It is on!

[fredtoast]

Season is here. I am super psyched about the Tennessee/Oklahoma game tonight, but still here getting my Bengal buzz going.

By tomorrow night we will have all sorts of stuff to over react to. Whether good or bad there will be knee-jerk assumptions. But at least we will have new and exciting information. Every game is so big in football because they play so few. NBA plays 82 games and MLB 162, but every single NFL game gets analysed and broken down for a full week before we get another one.

This Bengal team is a lot like the past few. I could see them winning anywhere from 13 to 8 games. I see them at 11-5 (Losses at Baltimore, at Pittsburgh, at Denver, at Arizona plus an additional random loss from among SD, KC, Hou, Buff, StL).

If everyone stays healthy this will be the first time ever that we have had a good running game with healthy receivers, so I don't see any reason we should not match the top 10 offense of '13.

Don't know if our defense will be top 10 again, but it should be much better than last year. Burfict makes all the difference in the world. He and Atkins are our only truly elite defensive players. It looks like Geno is much improved over last year, but we have no idea if Burfict will be worth anything this year. Michael Johnson is not a super star, but he is definitely an upgrade to our D-line rotation. The only starter we lost we Newman, and I feel that with Dennard and Kirkpatrick we can replace him.

So if we have an offense ranked 8-10, and a defense ranked 8-15 that puts us right back in the same range of 8th-15th best team in the league that can beat good teams but also loose to average teams.

Of course I predict our run game really takes off and leads to a top 5 overall offense. Then Burfict comes back close to his old form and Atkins dominates again. With Kirkpatrick and Dennard looking solid the defense ends up ranked in the top 7. Our balance of offense and defense takes us to the Super Bowl.

[CornerBlitz]

I'm psyched about my defending national champions.

[fredtoast]

(09-12-2015, 02:34 PM)CornerBlitz Wrote: I'm psyched about my defending national champions.

The first football jersey I ever owned (1975) was a scarlet 45. 

Tennessee didn't replace OSU as my favorite college team until several years after I had moved away from Ohio, but OSU was still my number 2 until they hired Urban Meyer.  I hate him because I hate all things Florida related.  So it has made it really hard for me to root for the Buckeyes.

Got to admit that they were a storybook team last year.  What a wild ride that was.

[spazz70]

(09-12-2015, 03:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The first football jersey I ever owned (1975) was a scarlet 45. 

Tennessee didn't replace OSU as my favorite college team until several years after I had moved away from Ohio, but OSU was still my number 2 until they hired Urban Meyer.  I hate him because I hate all things Florida related.  So it has made it really hard for me to root for the Buckeyes.

Got to admit that they were a storybook team last year.  What a wild ride that was.

Urban Meyer is from Ohio...Played for UC...He got paid in Florida....He just came home is all

[Thundercloud]

So right! Urban just came home. Go Bucks! And tomorrow, Go Bengals! Should be a great year of football weekends.

[reuben.ahmed]

1) It's a shame Burfict won't be back for a while, I suspect our defense cannot be "depended on" as in years past until he's back 100% (and not leading with his head).
2) If Eifert stays healthy and Dalton uses him, I think the combination of Eifert and Hill can offset the lack of dependency on defense.
3) Where was our offense last year? 8-10 sounds high. Let's see Eifert for 8 games before we change the offense ranking, haha.

[BengalsFan91]

(09-13-2015, 09:43 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: 1) It's a shame Burfict won't be back for a while, I suspect our defense cannot be "depended on" as in years past until he's back 100% (and not leading with his head).
2) If Eifert stays healthy and Dalton uses him, I think the combination of Eifert and Hill can offset the lack of dependency on defense.
3) Where was our offense last year? 8-10 sounds high. Let's see Eifert for 8 games before we change the offense ranking, haha.

We were also missing Jones and Green for a few games last year and Hill wasn't the primary back until the second half of the year. The offense should be very explosive. There are very few teams with as many weapons as we have on offense

[masonbengals fan]

Ready to roar !!!

[reuben.ahmed]

(09-13-2015, 09:55 AM)BengalsFan91 Wrote: We were also missing Jones and Green for a few games last year and Hill wasn't the primary back until the second half of the year. The offense should be very explosive. There are very few teams with as many weapons as we have on offense

Understood. Maybe we were unlucky, but we have injuries every single year (as I think most teams do). I think there is quite a bit of fall off in our backups in some positions (expected or not). Hopefully everyone stays healthy and Burfict is 100% through the playoffs.

[Brownshoe]

(09-12-2015, 04:18 PM)spazz70 Wrote: Urban Meyer is from Ohio...Played for UC...He got paid in Florida....He just came home is all

I wouldn't mind picking up Meyers if Lewis ever leaves