and it’s damn good with that OL.

(12-21-2023, 01:58 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: l****

Does he make baffling decisions at times, sure.  But if you were a fan of any other team, I’m sure you would feel that way about your coach as well.  

This is so true. I see even the best coaches make baffling decisions that backfire, sometimes spectacularly. Time management issues. Plays that backfire near the goal line (it was the one-yard line and you have Marshall Lynch). Fake punts with there is like 8 yards to go and that end up turning the ball over. 

I've been impressed with Taylor in some of the biggest games. For example, look at the first time the Burrow-led Bengals beat KC, when they masterfully ran the clock down so Mahomes had no time for a comeback. And Taylor had to work with some severe injuries to key players in some of those big games. 

It seems every week I see some headscratcher from other coaches.

One of the interesting things I've noticed is how many of the team's defensive players do pilates. I know Jordan Dalton used to teach some of the offensive players but it didn't seem to cross over to the other side of the ball. But now a lot of them are doing it pretty religiously. Joe Batchie's new wife is an instructor and that may have gotten them started. All of the linebackers and most of the DBs do it. I've even seen photos of Cam Sample and Zac Carter working out on the reformer. There are a lot of breathing techniques and relaxing into the moves in Pilates which can translate onto the football field

I saw before and after pictures of both Wilson and Awuzie's flexibility and the growth in their level of flexibility was substantial. I was thinking about that last week when looking at the overall lack of serious muscle injuries the team has had over the last couple of years. You will never do away with them all in the NFL but any prevented is a good thing.

(12-21-2023, 03:50 PM)pally Wrote: One of the interesting things I've noticed is how many of the team's defensive players do pilates.  I know Jordan Dalton used to teach some of the offensive players but it didn't seem to cross over to the other side of the ball.  But now a lot of them are doing it pretty religiously.  Joe Batchie's new wife is an instructor and that may have gotten them started. All of the linebackers and most of the DBs do it.  I've even seen photos of Cam Sample and Zac Carter working out on the reformer.  There are a lot of breathing techniques and relaxing into the moves in Pilates which can translate onto the football field

I saw before and after pictures of both Wilson and Awuzie's flexibility and the growth in their level of flexibility was substantial. I was thinking about that last week when looking at the overall lack of serious muscle injuries the team has had over the last couple of years.  You will never do away with them all in the NFL but any prevented is a good thing.

When I played OL in HS my coach used to always tell us we should do ballet because of the footwork and yoga for increased flexibility. The players laughed but he was dead serious. Glad to see our players aren't turning down something out of the norm. 

(12-21-2023, 03:40 PM)Nepa Wrote: This is so true. I see even the best coaches make baffling decisions that backfire, sometimes spectacularly. Time management issues. Plays that backfire near the goal line (it was the one-yard line and you have Marshall Lynch). Fake punts with there is like 8 yards to go and that end up turning the ball over. 

I've been impressed with Taylor in some of the biggest games. For example, look at the first time the Burrow-led Bengals beat KC, when they masterfully ran the clock down so Mahomes had no time for a comeback. And Taylor had to work with some severe injuries to key players in some of those big games. 

It seems every week I see some headscratcher from other coaches.

If people knew what was going on in the playbook, and with the team, as up close and personal as the coaches do, most of these decisions would not be baffling. There's a reason, we fans just don't know it.

(12-21-2023, 03:40 PM)Nepa Wrote: This is so true. I see even the best coaches make baffling decisions that backfire, sometimes spectacularly. Time management issues. Plays that backfire near the goal line (it was the one-yard line and you have Marshall Lynch). Fake punts with there is like 8 yards to go and that end up turning the ball over. 

I've been impressed with Taylor in some of the biggest games. For example, look at the first time the Burrow-led Bengals beat KC, when they masterfully ran the clock down so Mahomes had no time for a comeback. And Taylor had to work with some severe injuries to key players in some of those big games. 

It seems every week I see some headscratcher from other coaches.

KC games have seemed the tail of two halfs lol

(12-21-2023, 01:52 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: LMAO

Joe Goodberry 12-11-23 “If you are a Zac Taylor, Brian Callahan, or Frank Pollack critic it’s hard to be. How can you do it? You can’t. This offense looks like the bests in the league “

https://x.com/joegoodberry/status/1734759731976138799?s=46&t=oRdMuHpC2b0Xldr1TrExDA

frank pollock still horrible

weird how everything seems to be clicking better without Burrow atm though. need this ol play and run game with burrow

(12-21-2023, 04:53 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: frank pollock still horrible

weird how everything seems to be clicking better without Burrow atm though. need this ol play and run game with burrow

Completely agree

(12-21-2023, 01:34 PM)Science Friction Wrote: Off the field, Taylor is terrific. On the field... not so much.

He needs to clean up the start of the year woes and he'll be much better in a lot of people's eyes. The Jags and Colts games were both really impressive to me. The Vikings game he started going back to his old offense and it showed poor production until the 4th quarter. The biggest gripe I have with him is he's super pass happy because we have Burrow, and that makes everything way harder. He needs to help the OL and RBs by calling more under center plays and let them be more aggressive. Just things like us playing very poorly against cover 2 for half the year is just another example of him being too pass happy. We'll see if he takes those two good game plans that he had against the Jags and Colts and expand on them the rest of this season and next.

(12-21-2023, 05:14 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: He needs to clean up the start of the year woes and he'll be much better in a lot of people's eyes. The Jags and Colts games were both really impressive to me. The Vikings game he started going back to his old offense and it showed poor production until the 4th quarter. The biggest gripe I have with him is he's super pass happy because we have Burrow, and that makes everything way harder. He needs to help the OL and RBs by calling more under center plays and let them be more aggressive. Just things like us playing very poorly against cover 2 for half the year is just another example of him being too pass happy. We'll see if he takes those two good game plans that he had against the Jags and Colts and expand on them the rest of this season and next.

I’m glad you are coming around after calling him a high school coach LMAO. You were also bagging on him about being 10-18 in the north. LMAO from ‘21-‘23 he’s got more wins than anybody in the division with 30. Your takes so irrelevant lol