(6 hours ago)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: The two 'big plays' yesterday weren't even their own... the safety was a great punt and then very bad blocking by the Ravens. The fumble was all on Lamar.

I'll credit our guys with 'being there' but the plays were made for them.

Panthers put up 10 pts yesterday, but seemed to have minimal issue moving the ball on us. 

(5 hours ago)Wyche Wrote: Exactly. In fact, Lamar's fumble only delayed the inevitable. That game was over the minute Joe threw the INT. Rehkow's punt set up the safety like you mentioned. Ravens then had a brain fart on blocking. Hated what happened to Ryan after the way he has punted most of the season and setting up a safety Sunday. 

Look, I don't want to defend the defense (heh), but that safety WAS a good defensive play. Yes, credit to the punter, but let's not act like Hubbard didn't tackle Henry for a loss. The defense wasn't great (and that's putting it mildly), but this was one of those times they did something we wanted them to do and that's make a play.

The Lamar fumble, yeah, that's all on Lamar. Pratt just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

(5 hours ago)bfine32 Wrote: The Longsnapper didn't do Renkow any favors. The ball was snapped to his right ear. 

True dat.....it was a jumbled sequence from the jump.

(5 hours ago)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: It's one of those, I'm not going to be on here slamming the Punter when he's probably the answer to our gap at that position. The dude went into yesterday's game leading the league as a rookie FA... brilliant acquisition.

Yes, his bad on the hold for the FG (the snap wasn't perfect either) and he's owned it. Rehkow has done nothing but boom punts and make plays for us otherwise. I'd far rather slam the defence than him. If those guys could play their position, we aren't talking about OT, let alone bad holds.

Absolutely agree.

(5 hours ago)lone bengal Wrote: You take it out of the refs hands by calling a timeout. Once the clock got down nearing zero you need to call timeout. Zac was asking for a reset as the play was happening he wasn’t taken by surprise just burn a timeout its not super complicated.

The refs screwed us, end of story and we STILL scored anyway on that drive, soooooooooooooooooo I don't see what your point is.

(5 hours ago)PhilHos Wrote: Here's where my "making the playoffs" thread comes in. I get that this defense is bad and I think as it stands, even if we make the playoffs, we're going to be one-and-done with this defense. However, every game is not going to be against a team with a good offense or a good rushing offense. I think those games the defense will do just enough (or the opposing offense will be bad enough) that our offense can win without being perfect, though probably still have to score at least 28 ppg every game.

Even with our defense playing like Dashaun Watson at a massage parlor yesterday, we still had a couple of chances to win. I am even more confident we're making the playoffs after yesterday's game, but the defense NEEDS to improve if we want to do more than show up in the postseason.

Yeah, like I said, just get one or two stops....zero doesn't cut it! LoL

(5 hours ago)KillerGoose Wrote: Mahomes has been underwhelming for the entirety of the season (6 TDs, 5 interceptions, thrown an interception in every game). That offense is having some issues and sputtering along right now. If Murphy ends up working out then it could be a huge boost to the defense but otherwise, no, I don't think scheming can save it. A lot of people will point to scheme as this almost nebulous concept that can fix anything. In reality, it's just putting your players in optimal positions. You still wind up looking back at the talent and this defense just doesn't have it. I don't think that the team is awful, but I do think the defense is awful. This is an eight-ish win team in my mind. 

I don't disagree on the personnel and while I don't think scheming will make our defense a top 10 defense, I do think that scheming CAN make us into a top 25 defense (maybe higher if the rookies pan out and Murphy takes a step forward this season as a pass rusher), so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

(5 hours ago)casear2727 Wrote: Blaming this on Zac?  Geez....

This picture proves what ? I understand the refs screwed up which I stated. My point was Zac still should have called a timeout vs letting the clock run out.

(5 hours ago)KillerGoose Wrote: Mahomes has been underwhelming for the entirety of the season (6 TDs, 5 interceptions, thrown an interception in every game). That offense is having some issues and sputtering along right now. If Murphy ends up working out then it could be a huge boost to the defense but otherwise, no, I don't think scheming can save it. A lot of people will point to scheme as this almost nebulous concept that can fix anything. In reality, it's just putting your players in optimal positions. You still wind up looking back at the talent and this defense just doesn't have it. I don't think that the team is awful, but I do think the defense is awful. This is an eight-ish win team in my mind. 

I feel like he should have been dialing up pressure against Daniels and stacking the box. Those are things that might've won that game. Not necessarily scheme, but play calling. Obviously that doesn't work against veteran QBs, but it might have against Washington. He didn't even try.

(5 hours ago)PhilHos Wrote: Look, I don't want to defend the defense (heh), but that safety WAS a good defensive play. Yes, credit to the punter, but let's not act like Hubbard didn't tackle Henry for a loss. The defense wasn't great (and that's putting it mildly), but this was one of those times they did something we wanted them to do and that's make a play.

The Lamar fumble, yeah, that's all on Lamar. Pratt just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I'm not going to take it away from Hubbard, he still has to hit the gap and wrap up the tackle. But we've got to be aware that his job was made far easier by nobody blocking him. We'd be going mad had the Bengals line done that and given up a safety. I doubt Hubbard gets there with a block, but he had to wrap up Derrick Henry 1-on-1 and did so. I'll rephrase and say I'll give him that kudos, but in my opinion the play is more a result of the Ravens miscue than us making a great play.

