Well, I think most everyone here knows the Bengals better than all of these national pundits.

I will say this:

Last year: 7-9

Major losses: None
Minor losses: Pacman

Major Holes Filled: Glenn (LT), Price ©
Minor Holes Filled: Jackson starts full time over PacMan, Eifert returns, Ross returns

All those being said, I can't see any reason that the Bengals would be worse this year.

(05-10-2018, 01:00 PM)grampahol Wrote: I wonder if by some magic the Bengals win every regular season game by large margins this season will any of the national pundits pick us to win at least one playoff game? 

No one will probably believe me if I can't find the clip, but after the 2014 season when we were decimated by injuries a majority of the "experts" on CBS picked us to beat the Colts.  This was after we had lost 4 playoff games in a row and just a year after the Chargers meltdown.

The national media was not as hard on the Bengals as a lot of people claim.  They respected our ability to make it to the playoffs every season.

(05-10-2018, 01:02 PM)grampahol Wrote: It doesn't matter if you win the game by 100 or lose by 100.. It still only counts as 1 game. 
Although losing by 100 nobody is going to want to play the next game .

Ida know, last year the Titans lost a game by 43 points and they still managed to make the playoffs AND win a flippin' playoff game.  Lordy, why can't we do that?

(05-10-2018, 01:12 PM)fredtoast Wrote: No one will probably believe me if I can't find the clip, but after the 2014 season when we were decimated by injuries a majority of the "experts" on CBS picked us to beat the Colts.  This was after we had lost 4 playoff games in a row and just a year after the Chargers meltdown.

The national media was not as hard on the Bengals as a lot of people claim.  They respected our ability to make it to the playoffs every season.

I'd buy that.....I think the media came crashing down the hardest after the 2015 debacle.

(05-08-2018, 02:50 PM)Millhouse Wrote: This power ranking cited the last 3 years drafts, which basically makes this opinion invalid to me because this ranking is supposed to be after this draft. Then it only mentioned Billy Price on top of that. Other teams though he mentioned more than just 1 draft pick.

But to put us below the Bears, Jets, Giants, and Bucs just shows not how biased it is towards the Bengals, but the relative ignorance of them as well.

That said, I would have us around the 20-23 range at most entering the season right now. If both coordinators are better than the previous ones, the new o-line coach makes a difference, players like Eifert stay healthy, then there is no reason they shouldnt win 2-3 more games this season setting them up for a playoff berth.

Our schedule is a really really tough one and with that I think we will be lucky to win 8 and if this un tested coaching staff and the terrible refs that hate us and call crap on us that marvin will not contest,we will be lucky to win 8 and if we stay healthy and HUNDRY we could just maybe sneak out with 9 but I do not think so.We will lose to the ravens twice,the steelers twice , the falcons and the saints are losses, and injuries are going to happen and we have NO ONE to take over for Dalton,and he is just an okay qb,not a great one.A.J.green is not the super star most think he is.he allows interceptions at least 5 times a season and drops a lot of balls and Dalton does NOT spread it around enough to the other receivers,and that's a huge problem.I hope I am wrong,but you cannot reteach a qb to be better,no matter who the coaches are and I don't think he has that killer instinct to win at all costs,he has two kids and a wife and he is not going to get killed for this team and I still believe this line is suspect.

(05-09-2018, 11:39 AM)jj22 Wrote: I think the last two games blinded Bengal fans. Truth is we were looking like a 2-14 team without those last two games. Thankfully we played the 0-16 Cleveland browns twice which helped us get to the 5 wins leading up to the last two games, and we had a miraculous play at the buzzer to beat the Ravens.

Don't forget we got DESTROYED by the Bears (which lets you know just how close to 29 we really are). We also got Destroyed by the Vikes (which is a little more understandable). All of this leading up to those last two games. We looked like the number 31 team on power rankings leading up to the Detroit game.

Moral of the story is ESPN wasn't swayed by the last two games like MB and some fans are. The Ravens blew their win in the final seconds, and the Lions were extremely overrated to begin with. They aren't considering the coaching staff changes, which is really the only thing we can hang hope on. If it wasn't for them, then we are still the underachieving, undisciplined, outcoached Bengals. With still an unknown line that we all hope has improved with the addition of Glenn and Price.

