Revisiting season expectations now that the season has reached the half-way mark

[BengalChris]

For me, this season needed to produce more wins than the 2018 team, which had no AJ or Dalton for many games and Driskel was the QB for 5 or 6 games yet they still managed 6 wins.

With the 2020 team having more talent than the 2018 team, I felt at the start of this year that the 2020 team should have at least 6 wins for the coaching staff to have earned their jobs for next season.

Essentially, if the team wants a championship, then its coaching staff need to be able to get more out of players than average. Marvin got enough to make it to the playoffs 5 straight times, but fell short on the playoff wins with zero.

Now we are at the half-way point and the team is 2-5-1, but those additional wins are possible.

[Rubekahn29]

(11-01-2020, 11:29 PM)BengalChris Wrote: For me, this season needed to produce more wins than the 2018 team, which had no AJ or Dalton for many games and Driskel was the QB for 5 or 6 games yet they still managed 6 wins.

With the 2020 team having more talent than the 2018 team, I felt at the start of this year that the 2020 team should have at least 6 wins for the coaching staff to have earned their jobs for next season.

Essentially, if the team wants a championship, then its coaching staff need to be able to get more out of players than average. Marvin got enough to make it to the playoffs 5 straight times, but fell short on the playoff wins with zero.

Now we are at the half-way point and the team is 2-5-1, but those additional wins are possible.

They still have 4 games where they may be favored. (WFT, Giants, Dallas, Houston) 1 game that is winnable, but still not easy (Miami), then of course 3 very difficult games (Steelers x2, Baltimore). If they can win three of those winnable games and sneak one of the other 4, that gives them 6 wins. Given their start, and how close they've been in every game, that is definitely enough to warrant another season for ZT, I would still get rid of Lou no matter what. 

[Yojimbo]

My expectation was 6 wins with signs of improvement. So far not good enough with only two wins and the defense continuing to be bipolar from week to week. The Oline situation is confusing and worrisome that some of the backups looked better than the starters. If they finish 4-11-1, there needs to be changes, namely Lou and Turner. If they finish 6-9-1, then I’ll reevaluate.

[Fan_in_Kettering]

My preseason prediction was 4-12 and with the tie that’s impossible so I’ll amend my prediction to 4-11-1.

[Bengalstripes9]

They need to beat the Steelers after the bye to have a shot at the playoffs at all. It's a huge game for the Bengals. I would expect to win 4 or 5 more games based on the schedule, which won't get us into the playoffs. We'll need to beat the Ravens and Steelers to make the playoffs.

Edit: Preseason I was thinking around 8 wins--but I don't think I verbalized it. I figured we'd get better as the season went along--as we've seen happen.

[KillerGoose]

(11-02-2020, 12:49 AM)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: They need to beat the Steelers after the bye to have a shot at the playoffs at all. It's a huge game for the Bengals. I would expect to win 4 or 5 more games based on the schedule, which won't get us into the playoffs. We'll need to beat the Ravens and Steelers to make the playoffs.

Edit: Preseason I was thinking around 8 wins--but I don't think I verbalized it. I figured we'd get better as the season went along--as we've seen happen.

Playoffs are out of the question. They aren’t there yet. Cincinnati is in the “exciting young team” category at the moment, but they aren’t playoff caliber. I don’t think we’ll see a divisional victory this season, unfortunately. The Browns were the best chance.

I originally predicted 4 wins. The offense has been clicking, and I think they can legitimately beat NY and Dallas. The WFT is going to be a TOUGH matchup for Cincinnati. They don’t do much well except for rush the passer and they are damn good at it.

I’m going to say Cincinnati ends up 5-10-1. I think they can pull out wins against Miami, Dallas and NY, but lose a squeaker against WFT.

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

Good OP. Good time to re-evaluate.

In a weird way, things have been both better and worse than I anticipated. I am less excited about this season but more excited long term. Though more wins may hurt us via our draft pisition. Our record is on track to be where I thought it would, but only because the NFC East and Houston suck so much worse than expected.

IIRC, I predicted 6-10. Thinking 5-5 outside the division and 1-5 inside. We are 2-2-1 outside the division & 0-3 in it. But I thought we had PO upside. Thought we'd split with the Browns and beat SD, so down two wins there. And I thought wins vs Philly & Indy were possible. We whiffed on those, snatching defeat (oe a tie) from the jaws of victory each time, but got a bonus game vs Tenn. We SHOULD have 4 wins, min. A case can be made for 6.

