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+--- Thread: Mid Season Grades, Stats and MVP, IMHO! (/thread-17808.html)
Mid Season Grades, Stats and MVP, IMHO! - TheBengalsMind - 10-30-2018
The good, the bad and the downright ugly.
I thought I'd give some stats, facts, grades, and our mid season MVP so far this year.
The mid season MVP.
Andy Dalton.
Described in one word since that Raven's game last year: Clutch.
He has 4 fourth quarter comebacks/game winning drives this year. If not for the defense giving up a touchdown late against the Steelers, Andy Dalton would have 5 this year.
Which would have been the most in NFL history in the first 8 weeks.
If not for Andy Dalton this team could easily be at 1-7, instead of 5-3.
It has to be mentioned that he's lost Price, Ross, Eifert, Green, Mixon, Bernard at times this year for various amounts of time and he just keeps the team going.
Simply put, if you give Andy Dalton the ball with 2 minutes left and you need a score to win the game he's currently as good as any quarterback in the NFL right now.
Andy Dalton has really improved his awareness this year, both in the pocket and situationally.
The Good on offense.
Joe Mixon, AJ Green, Tyler Boyd and Cordy Glenn.
Joe Mixon is averaging 84.5 yards a game, at 4.8 yards a carry. That averages to 1,352 yards over 16 games. He's currently at 509 yards after missing two games with injury. Which is still 8th in the NFL. He also has yet to lose a fumble this year.
AJ Green and Tyler Boyd are averaging 85.9 and 77.5, respectively. That averages to 1,374 yards and 1,240 yards over 16 games. They currently rank 8th and 15th in receiving yards.
Without Gordy Glenn and a improved offensive line this talent is all going to waste. The Cincinnati Bengals O-line might not be the best in the NFL, but it is much improved over the last two seasons.
The bad on offense.
Tyler Eifert. When healthy he is arguably the most talented tight end in the NFL, not named Rob Gronkowski. Unfortunately, his entire career has been injury, after injury, after injury.
The ugly on offense.
John Ross. He's arguably the fastest man in the NFL, if not just flat out the fastest. He was a first rounder. However, he's failed to transition to the NFL. He's been the direct result of at least two of Andy Dalton's picks this year. Hopefully, he can turn things around, but so far it's been ugly.
Overall performance of the offense.
I'd give them a B+, I do believe that they can get a little bit more consistent and improve. But when this team is clicking on all cylinders, this is an offense that is capable of scoring 30 and 40 points a game. I've been very impressed with our playcalling for the most part too.
The good, the bad, and the downright ugly on defense.
Defensive MVP mid season.
Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap.
Geno has 6 sacks and Dunlap has 7 sacks.
That puts them on pace for 12 and 14, respectively.
They also have 13 quarterback hits each, 26 total between the two.
The team has 21 sacks this year and these two have 13 of them.
The good on defense.
Jessie Bates, Shawn Williams and Nick Vigil.
Jessie Bates and Shawn Williams have been two of the most talented and consistent players on a defensive unit that has been historically bad.
They both have 3 interceptions a piece, which is one interception shy of being tied for the NFL lead.
They have 11 pass breakups combined between the two of them.
They are also good tacklers with a combined 95 tackles between the two of them (71 solo tackles and 24 assisted tackles).
Nick Vigil has slowly and quietly become the most consistent tackling linebacker on the team. He has 51 combined tackles despite only playing in 6 games, with 5 starts.
Nick Vigil and Jessie Bates are 30th and 15th in the NFL in total tackles, respectively.
The bad on defense.
For a defense that is currently on pace to be arguably the worst in NFL history there is a lot of bad I can choose from.
But I chose poor penalties and discipline as my bad on defense.
This is a Bengals defense that has 64 penalties, the 2nd most in the NFL.
They've had very costly penalties too and Vontaze Burfict has seemingly become the poster child for them.
He's a good linebacker, but he's got to play smarter. At this point I wouldn't mind moving him and our 1st rounder in the offseason for a chance to get Josh Allen from Kentucky in this upcoming draft next year.
He's 6-5, 260 pounds and runs a reported 4.5 flat in the 40 yard dash.
The ugly on defense.
The coverage outside of Jessie Bates and Shawn Williams has been atrocious.
This defense is giving up 447.8 yards a game, that is 7,135 yards over 16 games, which would be the most in NFL history.
While the rush stopping defense has been bad, the passing defense, despite solid play from their starting safeties and good pressure being applied from Atkins and Carlos Dunlap, is set to literally shatter the record for most passing yards allowed in a season.
They currently give up 319.4 passing yards a game. The 2011 Green Bay Packers currently hold the record for most passing yards allowed in a season with 4,796 yards. The Bengals are on pace to allow 5,110 yards passing this year.
In fact, to put this into perspective.
Thru 14 games the Bengals in 1975 with Ken Riley, Lemar Parrish, Tommy Casanova and Bernard Jackson allowed 1,729 yards (125.3 yards a game), 22 interceptions, allowed just a 45 pass completion percentage, allowed an average QB rating of 46.9 percent, allowing only 5.1 yards per a throw.
The Bengals thru 8 games have already allowed 2,555 yards, that's 826 more yards than the Bengals allowed all season in 1975.
In fact, you would have to add the 1974, 1975 and 1976 totals before you got more yards then the Bengals are on pace for this season to allow passing the ball.
The totals for those years were 1,790, 1,729 and 1,758 yards for a total of 5,277 passing yards, in 3 years, allowed compared to the Bengals pace of 5,110 yards allowed this year alone.
I know that it's different times and a different era of football, but that's still a ridiculous statement.
Our defense has allowed RB's to get 51 receptions (5th most), for 419 yards (9th most), for 4 TD's (3rd most).
Our defense has allowed TE's to get 53 receptions (Most in NFL), for 602 yards (Most in NFL), for 5 TD's (Tied, most in NFL).
So, it's not just the CB's getting burned for yardage either, but our linebackers are getting beat too.
Overall performance of defense.
I'll give them a D+ only for the play of Atkins, Dunlap, Bates, Williams and Vigil. Plus they do seem to be very opportunistic on defense, outside of that they deserve an F for being on pace to be one of the worst defenses in NFL history.
Thanks for your time, please add anything you think I missed or if you have another opinion.
RE: Mid Season Grades, Stats and MVP, IMHO! - bengalguy71 - 10-30-2018
Well done.
Looking ahead.
Five of the 8 games left are against teams with top 10 offenses in either yards or points scored. (Broncos, Ravens, Saints, Steelers, and Chargers)
The Browns are 19th in yards (Bengals are 18th) and 24 in points scored
The Raiders are 24th and 27th respectively.
I think the Raiders should be a definite win, and one of the Browns games, and possibly the Ravens. 7-9 or 8-8.
On the other side of the coin, it's as good as news could be because there is only one team in the top 10 in yards and points allowed, and that is Baltimore. (Although the Chiefs were at the bottom on defense when the Bengals played them and they could only muster 10 points)