(09-08-2024, 08:45 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: People are just lying to themselves if they don’t think guys like Reid, Shanahan, McVay, and McDaniel wouldn’t be far more successful with Burrow than Taylor has been.

Agree with this. Taylor's offense looks so vanilla, no motion or surprises, it's the same stale sets that other teams are seeing easily. These "weapons" that some here like to call them are over paid over average players that are being out played by other no name players.

(09-08-2024, 08:54 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: Agree with this. Taylor's offense looks so vanilla, no motion or surprises, it's the same stale sets that other teams are seeing easily. These "weapons" that some here like to call them are over paid over average players that are being out played by other no name players.

Taylor is the anti Reid/McDaniels. Zero imagination and creativity. Dude is riding Burrow’s coattails.

(09-08-2024, 08:54 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: Agree with this. Taylor's offense looks so vanilla, no motion or surprises, it's the same stale sets that other teams are seeing easily. These "weapons" that some here like to call them are over paid over average players that are being out played by other no name players.

Everything on offense is always so hard for this team. Guys are never just wide open.

That’s the annoying part of every other team, why do they have so much separation. Some coach needs to be fired.

(09-08-2024, 08:45 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: People are just lying to themselves if they don’t think guys like Reid, Shanahan, McVay, and McDaniel wouldn’t be far more successful with Burrow than Taylor has been.

Couldn’t agree more. Zac has no creativity and doesn’t adjust when things aren’t working. He’s not remotely close to the guys listed above.

(09-08-2024, 08:42 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Agree. Reader was good run stuffer, but not a pass rusher at all.

I think people assume because Reader doesnt put up a bunch of sack numbers he is not good at pass rushing but thats not true.  If you look at his PFF grades, he is not bad

(09-08-2024, 06:17 PM)Tony Wrote: What is wrong with you people?

I'm just putting things in context. You act like this is the first time Burrow had a bad first game. It wasn't even that bad historically. 

Joe Burrow is not cooked. He started the year slow, rusty, and injured. At least he showed that he can still throw the ball down field on the pass interference to Yoshi. 

The whole team came out flat because we have a coach who doesn't take the preseason seriously. We also ran the ball just 12 times with a QB coming off a season ending injury. We got a touchdown running the ball down their throats then abandoned the run for the rest of the game. 

Relax and touch grass. One game does not equal the end of the Burrow era. It is time to consider ending the Zac Taylor era though. 

(09-08-2024, 09:21 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: I think people assume because Reader doesnt put up a bunch of sack numbers he is not good at pass rushing but thats not true.  If you look at his PFF grades, he is not bad

There's a difference between 'not bad' and comparing him to Aaron Donald.

He was a fine DT. But, he didn't draw the same attention as a guy like Donald.

(09-08-2024, 08:45 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: People are just lying to themselves if they don’t think guys like Reid, Shanahan, McVay, and McDaniel wouldn’t be far more successful with Burrow than Taylor has been.

There are those who are bigger fans of Taylor than they are of any player. Almost beyond being fans. Weird.

(09-08-2024, 09:33 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: There's a difference between 'not bad' and comparing him to Aaron Donald.

He was a fine DT. But, he didn't draw the same attention as a guy like Donald.

I haven't seen anyone comparing Reader to Donald?  Just because Reader isnt Donald doesnt mean he isnt an effective pass rusher.

(09-08-2024, 08:45 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: People are just lying to themselves if they don’t think guys like Reid, Shanahan, McVay, and McDaniel wouldn’t be far more successful with Burrow than Taylor has been.

I've said it from early on. Taylor isn't some elite offensive mind.

He might be a good leader though as a HC.

The Bengals need to play with a sense of urgency from the opening kickoff.

(09-08-2024, 10:29 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: I haven't seen anyone comparing Reader to Donald?  Just because Reader isnt Donald doesnt mean he isnt an effective pass rusher.

Here you go:

(09-08-2024, 07:38 PM)Housh Wrote: The issue i see with this defense is we don’t have an anchor



Rams had Aaron Donald. You knew every game Aaron Donald was gonna do certain things so you could game plan for those things to be done. They KNEW for a fact he was gonna draw a double team so every blitz every zone was called with that in Mind.

What do we know for a fact is gonna happen with our defense? NOTHING.

