(09-11-2023, 12:08 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: While all the focus seems to be on Zac and the preseason or Burrow and his huge contract, I thought someone should point out a seat that should be starting to get warm...

Simmons made sure we had pretty good ST for many years, but last year the ST were pretty bad. I was hoping that it was just a hiccup and we'd be right back to normal quality ST, but Week 1 didn't seem that way.

Unlike the offense, our ST gets to play plenty in preseason so there's no reason you should expect it to just be Week 1 rust. They should have been ready to go.

-We had a kick returner come out of the endzone to the 18 that never had a chance of getting further.
-We had a punt returner run about 30 yards side-to-side (plus an earlier one where he ran side to side merely 10 yards).
-We had a missed FG.
-We had I believe 2 penalties on ST.
-Probably most importantly our punter (who we can only assume Darrin Simmons chose in the draft and then chose in roster cuts) is absolutely terrible. He barely broke 40 yards per punt with punts of 22, 35, 37, and 38 yards and two of 41.

Darrin Simmons has been a good ST coach for many years for this team, but 2 years in a row of terrible ST is 2 years too many. They really need to turn it around big time this season or his seat needs to be getting redhot.

(09-11-2023, 12:23 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: My H.S. coach hated that!! He'd preach run N and S and just take what you can get. Running sideways works like 1 out of 40 times. He'd rip your face off if you did it in game.

And I still hate it today, haha.

And I sure hope the weather was hurting our punter. Our first game yips or something? Because no matter if you can kick it 100 yards up in the air. You also have to get it downfield as well.

(09-11-2023, 12:08 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: -We had a kick returner come out of the endzone to the 18 that never had a chance of getting further.
-We had a punt returner run about 30 yards side-to-side (plus an earlier one where he ran side to side merely 10 yards).
-We had a missed FG.
-We had I believe 2 penalties on ST.
-Probably most importantly our punter (who we can only assume Darrin Simmons chose in the draft and then chose in roster cuts) is absolutely terrible. He barely broke 40 yards per punt with punts of 22, 35, 37, and 38 yards and two of 41.

Darrin Simmons has been a good ST coach for many years for this team, but 2 years in a row of terrible ST is 2 years too many. They really need to turn it around big time this season or his seat needs to be getting redhot.

(09-11-2023, 01:12 PM)QueenCity Wrote: Weather was a factor... I'm not going to rush to judgement.

I wish we had a kicker with a cannon, but it is what it is.... hang time is viable if you can get past the 35 which the Bengals failed to do majority of the game.

(09-11-2023, 01:46 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Do you mean punter?
McPherson does have a cannon.
He can kick it out of the EZ every time. Any time he's not, it's because he's being directed not to.

(09-11-2023, 02:09 PM)QueenCity Wrote: Yes punter... I don't care about McPherson hang time lol

(09-11-2023, 02:14 PM)ochocincos Wrote: We seem to have had two opposite ends of the spectrum in Chrisman and Robbins.
Chrisman was all distance, no placement
Robbins opposite (from the limited time we've seen him)

Gonna need to be more of a balance for a good punter.

Or maybe Bengals should carry two punters - one for distance, one for pinning 

(09-11-2023, 02:28 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Chrisman's placement was perfectly fine last year, especially on a few he coffin-cornered: his hang time was the only real weakness.

But Robbins' hangtime yesterday was crap, as it was all throughout the PS too.