Currently, we are 1 of 11 teams that are 0-2. Chargers are taking the defending superbowl champs into overtime with their Rookie QB, and Baltimore who mopped the floor with Cleveland just dominated the Texans, a playoff team from last year. Let's all take a deep breath. Now if we lose to the 0-2 Eagles next week, then we can all lose our collective minds.

Get ready...

(09-20-2020, 08:28 PM)Rubekahn29 Wrote: Currently, we are 1 of 11 teams that are 0-2. Chargers are taking the defending superbowl champs into overtime with their Rookie QB, and Baltimore who mopped the floor with Cleveland just dominated the Texans, a playoff team from last year. Let's all take a deep breath. Now if we lose to the 0-2 Eagles next week, then we can all lose our collective minds.

This year was always gonna be a work in progress.

Any moron who thought this team was play off bound by just acquiring a better QB wore blinders last year. They need at least one more FA period with good acquisitions and a good draft before we can start to think they are a .500 ball club.

(09-20-2020, 11:25 PM)Gdale_Bengal Wrote: Any moron who thought this team was play off bound by just acquiring a better QB wore blinders last year. They need at least one more FA period with good acquisitions and a good draft before we can start to think they are a .500 ball club.

Any moron who thinks that is all the Bengals did this offseason is, well, a moron....

There was no one in the fan base who, after the free agency period (where we spent a bunch of money on our defense) and the draft (when we spent a bunch of resources on rebuilding our Linebacking corp and our QB and WR of the future), was not concerned about the offensive line.

We heard the fluff. Michael Jordan is actually looking super good! Jonah Williams looks like a 10 year veteran at LT! Bobby Hart totally isn't a terrible RT, guys!

I think some people bought in to the idea that maybe the Oline would be fixed enough to be competitive.

But I don't think anyone believed the Oline was no longer a weakness of the team.

We'll improve the Oline next off season. We are still at least 1 season away from playoff contention. Maybe 2 seasons.

But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the hell out of watching Joe Burrow be an actual legitimate threat at QB for us. The first time we've had a QB who didn't need to be given a bunch of playmakers to "make him better" since at least 2007, if not 2005.

I'm going to enjoy the ride no matter how many games we win. Joe Burrow is just that special.

(09-20-2020, 08:28 PM)Rubekahn29 Wrote: Currently, we are 1 of 11 teams that are 0-2. Chargers are taking the defending superbowl champs into overtime with their Rookie QB, and Baltimore who mopped the floor with Cleveland just dominated the Texans, a playoff team from last year. Let's all take a deep breath. Now if we lose to the 0-2 Eagles next week, then we can all lose our collective minds.

Preseason is officially over. We're starting the season 0-2, but now the REAL season starts. 

We're just fine.

Much better place than we were last year.

Our Oline is bad, but we still have enough to win if we can get our Defense to play stout. I'm more concerned with tackling and stopping the run then the Oline (outside of Burrow getting killed, but he's played clutch enough to win).

(09-20-2020, 11:17 PM)McC Wrote: This year was always gonna be a work in progress.

This mentality is why our organization and team sucks. The mentality of accepting losses creates more losses. Our QB does not have that mentality, you can see he hates to lose, so should all fans.

It can be spun to make fans feel better, but we are 0-2 against 2 teams 1-1, one of each was blown out against the Ravens.

(09-20-2020, 11:25 PM)Gdale_Bengal Wrote: Any moron who thought this team was play off bound by just acquiring a better QB wore blinders last year. They need at least one more FA period with good acquisitions and a good draft before we can start to think they are a .500 ball club.

I was expecting anywhere between 5 and 7 wins.

(09-21-2020, 01:02 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I was expecting anywhere between 5 and 7 wins.

I wasn’t.

They did next to nothing to fix the O line except bring in an often injured player and keep a UDFA that everyone thought was going to be great. Except me. There isn’t enough help with pass rush with Geno and Daniels out because Carl Lawson hasn’t done much of anything this year, nor has Dunlap.

I think they need to find a few better receivers too, replace Ross and possibly Tate since he can’t get on the field.

They fix at least the offensive line, I think they can win 5 to 7 next year. This year, as is, maybe 3. Eagles being one of those possible winnable games.

(09-21-2020, 10:20 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: We heard the fluff. Michael Jordan is actually looking super good! Jonah Williams looks like a 10 year veteran at LT! 

To be fair, the left side is not playing horrible, it is the right side that is killing us.

(09-21-2020, 02:23 PM)Sled21 Wrote: To be fair, the left side is not playing horrible, it is the right side that is killing us.

