03-15-2024, 03:49 PM
(03-14-2024, 07:05 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Also weird how you simultaneously complain about letting Reader, Bell, and Ogunjobi leave... while also belittling their signings as "a bunch of value guys". Are they priceless losses, or are they scrubs that didn't give Lou any talent? Make up your mind.
Guys like Bell and Ogunjobi are not elite, never have been. They were still much better than what Lou was forced to work with if you replace them with Nick Scott or Zack Carter. Lou has never had a defense loaded with talent but some of the better talent he did have, the Bengals let leave and they replace it with value guys like Nick Scott or cheaper guys like Dax Hill.
(03-14-2024, 07:05 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: "The Defense" didn't make it to the AFCC and the Super Bowl. Joe Burrow being healthy made it to the AFCC and the Super Bowl. They didn't do shit in 2020 (we had Bates, Bell, Reader then) or 2023, but when Joe Burrow is healthy it's magically the defense that is nearly perpetually below average in points allowed that is carrying the team, not the top-3 QB who has a top-10 scoring offense every time he's healthy.
The defense did carry the team to the AFCC and Super Bowl. Anybody saying they didnt is trolling. In the 2021 playoff run when they went to the Super Bow the defense held Las Vegas to 19 points. The next game against Tennessee the Bengals offense could only manage 19 points but that's OK because the Bengals defense saved them by holding the Titans to just 16. Against Kansas City, the Bengals defense held KC to just 3 points in the 2nd half, 24 for the game then in overtime they forced a Mahomes interception that gave the offense the ball at the 45. In the Super Bowl the Bengals held Los Angeles to 23 points while the Bengals offense only managed 20. The only game in that playoff run Burrow threw for 300 yards was against Tennessee where the offense scored just 19 points and they still had to rely on the defense to hold Tennessee to just 16 points to win.
In 2022 during the AFCC run, the Bengals faced a Baltimore team that held the Bengals offense to just 17 points. If not for the defense forcing a turnover and scoring a TD, the Bengals dont even make it past the wild card game because the offense couldnt get it done. The Buffalo game, Bengals defense holds the Bills to just 10 points. The Kansas City game the Bengals defense hold KC to 23 while the offense only scores 20. Burrow and the offense did have a chance to win against Kansas City but their last two drives in the 4th Quarter, Burrow throws an interception on one drive then follows that up with a 7 play, 22 yard drive where they punt the ball which ends up resulting in the KC field goal and win. Final 2 drives with the game on the line nothing.
In all these different playoff games Burrow has thrown for 300 yards, 1 time. At no point in any of these games has Burrow thrown a TD in the 4th quarter which is usually crunch time for QB. It has been the defense that has carried this team to the Super Bowl and AFCC, not the offense.
