Semi-prime time game
Two different sets of rules

The bengals are going to have to beat that living snot out of the steelers in order to come away victorious. The closer this is to a competitive game the higher chance of a steelers victory. The holding (and lack of holding) calls. The potential "personal fouls" going one way and not the other.

I think the bengals can win, but they have to play smart and within themselves. Shazier and Mitchell are likely to hit hard and illegal, but there can't be an equal reaction. Lawson, Dunlap, Geno will likely be held often, but they will need to move to the next play.

It sucks, but it's the truth. If the bengals don't play mistake free and smart football, it'll be hard to overcome the potential and recent ref/league Bias.

(10-17-2017, 02:26 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: Semi-prime time game
Two different sets of rules

The bengals are going to have to beat that living snot out of the steelers in order to come away victorious.  The closer this is to a competitive game the higher chance of a steelers victory.  The holding (and lack of holding) calls.  The potential "personal fouls" going one way and not the other.  

I think the bengals can win, but they have to play smart and within themselves. Shazier and Mitchell are likely to hit hard and illegal, but there can't be an equal reaction.  Lawson, Dunlap, Geno will likely be held  often, but they will need to move to the next play.  

It sucks, but it's the truth.   If the bengals don't play mistake free and smart football, it'll be hard to overcome the potential and recent ref/league Bias.

If you have the same mindset as I do, you'll feel so much better. I'm of two minds. Part of me is almost hoping the Bengals lose out to ensure a new HC next season. But, there's always that optimistic part of me that thinks we can hang with any team in the league and expects to, at least, make the playoffs.

Because of those two conflicting parts of my mind, it doesn't matter what we do. If we lose, well, good, another nail in Lewis' coffin. If we win, well, good, we might actually make the playoffs and make some noise. It's actually a win-win for me and it's qutie freeing.

Good point. Gotta keep the emotions in check. We've seen it before, bengal players getting bad calls, fines and suspensions while the steelers get nothing. It's a no win situation when we play pitt. So, playing with a level head will help us win this game, and not be dealing with suspensions for further games.

(10-17-2017, 02:55 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Good point. Gotta keep the emotions in check. We've seen it before, bengal players getting bad calls, fines and suspensions while the steelers get nothing. It's a no win situation when we play pitt. So, playing with a level head will help us win this game, and not be dealing with suspensions for further games.

Right! This likely determines or season.

I will agree with Marvin, this week especially. The players need to execute on every play in all 3 phases of the game. (4 if you include emotionally)

I just hope the coaches put the players in a position to be prepared and play well. All eyes will be on burfict with this being a 4:25, so he needs to be cautious, which is hard to do. I just hope its called both ways with mitchell.

There was actually a survey on steelers version of Cincy jungle, and they overwhelmingly agreed the hit on smith was not dirty. So everyone has this bias in favor of steelers. At least we can admit when our players go to far (well most of us)

(10-17-2017, 02:54 PM)PhilHos Wrote: If you have the same mindset as I do, you'll feel so much better. I'm of two minds. Part of me is almost hoping the Bengals lose out to ensure a new HC next season. But, there's always that optimistic part of me that thinks we can hang with any team in the league and expects to, at least, make the playoffs.

Because of those two conflicting parts of my mind, it doesn't matter what we do. If we lose, well, good, another nail in Lewis' coffin. If we win, well, good, we might actually make the playoffs and make some noise. It's actually a win-win for me and it's qutie freeing.

I'd prefer my cake and eat it to.

"I want to hand Mike the trophy, then just walk away," Lewis said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Bell looked like himself for the first time last week: he was patient and let the defense overpersue, letting the field open up and then he'd run through the lanes. We need to stay in our lanes, control our gaps, and be patient in pursuit, just like he's patient in running.

We also need to get after Ben and hit him early and hard. Make him fall back into the mindset of doubting himself like he was before last week.

Need to double Brown (obviously) and hope Ben doesn't have enough time to let him get open. If they want to try and beat us with Bryant or Smith-Shitshow, let them try and take our chances.

On offense, we need to establish the run with Mixon but can't be predictable and need to throw the ball and attack the D.

When we get up, we need to focus on moving the chains and not just running the ball to milk the clock.

I don't really trust Marvin to do any of that.

On D, he'll try and prevent the big play, or he'll do what I said but then go vanilla after we get up two scores and they'll come back to beat us

(10-17-2017, 03:35 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: I'd prefer my cake and eat it to.

And I'm going to do it and you can't stop me. Nyah nyah nyah nyan nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. 

(10-17-2017, 02:54 PM)PhilHos Wrote: If you have the same mindset as I do, you'll feel so much better. I'm of two minds. Part of me is almost hoping the Bengals lose out to ensure a new HC next season. But, there's always that optimistic part of me that thinks we can hang with any team in the league and expects to, at least, make the playoffs.

Because of those two conflicting parts of my mind, it doesn't matter what we do. If we lose, well, good, another nail in Lewis' coffin. If we win, well, good, we might actually make the playoffs and make some noise. It's actually a win-win for me and it's qutie freeing.

i agree with ya as long as Lewis doesn't win just enough for a new contract and at the same time take the team no further than he has in the past. That would just be typical M.O for us Bengal fans to deal with..