Definitely. Overall, the left side has been serviceable. But they were still very much overinflated by the off season fluff (as we should all come to expect at this point). If we improve RT and RG, we should be...mostly fine. 

It was such a bummer when the Patriots put the franchise tag on Thuney.

(09-21-2020, 02:11 PM)Gdale_Bengal Wrote: I wasn’t.

They did next to nothing to fix the O line except bring in an often injured player and keep a UDFA that everyone thought was going to be great. Except me. There isn’t enough help with pass rush with Geno and Daniels out because Carl Lawson hasn’t done much of anything this year, nor has Dunlap.

I think they need to find a few better receivers too, replace Ross and possibly Tate since he can’t get on the field.

They fix at least the offensive line, I think they can win 5 to 7 next year. This year, as is, maybe 3. Eagles being one of those possible winnable games.

I expected 5-7 because of:
- Burrow would make some plays that we wouldn't normally see Dalton make
- Williams I thought would come in and maybe struggle at times initially but ultimately become the best OL on the team and be solid or above average
- Reader was better than Billings at NT
- AJ Green and John Ross healthy would boost the passing game
- Nowhere to go but up for the LBs
- Waynes and Alexander seemed like an upgrade over DK and Dennard

Reasons I didn't expect 8 or more wins:
- Hart was still RT
- XSF, who hadn't played RG prior in the NFL, was coming in to replace Miller, who was second-best OL on the team last year
- I didn't think Jordan would grow into a solid-or-better LG (at least until next year)
- LBs probably weren't going to be stellar with so many new faces

(09-21-2020, 02:44 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I expected 5-7 because of:
- Burrow would make some plays that we wouldn't normally see Dalton make
- Williams I thought would come in and maybe struggle at times initially but ultimately become the best OL on the team and be solid or above average
- Reader was better than Billings at NT
- AJ Green and John Ross healthy would boost the passing game
- Nowhere to go but up for the LBs
- Waynes and Alexander seemed like an upgrade over DK and Dennard

Reasons I didn't expect 8 or more wins:
- Hart was still RT
- XSF, who hadn't played RG prior in the NFL, was coming in to replace Miller, who was second-best OL on the team last year
- I didn't think Jordan would grow into a solid-or-better LG (at least until next year)
- LBs probably weren't going to be stellar with so many new faces

The o line was going to be bad
They signed or drafted no one to rush the QB. When I saw mayfield drinking his white claw back there with a beat up line, I knew the season was a 4 win season at best. They really needed to start the overhaul last year. Before the season started

(09-21-2020, 03:07 PM)Gdale_Bengal Wrote: The o line was going to be bad
They signed or drafted no one to rush the QB. When I saw mayfield drinking his white claw back there with a beat up line, I knew the season was a 4 win season at best. They really needed to start the overhaul last year. Before the season started

They didn't add anyone new to rush the QB, you're right. However, Atkins, Dunlap, Hubbard, and Lawson had 27.0 sacks across the 4 of them.
I assumed that those 4 could put enough pressure on a QB and get some sacks.
I expected Atkins and Dunlap to average about a sack every two games, as has typically been their norm, and I expected Hubbard and Lawson to follow suit. Hubbard had 8.5 sacks last year and Lawson had 8.0 sacks two years ago, so 8+ sacks a season isn't out of their realm.
However, Atkins has missed the first two games, and the other 3 haven't produced without Atkins in.

I didn't expect their OL to be worse than it was last year. I also expected them to carry their running game momentum from last year to this year, which has not happened.

We are also 2-16 since Taylor took over. Sure, that was last year, but I won't let go until we can get a block of games where we are at least .500 for the stretch. I see hope and talent from individuals, but no real groups of players. Being a team sport, that is not conducive to winning. They surely can turn it around, but it has been ugly.

IIRC, my best case scenario was 7-9 (2-4 in Division, 5-5 outside it). But I thought 1-5 in division more likely.

Still, we should have won wk 1 and if Boyd catches that TD, we are a conversion away from tying the Browns.

But I totally get the frustration. 3 things bug me most:

1) Not spending more in FA to protect Joe. And our organizational reluctance to pay OGs. Instead, we pay RBs & WRs who have zero impact because the line sucks.

2) Lou's stupid scheme to play 4-3 DEs as LBs in some 5-2 scheme with 3 DTs. Yeah, this with no real OLB/Edge types on the roster (maybe Lawson?) and no pass rush. Let Dunlap & Hubbardbe DEs, FFS.

3) No FBs or big RBs on the roster for short yardage. Cannot play soft in the North. We are the softy in the division.