It used to be Reader. He’s the only player offensive coordinators have to gameplan for besides Trey Hendrickson and we let him go and replaced him with a worse version and thought we’d be fine



ATP I’m questioning the FO and its team building IQ.

This year what to do with Reader was the biggest story. We decided to let him walk….fine. Signing Rankins and drafting 2 DTs tell me that we acknowledged Reader was super important.


I want to say our solution was a simple miss but it may turn out to be season crippling.


A lot of ppl have said this over the years but every snap without Bates or became obvious and now every snap without Reader it becomes more obvious.


We have a safety who erased a whole segment of the field and we had a DT who couldn’t be blocked and they were both CONSISTENT. They did it mostly every game they played in.

What constant do we have now? Trey H is a constant but he’s ineffective at times
For a whole quarter.

(09-08-2024, 10:44 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I've said it from early on. Taylor isn't some elite offensive mind.

He might be a good leaser though as a HC.

I think everyone has. He’s not even average. He’s awful.

And his bro Press Taylor is the OC in Jax, and he’s awful too.

Watching the Bengals game and then watching the Rams/Lions game was like contrasting a pro team with a high school team.

I really hope I am wrong, and I am not trying to be purposely negative, but I truly believe our window has closed and we are going back to .500 or less seasons.

We lost a lot of talent that has not been replaced. Burrow has been physically abused and his wrist is a huge question mark that is obviously bothering him still. That alone could be the end of Burrow's career. Our coaching, whether it is scheme or getting players to play good football is very lacking.

You have Higgins with what seems like a constant hammy injury and Chase who is more concerned with getting a penny more than Jefferson cause feelz rather than focusing on playing a great game and prepping with the team. The o-line is below average to maybe barely average. Our D cannot stop a high school team run game.

Again, not trying to be negative, just trying to be realistic. I have absolutely no reason to believe that in 6 days we are magically going to transform into some world beater team and go into Arrowhead and beat Mahomes and the Chiefs. I expect an absolute beatdown of the Bengals. We are a shell of our 2 great seasons. We had our chance; the window is closed. It just feels so much like we are back to Andy Dalton like times.

Mahomes is far superior to Burrow at this point. Mahomes seems like this funny, down to earth carefree dude who just wants to have fun and win football games. Burrow is like some flamboyant pretty boy jet setting off to do fashion shows and see what kind of reactions he can get from crazy outfits. He dumps his longtime girlfriend for some hot influencer while Mahomes quietly stays with his longtime high school sweetheart and starts a family. As of right now burrow is not even remotely close to someone like Mahomes and our coaching staff is JV compared to a team like the Chiefs, not to mention MB still meddling. We do have some cool social media and hype videos though to trick the fans yet again. The Bengals org is Lucy and all of us fans are Charlie Brown. Sad.

Anyway. Feel free to rip me apart, but that's what I honestly think. I REALLY, REALLY hope I am wrong. I truly hope we roll into KC and just dismantle the Chiefs and everything looks bright again in Bengal land. Unfortunately, what is it they say, hope is not a plan.

Who-Dey!

(09-08-2024, 09:33 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: There's a difference between 'not bad' and comparing him to Aaron Donald.

He was a fine DT. But, he didn't draw the same attention as a guy like Donald.

Neither Aaron Donald nor Reader played yesterday... So they have that in common.

(09-09-2024, 08:42 AM)Mickeypoo Wrote: Watching the Bengals game and then watching the Rams/Lions game was like contrasting a pro team with a high school team.  

I really hope I am wrong, and I am not trying to be purposely negative, but I truly believe our window has closed and we are going back to .500 or less seasons.

We lost a lot of talent that has not been replaced.  Burrow has been physically abused and his wrist is a huge question mark that is obviously bothering him still.  That alone could be the end of Burrow's career.  Our coaching, whether it is scheme or getting players to play good football is very lacking.

You have Higgins with what seems like a constant hammy injury and Chase who is more concerned with getting a penny more than Jefferson cause feelz rather than focusing on playing a great game and prepping with the team.  The o-line is below average to maybe barely average.  Our D cannot stop a high school team run game.

