Takeaways From NFL Opener and Relation to Bengals

[GreenCornBengal]

Hey guys, did anyone else watch that boooooring Eagles Falcons game? There were a few things I noticed that I think will effect the Bengals this year.

1. The rules are far gone from where they were. Balls that were incompletions in previous times were rules completions. Calls that would have been overturned in the past stayed the way they are. The refs were letting the calls on the field stand in 80% of the cases I felt. As I watched I wondered, will this hold true for the Bengals? or is the game even MORE in the ref's hands now?

2. I realized (once again) that even if you have a bunch of weapons, defenses can still find a way to stop you. The Falcons have always been a 'mirror' team for us IMO. They have all sorts of weapons at WR and RB (sound familiar?) but could not open any holes against the Eagles and thus looked pretty stagnant on O outside of Julio Jones.

3. Gadget sweepy plays rarely work against good defenses. I would rather we stayed away from the Ross/Boyd Jet Sweep looks. I don't think they help your team any, just my opinion. In fact, running to the outside seems doomed from the start against a good front 7 like the Eagles

4. Depending on Jessie Bates play, the game week 4 against the Falcons could be difficult. Julio Jones looked unstoppable. Will be interesting to see if WJ3 and Bates can keep him in check


Anyone else watch and notice anything worth mentioning?

[Au165]

(09-07-2018, 09:15 AM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: 3. Gadget sweepy plays rarely work against good defenses. I would rather we stayed away from the Ross/Boyd Jet Sweep looks. I don't think they help your team any, just my opinion. In fact, running to the outside seems doomed from the start against a good front 7 like the Eagles

4. Depending on Jessie Bates play, the game week 4 against the Falcons could be difficult. Julio Jones looked unstoppable. Will be interesting to see if WJ3 and Bates can keep him in check

Julio took a reverse 10+ yards the first drive of the game. A lot of the reverse and jet sweep motions are window dressing to cause hesitation. As to the over generalization of outside runs, that simply isn't true. Last year they (ATL) killed them with outside stretches in the playoffs, it appears Philly game planned to specifically stop the outside run.

You have to play him high low. A lot of times the backs were playing far off to not get beat deep and it gave the Falcons a lot of 15 yard completions. When they played him with a zone dropping underneath it really slowed down his progress.

[GreenCornBengal]

(09-07-2018, 09:24 AM)Au165 Wrote: You have to play him high low. A lot of times the backs were playing far off to not get beat deep and it gave the Falcons a lot of 15 yard completions. When they played him with a zone dropping underneath it really slowed down his progress.

Ya and because of that the Falcons couldn't do anything once they got into the redzone, you're right. In addition to that, I felt like Matt Ryan was forcing it to Julio far too much. If Dalton did some of the things Ryan did last night he would be crucified. That throw out of the endzone on 4th down was cringe-worthy. 

[Au165]

(09-07-2018, 09:32 AM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: Ya and because of that the Falcons couldn't do anything once they got into the redzone, you're right. In addition to that, I felt like Matt Ryan was forcing it to Julio far too much. If Dalton did some of the things Ryan did last night he would be crucified. That throw out of the endzone on 4th down was cringe-worthy. 

If Atlanta can't balance out the run pass ratio a bit they aren't going to win much. Matt Ryan shouldn't be throwing the ball 40+ times a game with Freeman in the backfield.

[fozzie11]

freeman's first run went for 20 yards... he got 5 carries after that. the play calling was awful

[BengalD]

After the Pilly D got gauged a few times on Atls first possession they came back down to earth and were pretty good.  Game kind of went like I thought.  Philly hangs around - D keeps them in the game and the O does just enough to win.

[Yojimbo]

My takeaway is, preseason games are a lot more important than the players think. Last nights game and I expect most of the games this week, probably next week too, are going to be sloppy, slow and hard to watch.

[Luvnit2]

I saw the Atlanta defense handle the offensive line of the Eagles in a loss. I saw the Atlanta offense unable to produce in the redzone. Looking ahead to playing the Eagles, our OL and offense will have their hands full, Dalton will need to have a great game. This game at Atlanta and all of the dome noise concerns me.

But, first is Indy in their dome. A win on the road would go a long way to a good season. I wonder if we hold the lead to beat the Packers last year, do we add 1 or 2 more additional wins and make the playoffs?

[sandwedge]

The bad reffing was in mid-season form I saw.... I was stunned when they brought in Terry McCaully to explain what he saw on a sure PI that wasn't called and he agreed that it was a good no call.... Good lord the defender had the receiver's arm hooked and wasn't close to looking for the ball...

[3wt]

(09-07-2018, 11:18 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I saw the Atlanta defense handle the offensive line of the Eagles in a loss. I saw the Atlanta offense unable to produce in the redzone. Looking ahead to playing the Eagles, our OL and offense will have their hands full, Dalton will need to have a great game. This game at Atlanta and all of the dome noise concerns me.

But, first is Indy in their dome. A win on the road would go a long way to a good season. I wonder if we hold the lead to beat the Packers last year, do we add 1 or 2 more additional wins and make the playoffs?

They were there for the taking.  That's why as bad as we played Indy last year it was so satisfying when Los pulled the game out of the hat.

And we had no business letting Chicago beat us like that!

Every game counts.  We left a number of games on the field.

[sandwedge]

(09-07-2018, 10:58 AM)Yojimbo Wrote: My takeaway is, preseason games are a lot more important than the players think. Last nights game and I expect most of the games this week, probably next week too, are going to be sloppy, slow and hard to watch.

Agree. Wasn't boring like someone else said, but sure as hell was sloppy. 

