Greg Cook and Virgil Carter 2.0

[kevin]

(11-17-2023, 10:29 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: While watching last night's game I had a flashback to when Greg Cook went down.  I wasn't born yet but that's not important right now. What is important is the opportunity for Zac Taylor to come up with a whole new offense just like Paul Brown did. Greg Cook, like Joe Burrow, was an outstanding quarterback with uncanny accuracy with any length pass.  Both men even have similar backgrounds; Cook played high school football in Chillicothe and Burrow played in Athens.  

Jake Browning impressed me last night.  He got mauled by the Ravens but he kept playing.  Most of Browning's shorter passes were thrown expertly but his long passes weren't very accurate.  This is eerily similar to Virgil Carter's skill set.  Zac needs to pull out every playbook detailing the Ohio River Offense -- it was invented in Cincinnati and I refuse to call it the West Coast Offense -- and get Jake Browning on the same page.  The Bengals won a lot of games with Virgil Carter dinking and dunking and hitting lots of crossing routes to the tight ends and there's little reason history cannot repeat.

This type of offense also takes pressure off a shaky offensive line.  Admittedly, the Ohio River Offense requires an above average run game to complement the short passes; what I saw last night from Joe Mixon leads me to believe this is possible to achieve.  

I was there in person to see both play, and I might add John Soffa, Sam Wyche and The Swamp Rat Dewey Warren.  Yes, what Virgil Carter came in and did was great, and it helped that Paul Robinson returned to rookie of the year form after his injury plagued 2nd season, but having The Cactus Comet running strong his 3rd year was huge. 

I like your post.  Never give up.  There is NO QUIT in football.  You are Positive, and refuse to swim in all the Negativity. Like The Marines, you are saying Adjust and Adapt.

Now what Carter and Wyche were good at was the hidden ball trick, like the Harlem Globetrotters.  They would fake defenses and TV cameras out of their shoes, they were so good at the fake hand-off.  Ken Anderson and Boomer learned it, but Carter and Wyche really could do the hidden ball trick. 

Whatever Browning's strengths are, Taylor needs to adjust the playbook to fit him, just as Paul Brown adjusted the playbook after Cook went down.  

All the best to Burrow and his return in 2024, and why I don't want to compare Burrow to Cooks career ending injury leaving him just that rookie of the year season. Maybe if Chase and Higgins get healthy and with Boyd and others, Browning practicing with the 1st team will win a few more games in 2023.   We can't judge Browning on coming in cold against a tough Ravens Defense in Baltimore.  He now gets those much needed practice week reps with the 1st string receivers.