We need to come back to reality, this team is not a playoff team.

Offense alone, is not enough to win in the NFL. I don’t think any team with even an average defense has won a Super Bowl. We are no where close to an average defense. We need to stop pretending that this team can make the playoffs, and possibly win a Super Bowl.

Drafting has been a disaster lately, free agents a bust, and defense only one time in 6 years finished average, at 16th.
We caught lightning in a bottle in 2021 and 2022, but that run is over.

If you can’t run the ball, stop the run, rush the QB, cover in the secondary, your toast. It will take major changes in players and DC and new schemes, to turn this team around. And it’s not happening this year.

(11-20-2024, 12:12 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: We need to come back to reality, this team is not a playoff team.

Offense alone, is not enough to win in the NFL. I don’t think any team with even an average defense has won a Super Bowl. We are no where close to an average defense. We need to stop pretending that this team can make the playoffs, and possibly win a Super Bowl.

Drafting has been a disaster lately, free agents a bust, and defense only one time in 6 years finished average, at 16th.
We caught lightning in a bottle in 2021 and 2022, but that run is over.

If you can’t run the ball, stop the run, rush the QB, cover in the secondary, your toast. It will take major changes in players and DC and new schemes, to turn this team around. And it’s not happening this year.

We have even worse things going on. Against the Ravens, we were zinging. Playing at a high level. Then, Chase Brown fumbled and we were done. Collapsed. All momentum gone. Couldn't stop the Ravens. Couldn't score.

Fragile team.

(11-20-2024, 11:48 AM)PhilHos Wrote: Dude, like you, I'm one of the few optimistic posters around here. While I'm hopeful we can make a run and I definitely see it as a possibility - more so than most - the Steelers are the team that concerns me th emost and we play them twice.

Good thing they're right after the bye. If we beat them after the bye, then you best believe I'm on the "we're winning out" train. A loss, though and even I will give up on this team for the rest of the season.

I don't see us stopping the Steelers pass rush.

Which has better odds?

Bengals winning out or Joe Burrow pulling a Palmer and threatening retirement?

Burrow has to be seeing the years slipping by him with this team. I wouldn't blame him one bit to seek employment elsewhere. And Chase too for that matter.
I think the main reason Mike Brown and FO refuse to give up total control is after living thru what Art Modell did to Paul Brown in Cleveland. But on the other hand they would still control ownership even if they handed the keys to real football pro's and said bring me a SB or two. Are they that stubborn to see their ways just don't work with the people they have in place now upstairs for decades?

(11-20-2024, 12:12 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: We need to come back to reality, this team is not a playoff team.

Offense alone, is not enough to win in the NFL. I don’t think any team with even an average defense has won a Super Bowl. We are no where close to an average defense. We need to stop pretending that this team can make the playoffs, and possibly win a Super Bowl.

Drafting has been a disaster lately, free agents a bust, and defense only one time in 6 years finished average, at 16th.
We caught lightning in a bottle in 2021 and 2022, but that run is over.

If you can’t run the ball, stop the run, rush the QB, cover in the secondary, your toast. It will take major changes in players and DC and new schemes, to turn this team around. And it’s not happening this year.

Yeah, so many needs right now. You could get an Abdul Carter (a Micah Parson's type player) in the first round and fix some of the serious defensive issues, but then the Bengals still have a very bad OL and Burrow getting abused. You could go for OL and then continue with one of the worse defenses in the league, with only Hendrickson as a star player. And at this point I don't trust the Bengals drafting after the 1st round. 

They really need to spend money on the scouting department. So many head-scratching picks each draft. I generally come on this board to rate the drafts a "C" each time, but read the comments and how everyone thinks these were an "A" draft and I get my hopes up, only to be dashed by the actual performance of the players. I'm finding it hard to find hope for the future of this team unless there are major investments.

I ran the ESPN playoff machine yesterday, and if we win out, the Colts will need to lose to Detroit this week (highly probable) and Denver later on (probable) for us to get in.

Burrow has 3,028 passing yards, 27 TDs and 4 INTs this season.
The Bengals are 4-7.
Make it make sense.

(11-20-2024, 02:26 PM)Old Dipstick Wrote: Burrow has 3,028 passing yards, 27 TDs and 4 INTs this season.
The Bengals are 4-7.
Make it make sense.

We have the leading passer and leader receiver in the NFL. The sack leader too. 

The thing is there is no middle ground with the roster... they are either peak-NFL players, or they are hot garbage.

Problem is, is that our top end guys are about 5 guys on the entire team... it's just a really lopsided and poorly built team. Some of it is age, some of it is regression, a lot of it is not plugging gaps sufficiently... i.e. drafting like crap.

If you'd have told me pre-season that Burrow's wrist would be fine and he'd be playing at this level, I'd certainly have assumed we made the playoffs at the least. And we won't be anywhere near them I imagine. 

As for the topic... the Bengals are not winning 6 straight... we've beaten literally nobody this year, and lost to any team who have any quality. This was becoming clear prior to the weekend, but the Chargers loss is absolutely nail in the coffin. Peak Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase are ripping everyone a new one, and we're still losing games frequently... it's done.

So here's the thing: this is a MB where we can talk about a variety of topics. Even if things look awful and a massive hill to climb (we know in our heads the season has basically slipped away), the chance is not 0.

Thus, with all of the above criteria, a guy starts a thread to talk about the possibility of a NOT-impossible thing happening and you all shit on him and get sarcastic?

**** all y'all, as you guys from the south say. If he wants to talk about it, let him.

Shit attitudes.

(11-21-2024, 01:11 AM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: So here's the thing: this is a MB where we can talk about a variety of topics. Even if things look awful and a massive hill to climb (we know in our heads the season has basically slipped away), the chance is not 0.