Now, I think Dallas & Houston are much more winnable. Washington & NYG we should beat. Miami is winnable. If we win those we get to 7. If we catch the Ravens resting guys on the last day, I could see 8 wins, still. With all the injuries and coaching malpractice. Amazing.

But that is probably too optimistic. I doubt 8-7-1 makes the POs. And piling up wins likely takes us out of getting one more stud in the draft (Sewell, Parsons, Chase, Surtain). And likely prevents any of the staff getting canned, particularly Lou/Turner.

The biggest positives.

1) Burrow is legit. Just think what he could do with a real O-line, a deep threat, a legit receiving TE, and a consistent running game.

2) The offense is legit. Four 30 point games. Including 3 of the last 5. Could have gotten 30 vs the Cokts but a late FG didn't help us.

3) The FO/coaches hit on the draft. Yeah, Burrow was a no-brainer. But Higgins is good and Logan Wilson looks legit too. Hitting on 1, 2, & 3 is a good draft. Adeniji makes it look even better. ADG & Kareem look like depth pieces, but not overwhelmed. Plus, Jonah being decent to good as a rook and Sample contributing some make last year's draft look better. Pratt, Jordan, Finley, Wren, & T. Williams all still here.

3) Bates is legit.

4) ZT is getting better at play calling.

Negatives:
1) Injuries
2) Both lines
3) Linebackers
4) Lou & the defense.

[CorpusChristiBengal]

6ish, 7 wins with the occasional great win like last week, improvement all around.
To be honest, I would rather have winning football even without playoff expectation to instill confidence in the younger players than a high pick. Especially since with the departures at the end of the season/trade deadline we still have a lot more cap space so it's not like the shrinking cap would affect us all that much.
Regardless, it got me re-invested in the NFL again, especially considering that ZT's playcalling is improving, so it's not like it's hopeless like the Texas teams I hear about on the radio/from locals. Dallas is a mess top to bottom and Houston has no picks to work with.

[sonofstat]

(11-02-2020, 03:23 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: Playoffs are out of the question. They aren’t there yet. Cincinnati is in the “exciting young team” category at the moment, but they aren’t playoff caliber. I don’t think we’ll see a divisional victory this season, unfortunately. The Browns were the best chance.

I originally predicted 4 wins. The offense has been clicking, and I think they can legitimately beat NY and Dallas. The WFT is going to be a TOUGH matchup for Cincinnati. They don’t do much well except for rush the passer and they are damn good at it.

I’m going to say Cincinnati ends up 5-10-1. I think they can pull out wins against Miami, Dallas and NY, but lose a squeaker against WFT.

This is one of the things I think its really important/love to see....i'd even trade a couple of wins outside the division this year .vs. one result over either the Ravens or Steelers.

If ZT / Burrow cannot make headway this year its just gonna build up that they own us.  

[Au165]

We are where Arizona was a year ago. I said 5/6 wins this year then a playoff run next year and I think we trending that way. I'd love to find a way to win 4 of our final 8 and at 6-9-1 and have some solid momentum heading into the offseason.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(11-02-2020, 03:23 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: I don’t think we’ll see a divisional victory this season, unfortunately. The Browns were the best chance.

Week 17 there's a decent chance that Baltimore has nothing to play for with playoffs locked but winning the division out of reach, so they might sit Lamar and others.

[Schmitbuck]

Man, my expectations for this team has been all over the places since the offseason and it usually somehow lines up with the NFL draft.

Preseason- I thought 5-6 wins with signs of improvement on offense in the 2nd half of the season was a realistic goal.

After the tie to Philly, I thought 2-3 wins is all we'd see, and they'd be in the Trevor Lawrence/Justin Fields pick range, in line to have a major draft trade in 2021.

After the Jacksonville win, I thought 3-4 wins for the season, with a chance at the stud Oregon OT in the draft.

Dang the win yesterday is throwing me through a loop. That was a team that could go deep into the playoffs and the Bengals had their foot on the Titans throats the entire game.

I now see 6 wins again with a 7th being reachable. Man, yesterday was fun.

