Seems like after the Elise Jesse expose came out, the defense has played better

[THE PISTONS]

Maybe it's a coincidence, but after the toxic culture article which talked about Lou and some other coaches...the defense has played better.

There were some quotes by I think Bates that Lou was communicating better.

In a sense, I'm happy they are playing better...but man if it was just a matter of better communication...where was this for 1.5 years?

Seems like how the run game got fixed the 2nd half of last year...although it didn't carry over to this year.

Thoughts?

[Nicomo Cosca]

Sad it took that to show some improvement.

I also think the opponents have had a lot to do with it. This was the weakest part of our schedule after all.

[Burreaux]

It would be strange if there wasn’t any truth to the communication issue on defense. I think Vigil was saying the same thing last year. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.

[GreenCornBengal]

Maybe they are playing harder because they like Lou and thought the article was bullshit.

[TecmoBengals]

Even the worst of NFL teams win games, 0-16 is hard to pull off. I think Zac and the squad is just getting in a few wins with professional players performing as they should. There is no deep reason as to why it has clicked in recent games.

[Sled21]

Maybe it's because the player(s) who weren't buying into the system have either been traded (Dunlap) or have gone to the bench for other reasons like injuries, and the rest of the no name defense is buying in to the system, and as they play better they are dragging the holdouts along with them. Over the last 2 games they are what, ranked 4th in the NFL?

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Last week’s defensive performance against the Steelers was a fluke because Pittsburgh’s offense is choking and out of gas. I look for “situation normal” to return against the Texans and the Ravens complete with arm tackles, complete whiffs, loose coverage, and the nagging inability to stop tight ends over the middle.

[Bronxbengal]

(12-26-2020, 12:39 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Last week’s defensive performance against the Steelers was a fluke because Pittsburgh’s offense is choking and out of gas. I look for “situation normal” to return against the Texans and the Ravens complete with arm tackles, complete whiffs, loose coverage, and the nagging inability to stop tight ends over the middle.

We will see. If they don’t do what you say, than is the conclusion the players are buying into the system


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[Yojimbo]

Getting Hubbard back has really helped the pass rush. It’s still not great, but he and Lawson are relentless and that at least keeps the other teams honest.

[Fan_in_Kettering]

(12-26-2020, 12:45 PM)Bronxbengal Wrote: We will see. If they don’t do what you say, than is the conclusion the players are buying into the system


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This is news to me. I was completely unaware of the Cincinnati Bengals had a defensive system at all.

[Yojimbo]

(12-26-2020, 12:39 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Last week’s defensive performance against the Steelers was a fluke because Pittsburgh’s offense is choking and out of gas. I look for “situation normal” to return against the Texans and the Ravens complete with arm tackles, complete whiffs, loose coverage, and the nagging inability to stop tight ends over the middle.

Ben isn’t healthy. Watch his left leg when he throws, he puts no weight on it. That’s why all his passes are sailing and getting picked off.

[Sled21]

I find it amazing any time we beat a good team it was a fluke, the other team gave it away, or some other excuse. That's pretty much every NFL game isn't it? Ben might not be healthy, but we had Ryan Finley.

[Fan_in_Kettering]

(12-26-2020, 12:49 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Ben isn’t healthy. Watch his left leg when he throws, he puts no weight on it. That’s why all his passes are sailing and getting picked off.

That is absolutely true and it’s why he can’t move around in the pocket either anymore. That used to be Ben’s strength but now he’s too immobile to extend plays like he once did. Look, I’m extremely glad we beat the Steelers but we need to remember just two weeks ago Andy Dalton and the Cowboys dropped 30 ugly unanswered points on the Bengals. Andy Frickin’ Dalton; you know, the guy Zac Taylor benched last year?

I’ve been actually looking at Steelers blogs this week and even their most ardent fans understand the Pittsburgh offense is not firing on all cylinders. They are going to lose out and the Browns are going to win the division. It pains me to write that.

[Sled21]

(12-26-2020, 12:55 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: That is absolutely true and it’s why he can’t move around in the pocket either anymore. That used to be Ben’s strength but now he’s too immobile to extend plays like he once did.  Look, I’m extremely glad we beat the Steelers but we need to remember just two weeks ago Andy Dalton and the Cowboys dropped 30 ugly unanswered points on the Bengals.  Andy Frickin’ Dalton; you know, the guy Zac Taylor benched last year?  

I’ve been actually looking at Steelers blogs this week and even their most ardent fans understand the Pittsburgh offense is not firing on all cylinders.  They are going to lose out and the Browns are going to win the division. It pains me to write that.

I'd take the Browns or the Ravens winning the Division over the Stealers winning it every day of the week. 

[*SHRacerX*]

(12-26-2020, 02:06 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Maybe it's a coincidence, but after the toxic culture article which talked about Lou and some other coaches...the defense has played better.

There were some quotes by I think Bates that Lou was communicating better.

In a sense, I'm happy they are playing better...but man if it was just a matter of better communication...where was this for 1.5 years?

Seems like how the run game got fixed the 2nd half of last year...although it didn't carry over to this year.

Thoughts?

This is surprisingly accurate.  Not your post, but that the defense improved after the article.  Some of it could be attributed to level of competition, but what could have become a toxic cesspool has actually become a pretty solid unit.  

I give credit to Taylor as he eluded that there was a discussion between him and Anarumo about a certain standard for communication that he wants to have upheld.  At the same time, it is a little disturbing that ZT had to have an article go out publicly to know that was happening on the defensive side of the ball.  I think he may spend too much time trying to get the offense going instead of just being the head coach.  Regardless, we will see if it continues against Houston and Baltimore.  I think Phillips is injured again and he was the star in the last raven game.  If there can be a star when you lose by 20+ points.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-26-2020, 10:48 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Even the worst of NFL teams win games, 0-16 is hard to pull off. I think Zac and the squad is just getting in a few wins with professional players performing as they should. There is no deep reason as to why it has clicked in recent games.

