5 - 0 vs the NFC, 0 - 5 vs the AFC North.

[Soonerpeace]

(12-28-2023, 01:36 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Other teams are capable of catching up or getting better. We had a target on our backs and teams in our division drafted to stop us.

I'm not saying I know the answer at all. I am just raising a very fair question. Have the teams in the rest of our division caught up?

Obviously we have a built in excuse with Joe, but any way we look at this, 0-5 with 3 butt kickings mixed is discouraging. 

If we are that reliant on Joe, maybe we shouldn't be.

Also, does it say something that even at our best, we were 7-6 in the division? That's mediocre.

I think catching us is more related to improving themselves. Again you are focusing on this year. It’s not really relevant. Baltimore was weak at receiver and they did something about it. They improved themselves at OC. But they barely beat us in the first game with a 65% Joe and we led 10-7 when Joe went down the second time. Pittsburg has not improved but Mason Rudolph should have been their starter the last several years. I wasn’t surprised they went off. But they caught us playing a poor game on defense and offense. You can’t go off one game. We beat SF 31-14. Oh the pundits say they were missing Debo and Trent. Their defense wasn’t. The team was peaking until Joe’s injury let’s don’t over analyze everything. As Wyche said this team is Joe centric. Most teams with high dollar QB’s are. Your thoughts are certainly valid. We are not as physical as the others and we need to have a better running game. I’ve been screaming that for years. We may be missing Bates & Vonn Bell ( shouldn’t be a huge surprise) but KC is missing a better receiving corp and better OT’s. Roster management rough with a high dollar QB.

(12-28-2023, 04:18 AM)WychesWarrior Wrote: I think Joe overcomes a lack of physicality with this team by being overwhelmingly prepared and quick at dissecting what he sees. That's why we can compete in this division with him, and run with the modern NFL against everyone else. We definitely get outphysicaled a lot in our division.

This is spot on. Love Shake N Bake’s discussion here but I think our division woes he’s too much focused on. I think it’s more related to Baltimore getting better and Cleveland. Stefanski hired Jim Schwartz who can coach and Harbaugh hired Monken. I don’t look at it like we dropped the ball but that they have picked up the pace. This year isn’t indicative of the Bengals current state. Like I’ve said they’d better get a run game. I mean the worst one doesn’t cut it period I don’t care how good they are in the short yardage passing. If we’ve been exposed it’s that with a poor running game Joe can supplement it with precision short passing game because of his accuracy. Jake not so much. There’s their issue. I don’t know enough about it and no Joe Goodberry. But they’ve gone back and forth on man blocking and zone blocking. To me they’ve maybe got some who are better at one than the other. Personally I think Pollack is a poor run schemer. I don’t think Zac is Kyle Shanahan in run scheming. He needs a good OL coach who can help him.