[Bengalitis]

(09-07-2018, 09:32 AM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: Ya and because of that the Falcons couldn't do anything once they got into the redzone, you're right. In addition to that, I felt like Matt Ryan was forcing it to Julio far too much. If Dalton did some of the things Ryan did last night he would be crucified. That throw out of the endzone on 4th down was cringe-worthy. 

This happens a lot with Andy too. This is a common habit of good QBs with good WRs. It seems logical too, if your other receivers aren't as good you'll throw less to them, but the best way to make your offense more efficient is by spreading the throws around to your receivers. QBs who spread the  ball around tend to be more successful than those who get in the habit of forcing it to their best WR. Your best WR can only do so much.

[I_C_DeadPeople]

I saw the weak red zone play by Atlanta and immediately thought of Tate and the possible impact he could have if the Bengals were in the same position.

[Yojimbo]

(09-07-2018, 11:27 AM)sandwedge Wrote: Agree. Wasn't boring like someone else said, but sure as hell was sloppy. 

I agree with the boring statement for the first 3 quarters.

[Yojimbo]

(09-07-2018, 11:35 AM)I_C_DeadPeople Wrote: I saw the weak red zone play by Atlanta and immediately thought of Tate and the possible impact he could have if the Bengals were in the same position.

I think AJ would have come down with that last TD that Jones went out of bounds on. AJ has always had better body control than Julio, he could have kept his lower body under control and toe tapped it.

[Lionel Hutz]

Matt Ryan overshot 3 passes out of the end zone on the last series (one of them offset by penalty on Philly). To hell with it if an interception happens at that point in the game, let the best receiver in the NFL have a chance to make a play! Still think Atlanta will be a tough game for Bengals on road (along with Carolina), so gotta win first 2 games.

[Millhouse]

I prefer the Eagles cheerleaders outfits to the Ben-Gals.

[thillan]

Like the idea of this thread in terms of everybody posting their takeaways, since these were two powerhouse teams IMO. And I actually worry for the Bengals.

1. I think it was "boring" because the defensive play was EXCELLENT. In terms of our defense, I believe our front line can have a similar impact on the game that the Eagles had.


2. When it comes to linebacker play, man are the Falcons LB's fast. Jones is an incredible athlete, and I still think that this will be a problem spot for the Bengals. I know there is some praise for them, but we are still relying on some unproven talent, a consistently suspended/injured hothead, and a guy who leads the NFL in tackles but is questionable in coverage.


3. I think it was hard for me to compare the Bengals offense to the Falcons or Eagles. I guess you could say the Falcons, but their QB is still ahead of Dalton. I still truly believe, despite how much Julio has overshadowed AJ, that AJ could've done the exact same stuff that Julio did in that game. Oh, and I think he finds a better route to get a TD at the end.


4. What scares me is that the Eagles are so innovative on offense, which is something I do not see from us. For example, one thing I thought was brilliant is that whenever the Eagles wanted to run it up the gut, they sent the wideout in motion. Once he was behind the QB, they would snap the ball, and the WR would block the edge on the opposite side of where the run was going, freeing up one lineman to block a bit further down field. Falcons are innovative too, until they get inside the red zone. Oh, and both offensive lines are still pretty good.

Lots of takeaways from the game. I still see a talent gap that we are getting somewhat close to, but I don't think we match. But that's fair.. these are two great NFC teams, and one SB champ of course.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(09-07-2018, 09:15 AM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: Hey guys, did anyone else watch that boooooring Eagles Falcons game? There were a few things I noticed that I think will effect the Bengals this year.

1. The rules are far gone from where they were. Balls that were incompletions in previous times were rules completions. Calls that would have been overturned in the past stayed the way they are. The refs were letting the calls on the field stand in 80% of the cases I felt. As I watched I wondered, will this hold true for the Bengals? or is the game even MORE in the ref's hands now?

2. I realized (once again) that even if you have a bunch of weapons, defenses can still find a way to stop you. The Falcons have always been a 'mirror' team for us IMO. They have all sorts of weapons at WR and RB (sound familiar?) but could not open any holes against the Eagles and thus looked pretty stagnant on O outside of Julio Jones.

3. Gadget sweepy plays rarely work against good defenses. I would rather we stayed away from the Ross/Boyd Jet Sweep looks. I don't think they help your team any, just my opinion. In fact, running to the outside seems doomed from the start against a good front 7 like the Eagles

4. Depending on Jessie Bates play, the game week 4 against the Falcons could be difficult. Julio Jones looked unstoppable. Will be interesting to see if WJ3 and Bates can keep him in check


Anyone else watch and notice anything worth mentioning?

It was pretty ugly, that is for sure. The worse i have ever seen Matt Ryan play and Foles wasn't that much better.

Real bad QB play in the end is what gave the Eagles the game. Ryan was missing guys on nearly every throw, he had
one good pass ironically deep that was taken away but it was clear Julio had the ball pinned to his shoulder. Both D's
played well though and in the end this is what dictated the game, but Ryan has to play better than that for the Falcons
to win, that was just sad.

Some bad injuries to the Falcons on Defense hurt them, Neal went down and it didn't look good.

[whodey4life84]

The only thing I realized is the Falcons are in the same position the Bengals were in last year with just a way better offensive line. They need to fire Sark yesterday. They have way too much talent to struggle scoring points like they have. Matt Ryan is 1/20 on endzone throws to Julio the last 2 years. That is scheme. They hired someone to be OC who had never done it before. He isn't any good. He's not going to improve. They should move on now and salvage their season. Their defense is way too good and so is their offense.