Again, not trying to be negative, just trying to be realistic.  I have absolutely no reason to believe that in 6 days we are magically going to transform into some world beater team and go into Arrowhead and beat Mahomes and the Chiefs.  I expect an absolute beatdown of the Bengals.  We are a shell of our 2 great seasons.  We had our chance; the window is closed.  It just feels so much like we are back to Andy Dalton like times.  

Mahomes is far superior to Burrow at this point.  Mahomes seems like this funny, down to earth carefree dude who just wants to have fun and win football games.  Burrow is like some flamboyant pretty boy jet setting off to do fashion shows and see what kind of reactions he can get from crazy outfits.  He dumps his longtime girlfriend for some hot influencer while Mahomes quietly stays with his longtime high school sweetheart and starts a family.  As of right now burrow is not even remotely close to someone like Mahomes and our coaching staff is JV compared to a team like the Chiefs, not to mention MB still meddling.  We do have some cool social media and hype videos though to trick the fans yet again.  The Bengals org is Lucy and all of us fans are Charlie Brown.  Sad.

Anyway.  Feel free to rip me apart, but that's what I honestly think.  I REALLY, REALLY hope I am wrong.  I truly hope we roll into KC and just dismantle the Chiefs and everything looks bright again in Bengal land.  Unfortunately, what is it they say, hope is not a plan.

Who-Dey!

Welp, Im not in the mood for breakfast anymore....

(09-09-2024, 08:42 AM)Mickeypoo Wrote: Watching the Bengals game and then watching the Rams/Lions game was like contrasting a pro team with a high school team.

I really hope I am wrong, and I am not trying to be purposely negative, but I truly believe our window has closed and we are going back to .500 or less seasons.

I remember the tone here immediately after the SB ended. Melancholy; sure…but there was so much hope & optimism about the seasons to come. We’d arrived! Burrow/Chase/Tee were going to bring us back every other year, at a minimum! It’s just beginning! I tried to quell the irrational exuberance with my spartan, stoic reality checks, but no one listened. I knew that was the shot. And it was likely going to be the only shot for that group. I tried.

But right then, it was hard to blame them. But a team which only has the stars align correctly for it 3 times in its existence was never just going to recalibrate the aim slightly, tool up and take care of unfinished business. Team was still good and likely deserved to go back. I always say this franchise is cursed. Well, a guy almost dropping dead on our field is essentially what prevented a return trip. That kind of thing does not happen to other teams. That’s just Cincinnati Bengals Football.

Fast forward slightly to now, and the franchise is a mess. As usual. We didn’t win in the Burrow rookie contract window, and this team has never been capable of winning in anything but the most ideal circumstances. Higgins turned into Glass Joe. Chase has become public enemy #1 (sharing the spot with MB). Several draft picks and millions of dollars later, we still don’t have a good OL. Anarumo’s kinda the bum we suspected he was all along. And Joe Burrow might be broken at worst; settled in as a fragile top-10 QB at best. Zac Taylor is a disaster.

And here we sit, coming off an unbelievably bad loss to open 2024 and a few days away from being 0-2. Some say when God closes a door, He opens a window. God closed our windows & doors and put us in a porta-potti in a flooded basement. Who dey. We are cursed.

(09-09-2024, 09:09 AM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: ...I tried to quell the irrational exuberance with my spartan, stoic reality checks, but no one listened. I knew that was the shot. And it was likely going to be the only shot for that group. I tried.

Yep. Everything seemed magical, that season.  Now, the "spark" is gone.  You just don't lose that many pieces and expect everything to fit.

(09-08-2024, 09:26 PM)C0de_M0nkey Wrote: I'm just putting things in context. You act like this is the first time Burrow had a bad first game. It wasn't even that bad historically. 

Joe Burrow is not cooked. He started the year slow, rusty, and injured. At least he showed that he can still throw the ball down field on the pass interference to Yoshi. 

The whole team came out flat because we have a coach who doesn't take the preseason seriously. We also ran the ball just 12 times with a QB coming off a season ending injury. We got a touchdown running the ball down their throats then abandoned the run for the rest of the game. 

Relax and touch grass. One game does not equal the end of the Burrow era. It is time to consider ending the Zac Taylor era though. 

1)something is amiss with Burrow..that  ligament injury injury he suffered can easily be a career ender for a quarterback 2) as Joe Mixon runs for 160 yds for the Texans....Zach Moss @ most is a secondary running back  3) promoting Pilcher was a major mistake