(10-17-2017, 03:49 PM)GodFather Wrote: i agree with ya as long as Lewis doesn't win just enough for a new contract and at the same time take the team no further than he has in the past. That would just be typical M.O for us Bengal fans to deal with..

Honestly, that's what my current expectations are. I fully expect us to make the playoffs only for us to be one-and-done yet again.

The bottom line to this matchup with pitt that is unique to this year:

The front four will get home.

Piggy won't have all day to throw. They have Vigil covering TEs instead of Dansby. Burfict is 100%.

The steelers have been adept at slowing the Bengal's offense of late, but the Bengals defense will be better.

Bengals 20
Steelers 17

(10-17-2017, 02:54 PM)PhilHos Wrote: If you have the same mindset as I do, you'll feel so much better. I'm of two minds. Part of me is almost hoping the Bengals lose out to ensure a new HC next season. But, there's always that optimistic part of me that thinks we can hang with any team in the league and expects to, at least, make the playoffs.

Because of those two conflicting parts of my mind, it doesn't matter what we do. If we lose, well, good, another nail in Lewis' coffin. If we win, well, good, we might actually make the playoffs and make some noise. It's actually a win-win for me and it's qutie freeing.

This is basically how I'm looking at it,

I'm going in fully expecting a Marvin Lewis led meltdown, par for the course. And basically speaking season is over. ML gets no new contract - I hope !!

And if we win, well just maybe there is hope for this season ?

It's a win/win

(10-17-2017, 03:35 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Bell looked like himself for the first time last week: he was patient and let the defense overpersue, letting the field open up and then he'd run through the lanes. We need to stay in our lanes, control our gaps, and be patient in pursuit, just like he's patient in running.

We also need to get after Ben and hit him early and hard. Make him fall back into the mindset of doubting himself like he was before last week.

Need to double Brown (obviously) and hope Ben doesn't have enough time to let him get open. If they want to try and beat us with Bryant or Smith-Shitshow, let them try and take our chances.

On offense, we need to establish the run with Mixon but can't be predictable and need to throw the ball and attack the D.

When we get up, we need to focus on moving the chains and not just running the ball to milk the clock.

I don't really trust Marvin to do any of that.

On D, he'll try and prevent the big play, or he'll do what I said but then go vanilla after we get up two scores and they'll come back to beat us

maybe you missed it.. but Marvin does not call the Defense and if he is , he is doing a hell of a job, we have one of the top ranked Defenses in the league

(10-17-2017, 10:41 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: maybe you missed it.. but Marvin does not call the Defense and if he is , he is doing a hell of a job, we have one of the top ranked Defenses in the league

But Marvin does instruct them on how to call plays (aggressive, conservative, etc.), and he has proven that his in-game adjustments are either horrible or non-existent.

Our defense has been playing well, and we have a lot of talent. Some of it is pretty young, though and looking at Ben, Antonio, and Bell is a lot to comprehend your first time out. Overall, I think we'll play fairly well.

I just don't know what we'll do on offense. Ogbuehi looks like he's playing on roller skates when he gets a hard bull rush, just flying backwards. If we play Andre Smith and Fisher most of the time, we may be able to pass a little bit, but we can't run block at all. I think 17 points would be a major accomplishment considering our offensive personnel.

So our defense will have to have one helluva day to pull out a win. Now, I've got a lot of respect for our defense, but that's a big assignment, and a tough one.

We pull this one out, and we are a bonafide contender. I'm not saying a loss eliminates us, but a win would put us right in the thick of it right now.

Strike 1 we are coming off a bye. We know Marvin coming off a bye
Strike 2 Steelers have a decent pass rush. our line issues exemplify this
Strike 3 Steelers have run game. As good as Bengals D has been run d hasn't really been tested. Time of possession could cause defense to wear down late.

(10-18-2017, 10:50 AM)Bengalfan4life27c Wrote: Strike 1 we are coming off a bye. We know Marvin coming off a bye
Strike 2 Steelers have a decent pass rush. our line issues exemplify this
Strike 3 Steelers have run game. As good as Bengals D has been run d hasn't really been tested. Time of possession could cause defense to wear down late.

If the Squealers play down to the level of the competition (eg. Jags and Bears) then we have a shot. 

If they play like they did Sunday in KC, we may not have a first down all day and may end up with less than 100 yards of total offense.

I think our only chance to beat them is if our defense wins the game for us. If they double Green I'm not confident our offense will do much. On a side note can't wait to see James Harrison bull rush Ogbuehi that should be interesting to witness.

Pig Ben is not going to be able to extend plays like he's used to, because if he does he's going to have Lawson, Dunlap and crew in his lap all day. I expect a heavy dose of Bell.....

The Chiefs game is a anamoly. Some teams just have other teams number. Texans seem to have ours. Until recently we matched up well against Ravens.

(10-18-2017, 11:29 AM)Bengalfan4life27c Wrote: The Chiefs game is a anamoly. Some teams just have other teams number. Texans seem to have ours. Until recently we matched up well against Ravens.

Got that right, it's all about match-ups.  Jag's always give Pittsburgh fits also.

Sadly I think Pitt is a bad match up for us because they like to do a variety of blitz packages.  These are a handful for a good, experienced OL.  We have a bad, inexperienced line.  Yikes.

Watch our OL have a great day.  Wouldn't that be something unexpected.