[RiverRat13]

3-5 is the minimum for the second half. If they do worse than that, Zac needs to go.

4-4 is my expectation. They are better than Dallas and NYG. Houston and Washington will be toss-ups. Miami is winnable. And Baltimore may not have anything to play for in Week 17. So two wins against the Cowboys and Giants and find two more wins in the other six games.

5-3 or better and I'll be very happy.

[PDub80]

All I asked for, and can find the posts to prove it, was ascension. Meaning: Look much better as the year ended as a team than they did when it started.

They SHOULD be 7-1 or 6-2 if people did their jobs even on an avg level. That is AMAZING.

They just beat down a very very good team. That is ASCENSION

It needs to continue to trend up. At this point, I've seen enough of the players to be confident. Coaches need to grow. Only wish now is that I just want Burrow to stay alive and healthy so they can start fresh with another roster talent infusion and healthy guys where it's needed next season.

[*ochocincos*]

My preseason prediction was 6 wins.
For the wins, I had:
LAC
CLE (x1)
JAX
WAS
MIA
NYG

Revisiting now, I think they can still get to 6 wins, with what I believe the following likelihood...
PIT - Low chance. I didn't expect them to be this good with just Roethlisberger returning.
WAS - good chance
NYG - good chance
MIA - toss up
DAL - good chance
PIT - Still low chance.
HOU - toss up since they are playing better under Crennel
BAL - Low chance.

[Housh]

I may take the time to look at my predictions but i know i wouldn’t have given us more than 6 games.


Knowing now how many injuries we’d have i probably would’ve gave us 4 wins tops.

[Housh]

Looking at our remaining schedule i can definitely see 3-4 more wins.

[AlphaBengal]

We've already way exceeded my expectations. The fact that we've been extremely competitive this year aside from the Baltimore game shows this team is headed in the right direction. The future is bright and next year is the year we take a run at the playoffs.

[Luvnit2]

(11-01-2020, 11:29 PM)BengalChris Wrote: For me, this season needed to produce more wins than the 2018 team, which had no AJ or Dalton for many games and Driskel was the QB for 5 or 6 games yet they still managed 6 wins.

With the 2020 team having more talent than the 2018 team, I felt at the start of this year that the 2020 team should have at least 6 wins for the coaching staff to have earned their jobs for next season.

Essentially, if the team wants a championship, then its coaching staff need to be able to get more out of players than average. Marvin got enough to make it to the playoffs 5 straight times, but fell short on the playoff wins with zero.

Now we are at the half-way point and the team is 2-5-1, but those additional wins are possible.

My goal is always playoffs or wasted season. So, likely my goal will not be reached.

I do love the progression of rookies Burrow, Higgins and Wilson. If we can hit on 2 or 3 draft picks a year minimum the next few years, the Burrow years could become great rather quickly. But others also need to continue to step up like Kareem, J. Williams, Hart, Bates (already in process as seems to get better every week), Geno (back to pro bowl Geno), AJ back to pro bowl AJ and others, then add some key free agents team can go from basement in 2021 to playoffs in 2021 to Super Bowl contenders in 2022.

Joe Burrow makes everyone around him better and I think that includes the mindset of the defense also. Losing is contagious, but so is winning and we have a winner plating QB for us hopefully for next 20 years.

[BengalChris]

(11-06-2020, 07:52 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: My goal is always playoffs or wasted season. So, likely my goal will not be reached.

I do love the progression of rookies Burrow, Higgins and Wilson. If we can hit on 2 or 3 draft picks a year minimum the next few years, the Burrow years could become great rather quickly. But others also need to continue to step up like Kareem, J. Williams, Hart, Bates (already in process as seems to get better every week), Geno (back to pro bowl Geno), AJ back to pro bowl AJ and others, then add some key free agents team can go from basement in 2021 to playoffs in 2021 to Super Bowl contenders in 2022.

Joe Burrow makes everyone around him better and I think that includes the mindset of the defense also. Losing is contagious, but so is winning and we have a winner plating QB for us hopefully for next 20 years.

See highlighed. Boy did you hit the nail on the head. Poor drafting really set the team back. It started in 2015 with Ogbuehi and Fisher, and that entire draft class really. Then the Ross pick, then Price didn't work out. There were some good pick in there, like Mixon, Bates and Hubbard. Jonah Williams hasn't been anything special.