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(08-03-2018, 02:41 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote:
Still, if the O-line sucks it pretty much kills everything...
Your running game, passing game and your Defense cause they are on the field all the time.
Even sabotages the HC even though we all know he has HIS problems as well.
Will be interesting if we actually have a good running game and Dalton has a pocket to step into. Last time we had
these things we were 8-0 with Dalton as an MVP candidate and this was with Marv and PA with no Pollack, Mixon,
Boyd or Ross.
Fair enough and that crossed my mind before I clicked "post". That said, I can't fully give the defense a pass for the disappearing act. We've had some great pass rushes over the years, and they only showed up in 1 game. We've also been good at forcing turnovers...until the playoffs. It's not as if the defense has started hot and got tired. They just never looked like the dominant unit we were used to seeing...outside of the last Steelers game (which the offense was also absent for).
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
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While I am cautiously hopeful with some of the changes at position coaches and players, in the end Mike Brown still runs the team and Merv is still going to have to make halftime adjustments.
I want to believe, this is my hometown team and I will cheer for and support them, but the reality is until they show things are different on the field and in the playoffs, you have to be reserved in your hope.
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I do remember how it started, and the strangest thing is the first true inkling we had that thin gs may be different was the post season presser with Marvin and Lazor. Marvin had some of his usual memes but not as ready and then Lazor spike directly and in concrete terms about actual play styles and concepts, and also all but said that Piano Man's line schemes were a good part of the problem. Really the last time we had a Bengals coach talk like that was Mike Zimmer when he came in and called out the front office on drafting DL that were too small and weak and also the secondary being too passive.