Ok, well then explain how the 5-11 Bucs or 3-13 Giants are ranked ahead of us then. They both went 1-5 to end the 2017 season. 

(05-10-2018, 01:12 PM)fredtoast Wrote: No one will probably believe me if I can't find the clip, but after the 2014 season when we were decimated by injuries a majority of the "experts" on CBS picked us to beat the Colts.  This was after we had lost 4 playoff games in a row and just a year after the Chargers meltdown.

The national media was not as hard on the Bengals as a lot of people claim.  They respected our ability to make it to the playoffs every season.

I believe you. I remember when like 5 of 8 people at PFT picked the Bengals to go to the SB or at least the AFC title game before 2016. 

Like I said, I think they just got tired of giving optimistic predictions for a team that started to seem incapable of breaking through.

How many times can someone like Prisco say "look out for the Bengals" before he starts to look like a clown? He has us at 26th in his new power ranking btw.

(05-11-2018, 01:35 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I believe you. I remember when like 5 of 8 people at PFT picked the Bengals to go to the SB or at least the AFC title game before 2016. 

Like I said, I think they just got tired of giving optimistic predictions for a team that started to seem incapable of breaking through.

How many times can someone like Prisco say "look out for the Bengals" before he starts to look like a clown? He has us at 26th in his new power ranking btw.

Yeah , but Prisco was right though. 5 of 8 maybe picked us to be SuperBowl contenders but there were a fair share that had us ranked low also. We were a lot closer to the Super Bowl than we were to the bottom of the barrel. 

I dont mind not being ranked up with the elite teams, they havent earned that but to put us behind Untalented messes like the Jets and Giants is lazy and ridiculous. That is what is frustrating. Oh  well , life in the Nati' right?

(05-10-2018, 09:02 AM)Daddy-O Wrote: 2015 notwithstanding, the Bengals best seasons have come after previous disappointing seasons and little to no media expectation.

I would expect nothing different this time from ESPN. They don't watch as intently as us fans and know every weakness and upgrade to address those weaknesses.  Last year was bad but there were games for the taking we should have won: Green Bay, Pitt at home, Houston to name a few.  If those game go the other way the conversation is different.

The below to me are wildcards from last year"

- Improved OL play (both at Center and LT, RT still questionable)
- Healthy John Ross (we'll see)
- Improved LB play against the run (picked up solid tackler in Preston Brown)
- Healthy Eifert (I know that's an oxymoron but I'm an optimist)
- Improved safety play
- Mixon no longer a rookie
- AJ Green (yep, down year last year will come back with a vengeance IMO)

and..... most importantly, addition by subtraction:

- New OL coach (this by itself is reason to be optimistic)

Sure there are others but these came to mind quickly.  I'm excited for 2018, drinking the Kool-Aid already.

Great post Daddy-O, just too much common sense here to not give it major reps.

(05-09-2018, 11:39 AM)jj22 Wrote: I think the last two games blinded Bengal fans. Truth is we were looking like a 2-14 team without those last two games. Thankfully we played the 0-16 Cleveland browns twice which helped us get to the 5 wins leading up to the last two games, and we had a miraculous play at the buzzer to beat the Ravens.

Don't forget we got DESTROYED by the Bears (which lets you know just how close to 29 we really are). We also got Destroyed by the Vikes (which is a little more understandable). All of this leading up to those last two games. We looked like the number 31 team on power rankings leading up to the Detroit game.

Moral of the story is ESPN wasn't swayed by the last two games like MB and some fans are. The Ravens blew their win in the final seconds, and the Lions were extremely overrated to begin with. They aren't considering the coaching staff changes, which is really the only thing we can hang hope on. If it wasn't for them, then we are still the underachieving, undisciplined, outcoached Bengals. With still an unknown line that we all hope has improved with the addition of Glenn and Price.

Ravens blew the game.  Goes both ways, you could say the Bengals blew their games with Tenn & Pitt.