Today sucked. There is no denying it. We had multiple opportunities to take control of this game, and every time we let it slip through our fingers. This can't happen consistently if we expect to win.

BUT there are plenty of positives looking ahead:

- When we have all of our guys on offense healthy, this team can move the ball on anyone and essentially score at will. We'll have a few bad plays no doubt, but with AJ and Mixon out there today, I think we probably score more than 3 tds. Give us a few weeks, and I have confidence that we'll be back to 28+ point games pretty regularly.

- The defense had a very bad look today, on all levels. But let's not forget that the weakest unit on our defense, linebackers, had 2 starters missing. Once we get Burfict and Brown back, there is no way any team will put up that many rushing yards on us again. Again, give it a few weeks and our defense will be much improved.

- Dalton threw a few bad picks (really only 2 that were his fault considering Malone dropped one and the last one was a hail mary as time expired), but he also was BALLING out there. Those two throws across his body while running to the left to Boyd were absolute dimes. I can't remember seeing Andy throw passes anywhere near that impressive anytime recently. Nonetheless twice in one game. He looks much improved out of the pocket and expect that to produce positive results throughout the season.

- Boyd is a beast. Totally transformed player. Guy has the ability to be a true difference maker for us. Not to mention the return of Eifert! Looked like 2015 on a few plays.

- Their touchdown to CJ Anderson was a scheme breakdown. That is correctable. We can fix that.

All in all, it's a long season ahead of us, and NFC losses are much better than AFC losses. We'll be fine, while working out a few kinks, and still be in the playoff race throughout the season.

I agree,

I haven't hit the panic button yet but the defense is concerning ! I thought it would be a strength.

I agree the LBers are the weakest part right now with the injuries but I have no faith in our Dline right now. They've looked like crap in both road games.

I agree. I think we will get a playoff victory this year IF Burfict and Brown can come back and stay healthy.

The LB play today was out of this world appalling. Linebackers seemingly looking to make contact with a blocker rather than hitting a gap.

With that said, our D line needs to man the eff up and do something. I mean Carolina had 3 backups playing. We keep just rushing 4 but they aren’t getting it done.

As long as we keep running John Ross out there we'll have issues. He directly caused two INTs today and for his career has caused 4 turnovers so far.

Well stated.  We were never out of this game.Things just didn't fall our way. We will bounce back.

(09-23-2018, 09:56 PM)Joelist Wrote: As long as we keep running John Ross out there we'll have issues. He directly caused two INTs today and for his career has caused 4 turnovers so far.

Ross was running a post route, but Dalton threw it about 6 yards left of where he should of placed it. Ross should have been looking for the ball, but it's not his fault that Andy threw a terribly inaccurate pass. I'd put the blame more on Andy that Ross for that one.

If you can't defend a run up the gut, you can't defend anything. Only thing that I'm worried about.

(09-23-2018, 10:08 PM)clevelandsdad Wrote: Ross was running a post route, but Dalton threw it about 6 yards left of where he should of placed it. Ross should have been looking for the ball, but it's not his fault that Andy threw a terribly inaccurate pass. I'd put the blame more on Andy that Ross for that one.

Wrong. The ball was correctly placed Ross just stopped for no reason without looking back at the LOS. There is a good reason why everyone both in the booth and the sidelines were hot at Ross. He directly caused both INTs. 

(09-23-2018, 10:11 PM)Bilbo Saggins Wrote: If you can't defend a run up the gut, you can't defend anything. Only thing that I'm worried about.

Having Burfict and Brown back will help tremendously with this problem. D-line can't do it by themselves.

Am not panicking at all yet.

Just need to get healthy.

(09-23-2018, 10:14 PM)clevelandsdad Wrote: Having Burfict and Brown back will help tremendously with this problem. D-line can't do it by themselves.

It will help a little but in three games so far the DL has been AWOL in two of them. Unacceptable.

(09-23-2018, 09:48 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I agree,

I haven't hit the panic button yet but the defense is concerning ! I thought it would be a strength.

A major part was playing a dual threat QB. Hopefully they can shore up the run D.

(09-23-2018, 10:13 PM)Joelist Wrote: Wrong. The ball was correctly placed Ross just stopped for no reason without looking back at the LOS. There is a good reason why everyone both in the booth and the sidelines were hot at Ross. He directly caused both INTs. 

Joe Goodberry, resident Bengals expert, begs otherwise

I don't know, man pic.twitter.com/3d8D1baDgg

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) September 24, 2018

(09-23-2018, 10:17 PM)Joelist Wrote: It will help a little but in three games so far the DL has been AWOL in two of them. Unacceptable.

Disagree about them being in AWOL in week 1. Luck just got rid of the ball quickly every play. Not much they could do. Plus, Carlos had the big sack which led to the missed 50 yard field goal.

(09-23-2018, 10:13 PM)Joelist Wrote: Wrong. The ball was correctly placed Ross just stopped for no reason without looking back at the LOS. There is a good reason why everyone both in the booth and the sidelines were hot at Ross. He directly caused both INTs. 

You have no idea if the ball was correctly placed; as you have no idea of the route design. Call me crazy but I assert the guy that directly caused  the 4 INTs is the guy that threw them. 

I get the sense that this team is probably going to be very similar to the 2005 Bengals team.

Explosive offense and a defense that creates a lot of turnovers, but when it doesn't will occasionally allow offenses to drive up the score.

People will remember that team, when healthy, was probably good enough to win the Super Bowl, so I have decently high hopes for this team.

We'll see how we do when we get healthy.

(09-23-2018, 10:14 PM)clevelandsdad Wrote: Having Burfict and Brown back will help tremendously with this problem. D-line can't do it by themselves.

It just blows my mind how this is one of the only teams in the league that carries 2 "nose tackles" who hit the designated weight and then they blow chunks against the run. Year in, year out, it never gets fixed. They let the simplest of plays gouge them. Each and every team that they've played this year has been able to stuff the run when they saw it coming. This team hasn't. Maybe the 315+ lb. "run stuffers" are no longer viable in this league. Idk what they're doing out there, but it sure isn't stopping the run.

What makes Joe Goodberry an expert? I'm not dogging him. I follow him on twitter. I read his posts here. He's never been a Dalton fan though and looks for reasons to bash him. Even when Dalton has good to great games he will dismantle him over incomplete passes. I know he posts here and I'm sure he'll see this. He has a very clear bias against Andy Dalton.

Regardless, people see what they want to see. Dalton threw 4 picks. No matter what happened, they're on his stat line. Even if you take away the 4 picks, people would've found something else to make the loss Dalton's fault. We would have seen video breakdown of every incomplete pass or open receiver he didn't see. While watching other games today, the announcers mentioned other QBs who didn't see wide open receivers for scores. That shit happens. Unfortunately we have a fan base the demands perfection of 1 player. No matter what that 1 player does, it will never be good enough. The proof of that is seeing how vehemently people defend a TE and LB who play half the time.

(09-23-2018, 10:08 PM)clevelandsdad Wrote: Ross was running a post route, but Dalton threw it about 6 yards left of where he should of placed it. Ross should have been looking for the ball, but it's not his fault that Andy threw a terribly inaccurate pass. I'd put the blame more on Andy that Ross for that one.

The ball was only 2 yards over Ross' head. If he had kept running, more than likely the pass is just broken up. The first int toward Ross i don't really blame on him because he jumped, he just wasn't tall enough to knock it away. At least, from the sideline view it looked that way.