(5 hours ago)PhilHos Wrote: Look, I don't want to defend the defense (heh), but that safety WAS a good defensive play. Yes, credit to the punter, but let's not act like Hubbard didn't tackle Henry for a loss. The defense wasn't great (and that's putting it mildly), but this was one of those times they did something we wanted them to do and that's make a play.

The Lamar fumble, yeah, that's all on Lamar. Pratt just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

What "Kid" is also noting is that Baltimore completely whiffed on the block. If you look at the reply, one of the linemen just screwed up his assignment, and the fullback didn't notice it in time. He was like "where'd that dude come from?" Tried to get Sam's shoulder but it was too late. It was a sure handed tackle, I'll give him that. 

(5 hours ago)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: I'm not going to take it away from Hubbard, he still has to hit the gap and wrap up the tackle. But we've got to be aware that his job was made far easier by nobody blocking him. We'd be going mad had the Bengals line done that and given up a safety. I doubt Hubbard gets there with a block, but he had to wrap up Derrick Henry 1-on-1 and did so. I'll rephrase and say I'll give him that kudos, but in my opinion the play is more a result of the Ravens miscue than us making a great play.

We must've been typing at about the same time....

(5 hours ago)PhilHos Wrote: The refs screwed us, end of story and we STILL scored anyway on that drive, soooooooooooooooooo I don't see what your point is.

The tread was about Zac’s coaching and my point was this was another coaching blunder. Option A call timeout or B get a delay a of game and cry to the refs.

(5 hours ago)Wyche Wrote: We must've been typing at about the same time....

Just don't tell my boss... it's 4:15pm here in the UK and I've already been on here moaning about yesterday's result long enough. Might as well get you to type for me! 

(5 hours ago)lone bengal Wrote: The tread was about Zac’s coaching and my point was this was another coaching blunder. Option A call timeout or B get a delay a of game and cry to the refs.

....and then get bitched about in here for burning a timeout...lol. The refs mishandled that. They should've reset the clock. 

Hate to say it, but I think it should be curtains for Zac.

The terrible OT management aside, he basically shifted responsibility to Burrow in his post game presser.

He claims that he called a pass on first down and Joe checked to a run because they didn't get the look they needed to pass. Problem is, they came out of the huddle with nobody out wide and the Ravens had stacked the box, so that doesn't jive with what we saw on the field. He basically lied and threw the club's $250 mil QB under the bus to try to damage control for himself. He has to go.

(5 hours ago)WychesWarrior Wrote: ....and then get bitched about in here for burning a timeout...lol. The refs mishandled that. They should've reset the clock. 

I wouldn’t have blamed Zac I would have blamed the refs. You would basically have 2 plays to gain half an inch rather take my chances with that when you need a TD. Everyone is angry don’t wanna high jack the tread disagreeing I thought calling a timeout was the right move and I’ll leave it at that.

(4 hours ago)lone bengal Wrote: I wouldn’t have blamed Zac I would have blamed the refs. You would basically have 2 plays to gain half an inch rather take my chances with that when you need a TD. Everyone is angry don’t wanna high jack the tread disagreeing I thought calling a timeout was the right move and I’ll leave it at that.

Fair enough, and you aren't highjacking the thread. It's certainly relevant to the subject matter brother.

(4 hours ago)Whatever Wrote: Hate to say it, but I think it should be curtains for Zac.

The terrible OT management aside, he basically shifted responsibility to Burrow in his post game presser.

He claims that he called a pass on first down and Joe checked to a run because they didn't get the look they needed to pass.  Problem is, they came out of the huddle with nobody out wide and the Ravens had stacked the box, so that doesn't jive with what we saw on the field.  He basically lied and threw the club's $250 mil QB under the bus to try to damage control for himself.  He has to go.

He said "Joe got us out of a bad look down there checking to a run", correct? Isn't that taking responsibility for the bad look, or am I missing something?

(7 hours ago)Nepa Wrote: The Atlanta Falcons lost a SuperBowl to the Tom Brady Patriots after the coach decided to have QB Matt Ryan pass the ball late in the game, when they were in field goal position and ready to push the lead up to 11 points with about 3 minutes to go. First Ryan was sacked that pushed the Falcons to the edge of field goal range and then the Falcons got a holding call that pushed them out of FG range. Matt Ryan had had a terrific year -- MVP and top offensive player -- but it was still the wrong decision to try and have him pass because of the risk of a sack and holding call. I feel the same way about what the Bengals did in OT -- they were in position to win with a FG and shouldn't risk getting pushed out of FG range.

Ah that classic moment.  I recall people wondering why they didn't run the ball there and I pointed out that Matt Ryan was the current MVP and he had Julio Jones at WR and this is the NFL where if you look at a WR funny you get a huge penalty that would have sealed the deal.  There is never a bad time to pass in the NFL if you have guys like Burrow and Chase and so on and so forth.

Hell, even if Burrow got blasted up the middle we could have gotten 15 yards for the defense having the audacity to hit him.

(6 hours ago)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Yes, Zac inherited a terrible roster and we can consider 2019 and 2020 as throw-away development time but the Bengals have been on a downward trend since the last AFC Championship appearance.  The bottom line is Zac is on track for one of his worst season records.

They had a winning record last season despite major injuries... Namely their best player at the most important position in sports being on one leg & then out for the back half of the year.


I'm as bummed about the Bengals 2024 as anyone, but these guys are 1 play away from being 5-0. They HAVE to get that right, but it's hard for me to hammer the HC/OC for what my eyes are telling me is the players.


I do not like the odd reliance on rookies that have essentially cost them 2 games (yesterday & Chiefs). I will say that is something that should be changed.