I know very little of what I'm about to say is that different than much of what has already been said. But, being that I often give the team a hard time, I wanted to start a thread on my own, praising them for their effort today. They played a damn good game.

I know I give Marvin a lot of grief and make a ton of Giggles jokes and all that. The fact is he took his team on the road and had his team ready to play week 1. To the point of thoroughly outplaying the opponent. They completely outclassed Oakland. To do that, in someone else's stadium, in this league, is incredibly difficult. While I still may not think he's the guy to get us to the promised land, he certainly did a fine job today. For that, he is deserving of credit.

Andy... See a lot of what I wrote above. I make a lot of Noodles jokes. I post a lot of hypothetical scenarios that involve us moving on from him or changing the pasyt. I have mentioned a slew of names like Bridgewater, and Carr, and Fitzpatrick, and even Palmer... I digress... Andy played very well today. He too deserves a round of applause.

This one may be the hardest. Warren. I mean, Paul. Alexander that is. The Piano Man's group was phenomenal today. I do think he's given an abundance of talent to work with, but that's neither nor there right now. The fact is he had his group prepared to play. Both he and they did a fantastic job.

Gunther's unit - Maybe the best performance of the bunch... Hill, Bernard. Both good... No turnovers... No big plays on special teams (save a block PAT). A lot of praise to go around. Eifert, IMO, was the biggest bright spot of the game. I've never seen us use a TE like that. It could open up a whole, whole lot.

All in all, I think the team is deserving of an A for week 1. Great job, Bengals. One of the most impressive wins of the week, if not the most impressive.

(09-14-2015, 02:47 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I know very little of what I'm about to say is that different than much of what has already been said.  But, being that I often give the team a hard time, I wanted to start a thread on my own, praising them for their effort today.  They played a damn good game.

I know I give Marvin a lot of grief and make a ton of Giggles jokes and all that.  The fact is he took his team on the road and had his team ready to play week 1.  To the point of thoroughly outplaying the opponent.  They completely outclassed Oakland.  To do that, in someone else's stadium, in this league, is incredibly difficult.  While I still may not think he's the guy to get us to the promised land, he certainly did a fine job today.  For that, he is deserving of credit.

Andy... See a lot of what I wrote above.  I make a lot of Noodles jokes.  I post a lot of hypothetical scenarios that involve us moving on from him or changing the pasyt.  I have mentioned a slew of names like Bridgewater, and Carr, and Fitzpatrick, and even Palmer... I digress... Andy played very well today.  He too deserves a round of applause.  

This one may be the hardest.  Warren. I mean, Paul.  Alexander that is.  The Piano Man's group was phenomenal today.  I do think he's given an abundance of talent to work with, but that's neither nor there right now.  The fact is he had his group prepared to play.  Both he and they did a fantastic job.

Gunther's unit - Maybe the best performance of the bunch...  Hill, Bernard.  Both good...  No  turnovers...  No big plays on special teams (save a block PAT).  A lot of praise to go around.  Eifert, IMO, was the biggest bright spot of the game.  I've never seen us use a TE like that.  It could open up a whole, whole lot.

All in all, I think the team is deserving of an A for week 1.  Great job, Bengals.  One of the most impressive wins of the week, if not the most impressive.

I could not agree more. It was a outstanding performance from the entire group. It's was total domination in a hostel inviorment. The only game in the last 20 years I can remember our team dominating a home unit like that was when Chad did the river dance in Chicago.
Great post. It shows you are a fan of the Bengsls (the sum of the parts) rather than a blind "hater" or "homer" for any individual player.

O-line was incredible. Rendered a talented defense impotent.

From Bodine to Burkhead, it was a total team domination.
Really liked what the secondary did. Leon lowered the boom a couple times on top of what Dre and Pacman did.

Let Raider Nation suck on that for a week. Badass DBs ain't their claim to fame no mo'.

My biggest take away was we were aggressive. 4th and 1 on the first drive we go for it and punch it in. They could have settled for 20-0 going into half but they were aggressive and got the TD. They could have shut it down coming out of half but tried to put another score on the board in the 3rd. I think the idea of not letting a team back in it is a big deal, especially if you saw the outcome of the Detroit/San Diego game yesterday (San Diego came back from 21 down to win).

It was amazing to watch and hopefully it continues! That drive, execution, focus, fortitude and swagger could lead to a fantastic season if it continues!

(09-14-2015, 10:21 AM)Au165 Wrote: My biggest take away was we were aggressive. 4th and 1 on the first drive we go for it and punch it in. They could have settled for 20-0 going into half but they were aggressive and got the TD. They could have shut it down coming out of half but tried to put another score on the board in the 3rd. I think the idea of not letting a team back in it is a big deal, especially if you saw the outcome of the Detroit/San Diego game yesterday (San Diego came back from 21 down to win).

I'm right there with you Mantooth(Toast)!  I was impressed with how the team was prepared and executed throughout the game.  A few more games like that and I may become a believer that Marvin can get us to the Super Bowl.

Like you Au165, I was impressed with the aggressiveness.  From going for it on 4th and one to the final drive of the first half.  I thought for sure on that drive we would do three runs and punt.  But to go down and score like that was great to see.  I loved the aggressiveness.

I know it was the Raiders, just the first game of the season, and that we have a long way to go in this season yet, but I think this is a different team that others really are going to have to look out for down the road!

(09-14-2015, 09:59 AM)tigershrimp Wrote: From Bodine to Burkhead, it was a total team domination.
Really liked what the secondary did. Leon lowered the boom a couple times on top of what Dre and Pacman did.

