Offensive Line Rating and Joey Franchise

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(12-16-2021, 10:15 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: While I agree with almost everything you have said here, I wonder how much of this offensive line conversation is happening if in the past two weeks:

Chase doesn't turn a sure TD in to an INT and Mixon doesn't fumble a gift TD against the Chargers.

Darius Phillips doesn't fumble away two punt returns.

The team would have won both of those games, I believe.  Maybe you could argue that the Chargers would have fought back, but SF was doing nothing in their amazing run game.  The defense was stuffing them.  

One of the biggest problems with those turnovers wasn't just the momentum letdown and the obvious change of possession, but it put the Bengals in a hole on the scoreboard.  When they fall a couple scores down, the opponent can just tee off on the pass rush and have no responsibility as run defenders.  It happened against the Bears, Browns, Chargers, and the 49ers.  All losses.  

If this team wants to go on a run and win the AFC North, it has to eliminate the dumb mistakes.  They are more than competitive if they don't massively screw it up.  

I have a feeling they play Denver very motivated and then come home and smash Baltimore.  My dream scenario is they then knock off a less-desperate Chiefs team and could actually have the AFC North sewn up before the final game.  That would give them the opportunity to rest their starters (since only one team gets the bye) against the Browns and be in the playoffs with a pseudo bye week.  

I agree Racer....I think the turnovers have cost us LAC, CLE, CHI, and maybe the SF game. It wasn't playcalling that lost those games, and it wasn't the oline that lost those games. It was turnovers.....some of them at very critical points in the game....some in the red zone. 

I think it's fair to acknowledge that the line isn't that good, but also that it hasn't cost us as much as rookie mistakes (young team) and turnovers from some of our skill players. Make no mistake, I'd like to see some more improvement up front...but I also don't think it's as bad as it seems.