(01-15-2024, 12:00 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Heard a stat this morning that GB averaged 9.5 yards on 1st downs. Obviously not every first down was 9.5 yds, as there was some big yardage plays for that average. But this was against a top 5 defense. They neutralized Micah Parsons utilizing under center and quick play action at times, and then maximizing their attack on Dallas's weaknesses. 

If I was to throw a suggestion to Zac and company, look at how Green Bay dominated that defense on the road and hopefully try to learn a thing or two from it to add to the offense.

You get the vibe that the lack of a run game has struck a chord in the entire organization. Good grief I’d hope so.

(01-15-2024, 10:48 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: A 4-3 isn't a scheme but a personnel grouping. Cincinnati has played with 5-2, nickel, 4-3, 3-3 personnel among several others. Cincinnati typically sits in two linebacker groups because of the amount of cover three they play. They walk Battle (or in the past, Bell) up into the box for run support. As long as Lou is here, I don't see that changing especially with Battle playing fairly well in this role. 

I said the same thing I do not see us changing. That why we need to move Dax into the slot to get bigger and faster at that spot along with Dax's issue at coverage deep. 

We rarely play 4-3 and all our linebackers are either soft which get run over by small RB I have seen 200-pound RB truck our 245- and 250-pound starters they are weak. The rest of our backup LB are 235 or smaller. We need a guy that won't get ran over Ray Lewis played at 240 pounds he did not get trucked it is the man on the field. We need a thumper not a guy the jumps on their backs and drags them down like a steer in a rodeo.

We have been playing 4-2 zone so long every team in our division knows us like a book as well as most of the NFL and it shows by how many yards we give up every year this has been an ongoing problem for years we count on turnovers to save our ass because we cannot stop anyone on D.

(01-14-2024, 11:28 PM)casear2727 Wrote: We are not going to pick up a big bulky run stopping Mike. 

He would be good vs the Steelers and the Browns but could be useless vs the Ravens and Lamar.  

The Ravens are the only team in our division that is halfass decent at throwing the ball. We got to build the team to beat OUR DIVISON FOES. The Mike does not have to be a Bulky guy he just has to be a guy that don't get ran over top of and can lay a hit on a RB knocking him back.

(01-15-2024, 02:52 PM)BengalsBong Wrote: I said the same thing I do not see us changing. That why we need to move Dax into the slot to get bigger and faster at that spot along with Dax's issue at coverage deep. 

We rarely play 4-3 and all our linebackers are either soft which get run over by small RB I have seen 200-pound RB truck our 245- and 250-pound starters they are weak. The rest of our backup LB are 235 or smaller. We need a guy that won't get ran over Ray Lewis played at 240 pounds he did not get trucked it is the man on the field. We need a thumper not a guy the jumps on their backs and drags them down like a steer in a rodeo.

We have been playing 4-2 zone so long every team in our division knows us like a book as well as most of the NFL and it shows by how many yards we give up every year this has been an ongoing problem for years we count on turnovers to save our ass because we cannot stop anyone on D.

Cincinnati gave up the 7th fewest yards last year. In 2021, they gave up the 15th most but their total was right around league average. Now, this year, they were awful aside from turnovers but this hasn't been a problem for "years." 

The vast majority, if not all NFL teams run primarily zone coverage. You'll see different styles. Some teams run cover two as their base, some run cover four. Some run cover three, etc. Playing zone coverage isn't an issue. It's a personnel issue, and part of the issue is that the secondary was incredibly young. Cincinnati had four starters in the secondary that had less than two seasons of experience, two being rookies. You have to let those guys get reps. You can't just give up on Dax yet because he made mistakes in his first season starting. 

There are two issues in my eyes - the youth in the secondary and personnel on the defensive line. With Reader aging and having another major quad issue, Cincinnati really needs two new players in the middle of the line. Pratt and Wilson are both capable, talented linebackers but they need help in front of them. 

(01-14-2024, 09:32 PM)casear2727 Wrote: DJ Reader adds his bold suggestion....

GB is still running the ball even though it’s only 2.1 ypc. Big passes opening up! It’s all about balance.

— Dj Reader (@Djread98) January 14, 2024

Might be a thought about our Offense? Where we only run it 8 times against the stealers?

(01-15-2024, 12:00 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Heard a stat this morning that GB averaged 9.5 yards on 1st downs. Obviously not every first down was 9.5 yds, as there was some big yardage plays for that average. But this was against a top 5 defense. They neutralized Micah Parsons utilizing under center and quick play action at times, and then maximizing their attack on Dallas's weaknesses. 

If I was to throw a suggestion to Zac and company, look at how Green Bay dominated that defense on the road and hopefully try to learn a thing or two from it to add to the offense.

Loved how Aaron Jones just hit Micah Parsons in the chest in pass pro. At least make him hurt a bit as that guy is a beast once he gets going.

Jordan Love impressed me big time in this game. Cool under pressure and is good under Center. Burrow take note of the under Center part.

The Packers Offense was extremely unpredictable yesterday.

