So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

The Bengals went 9-8 against the hardest schedule with like six of their games with a healthy starting quarterback pic.twitter.com/9qXENOrXNX

— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) January 8, 2024

(01-08-2024, 12:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

Informative chart. Thank you. Have to laugh at Dallas's and KC's schedules. Would have loved to have had the Falcon's schedule.

Definitely an impressive showing with their tough schedule and Burrow's injuries. Hope the NFL front office takes heed and finds some mercy when they set the dates for next year and doesn't schedule an overseas game.

(01-08-2024, 12:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

The Bengals went 9-8 against the hardest schedule with like six of their games with a healthy starting quarterback pic.twitter.com/9qXENOrXNX

— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) January 8, 2024

I saw this chart over the weekend, all things considered, the Bengals fought through a lot of adversity with that tough schedule to come out over .500. All four teams in the division with winning records is crazy too.

(01-08-2024, 12:40 PM)Wyche Wrote: I saw this chart over the weekend, all things considered, the Bengals fought through a lot of adversity with that tough schedule to come out over .500. All four teams in the division with winning records is crazy too.

Yeah. It makes me feel positive about the season. Not that I was negative about it before.

I know anytime your QB goes down, it will be tough.

One thing I think is positive too is I think we had a lot of guys have off years. And we still went 9-8. That's Steelers level success there. So if guys have more on years...it could be a SB win!

(01-08-2024, 12:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

The Bengals went 9-8 against the hardest schedule with like six of their games with a healthy starting quarterback pic.twitter.com/9qXENOrXNX

— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) January 8, 2024

Yes, actually getting to 9 wins with Burrow healthy for probably 30 to 40% of the schedule was an accomplishment with that schedule but issues still need to be addressed like our defense and oline

I know it doesn’t necessarily carry over, but we played 3 teams with a losing record this year. Next year, we have 8 teams on our schedule that currently have a losing record. Hopefully a little bit of a reprieve from our gauntlet.

(01-08-2024, 12:47 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Yeah. It makes me feel positive about the season. Not that I was negative about it before.

I know anytime your QB goes down, it will be tough.

One thing I think is positive too is I think we had a lot of guys have off years. And we still went 9-8. That's Steelers level success there. So if guys have more on years...it could be a SB win!

I hear you. I wasn't thrilled with the way the season went, but I did enjoy watching them with Browning, sans the two StOoLeR games. Even the loss in KC was a decent game. The defense had some bad moments, and the offense went silent in the second half, but they were competitive on the road with dinged up players and a backup QB. In a very tough environment at that. All in all, there are things to build on, and I was fully onboard with going out with a little momentum by beating the Browns' backups. Until Zac started pulling starters, it was an old fashioned beat down.

When you think of the following:

- The Bengals Franchise QB was healthy for roughly 4.5 of the team's 17 games this year.
- The Bengals defence ranked very poorly in a good few metrics.
- The Bengals couldn't rely on a good run game.
- The Bengals had one of the worst schedules in the NFL.

... and you realise that same team went 9-8 for the year. Tbh, I think you have to give the team a hell of a lot of credit to have achieved what they have this year. They didn't make it in, but really a team with a backup/hobbled QB, a bad defence and a not spectacular run game shouldn't really be in the conversation. Bodes well for next year in my opinion.

(01-08-2024, 12:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

Yeah, a tough schedule for sure. Every opponent other than Arizona and Tennessee made the playoffs or was in contention late into the season.

Going to play Debbie Downer here. I'm not happy with the way our season went. Yes, I get Burrow got hurt but we have to fix our defense. Such a huge letdown from prior years, I think Lou is solid, but this year he screwed the pooch and these guys were sloppy. We lost games we shouldn't have and most of that is on the defense and OL. I know all the talk is about Burrow Chase and Tee, but until the OL and Defense is fixed, we are going to continue to have bad seasons, bad injuries and aging players. I would really like this organization to get in the WIN NOW mindset.

(01-08-2024, 02:17 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Going to play Debbie Downer here. I'm not happy with the way our season went. Yes, I get Burrow got hurt but we have to fix our defense. Such a huge letdown from prior years, I think Lou is solid, but this year he screwed the pooch and these guys were sloppy. We lost games we shouldn't have and most of that is on the defense and OL. I know all the talk is about Burrow Chase and Tee, but until the OL and Defense is fixed, we are going to continue to have bad seasons, bad injuries and aging players. I would really like this organization to get in the WIN NOW mindset.

What concerns me is that I don’t think they can/will have much change on the defensive side of the ball. DT can see some turnover but the ends are pretty set.
Hendrickson is gold, Hubbard will be back and as a first round pick, Murphy needs more playing time.
The LBs just re-signed but took a huge step back this season. Still I can’t see either of them not starting next year.
The DBs are Hilton and a bunch of young, high draft picks (assuming Chido is gone). They have to play them and see what they can do with some more experience.

They may add a guy or 2 to the DT and DB rooms but other than that this same group is going to have to figure it out. They are going to have to coach them up and hope Murphy and the young DBs get better with experience. They also need to find out what happened to Wilson and Pratt this year.

Hopefully they will be much better in 2024 because I don’t see any big impact players coming in to help the Defense. Even a first round D tackle would probably take a year to have any significant impact. Lou’s gonna have to earn his pay next season.

Bengals get the benefit of playing against the worst teams in the AFC South and East next year, which will help.
That will be Patriots and Titans.

