03-24-2017, 01:10 PM
(03-23-2017, 09:52 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That was the year that they used Roland as the 6th OL, and fed Benson the ball repeatedly. If I remember, the OL in itself wasn't very good, and they had to go to the extra Tackle to spread opposing fronts. You are correct, the second half of the season other teams had watched enough film to plan for them. However, I don't really remember Palmer being very exciting to watch that year. I can look up the stats, but if you have them on hand, would make things much quicker.
Over the first 8 games of that season the Bengals running game did rank higher in yardage (9th) than the passing game (16th). But the passing game was more efficient (Palmer was 12th in passer rating while the run game was 16th in yards per carry) and the passing game generated a lot more tds. Palmer was 8th in the league in pass tds (14) while the running game ranked 13th with exactly half as many (7).
But raw stats don't tell the whole story of what Palmer did in the first half of '09....
Final drive of the game against Pittsburgh...Converted 2 fourth downs on the way to throwing the game winning td pass with 18 seconds left
Against Cleveland...Threw game tying td pass with 2:02 left in regulation. On final drive of overtime scrambled 16 yards on 4th and 11 to set up the game winning FG with 0:07 left.
Against the Ravens....Final drive of the game. Again scrambled to convert a 4th and 6 before throwing the game winning td with just 0:27 left.