(01-15-2024, 03:08 AM)schroomytunes Wrote: Ok Ill give it a go:

FA- Bengals sign Trent Brown as the RT, giving them an adequate replacement for Jonah at a reduced cap amount. allowing them to draft a Tackle later say rd 3-4.

Draft- Bengals select Jeremiah Trotter-LB (Clemson) in RD 1. He gives us that extra Pass rusher in certain packages, and plays solid against the run, allowing Trey more pressure situations.

- Not fancy but it shores up 2 areas of need and allows us more cap room for extentions (Chase, Tee, MoneyMAC) and another FA defender in the secondary after cutting Nick Scott, or a mid tier NT.

I seriously doubt that we would draft a 6 foot 230 pound LB that fits a 3-4 defense in any round. 

(01-15-2024, 10:48 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: A 4-3 isn't a scheme but a personnel grouping. Cincinnati has played with 5-2, nickel, 4-3, 3-3 personnel among several others. Cincinnati typically sits in two linebacker groups because of the amount of cover three they play. They walk Battle (or in the past, Bell) up into the box for run support. As long as Lou is here, I don't see that changing especially with Battle playing fairly well in this role. 

The 4-3 and 3-4 are personnel groupings but they are absolutely schemed way differently.  The prototypical players are built differently.  The primary pass rushers in a 3-4 are the OLB amongst many other differences.

(01-15-2024, 02:52 PM)BengalsBong Wrote: I said the same thing I do not see us changing. That why we need to move Dax into the slot to get bigger and faster at that spot along with Dax's issue at coverage deep. 

We rarely play 4-3 and all our linebackers are either soft which get run over by small RB I have seen 200-pound RB truck our 245- and 250-pound starters they are weak. The rest of our backup LB are 235 or smaller. We need a guy that won't get ran over Ray Lewis played at 240 pounds he did not get trucked it is the man on the field. We need a thumper not a guy the jumps on their backs and drags them down like a steer in a rodeo.

We have been playing 4-2 zone so long every team in our division knows us like a book as well as most of the NFL and it shows by how many yards we give up every year this has been an ongoing problem for years we count on turnovers to save our ass because we cannot stop anyone on D.

(01-15-2024, 03:00 PM)BengalsBong Wrote: The Ravens are the only team in our division that is halfass decent at throwing the ball. We got to build the team to beat OUR DIVISON FOES. The Mike does not have to be a Bulky guy he just has to be a guy that don't get ran over top of and can lay a hit on a RB knocking him back.

Saying our LBs are soft and get trucked simply isnt true. If you believe this then nothing else you say has any credibility. If you say they were out of position too much or blocked too easily this season then yes we can all get on board with that. I could also agree that they missed too many open field tackles. But they were not run over.

Being out of position could have been presnap issues with the secondary, but there is no good excuse.
Being blocked always comes down to the dline first. If the dline is bad then the LB corp is usually bad as well.

(01-15-2024, 05:44 PM)casear2727 Wrote: The 4-3 and 3-4 are personnel groupings but they are absolutely schemed way differently.  The prototypical players are built differently.  The primary pass rushers in a 3-4 are the OLB amongst many other differences.

Sure, I wasn't meaning to insinuate otherwise. I'm more trying to make a point that "scheme" is how you do things, or what you do. Are you running a lot of man coverage and being aggressive with blitzes? Are you a bit more passive and like to sit in split safety looks? Simulated pressures? How do you like to handle trips? Etc etc. 

The personnel is the guys who end up doing it, so yeah while 3-4/4-3 defenses do end up having their individual nuances they aren't schemes by themselves, if you see what I am getting at. 

Trade Tee Higgins to Tennessee for DT Jeffrey Simmons.

(01-15-2024, 07:05 PM)hoosierbengal Wrote: Trade Tee Higgins to Tennessee for DT Jeffrey Simmons.

Why would Tennessee trade a stud D lineman who’s under contract for 4 more years for 1 season of Tee Higgins?

(01-15-2024, 03:15 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: Cincinnati gave up the 7th fewest yards last year. In 2021, they gave up the 15th most but their total was right around league average. Now, this year, they were awful aside from turnovers but this hasn't been a problem for "years." 

The vast majority, if not all NFL teams run primarily zone coverage. You'll see different styles. Some teams run cover two as their base, some run cover four. Some run cover three, etc. Playing zone coverage isn't an issue. It's a personnel issue, and part of the issue is that the secondary was incredibly young. Cincinnati had four starters in the secondary that had less than two seasons of experience, two being rookies. You have to let those guys get reps. You can't just give up on Dax yet because he made mistakes in his first season starting. 

There are two issues in my eyes - the youth in the secondary and personnel on the defensive line. With Reader aging and having another major quad issue, Cincinnati really needs two new players in the middle of the line. Pratt and Wilson are both capable, talented linebackers but they need help in front of them. 

The linebackers have to cover too much ground that is why the safeties have to make the tackle cause the front 7 in our case the front 6 with an undersized Hilton at nickel is not getting the job done.

You cannot put it all on a missing DT people get hurt the coaches have to overcome one injury on Defense.

