Why the Bengals will win in 2017

[*SHRacerX*]

(05-06-2017, 01:45 AM)samhain Wrote: I kind of view this team like I did the Atlanta Falcons of 2013-2015.  They had some great offensive pieces and a nice quarterback.  Unfortunately they suffered from dogshit o-line personnel.  I'll grant the Bengals one thing, and that's that they have all the weapons in place.  The Falcons weren't quite there.  

I think they'll have a couple of tough seasons behind this line before things come together, but I think they are set up to get there eventually..

it's a cliche, but the game truly is won in the trenches.  Joe Mixon and John Ross don't help much with that.  I think this team will be getting murdered in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball for the foreseeable future.

It is a cliche, but Mixon and Ross absolutely can help with that.  Safeties can't stack the LOS with Ross and AJ on the field.  I hope they do, but they won't.  

Did Zeitler look like a top tier RG last year?  No way.  How much of that was due to the fact that when certain personnel were on the field, opposing defenses knew exactly what was coming.  When there was no Eifert and later no Green, safeties didn't worry about getting beat over the top.  Heck, even Cody Core in his second game getting some targets helped this facet against the Ravens.   They were afraid of him on the outside.  Gave him a huge cushion.  

This article highlights some of what I am talking about from the Ravens game.

http://www.cincyjungle.com/2017/1/6/14142730/film-room-bengals-offense-finishes-season-in-impressive-fashion-nfl-week-17

Ogbuehi hasn't earned anyone's trust yet, at least not from the fans.  However, having a healthy offseason program and staying in one position should help tremendously.  The Bengals were very vocal about feeling like they did him a disservice by having him play on the right side, and play injured.  FWIW, I think Fisher showed tremendous improvement at the right side and played solid the final few games.  It isn't a dream scenario, but if Ced did still struggle, they could move Fisher to LT and have Andre Smith play RT.