Nicomo Cosca Wrote:Burfict doesn’t play in the wrong era, he plays for the wrong team.

If he played for Pitt, NE, GB, Dallas, or any of the other league darlings he’d be fine.

Clay Matthews got fined for roughing the passer the first 3 games of the season. T.J. Watt got fined $20'000 for barley even touching Matt Ryan. The Cowboys are always mocked nationally for signing character issue guys like Greg Hardy, Rolando Mcclain and Randy Gregory ect. There's no favoritism its just sadly what the league has become. Personally I miss old school football where you could just take a guys head off and and actually hit the quarterback without getting flagged on every single play. 

(10-22-2018, 11:40 PM)N_B Wrote: Fair enough. You expect a drop off in his play now that he’s off the juice? Just curious, would think so but just speculating

I mean there’s no way he’s been doing that stuff the whole time right? Aren’t players routinely tested?

I think he might have lost a step at this point, but he still has that killer instinct I want out of a LB. And opposing players still fear him. We saw some of the Steelers get alligator arms worrying about getting hit.

(10-22-2018, 11:46 PM)lone bengal Wrote: Clay Matthews got fined for roughing the passer the first 3 games of the season. T.J. Watt got fined $20'000 for barley even touching Matt Ryan. The Cowboys are always mocked nationally for signing character issue guys like Greg Hardy, Rolando Mcclain and Randy Gregory ect. There's no favoritism its just sadly what the league has become. Personally I miss old school football where you could just take a guys head off and and actually hit the quarterback without getting flagged on every single play. 

Fair enough. I do remember a string of plays with Matthews earlier this season now that you mention it.

Still think the “big” teams get some favoritism though. How many times was Mike Mitchell suspended as a Steeler? Or Hines Ward?

Same as it ever was..... it's coaching. Always has been, always will be. Every year, we blame a player or position group .....but the fact is, it's suspect coaching.

(10-22-2018, 07:55 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Maybe I am in the minority here, but as of today I am definitely more concerned about the offense than the defense.

I get where you come from, but I think the biggest problem is offence knows it has to put up 30 to win.  We abandon the run so fast out of necessity and become one dimensional.  If the D was better Mixon could get 20 carries a game, what is he averaging something like 10-15?  Not disagreeing with you as I see where you are coming from, just not sure if its all on them. 

(10-23-2018, 12:15 AM)ah5 Wrote: I get where you come from, but I think the biggest problem is offence knows it has to put up 30 to win.  We abandon the run so fast out of necessity and become one dimensional.  If the D was better Mixon could get 20 carries a game, what is he averaging something like 10-15?  Not disagreeing with you as I see where you are coming from, just not sure if its all on them. 

We obviously don’t always need 30 to win. 3 out of the 7 teams we’ve played scored 23 or less.

The teams that put up more had Big Ben, Matty Ice, Cam, and Patrick Mahomes.

(10-22-2018, 11:59 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Fair enough. I do remember a string of plays with Matthews earlier this season now that you mention it.

Still think the “big” teams get some favoritism though. How many times was Mike Mitchell suspended as a Steeler? Or Hines Ward?

Agree with that Mitchell was a head hunter and never got called out for it. Things like Reggie Nelson getting his hair pulled by a Steelers coach also gets forgotten. We get stereotyped as thugs by the media usually cause of guys like “Burfict “ and for having a bunch of players get arrested years ago when in reality we have a bunch of class acts in guys like Atkins, Green, Dalton etc. It sucks but we’re a laughing stock to people outside of this market. They think we’re a thug team that can’t win a big game and that the Marvin Lewis thing is ridiculous which I agree with. I live in New England unfortunately and the radio guys were having a field day with the Bengals today saying they will never change. We will earn respect when we win and stop doing the same stupid things over and over.

Im perplexed how Marvin can have talents like Boulware and Lewis in Bmore then come to Cincy
and has failed being able to develop even average LBers.
who was the last drafted LB Lewis hit on?

(10-23-2018, 01:03 AM)impactplaya Wrote: Im perplexed how Marvin can have talents like Boulware and Lewis in Bmore then come to Cincy
and has failed being able to develop even average LBers.
who was the last drafted LB Lewis hit on?

Honestly Maualuga is probably the best LB Marvin has drafted. That’s pretty sad.

(10-23-2018, 01:03 AM)impactplaya Wrote: Im perplexed how Marvin can have talents like Boulware and Lewis in Bmore then come to Cincy
and has failed being able to develop even average LBers.
who was the last drafted LB Lewis hit on?

Im thinking that was a baltimore thing,and i thought i read each year lewis was there they added another free agent. And by 2 or 3 years they ended up with a great defense. But that was also a different era. They also had rey lewis which was a superstar as soon as he came in the nfl. And lewis was a cant miss talent. I was thinking today that it seems the bengals always make the wrong move.what if we hired tom coffman? What if we didnt let go of that 49er coach. 

Ok about the main topic i see plenty of problems after that loss. But the tackling looked so bizarre that i wondered if the nfl is a big fraud. Thats how bad it was. I mean i seen jordan willis bouncing off a guy like nothing,willis is huge.

