'14 stats that point to a regression by the Bengals in '15

[BFritz21]

(05-24-2015, 11:57 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I've seen last year's point differential pointed out before. Part of me wants to believe that the drop off was largely thanks to injuries on both sides of the ball. Losing Eifert, MLJ, AJ, Gresh and Andre for large chunks of the season probably hurt our offense's ability to score. Losing Burfict and MJ90, and having a hobbled Atkins probably caused us to give up more points.

Not to mention we were breaking in new coordinators on both sides of the ball.

On paper, our depth has improved tremendously and our coordinators have a year under their belts. The d-line is deeper (a better rotation should help tremendously), and we have better depth at LB and WR, which were problem areas last year. So I think the point differential will improve.

Part of me is fearful that this team could regress as the playoff frustration continues to build, but I just think this team has too much talent (experienced talent, at that) to implode. I see 7-9 as a nightmare scenario. 11-5 is probably their ceiling as long as they continue to go .500 in the division.

If Atkins can return to form at all, that will be huge, especially with MJ coming back, as well as Hardison (hopefully) rotating in (at least) on passing downs and being able to shoot then A gap because the offense will just run out of guys to block our defense. You can't double Atkins, have one or two guys occupied by Hardison, and then still be able to stop MJ and Dunlap with single blocking (also guys like Clarke, Gillberry, Hunt, etc.).

I think, however, the biggest addition to this team will be a healthy Hill as our bell cow for a full year. I was just talking to a waiter tonight at dinner about how it's impossible to load the box to stop Hill, cover Eifert and Croft up the seams (and maybe even Uzomah), and then still have enough defenders leftover to cover the deep ball to AJ (or even short-to-medium routes, but my point was that the tight ends up the seams will hold the safeties in the middle of the field and keep them from playing overtop of AJ).

It's a rough schedule, but, assuming that we stay healthy (and we're deep enough to even handle a few injuries), I see us being 5-1 or even 6-0 going into the bye week, and then finishing the year with only 3 or 4 losses.

I think everyone is underestimating Hill's value, but I believe that he can carry us to victory.