They also will play the worst team in either the NFC East, South, or West, which will be either Commanders, Panthers, or Cardinals.

Finally, they'll also get the entire AFC West and NFC East next year.
While there are some tough teams in there, they do get to go against a few teams that should be pretty favored against.

I am liking the schedule for 2024, although what happens in FA and the draft might change that opinion some.

(01-08-2024, 02:28 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: What concerns me is that I don’t think they can/will have much change on the defensive side of the ball. DT can see some turnover but the ends are pretty set.
Hendrickson is gold, Hubbard will be back and as a first round pick, Murphy needs more playing time.
The LBs just re-signed but took a huge step back this season. Still I can’t see either of them not starting next year.
The DBs are Hilton and a bunch of young, high draft picks (assuming Chido is gone). They have to play them and see what they can do with some more experience.

They may add a guy or 2 to the DT and DB rooms but other than that this same group is going to have to figure it out.  They are going to have to coach them up and hope Murphy and the young DBs get better with experience. They also need to find out what happened to Wilson and Pratt this year.

Hopefully they will be much better in 2024 because I don’t see any big impact players coming in to help the Defense. Even a first round D tackle would probably take a year to have any significant impact. Lou’s gonna have to earn his pay next season.

I don't like putting TOO much stock in this, but you hope that the DB's see improvement with another year in the resume. That could not happen of course, and the regressions elsewhere are concerning. Defence seemed to go from one which could lead us to the SB run, to one of the worst in the league over the course of one offseason. I also think we should be prepared to be a little disappointed with the defence again next year, but hopefully improvements get made.

I think they should be happy with what they did after Burrow went down

They kept the fun going until the Steelers game when we were finally eliminated.

Thats all you could ask for.

(01-08-2024, 02:28 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: What concerns me is that I don’t think they can/will have much change on the defensive side of the ball. DT can see some turnover but the ends are pretty set.
Hendrickson is gold, Hubbard will be back and as a first round pick, Murphy needs more playing time.
The LBs just re-signed but took a huge step back this season. Still I can’t see either of them not starting next year.
The DBs are Hilton and a bunch of young, high draft picks (assuming Chido is gone). They have to play them and see what they can do with some more experience.

They may add a guy or 2 to the DT and DB rooms but other than that this same group is going to have to figure it out.  They are going to have to coach them up and hope Murphy and the young DBs get better with experience. They also need to find out what happened to Wilson and Pratt this year.

Hopefully they will be much better in 2024 because I don’t see any big impact players coming in to help the Defense. Even a first round D tackle would probably take a year to have any significant impact. Lou’s gonna have to earn his pay next season.

Kinda on topic....I just saw where CTB called all of the DBs to a short meeting. Told them to get a little rest, and be ready to get together in a few weeks to start working on things together as a unit. I like that leadership, and you hope them starting to work in February will cure a few ills from this year.

(01-08-2024, 02:28 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: What concerns me is that I don’t think they can/will have much change on the defensive side of the ball. DT can see some turnover but the ends are pretty set.
Hendrickson is gold, Hubbard will be back and as a first round pick, Murphy needs more playing time.
The LBs just re-signed but took a huge step back this season. Still I can’t see either of them not starting next year.
The DBs are Hilton and a bunch of young, high draft picks (assuming Chido is gone). They have to play them and see what they can do with some more experience.

They may add a guy or 2 to the DT and DB rooms but other than that this same group is going to have to figure it out. They are going to have to coach them up and hope Murphy and the young DBs get better with experience. They also need to find out what happened to Wilson and Pratt this year.

Hopefully they will be much better in 2024 because I don’t see any big impact players coming in to help the Defense. Even a first round D tackle would probably take a year to have any significant impact. Lou’s gonna have to earn his pay next season.

(01-08-2024, 03:04 PM)WychesWarrior Wrote: Kinda on topic....I just saw where CTB called all of the DBs to a short meeting. Told them to get a little rest, and be ready to get together in a few weeks to start working on things together as a unit. I like that leadership, and you hope them starting to work in February will cure a few ills from this year.

Great points. The defense will not change much personnel-wise. The biggest upgrade could be Dax and Battle actually understanding and running the defense properly.
.

(01-08-2024, 03:35 PM)casear2727 Wrote: Great points.  The defense will not change much personnel-wise.  The biggest upgrade could be Dax and Battle actually understanding and running the defense properly.
.

Here's an article I just found about Cam's "DB boot camp".

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/cam-taylor-britt-planning-host-bengals-secondary-workout-sessions-offseason


He's harping on the communication issues.

Yep, this is why we end up at number 18 draft position while tied at 9 - 8 with 4 other non-playoff teams. Strength of schedule is the tie breaker.

(01-08-2024, 12:58 PM)Rubekahn29 Wrote: I know it doesn’t necessarily carry over, but we played 3 teams with a losing record this year. Next year, we have 8 teams on our schedule that currently have a losing record. Hopefully a little bit of a reprieve from our gauntlet.

I would say year and year out, playing the last place teams vs the top place teams in crossover games is beneficial. I think Texans benefitted from that this year that help in their improvement

(01-08-2024, 03:35 PM)casear2727 Wrote: Great points. The defense will not change much personnel-wise. The biggest upgrade could be Dax and Battle actually understanding and running the defense properly.
.

Had lunch today with a former star safety at Oklahoma who watched every Bengal game and several in person and was impressed with Battle. He’s not as fast as a lot of safeties today he said but really makes up for it in other areas. As others have said both safeties young. They both should improve