Remembering Chris Henry.....

[Devils Advocate]

(12-18-2020, 08:31 PM)fredtoast Wrote: In 2009 the Bengals entire offense collapsed when we lost Chris Henry and his ability to stretch the field.

Through their first 8 games the Bengals had faced 4 top 10 passing defenses and their 8 opponents averaged a 12.8 ranking in pass defense. But the passing offense was still relatively productive. It ranked 10th in passing tds, 13 in pass efficiency rating, and 18th in yards per games.

But we lost Chris Henry to injury in that 8th games.

Over their final 8 games the Bengals only faced 2 top ten pass defenses and their 8 opponents averaged a 17.1 ranking in pass defense. But since we had zero receiving threat from TEs or RBs they were able to double Chad and shut down our passing game. Despite playing much weaker pass defense our passing game ranked 30th in yards per game, 27th in passing tds, 21st in pass efficiency rating. Over those final 8 games our #2 and #3 WRs (Caldwell, Coles) averaged 21.5 receptions for 223 yds (10.4 avg) and 1 td each. Neither one of them could even make plays against single coverage.

Also over those last 8 games we did not beat a single team that finished better than 5-11.

Damn Fred you have a good memory. I remember all of this clearly once you talk about it (as well as many other things you mention in other threads). Yeah that offense died when Henry went down. At least that’s what we all were saying. I remember thinking it was more than that though because ... man I just wasn’t that impressed with Chris. I mean he was definitely a threat but we had threats all over the field. Rudi was a beast (at least he was the previous few seasons). Shit man maybe Chris Henry was the key. Man ... I maybe been wrong all these years.

Anyway good memory. And the Utecht shit lol. Yeah I remember how excited we all were about that one.

I’ll just place this here ...
So ... if the logic is true that that 05-09 team’s missing piece was a deep threat- despite having the best receiver in the game and an all pro (overstated) number 2 as well as a 1400 yard rusher and a field general QB- even with all of that we couldn’t do it without taking the top off the defense (this is why I prolly undervalue CH) ... does anyone think this is maybe/possibly why they’ve hung on to John Ross?

Idk if it’s serendipity- I don’t know what that word means ... idk if it’s synchronicity- I don’t know what that word means but that 2015 team is as uncannily similar to that 05 team in many many ways. The god damn bengals man ...