(01-15-2024, 05:51 PM)casear2727 Wrote: Saying our LBs are soft and get trucked simply isnt true.  If you believe this then nothing else you say has any credibility.  If you say they were out of position too much or blocked too easily this season then yes we can all get on board with that.  I could also agree that they missed too many open field tackles.  But they were not run over.  

Being out of position could have been presnap issues with the secondary, but there is no good excuse.
Being blocked always comes down to the dline first.  If the dline is bad then the LB corp is usually bad as well.

You need to watch more closely I suggest getting NFL game pass so you can watch games over because our linebackers get trucked all the time.

Bold move?

Do a Day 1 Free Agency signing of an A Tier Defensive Tackle, preferably one who is proficient at pass rush (a la Chris Jones). In fact double down on interior DL either with another good quality FA or a high pick.

(01-15-2024, 07:15 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Why would Tennessee trade a stud D lineman who’s under contract for 4 more years for 1 season of Tee Higgins?

It probably worked in Madden.

(01-15-2024, 10:09 PM)BengalsBong Wrote: The linebackers have to cover too much ground that is why the safeties have to make the tackle cause the front 7 in our case the front 6 with an undersized Hilton at nickel is not getting the job done.

You cannot put it all on a missing DT people get hurt the coaches have to overcome one injury on Defense.

(01-15-2024, 10:12 PM)BengalsBong Wrote: You need to watch more closely I suggest getting NFL game pass so you can watch games over because our linebackers get trucked all the time.

LOL, your takes are funny. I have had 2 sets of season tickets for a decade and I have All-22, my friends group discuss the Bengals on a very insightful level. You are off base so bad.

For example; "The linebackers have to cover too much ground that is why the safeties have to make the tackle cause the front 7 in our case the front 6". WTF? Your claim that a 5'9 180 NCB is part of a Front anything is beyond comical. DBs are never counted in any type of front.

Like I said, I have All-22 tell me the games in which the LBs were trucked so bad, I can pull up any play rather quickly.

I don't know about bold, but I'd do the following:

1. Let Reader and obviously Higgins go.

2. Fire Frank Pollack and bring in a proven OL coach. Overhaul the run game with this coach.

3. Cut Joe Mixon. He's just not good. I watched the Lions game and their RB was always making dudes miss and it made me realize just how little Mixon has been bringing to the table.

We can do better with a draft pick. Almost any RB can average 3.8 ypc these days.

4. Listen to offers for Browning, but unless we get a 2nd or higher, I wouldn't budge. We could use a good pick, but we could also use a good backup behind Joe. We might be able to sign someone decent if we get a 2nd, though.

5. Look at trading up a few slots if Bowers gets close to our pick.

Other than that, look at a middling FA WR, a Reader replacement and secondary guys.

(01-15-2024, 11:01 PM)casear2727 Wrote: LOL, your takes are funny.  I have had 2 sets of season tickets for a decade and I have All-22, my friends group discuss the Bengals on a very insightful level.  You are off base so bad.

For example;  "The linebackers have to cover too much ground that is why the safeties have to make the tackle cause the front 7 in our case the front 6". WTF?   Your claim that a 5'9 180 NCB is part of a Front anything is beyond comical.  DBs are never counted in any type of front.

Like I said, I have All-22 tell me the games in which the LBs were trucked so bad, I can pull up any play rather quickly.

I just spent the last hour or so breaking down every running play of the Texans game that Wilson or Pratt was involved in and time stamping everything and my internet craps out when I hit post reply ffs. 

To sum it up Pratt and Wilson played like crap and got dragged down the field 5 yards after contact a few times just rewatch this game focus on the Texans running plays a 200-pound RB ran for 150 yards on 30 carries and made Pratt and Wilson look bad. A 200-pound man making a 245- and 250-pound LB look weak. 

The texans did not have a 100-yard rushers for 17 strait games before this game.

(01-16-2024, 02:22 AM)BengalsBong Wrote: I just spent the last hour or so breaking down every running play of the Texans game that Wilson or Pratt was involved in and time stamping everything and my internet craps out when I hit post reply ffs. 

To sum it up Pratt and Wilson played like crap and got dragged down the field 5 yards after contact a few times just rewatch this game focus on the Texans running plays a 200-pound RB ran for 150 yards on 30 carries and made Pratt and Wilson look bad. A 200-pound man making a 245- and 250-pound LB look weak. 

The texans did not have a 100-yard rushers for 17 strait games before this game.

"got dragged down the field 5 yards after contact a few times", this is still a far cry from being trucked all season.

I agree they played poorly all season.  You better hope they improve because they will start for the next couple of seasons.  We do not extend guys then immediately cut or bench them.

(01-16-2024, 10:44 AM)casear2727 Wrote: "got dragged down the field 5 yards after contact a few times", this is still a far cry from being trucked all season.

I agree they played poorly all season.  You better hope they improve because they will start for the next couple of seasons.  We do not extend guys then immediately cut or bench them.

I think you mean we better hope since we are both fans of the Bengals.