What gets you Excited about this team?
For me it's the young guys on our defense. Hubbard, Lawson, Pratt, and Bates. The defense showed up at the end of the season and have us a chance to win some games at the end of last season.

Off the field: An active free agent signing period just occurred.

On the field: The return of AJ & hopefully improvement from Ross (I guess I'm cheating with the "no Burrow" rule because I want to see how these WRs perform with him at QB).

The number of one score losses we had knowing how young the team is.

I agree with J24... I also wanna see how the new guys perform. If they flop, that might be Mike Brown's reason to go back to his old ways. It'd also be exciting to see AJ again. I remember NFL.com showed every team's most exciting play from last season... Ours was a 10 yard TD run from Joe Mixon... I feel like we had a couple better than that, but whatever.

Adding a 100% healthy A J Green and the top O-lineman from last years draft should make a HUGE improvement in our offense.

I agree with Fred, except adding Burrow to the mix instead of Dalton as well.
3 new top notch offensive starters with Burrow, Jonah, and AJ. Now, let's just let them loose and see what happens!

(04-22-2020, 04:02 PM)jason Wrote: I agree with J24... I also wanna see how the new guys perform. If they flop, that might be Mike Brown's reason to go back to his old ways. It'd also be exciting to see AJ again. I remember NFL.com showed every team's most exciting play from last season... Ours was a 10 yard TD run from Joe Mixon... I feel like we had a couple better than that, but whatever.

Tate had at least a half a dozen catches that were better than a 10 yard run.

And what about the impossible comeback in Miami?

Them's some lazy bastids at NFL.com.

Seeing how this Defense improves with Reader, Waynes and Alexander in the fold.

(04-22-2020, 03:58 PM)tBengal Wrote: The number of one score losses we had knowing how young the team is.

I can't really agree with the "one score loss" logic.  Several of those games were decided early, and they took their foot off the gas, Bengals made it cosmetically close.

Had those games been close, with teams winning on last second FGs, or other late game heroics?  I would give more credence to the "one score loss" argument;  but in the NFL, the vast majority of games are pretty close.  They like it that way, drama sells.

(04-22-2020, 06:35 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can't really agree with the "one score loss" logic.  Several of those games were decided early, and they took their foot off the gas, Bengals made it cosmetically close.

Had those games been close, with teams winning on last second FGs, or other late game heroics?  I would give more credence to the "one score loss" argument;  but in the NFL, the vast majority of games are pretty close.  They like it that way, drama sells.

There were a few just off the top that were really close. I know the Bills, Raiders, Dolphins, 2nd Steelers, Seahawks, Arizona were all games we were in it the whole way. (Dolphins, and Arizona were losing by 2 or more and came back to tie only to let up in the end) 

I'm anxious to see how all the receivers and RB's do in the new offense. What can Sample do ? Can Ross become a reliable target ? Will we see more/better use of RB's in passing game ? What will Tate end up being ? The list goes on.

(04-22-2020, 06:35 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can't really agree with the "one score loss" logic.  Several of those games were decided early, and they took their foot off the gas, Bengals made it cosmetically close.

Had those games been close, with teams winning on last second FGs, or other late game heroics?  I would give more credence to the "one score loss" argument;  but in the NFL, the vast majority of games are pretty close.  They like it that way, drama sells.

Agree, every season there's a ton of "close" games. And quite often they don't mean much.

Drew Sample.

Reader helping free up Atkins amd Dunlap.

The roster turnover is what I am excited about. I expect a drastically different chemistry from this bunch led by the energy of guys like Burrow, Mixon, Boyd, and Reader to name a few.

Excited to see if the coaching staff improves there decision making

(04-22-2020, 06:49 PM)Mobster Wrote: Drew Sample.

Same. It’s all Sample, all the time for me. Burrow is not but the catalyst to Drew taking over the world with solid but unspectacular in-line blocking and white guy open field running atc.

Return of a healthy AJ and commit to Mixon early in season especially with a rookie QB we need to get the run going early to help Burrow

Lots of things excite me about this team.

1) Joe Burrow.
2) The return of a healthy AJ Green.
3) The debut of Jonah Williams.
4) DJ Reader & Gino playing together.
5) The improvement of the tackling in the secondary (Bell, Waynes, Alexander).
6) Josh Bynes' run defense.
7) The prospect of Joe Mixon running behind an improved line, with an improved passing game.
8) The chance the John Ross could start to play like a 1st rounder.
9) The chance to see Phillips & Wilson fully healthy. And how they help us both in the secondary and in the return game.
10) The chance to improve tommorrow beyond what we know we already have: the six main FAs (Reader, Bynes, Bell, Waynes, Alexander, XSF), Burrow, and the return to full health for guys who missed a chunk/all of laat year (AJ, Jonah, Phillips, Wilson, WJIII).
11) Light at the end of a four year tunnel.

(04-22-2020, 06:20 PM)McC Wrote: Tate had at least a half a dozen catches that were better than a 10 yard run.

And what about the impossible comeback in Miami?

Them's some lazy bastids at NFL.com.

A comeback is more than 1 play. Thus it'd likely not be on a list of best plays.

Also they ended up losing that game. So it was an almost-comeback.

(04-22-2020, 06:35 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can't really agree with the "one score loss" logic.  Several of those games were decided early, and they took their foot off the gas, Bengals made it cosmetically close.

Had those games been close, with teams winning on last second FGs, or other late game heroics?  I would give more credence to the "one score loss" argument;  but in the NFL, the vast majority of games are pretty close.  They like it that way, drama sells.

This.

I actually worked it out for another thread a month or two ago and if every one score loss was turned into a victory for every team, then in 2019 there would only be 2 losing teams if I am remembering correctly. (The Dolphins and Redskins.)

The 3-12-1 Lions would have turned into the 12-4 Lions if one score losses/ties were wins.