10-13-2021, 09:46 AM
(10-13-2021, 08:13 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Tony Pike has been railing on this on Monday and Tuesday's "Cincy 360".
He is dead on also. He adds very clearly that he believes, for now, ZT is the right man for the head coaching position. Good culture. Good effort out of the team. He even said that his scheme is good, but the execution of the actual situational play calling is terrible. He called for Callahan to get the play-calling duties.
One stat Tony added was that ZT has scored 24 or more points in just 8 games during his 37 game NFL career (non-overtime games). Sure, you can throw out some of the year 1 games as Ryan Finley was starting. You might give him a pass for some of the Brandon Allen games as well, but that number is pathetic given the talent on the roster.
I realize that on the offensive side of the ball, the Bengals are very young. Maybe they just haven't "gelled" yet. I'm not sure. But for me, anyways, a lot of it is this lack of aggressiveness. That doesn't mean going for it on 4th down in certain situations, but having a more attacking nature. They seem to go back and forth on what they want to be. Empty sets. Then they are under center and using play-action with wide-zone. They they use the unbalanced line. They are below average at just about everything and really good at NOTHING. Maybe red zone efficiency, but they don't get there enough.
My idea: Hurry up. Give Burrow the command to run the offense from the LOS with no subs in drives. When it is two-minute drill, Joe attacks and teams don't have time to communicate, line up, or substitute. It seems to be out most lethal attack.
One other addition: screen their asses. Last year in the 2nd Cleveland game, the Browns blitzed a lot, and Burrow just threw screen after screen to Drew Sample, who caught a lot of balls and moved the chains. It was demoralizing for the Browns, high % for Burrow, and also avoided him getting hit.
The bottom line is: this team is wasting a top 10 defense. They need to be better on offense, and right now.
This is one of my major issues with this team. The team is much better than I thought they'd be this year. I'll give Lou the highest accolades for his success on the defensive side of the ball this year because that's a potential Top 10 defense. It's not too often we can say we have a Top 10 defense in Cincinnati.
Then you look at Zac's side of the ball. He said in week 1 or 3 when they went for it on 4th down that "this is who were gonna be this year. we're gonna be aggressive". Then on Sunday, I see zero aggressiveness. He was making play calls not to lose rather than to win the game.
I look at this offense and honestly i see no imagination and creativity to it. Maybe I've missed it or maybe its not in their play calling but, this team has a bunch of athletes, why not use them. Why not use Chase on a sweep, or run a reverse. It keeps the defense off balance and keeps them guessing.
The problem i see going forward is this teams going to play much better teams with much better DL and LB who can get after the QB. If we're going to put Burrow in an empty set all the time he's gonna be running for his life.
