The Second and Third Quarter Defense

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(12-06-2021, 12:21 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: I’m still not exactly certain how to analyze what happened in the first and fourth quarters today but in the second and third quarters the Cincinnati defense played superbly.  Even after a rough start, I must give props to Lou Anarumo for making adjustments and holding the Chargers to only eight points in the second and third quarters.  

Players were flying to the ball, making picks, tackling running backs for losses, sacking Justin Herbert on consecutive plays, and forcing turnovers.

Thanks to the defense the Bengals crawled out from under a 24-0 deficit and made it a one score game at 24-22.

If only the Bengals’ defense could play that way for four quarters in a row.

Oh wait.  They have.  Just not today.

I thought the defense played ok, it's not their fault everyone on offense not named Tee Higgins or Tyler Boyd played like dog shit. You can't turn the ball.over like that against an explosive offense and expect your defense to continuously bail you out. Yet, the defense almost did just that. The Mixon fumble was the coffin nail.....the offense literally gave them points there, took points off the board with a terrible INT in the end zone, took points off the board with a reception that's probably a TD and turned that into an INT. 

A few drives were killed by untimely penalties by replacement players. The offense just had way too many critical mistakes. It's a recurring theme, look at our losses....four turnovers yesterday, four in Chicago, turnovers against Cleveland. We're not good enough to overcome that yet.