Quote:Ain't gonna change it, can't rearrange it can't stand the pain when it's all the same to you, my friend’’


You’d think that Sunday marked a turning of the page, and in other towns, it would. There comes a time, in other places, when the need for change is obvious and obeyed. When not enough people are following the familiar edicts for success. They aren’t Chopping Wood or Running On Their Own Gas or Doing Their Job. They certainly aren’t Moving Forward in any productive way.
In other places, losing by 15 at home to the Browns would merit at least discussion of change. Fifteen? Yeah, technically. I mean, the score was 20-35. But it was 0-28 and 7-35 before that. Adding a couple cosmetic touchdowns meant nothing. It didn’t even affect gamblers.

I asked MLewis two questions at the post-game post-mortem. Here they are, verbatim, with his responses:

Q: Why do you think you have to come in here, week after week, and say the same thing about what went wrong?
A: It’s three weeks in a row. It’s unfortunate, so that’s the bad thing.

If it were just the last three weeks, OK. Do Your Job has been around here as long as Lewis has. DYJ comes up every time the Bengals lose. DYJ is as much a part of Marvin’s legacy as 0-7.

The coach said a codicil to DYJ is to relax and respond positively to a setback. The Bengals don’t handle adversity well, especially on defense. That suggests they’re not exactly confident in their individual and collective talents.

Q: If the team can’t relax at home against an opponent it can be traditionally pretty good against, when might it relax?

A: I don’t know that the opponent matters. You’ve just got to do your job. Whether you’re on the road, whether you’re at home. They’re playing football. It’s just the execution of football, time and time again.

Well, OK.

Without further ado:

TEN THINGS.
This was the worst L since the infamous ’15 playoff meltdown. And maybe more telling about a coach and his staff. The Men got slapped, every which way. Outcoached, outworked, outplayed. Four possessions to start the game, 4 TDs. One team wanted to win. The other wore stripes.

Andy Dalton now has more career TD passes as a Bengal than Boomer Esiason. Statistics are dumb.
DYJ. Don’t point fingers, don’t lose your head, don’t go cowboy. Hmmm. Who might that describe, kids? Who complains lots of the time, who’s always talking to officials, who leads the world in fines for conduct unbecoming? (Though not this year.) Who came back from suspension when the Bengals were 3-1 and since are 2-5? it’s unfortunate, so that’s the bad thing.


I guess Hue’s presence on the Bengals sideline was overrated. In fact, given the motivation it gave the Browns, it made things worse.
Rock bottom? Maybe. Maybe not, if Dalton can’t play v. Denver’s D Sunday.

Browns fans in the North endzone seats started barking in the 4th quarter, when the Bengals threatened to score. Browns fans yelled “D-u-u-u-ke!’’ in unison when Duke Johnson got the ball. Browns fans accounted for, what, 15,000 of the 56,122 “tickets distributed’’ Sunday?
I mean, Browns fans?

Players aren’t here to help the heathen media, and mostly they don’t. To almost a man, their answers were the same and have been for a very long time. They need to: Executelookinthemirrorhopefullyturnitaround. They have to: Stepupcometogetherfocusfigurethingsout.
Or, theydon’tknow.

I loved Baker Mayfield’s attitude coming out of Oklahoma, and nothing has changed my mind. This guy walked on twice in college. Undersized, feisty. Maybe you don’t want every QB to have his sort of edge, but it works for him. Dude’s a winner. Barring injury, the Browns are set for a decade at QB.

If I’m Hue Jackson, I take that football that Browns safety handed to me and do my best to stick up his youknowwhat. I cause a scene right then and there. It made the kid, Damarious Randall, an instant folk hero in Cleveland. It could have shaken the Bengals from their coma. Could have.

Meantime, Mayfield had this to say afterward, when asked why his postgame reunion w/Jax was so brief: “I didn’t feel like talking.”
Mayfield elaborated: “Left Cleveland, goes down to Cincinnati, I don’t know. It’s just somebody [who] was in our locker room, asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team we play twice a year. Everyone can have their spin on it, but that’s how I feel.”
Speaking of Hue Jax: He’s the obvious heir to MLewis. He is the perfect Mike Brown hire. Mike’s “comfortable’’ with him. It’s the perfect Cincinnati hire: Welcome back one of our own. Those of youse clamoring (and re-clamoring) for Lewis’ dismissal, be careful what you wish for.

The TM Column.
Now, then. . .
ALL THE GUYS THE BENGALS WON’T GET. . . SI.com’s early list of potential coaching hires.

(11-26-2018, 12:33 PM)HarleyDog Wrote:  Paul is usually not anti-bengal.

(11-26-2018, 12:38 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Yes he is.

(11-26-2018, 12:46 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Paul used to be extremely anti-Bengals...

(11-26-2018, 12:51 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: I stand corrected. I guess I've not read enough of his material as of late to get the popular opinion. However, great article and pretty accurate.

(11-26-2018, 01:01 PM)thompson19osu Wrote: He missed the most telling part of Baker’s quote. He also had this to say...

“We have people that we believe in calling the plays now.”

Our players don’t believe in ML and our HC successor didn’t even have the trust of the Cleveland Browns players.

This team will be lucky to even get a 6th win this year.

The 2020s here shortly will be the new 90s.

(11-26-2018, 01:08 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Honestly, probably in 2 of our games we were outplayed and won on fluke defensive plays. The Dolphins game comes to mind.

We are every bit the 4-5 win team that we were projected to be.

(11-26-2018, 01:18 PM)sandwedge Wrote: Hue as HC might just be the tipping point for me.

(11-26-2018, 01:08 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Honestly, probably in 2 of our games we were outplayed and won on fluke defensive plays. The Dolphins game comes to mind.

We are every bit the 4-5 win team that we were projected to be.

(11-26-2018, 01:21 PM)thompson19osu Wrote: Good point. Colts game is another one. We forced the fumble but the Colts were driving and had converted the 1st down on that play. There is no doubt they would have scored.

(11-26-2018, 01:24 PM)3wt Wrote: “We have people that we believe in calling the plays now.”


And it showed.   Last week and this.

The Browns now have someone running the team that knows when to cut bait and who to hand the rod to.   They've been collecting some good players, they have more draft picks coming next April and they're starting to roll.

I have no idea what the players think of the current coaching staff but I can only think of 3 coaches I would believe in:  Simmons, Pollack and Van Pelt. 

I've not been a long term advocate of firing Lewis, but I am now.   If we had a better person on the defensive coaching staff I'd say we need to do it today.   But they need to blow the whole thing up at the end of the season.

(11-26-2018, 01:18 PM)Goalpost Wrote:   We squeaked a couple out and got blasted in some games.

(11-26-2018, 01:30 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Pollack? He's done nothing special here.

He had 4 great lineman on Dallas offensive line. He didn't make them. He inherited them. He's been kind of exposed here in my view.

(11-26-2018, 01:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: IF we win 6-7 games I doubt that's enough for ML to get fired.

Remember, if they fire him...they have to pay him the last year of his deal AND pay a new HC.

We probably already have enough wins for him to retain his job.

(11-26-2018, 01:23 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: IF we win 6-7 games I doubt that's enough for ML to get fired.

Remember, if they fire him...they have to pay him the last year of his deal AND pay a new HC.

We probably already have enough wins for him to retain his job.