2nd of all why wont they give brandon bell a shot ,hes made plays in two preseasons but we got nickerson up here? Nickerson is the worst lb ive seen us have i think. And how is a 3rd round pick with decent speed not able to see the field in critical timed - malik jefferson. I was waiting on hearing some sort of news today,but nothing they need personel moves. I really dont care if they fired austin already,hes been a dissapointment.

They need to bring up tate also and play him,we are getting nothing out of our #3 or #4 receivers and hurt on tight ends. And missing our scat back gio. This walton guy is horrible. They also have to tinker with the o line ,tge right side is garbage.

(10-23-2018, 01:14 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Honestly Maualuga is probably the best LB Marvin has drafted. That’s pretty sad.

Rey was a good , productive player for us

He was good in run D and really hit hard ...yeah you never really wanted him 1 on 1 with a shifty RB but I would argue are LB's currently do not do well on that that or bring the run stuff ability Rey had.

(10-23-2018, 01:03 AM)impactplaya Wrote: Im perplexed how Marvin can have talents like Boulware and Lewis in Bmore then come to Cincy
and has failed being able to develop even average LBers.
who was the last drafted LB Lewis hit on?

The last LB we drafted earlier than rd 3 was Rey M back in 2009.

We seemed to have had the approach for nearly a decade of collecting mid tier draft picks every year and hoping they develop - as of now Nick Vigil I guess has been the best of those non blue chip LB picks over that period.

We invest top draft picks and salary cap elsewhere and historically have made do at LB with those mid picks or cheap, value FA options.

That approach is fine when you're 3 Rd 1 CBs (wjax, dreK, dennard) are draped all over their receivers, or when your big salary investments on the DL (Geno, Carlos) are getting consistent pressure......when they are not you can't expect a rag tag of UDFAs, mid round draftees, and cheap FA linebackers to always bail you out.

(10-23-2018, 12:15 AM)ah5 Wrote: I get where you come from, but I think the biggest problem is offence knows it has to put up 30 to win.  We abandon the run so fast out of necessity and become one dimensional.  If the D was better Mixon could get 20 carries a game, what is he averaging something like 10-15?  Not disagreeing with you as I see where you are coming from, just not sure if its all on them. 

Oh don't get me wrong, against the Chiefs the defense was on a level of sucking a bucket of golf balls through a hose. Bengals will be lucky to make it to .500 with that level of bad play.

What I tried to clarify after that is that the defense is not going to be good overall. They are who they are, but they just have to minimize their overall bad play.

But the offense has a 8 year veteran QB, the best player on the team in AJ, and rising RB who looks to be a good one down the road. Boyd has come along as a really good number 2 behind AJ as well, while Ross, well nm that one.

I got to go here, but basically the offense has to be good for this team to have a chance at making the playoffs. And right now imo the offense's arrow is pointing down, and that is why they are more concerning to me at the moment, even though obviously the defense needs to be better.

(10-22-2018, 06:10 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: and its their linebackers.

The rest of the defense has talent, even though they are under performing. Geno, Dunlap, Bates, WJ3, hell...even Dre. These guys are at least competent. There is just absolutely not talent at the linebacker position.

They can't cover OR tackle. They cant stop the run or the pass. They are AWFUL. Burfict has looked terrible, Preston Brown is trash, and I cant even name their other starter since Vigil went down. Hardy Nickerson is BAD.

The linebackers are softer than Dre Kirkpatrick laying on a bed of cotton balls. When the hell is this team going to learn and draft a competent play maker at linebacker?

KC didnt shred the secondary last night (ok, maybe they did just a tad), but they shredded our LINEBACKERS.

Play Malik Jefferson, hes gotta be better than these LOSERS.

It is pretty obvious isn't it? Never liked Haslett, dude is a terrible LB coach.

Need to do something whether it is start Malik on early downs and Shawn or Fej on passing downs.

Evans has been bad too, just all around terrible LB play, atleast Vigil has shown flashes. Think him being out was a
bigger loss than we all thought. Really surprised by the poor play of Burfict, he used to be a great tackler, what the
hell happened?

We have 7 LBers and only 4 can play on passing downs. 2 of those players Nickerson and Brown are getting a ton of snaps. Unfortunately for us every down is a passing down now and our best LB Vigil is out. We need him back to solidify that unit along with Vontaz. A unhearld problem is those two haven't played all but one game together.

(10-23-2018, 02:25 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Oh don't get me wrong, against the Chiefs the defense was on a level of sucking a bucket of golf balls through a hose. Bengals will be lucky to make it to .500 with that level of bad play.

What I tried to clarify after that is that the defense is not going to be good overall. They are who they are, but they just have to minimize their overall bad play.

But the offense has a 8 year veteran QB, the best player on the team in AJ, and rising RB who looks to be a good one down the road. Boyd has come along as a really good number 2 behind AJ as well, while Ross, well nm that one.

I got to go here, but basically the offense has to be good for this team to have a chance at making the playoffs. And right now imo the offense's arrow is pointing down, and that is why they are more concerning to me at the moment, even though obviously the defense needs to be better.

I agree. One thing I was reminded of, however, is that we used a lot of 3 TE sets initially this season. Now, we don't even have 3 TEs! That could be a huge factor. Lazor has some work to do.