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

[2MinutesHate]

I expect Burrow to lead the Bengals over the Steelers next week.
It's time for a change. That time is now. Shit or get off the pot. Dalton is gone. It's time to get tough the AFC North. Lamar is getting figured out and Ben is just plain old.
If not now, then when? I think we go 5-3 the rest of the way and sniff a playoff berth.

[N_B]

You guys are dreaming aggressively enough this year. They should win at least 6 games, arguably 7-8 wins total

[Essex Johnson]

I predicted 7 to 9 but we have not closed the deal in games so little chance at that.. hoping for 6 and winning games in the 4th quarter rest of season would be nice

[Luvnit2]

(11-06-2020, 08:44 PM)BengalChris Wrote: 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.

 

I think Jonah shows signs of being very good. A LT is like a CB who plays a lot of man to man with little to no help. They are on an island and go against some great WR's. A LT is in the same scenario facing great pass rushers and great run defenders or both.

I Think Jonah will be a win by next year which due to injury is really year #2 for him.

[bengals1969]

(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 spent freely on defense and so far the unit is a huge letdown.  Injuries hurt, but that's the NFL, got to have depth.  
Offense has been a huge improvement with Burrow and Higgins.  The makings of a 8 year productive partnership, great 1-2 picks from the draft.  AJ hasn't surprised, I didn't expect him to be the AJ of old, receivers age out quickly with injuries and age.  Offensive line is offensive, no surprise since no new significant FA/draft upgrades. 

To make the season successful, Bengals style, lets get a few more wins, Burrow stays healthy in mind and body and no more injuries to key players, as few of them as there are.  So far they are 2-2 at home, showing some promise with the home fans.  On the road its 0-3-1 with winnable games ahead. They have 5 bad teams ahead, some very bad, they can win them all.  

7-8-1 is reasonable expectations. 

[AlphaBengal]

(11-07-2020, 10:26 AM)bengals1969 Wrote: They spent freely on defense and so far the unit is a huge letdown.  Injuries hurt, but that's the NFL, got to have depth.  
Offense has been a huge improvement with Burrow and Higgins.  The makings of a 8 year productive partnership, great 1-2 picks from the draft.  AJ hasn't surprised, I didn't expect him to be the AJ of old, receivers age out quickly with injuries and age.  Offensive line is offensive, no surprise since no new significant FA/draft upgrades. 

To make the season successful, Bengals style, lets get a few more wins, Burrow stays healthy in mind and body and no more injuries to key players, as few of them as there are.  So far they are 2-2 at home, showing some promise with the home fans.  On the road its 0-3-1 with winnable games ahead. They have 5 bad teams ahead, some very bad, they can win them all.  

7-8-1 is reasonable expectations. 

To be fair, all that money went into Reader and Waynes basically, and one of them hasn't been able to step on the field and the other barely got on it before getting injured. Vonn Bell was the third highest and he's been on the field basically the entire year so that's not a bad signing, I think he's played quite well given the front seven. 

Also, it's impossible to build depth in a year so we still have holdovers from last years horrible defense. All in all the free agent spending is inconclusive as far as I'm concerned. But time will tell.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(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.

Yeah, I think we will win at least 4 more games with the way Burrow is playing and the way the team seems to be coming together.

After the Steeler game it gets considerably easier schedule wise. This Offense is tough to stop if the O-line just plays decent.

The Defense is really where my concerns are with Lou and his sad scheming at times. But sometimes they flash and play well.

We will see, but I am expecting around 6 or 7 wins this season.