Thus, with all of the above criteria, a guy starts a thread to talk about the possibility of a NOT-impossible thing happening and you all shit on him and get sarcastic?

**** all y'all, as you guys from the south say. If he wants to talk about it, let him.

Shit attitudes.

Pretty sad alright. Negative people just love to attack positivity. We all know it is highly unlikely that we win out, but to rip MC for 
having a positive thread is just pathetic. Magical things happen in the NFL and technically we aren't out of the thick of it quite yet.

Even see stealer fans calling for us to win out, but for a Bengals fan to say it is just too much for the negs on here.

Steelers losing to the Browns is definitely interesting. Could we witness a monumental collapse from them? Rest of their schedule is division games plus the Chiefs and Eagles. 

There's always the chance that the rest of the league just crumbles and falls apart and some mega super filthy stinking rotten rich Bengals fan pays off all the refs and no more injuries to Bengals players the rest of the season and we all have some long lost relative die and leaves all of us a billion dollars each. I'm in! I'm easy to convince. 

(11-20-2024, 12:58 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: Burrow has to be seeing the years slipping by him with this team. I wouldn't blame him one bit to seek employment elsewhere. And Chase too for that matter.
I think the main reason Mike Brown and FO refuse to give up total control is after living thru what Art Modell did to Paul Brown in Cleveland. But on the other hand they would still control ownership even if they handed the keys to real football pro's and said bring me a SB or two. Are they that stubborn to see their ways just don't work with the people they have in place now upstairs for decades?

With his contract, even if he wanted traded and they wanted to trade him, it would kill the cap. He can't be traded for several years in practicality.

(11-21-2024, 01:11 AM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: So here's the thing: this is a MB where we can talk about a variety of topics. Even if things look awful and a massive hill to climb (we know in our heads the season has basically slipped away), the chance is not 0.

Thus, with all of the above criteria, a guy starts a thread to talk about the possibility of a NOT-impossible thing happening and you all shit on him and get sarcastic?

**** all y'all, as you guys from the south say. If he wants to talk about it, let him.

Shit attitudes.

Not directed at you specifically, but...

The best part is some people thinking having positive attitudes or negative attitudes on a MB will somehow affect the team's performance.

The team will perform whether fans are optimistic or pessimistic.

At the end of the day, this MB is an interaction with other individuals.
Fans should be able to voice their optimism or pessimism.
With that said, it should also be expected that individuals with opposing viewpoints may push back occasionally rather than always just being accepting, and that's also ok.
When you post, you are doing so knowing that you may get into a back-and-forth with some individual(s) with a different opinion.

For me personally, I don't really care if people agree with my viewpoints or not, nor do I care if someone comes at me for being pessimistic or optimistic.
Imma post if I want 

(11-20-2024, 12:58 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: Burrow has to be seeing the years slipping by him with this team. I wouldn't blame him one bit to seek employment elsewhere. And Chase too for that matter.
I think the main reason Mike Brown and FO refuse to give up total control is after living thru what Art Modell did to Paul Brown in Cleveland. But on the other hand they would still control ownership even if they handed the keys to real football pro's and said bring me a SB or two. Are they that stubborn to see their ways just don't work with the people they have in place now upstairs for decades?

They act like they care about winning, but not really. If they did they would've fired themselves. It's all about the money.

(11-22-2024, 12:36 PM)PCB Bengal Fan Wrote: They act like they care about winning, but not really. If they did they would've fired themselves. It's all about the money.

Well yea...it's a business...

(11-22-2024, 12:58 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Well yea...it's a business...

They would make more money by investing more money into winning yet they don't. It's mind boggling to me. 

(11-22-2024, 01:03 PM)PCB Bengal Fan Wrote: They would make more money by investing more money into winning yet they don't. It's mind boggling to me. 

Depends on if they are content with how much they are making or needing/wanting to make more.
They also may not feel they can invest too much more given how much they have.

The old adage of "You have to spend money to make money" only goes as far as money that you actually have to spend lol

(11-18-2024, 06:42 PM)MC Howley Wrote: Hear me out....

Crunching the numbers over here fellas, and I am 99% sure I am correct here…. So if we win out, which includes dubs over the Broncos and Colts… and the Colts beat the Broncos…and all the three teams win out outside of those games against each other..... we all end up 10-7. ? And in a three team tie breaker... in that scenario, we win the tie breaker.

So with that, if every team is 10-6 going into the last game of the season, it comes down to the following.

(1) Broncos vs. Chiefs

(2) Colts vs. Jaguars

(3) Bengals vs. Steelers

In this scenario... if all the teams win and are 10-7... the Bengals win the tie breaker, because the first tie breaker, is head to head records vs. the tied opponents. See list and link below.

PS - The Dolphins schedule looks super hard as well to note, so mark them out. Pats, Packers (in Lambeau), Jets, 49ers, Texans, etc.

So does our entire season come down to hypothetically.. us needing Anthony Richardson (or Flacco... revenge game?), to beat the Broncos in Denver on 12/15?

Conference Tie Breakers: (https://www.nfl.com/standings/tie-breaking-procedures)

Tiebreaker Procedure for Three or More Clubs
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after one or more clubs are eliminated in any step, the tiebreaker process restarts at Step 1 of the two-club format. If three clubs remain tied after a fourth club is eliminated, the tiebreaker process restarts at Step 1 of the three-club format.)

(1) Head-to-head record (best won-lost-tied percentage in games played among the tied clubs).
(2) Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
(3) Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
(4) Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
(5) Strength of victory in all games.
(6) Strength of schedule in all games.
(7) Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed in all games.
(8) Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed in all games.
(9) Best net points in common games.
(10) Best net points in all games.
(11) Best net touchdowns in all games.
(12) Coin toss (if all other tiebreakers fail).