I think this is the truth.

Like over the last 3 games, we looked absolutely terrible against the Dolphins. Then we lost 30-7 against the Cowboys. Then, beat the Steelers.

For some reason, people want to put all the stock into the win, and overlook the 2 bad losses.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-26-2020, 12:11 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Maybe it's because the player(s) who weren't buying into the system have either been traded (Dunlap) or have gone to the bench for other reasons like injuries, and the rest of the no name defense is buying in to the system, and as they play better they are dragging the holdouts along with them. Over the last 2 games they are what, ranked 4th in the NFL?

Not the Dunlap part, but the playing the young, fringe NFL guys part...I can agree with. Especially on Monday night football with a lot of the country watching.

I think there's something in sports to guys giving effort on EVERY play where you can play well defensively even with less talent. An unwritten part of this is that a lot of guys on every team don't give 100% effort on every play. Not saying they just stand there and give up, but maybe 75% effort. Some sports this works better than others...like in the NBA maybe 15 years ago, a team that played defense hard EVERY night could possibly sneak into the playoffs as an 8th seed. You see it in hockey too. Although, I'd argue that a lot of leagues made rule changes which legislated out the impact of defense in favor of offense...

These guys want to go out there and put good things on tape to either stick in the NFL or get paid. Lawson probably made himself millions more in free agency. He was an absolute force. IF we saw that Lawson EVERY game...we would probably have won a game or 2 more.

Man...guys like Covington, Margus Hunt, and I could name more I'm sure. I hope we retain them and put them in a rotation. They're not starters, but as a 3rd DT, I'd take Covington any day coming in and playing hard. And that's what makes good teams great - When you have 1st string guys that are really good, and then they come out and this high-effort guy comes in and is just absolutely grinding every play tiring the opponents out. Then, the star comes in and gets a sack.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-26-2020, 01:26 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I'd take the Browns or the Ravens winning the Division over the Stealers winning it every day of the week. 

Agreed.

On the Browns, I have some relatives that are fans of them...and they were rooting hard for us to beat the Steelers. Our hatred of the Steelers unites us in a way.

Man...good for the Browns if they win the division. Don't like to see any fanbase lose year after year after year. We had some division titles under Marvin.

Steelers fans are just insufferable.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-26-2020, 01:42 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: This is surprisingly accurate.  Not your post, but that the defense improved after the article.  Some of it could be attributed to level of competition, but what could have become a toxic cesspool has actually become a pretty solid unit.  

I give credit to Taylor as he eluded that there was a discussion between him and Anarumo about a certain standard for communication that he wants to have upheld.  At the same time, it is a little disturbing that ZT had to have an article go out publicly to know that was happening on the defensive side of the ball.  I think he may spend too much time trying to get the offense going instead of just being the head coach.  Regardless, we will see if it continues against Houston and Baltimore.  I think Phillips is injured again and he was the star in the last raven game.  If there can be a star when you lose by 20+ points.

Yeah. And I've seen other things happen like this too. Like Taylor took a question on 'Why wasn't Mixon on the IR-R?' and Taylor gave kind of a terse answer like it wasn't what's best for the team, then they IR'd him shortly after. Almost like they have no clue what they can and should do...until it gets suggested externally.

And this is the knock on the staff. They're so inexperienced. They literally don't know the standard for communicating with the entire team. Taylor is at blame. The coaches are too. But, man this all points to management too.

And great point about being a HC instead of an offensive mastermind. What works for McVay likely won't work for Taylor. McVay is just intuitive with playcalling. Taylor should be the HC and let the coordinators run the offense and defense.

It's like in business, when a manager gets promoted to a higher level, they have a tendency to want to do the same job that they did at the lower level. Maybe that was a technical job. But, when you get put in charge of people, you have to let them do their jobs. If you do it for them, then you're probably missing strategic opportunities, and it won't scale well and ultimately fail. And you get paid a lot generally for doing strategic things, not day to day mundane tasks.

But, Bengals management should have been smart of enough to see what was going on and pull Taylor out of this rut.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-26-2020, 01:42 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: This is surprisingly accurate.  Not your post, but that the defense improved after the article.  Some of it could be attributed to level of competition, but what could have become a toxic cesspool has actually become a pretty solid unit.  

I give credit to Taylor as he eluded that there was a discussion between him and Anarumo about a certain standard for communication that he wants to have upheld.  At the same time, it is a little disturbing that ZT had to have an article go out publicly to know that was happening on the defensive side of the ball.  I think he may spend too much time trying to get the offense going instead of just being the head coach.  Regardless, we will see if it continues against Houston and Baltimore.  I think Phillips is injured again and he was the star in the last raven game.  If there can be a star when you lose by 20+ points.

Another point I want to make is that when people were screaming about coaching being poor...and there being more talent here than the record...THIS kind of stuff proves it.

Last year, we had a historically poor rushing offense, then at the bye...with the SAME personnel...we suddenly changed the blocking scheme and went on a tear running the ball. Then, this year...can't run again. When we couldn't run, the narrative was the offensive line was terrible and no one could succeed with them. But, with the SAME PERSONNEL last year...we could run! So it shows that coaching mattered.

This year, the defense was pretty bad early in the year, and now...with largely the same personnel...it's playing very respectable.

These are good things on the coaches, but also major indictments of lack of coaching for 1.5 years.