(01-09-2023, 12:59 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It's less the lack of steam rolling and more the clear on/off the Bengals offense seems to have each half of a game. The player talent is there to be dominant. They show it for halves. Why can't they string together two lately? 

They have a top-2 QB and arguably the best WR trio in the league but their Joe Burrow lead scoring offense is only 1 spot ahead of Kirk Cousins, 2 spots ahead of Geno Smith, and 3 spots ahead of Trevor Lawrence. They are 1 spot behind Brock Purdy/Jimmy G and 2 spots behind Jared Goff. None of those teams have as talented of players on offense as the Bengals and it shouldn't even be close.

It just feels like talent is carrying the Bengals offense rather than the Bengals offense elevating the talent. That's my real concern, I guess.

(01-09-2023, 12:59 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It's less the lack of steam rolling and more the clear on/off the Bengals offense seems to have each half of a game. The player talent is there to be dominant. They show it for halves. Why can't they string together two lately? 

They have a top-2 QB and arguably the best WR trio in the league but their Joe Burrow lead scoring offense is only 1 spot ahead of Kirk Cousins, 2 spots ahead of Geno Smith, and 3 spots ahead of Trevor Lawrence. They are 1 spot behind Brock Purdy/Jimmy G and 2 spots behind Jared Goff. None of those teams have as talented of players on offense as the Bengals and it shouldn't even be close.

It just feels like talent is carrying the Bengals offense rather than the Bengals offense elevating the talent. That's my real concern, I guess.

(01-09-2023, 01:15 PM)Rubekahn29 Wrote: That’s a really weird way to phrase being a top 7 scoring offense. They average 2 points more a game than Seattle that you pointed out. Philly averages 2 more points per game than us and they are the 3rd highest PPG team. The highest PPG is 3.1 PPG more than us. I wouldn’t worry too much. We’ve shown that we can put up points when needed.

(01-09-2023, 01:31 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: 7th is good, it's true, but shouldn't the expectations when you have a Top-2 QB and a #1 WR Trio be higher? The meal hasn't lived up to the quality of the ingredients. So I look to the chef.

(01-09-2023, 04:47 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: 3 points in the second half against the Ravens, 0 points in the second half against the Patriots. Need to be playing complete games when the playoffs start as you can't let playoff teams stick around and give them a chance. Heck, even against the Bucs they only scored 3 in the first half.

NEED to put together two full halves of quality play.

(01-09-2023, 01:39 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: The main thing that sticks out to me is the lack of a rushing attack when comparing the teams above us. I am rarely an advocate for running the ball, but Cincinnati is a bottom of the barrel running team. They have 14 TDs on the ground and five of those bastards are from Joe Burrow. 

(01-09-2023, 10:15 AM)Wyche Wrote: Absolutely must get it in gear. Burrow himself said he played like shit. I'mma take his word for it, LoL.

IDK about the vanilla theory, could be some merit to that. Someone else noted above it's like the get complacent with a lead. Could just be a youth thing.....could be the calls....could be the opponent adjusting and us not countering fast enough, IDK. But to my eyes, it looks like a young squad taking their eyes off the prize. Play calling doesn't cause horrible INTs and fumbles (NE), or overthrows, missing a WR running wide open for a TD and throwing to the TE in traffic, dropped passes, audibling into a screen that gets blown up, etc. 

(01-09-2023, 01:39 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: The main thing that sticks out to me is the lack of a rushing attack when comparing the teams above us. I am rarely an advocate for running the ball, but Cincinnati is a bottom of the barrel running team. They have 14 TDs on the ground and five of those bastards are from Joe Burrow. 

(01-09-2023, 01:39 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: The main thing that sticks out to me is the lack of a rushing attack when comparing the teams above us. I am rarely an advocate for running the ball, but Cincinnati is a bottom of the barrel running team. They have 14 TDs on the ground and five of those bastards are from Joe Burrow. 

(01-09-2023, 01:51 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: The Bengals have pretty consistently been a bottom of the barrel running team for a couple decades now. There's an outlier season here or there, but it's been a near-constant. Not sure if it's due to teambuilding philosophy or what.

Still have absolutely no idea why they paid a RB $12m/yr.

(01-09-2023, 01:48 PM)Earendil Wrote: I was wondering in the Discord chat yesterday if all the drama this week affected their time/ability to gameplan for the Ravens. So, since they didn't have as much time and mental energy as they normally would, they went vanilla on offense. It felt like a glorified preseason game where the starters ended up playing most of the game.

(01-09-2023, 02:00 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: One thing that comes to mind is lack of dynamic talent in the backfield. Think about last four or five guys that have been the primary ballcarrier for Cincinnati.

Mixon
Hill
BJGE
Benson
Rudi Johnson

They are all slightly different variations of the same player. Big, powerful running backs that lack homerun speed and weren't dangerous in open space. They struggled to create for themselves once they got the ball and would largely give you what the line gave them, but they were good at falling forward for an extra yard or two. I guess their size isn't really the issue, because there are plenty of dynamic running backs that are also big, but they are both fast and able to break tackles/make defenders miss. None of the guys I listed were very good at doing that. 

(01-09-2023, 02:09 PM)Synric Wrote: With this change in the offense and all the dump offs to the RBs I wouldnt mind seeing a more dynamic back to split time with Perine instead of one guy getting most of the touches. I think dynamic receiving back could really take the offense to another level.

I'm just glad we have a QB that can quickly get the ball to the RB on a checkdown... It was painful watching Gio get sawed in half everytime he caught the ball for years...

(01-09-2023, 02:12 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Yeah, he took some enormous shots.

On the topic of getting sawed in half... Burrow was trying to get some WRs killed yesterday with some of those hospital balls. Lol

I'm hoping that was a 1-off game and we don't see that again.

(01-09-2023, 12:39 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Dude, it's the NFL. Show me a team that just rolls teams each week. KC almost lost to the Raiders two weeks ago. The Bills offense looked like shit against that same Pats team for 3/4 of the game yesterday. 

(01-09-2023, 03:21 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: The Bengals beat the team favored by most media to win the AFC North by 11 points. The game was never in doubt, yet we have fans upset we did not beat them worse. This is the NFL, the Ravens did not rest any defensive starters, in fact got 2 of them back from injury.

Joe admitted he played poorly. The Higgins miss was horrid. The Chase drop and Higgins drops for TD's were also plays both of those guys make. So Joe admits he played poorly, but if his receivers make a couple of plays, he throws for 3 TD's and close to 300 yards.

I believe in Joe and ZT(calling better game) and the the skilled players to play better Sunday night.