Let Raider Nation suck on that for a week. Badass DBs ain't their claim to fame no mo'.

You mean from Alford to Zeitler...right?

See what I did there?

(09-14-2015, 11:04 AM)spazz70 Wrote: You mean from Alford to Zeitler...right?

See what I did there?

I see. Nicely played!

Alternately, Nugent to Hunt (range of low-to-high numbers, 2 to 99).

4 more Road wins till Dalton sets an NFL record for most in the first 5 years.

We have a very talented team. Ive said since training camp that our Offensive line would be fine for starters and that included Bodine. Bodine's issues in the preseason typically came when we had replacement players come in and the entire line was collapsing. He's also just in his second year and Alexander has shown that he can spot talent.

I personally am still concerned with Dalton who had a GREAT GAME, but it concerns me at how bad his sideline throws were and shows his lack of consistent throwing power. What I have noticed with him is that when he needs to get it down field he typically over throws because he has to muster a full load and can't control the upper end of his throwing range. This usually leads to overthrowing or under throwing and rarely finding that smooth groove. Guys like Big Ben can throw it with great accuracy on the sideline because of the arch they can put on it while getting distance and dropping it in the bread basket. I think as long as we limit him to reasonable throws like this game and limit his long pass than he will make far less turnovers this year.

The other issue I had was our pass rush seems slow out the gate and I would like to see more pressure from our front 4. We are of course limited by having peko in most of the time, but still want to see more from our ends. This will only improve as the season goes on and to be fair the Oakland Oline played well.

Edit: one last thing. I can't stand when AJ Green Blows a catch and looks at his hands. Chad did this for a long time and its so dumb. Its like that kid in school that was always lie when they get caught doing something and try to weasel their way out of it. If your going to be the second highest paid receiver carry yourself better than that.

Actually, PFF gave Bodine, Zeitler and Andre bad grades.

I thought the o-line was decent yesterday, so take it fwiw.

Not to be greedy but I'd like a bigger YPC out of the run game and Andy to be a little more aggressive downfield also AJ needs to snag that TD that was perfectly thrown to him in the endzone. Right side of the OLine needs to block better and having and extra point blocked is unacceptable but all in all we won in dominant fashion so that's all that matters

(09-14-2015, 02:07 PM)TSwigZ Wrote: Not to be greedy but I'd like a bigger YPC out of the run game and Andy to be a little more aggressive downfield also AJ needs to snag that TD that was perfectly thrown to him in the endzone. Right side of the OLine needs to block better and having and extra point blocked is unacceptable but all in all we won in dominant fashion so that's all that matters

Yeah but there wasnt much a need to break out the deep balls especiall once we were up 3 scores and trying to kill time.. Still took some shots though

(09-14-2015, 02:18 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Yeah but there wasnt much a need to break out the deep balls especiall once we were up 3 scores and trying to kill time..  Still took some shots though

I was pretty happy we didn't throw the jump balls to AJ. IMO it is one of the dumb things we do.

3 things can happen. AJ makes an awesome play (low chance) or AJ gets hurt or Andy throws a pick.

All of Daltons passes today seemed to have a specific zone and were very precise, which I enjoyed. It seemed much less like he was just throwing it up for people to make a play, instead he was dictating where the ball was going.

Andy looked like he was on a mission, so maybe the McCarron push is paying off haha.

The big plays will come when defenses start to account for T.E.

(09-14-2015, 02:23 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: I was pretty happy we didn't throw the jump balls to AJ. IMO it is one of the dumb things we do.

3 things can happen. AJ makes an awesome play (low chance) or AJ gets hurt or Andy throws a pick.

All of Daltons passes today seemed to have a specific zone and were very precise, which I enjoyed. It seemed much less like he was just throwing it up for people to make a play, instead he was dictating where the ball was going.

Andy looked like he was on a mission, so maybe the McCarron push is paying off haha.

The big plays will come when defenses start to account for T.E.

thats the thing they can only game plan so much away.... Of course they gotta watch green but then now that Eifert has arrived they gotta plan for him. Which will either leave green more one on one shots. Or empty the box for hill or open up MLJ/SANU

(09-14-2015, 01:23 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: 4 more Road wins till Dalton sets an NFL record for most in the first 5 years.

@Ravens
@Bills
@Steelers
@Cards
@Browns
@49ers
@Broncos

I can see  that happening. I think we have a really good chance to beat the Browns and the 49ers on the road. I think that the Broncos at the end of the year might be slowing way down, and we win at the Steelers more than we do at home vs them.

(09-14-2015, 02:27 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: @Ravens
@Bills
@Steelers
@Cards
@Browns
@49ers
@Broncos

I can see  that happening. I think we have a really good chance to beat the Browns and the 49ers on the road. I think that the Broncos at the end of the year might be slowing way down, and we win at the Steelers more than we do at home vs them.

swept the ravens last year and they just lost their best defensive player (kinda like us lossing burfict)

(09-14-2015, 02:29 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: swept the ravens last year and they just lost their best defensive player (kinda like us lossing burfict)

Steelers won't have their center when we play them at Pittsburgh too.

(09-14-2015, 02:27 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: @Ravens
@Bills
@Steelers
@Cards
@Browns
@49ers
@Broncos

I can see  that happening. I think we have a really good chance to beat the Browns and the 49ers on the road. I think that the Broncos at the end of the year might be slowing way down, and we win at the Steelers more than we do at home vs them.

After seeing some of the Broncos game yesterday, that does not seem as intimidating as it did before the season started.  Peyton looks old...