"You never know during the course of a game how many times you see the ball on the ground and nobody goes after it," said Austin, who is in first season as Bengals defensive coordinator after Paul Guenther left to become defensive coordinator with the Oakland Raiders. "You make an assumption that it's not a live ball and it is, so that's why everything is a live ball for us."

"You only get what you emphasize, so I think if you emphasize going after the ball every time it's on the ground and develop a habit in a game you don't run into that circumstance where you don't go after the ball," said Austin. "We just have to keep coaching it and eventually it will come to them."

"What we told the young guys, because we know there's a lot of stuff they're not going to know, but whatever they're doing, try to do it as fast as they can and get around the ball as much as you can," said Austin. "We can coach the other stuff."

http://local12.com/sports/bengals/new-bengals-defensive-coordinator-emphasizing-turnovers-even-on-incomplete-passes

I really like that mentality out of our new DC. He's exactly right, treat every ball that hits the ground as if it's your ball. That stuff sticks in players' subconscious, and evolves into forced fumbles and opportunistic recoveries.

Hopefully no one will be easing up when tackling near the sideline either. Force them out!

If you watch some of the good turnover defenses, they do just this. They'll scoop up any ball they see on the ground no matter what, they'll make dives for incomplete passes, they'll keep trying to strip the ball from the carrier until the whistle has been blown more than once. It is definitely a mentality.

Just, please, no cheesy turnover chain or trophy that gets passed around on the sideline and players mug for the camera while the game is going on.

All great stuff coming from our team. Going to be a fun year.

Until the 1st payer gets hurt diving for a dead ball, and then we'll hear how Austin is an imbecile

(06-02-2018, 09:07 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Until the 1st payer gets hurt diving for a dead ball, and then we'll hear how Austin is an imbecile

Probably right. But the attitude overall is changing into fighting till the whistle blows. Something we have not experienced here in a very long time.

(06-02-2018, 09:53 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Probably right. But the attitude overall is changing into fighting till the whistle blows. Something we have not experienced here in a very long time.

That same philosophy can be applied to the offensive side of the ball.  Having every available man blocking through the entirety of every play, trailing every play down the field, can only lead to good things happening.

(06-02-2018, 10:12 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That same philosophy can be applied to the offensive side of the ball.  Having every available man blocking through the entirety of every play, trailing every play down the field, can only lead to good things happening.

Sure can and sure would. Sadly, these are football fundamentals players and coaches sometimes drift away from. Not purposely of course if they really want to win. But it does happen. We have had too many players give up or quite playing before the whistle. The results are almost always unfavorable.

Kind of like the outfielder who catches a pop fly then casually tosses the ball back to the  2nd baseman while the runner on 3rd tags up to score.  We've all seen that play many times . 

He needs to get burfict to stop at the whistle.

(06-02-2018, 12:16 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Sure can and sure would. Sadly, these are football fundamentals players and coaches sometimes drift away from. Not purposely of course if they really want to win. But it does happen. We have had too many players give up or quite playing before the whistle. The results are almost always unfavorable.

Back when I played, our coaches stressed the importance of playing through the whistle, even in adult Semi-Pro.  They'd say, 'don't worry about getting gassed", "we'll spell you for a play, if you need it, just go hard".

Honestly i was not sure about Austin before but i sure am warming up to him.

This is a great mentality to instill in your Defense. These types of plays can take you from losing a game to winning one.

(06-02-2018, 10:12 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That same philosophy can be applied to the offensive side of the ball.  Having every available man blocking through the entirety of every play, trailing every play down the field, can only lead to good things happening.

You beat me to it Sunset,

How many times over the course of the last several years have you seen O-linemen quit way to early ? Ogbuehi was the king of this ! B ut many others as well give half hearted efforts at getting to 2nd level blocks and rarely did you see our line driving defenders down the field with sustained blocks. And it has shown up in the stats to say the least.

(06-02-2018, 02:28 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Honestly i was not sure about Austin before but i sure am warming up to him.

This is a great mentality to instill in your Defense. These types of plays can take you from losing a game to winning one.

These kinda things are what we've been lacking for so many years. I think we were close to putting a SB team together. Zimmer was a fantastic DC. He was a disciplinarian. He didnt give two rats ass what your pay was, you either play or you don't. The players respected him, and I feel this defense is respecting Austin. We are going to have a top 5 D again. They have the talent, they need the mentality and that's what Austin is bringing. Yeah Baby!

(06-01-2018, 09:48 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: Hopefully no one will be easing up when tackling near the sideline either. Force them out!

Need to implement the WWBD principle.
WWBD = What Would BURFICT Do.

(06-02-2018, 09:53 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Probably right. But the attitude overall is changing into fighting till the whistle blows. Something we have not experienced here in a very long time.

Oh, I agree 100%, and think the new coaches and the new attitudes are great things. I just know my board.....

This is cool and all, but shouldn't our defense have been doing this in the first place?

Seriously, it feels like this has been a point of contention for a while now. It never seems like our guys really go after the ball. When we play against teams like the Steelers, you're always seeing their guys trying to pry the ball away from us. I want more of that.

(06-02-2018, 06:11 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Just, please, no cheesy turnover chain or trophy that gets passed around on the sideline and players mug for the camera while the game is going on.