Well folks..I'm done with this team

[*SHRacerX*]

(11-26-2020, 01:53 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I mean, the Washington game was 9-7, with us about to punt from inside our own 20.

Could we have won?  Sure.  Could we have lost?  Sure.  I'd say the odds were about a coin-flip.

Dallas, the Giants, and Houston are not gimme games, even with Burrow.

Dallas is coming off a relatively decent win againt the Vikings.  Prior to that, they had the lead on the Steelers the entire game, up until the 2:14 left in the game.  This with a QB signed off the street.  They've gotten some key pieces back, and their defense has been playing better.

The Giants have gotten lot better recently and are probably better than most realize.  They've won 2 in a row, and all 3 of their wins have come within the last 5 games.  Their two losses over that span came by totals of 2 and 1.  And one was to the Bucs.

Houston has looked like a different team since they cleaned house, and Raheem Morris took over. They've gone 2-1 over their last 3, with the lone loss coming against the Browns in a 10-7 game.  They just beat the Patriots, who aren't terrible.  They're 3-3 since Morris took over.

I'm not pointing any of this out to make these teams sound like world-beaters.  I'm just saying it's not like they're not the Jets.  All of these games are coin-flip types of games.

You can't just arbitarily come up with the idea that if Burrow were healthy we're 3-1 over these teams (Wash, NYG, Dal, Hou) and treat it as the likely outcome.  We'd be just as likely to 1-3 as we would 3-1.

Regardless of any of this, we have no idea what the final record would have been.  Going back and hypothetically changing things to assign pretend wins just seems like a waste of time.  Any way you shake it, this team is still finishing well under .500.

I was basing it on Burrow having 200 yards passing in the first half, the defense doing very well, and the Bengals leading despite FR giving away 4 easy points.  Yes, you could argue the opposite.  That's your right.  But I think most on here thought the Bengals would get at least three wins out of Wash, Dallas, NYG, and Houston if Burrow was still out there.  

The reason I was sharing that optimism was to show that the offense, in fact, was much better than a year ago.  That you can't argue.  They have improved on that side of the line.  As I mentioned, the defense lost its two biggest FA acquisitions and another starter in Phillips.  Dunlap and Atkins were relied upon this year and offered pretty much nothing.  One more year of clearing cap space and bringing in some younger talent could make the team competitive very quickly. 

It's your right to choose to be miserable or to focus on whatever negative you like, but I am trying to show there are reasons to be positive as well.