Why the Bengals are a Playoff threat

[C0de_M0nkey]

I know I’ll be called a homer for this. I’m not saying that the Bengals will make the playoffs this year. I’m just saying that we’re a threat. I’ll explain why these two simple reasons.

Defense - Defense wins championships. That includes the AFC North championship. Yes we gave up 24 points. But we made plays when it counted. We lost Carl Lawson but Trey Hendrickson was in Cousins’ face all day. Yes we lost Billy Price (lol), but we got BJ Hill and his two sacks in return. When the game was all but lost, Jesse Bates forced the fumble that led to the W.

Joe Burrow - The offense wasn’t held back by Joe Burrow. It was held back by the coaches who held Joe back to keep him healthy. When we needed a few inches to avoid the loss Joe said no. He said “Im going to audible out of this. I deserve better than this and the city of Cincinnati does too. We’re going to win this game.”

Let’s be honest. Andy Dalton doesn’t make that play. Carson Palmer doesn’t either despite all the talent in the world. I have nothing against them but today truly felt like a “new dey”.

[BigPapaKain]

We beat a non-playoff team with a bad defense. Barely.

Relax.

[C0de_M0nkey]

(09-13-2021, 12:30 AM)BigPapaKain Wrote: We beat a non-playoff team with a bad defense. Barely.

Relax.

The Vikings were a decent team last year but that’s not why this win is important. It’s important because we won with a coach who wasn’t trying to win. He was just trying to keep Burrow healthy and save his job. The team won for him. If this is just game one we have a massive ceiling.The Vikings gave their all and lost.

[Murdock2420]

(09-13-2021, 12:53 AM)C0de_M0nkey Wrote: The Vikings were a decent team last year but that’s not why this win is important. It’s important because we won with a coach who wasn’t trying to win. He was just trying to keep Burrow healthy and save his job. The team won for him. If this is just game one we have a massive ceiling.The Vikings gave their all and lost.

He has to win to save his job. Another poor showing and he'll be gone. He was coaching to win (hence the going for it on 4th down play) I'm just not sure the guy really knows how to call plays.

[Joelist]

If he REALLY wants to save his job he should have asked for a real OC and turned the play calling over.

[grampahol]

What IF...they go on to win the superbowl? not that I believe that in a million years this season, but stranger things happen.. If they do Zac will suddenly be the greatest Bengals coach of all time by default..

[Rubekahn29]

Celebrating the win. I’m not yet convinced they have a real shot at playoffs. I just can’t trust ZT. I still saw poor play calling, and way too many hits on our QB. I hope the hits can be cleaned up as aside from Hop having a poor game, no sacks but his 2 were on our O-line. They absolutely need to go 3-1 in the first four to have any sort of chance, which is very doable. One game at a time. Onto Chicago.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

I’m encouraged, but let’s be clear:

Most of our opponents will not commit 17 penalties. There are a lot of kinks to work out.

[Gdale_Bengal]

We will have more realistic expectations of what the team can do after the first 4 games.

Until then they are undefeated in a division that has 3 of the best teams in the league.

[Tiger Teeth]

Well, you guys can be cautious all you want. But I just bought one of these:

[*SHRacerX*]

(09-13-2021, 12:08 AM)C0de_M0nkey Wrote: I know I’ll be called a homer for this. I’m not saying that the Bengals will make the playoffs this year. I’m just saying that we’re a threat. I’ll explain why these two simple reasons.

Defense - Defense wins championships. That includes the AFC North championship. Yes we gave up 24 points. But we made plays when it counted. We lost Carl Lawson but Trey Hendrickson was in Cousins’ face all day. Yes we lost Billy Price (lol), but we got BJ Hill and his two sacks in return. When the game was all but lost, Jesse Bates forced the fumble that led to the W.

Joe Burrow - The offense wasn’t held back by Joe Burrow. It was held back by the coaches who held Joe back to keep him healthy. When we needed a few inches to avoid the loss Joe said no. He said “Im going to audible out of this. I deserve better than this and the city of Cincinnati does too. We’re going to win this game.”

Let’s be honest. Andy Dalton doesn’t make that play. Carson Palmer doesn’t either despite all the talent in the world. I have nothing against them but today truly felt like a “new dey”.

I figured the offense would be at least solid, and that should only get better.  The defense was asked to do a hell of a lot yesterday, and they responded very well, but we see why the Vikings are going to struggle.  Their offensive line was awful.  We need to see this defense generate pressure against the best offensive lines.

Oddly, I never saw Hodge???  He wasn't in the stat line and I didn't recall seeing him....I remember seeing Sample, though.  I really think that speed option is all that is missing right now.  

BTW, the Vikes had the perfect play call to screen behind a blitzing Hilton (but it only worked once) but if they didn't have that called, he was going to blow up Cousins.  Man absolutely fires off that edge.  Love it.  

[Trademark]

(09-13-2021, 12:53 AM)C0de_M0nkey Wrote: The Vikings were a decent team last year but that’s not why this win is important. It’s important because we won with a coach who wasn’t trying to win. He was just trying to keep Burrow healthy and save his job. The team won for him. If this is just game one we have a massive ceiling.The Vikings gave their all and lost.

Burrow called that audible ? The play action ?

[Bengalpool]

(09-13-2021, 07:56 AM)JaggedJimmyJay Wrote: I’m encouraged, but let’s be clear:

Most of our opponents will not commit 17 penalties. There are a lot of kinks to work out.

Let's be honest & clear. The Vikings didn't commit penalties just because. A lot of those were forced by our d-line. We deserve more credit than that.

[Tiger Teeth]

(09-13-2021, 08:45 AM)Takedown Wrote: Let's be honest & clear. The Vikings didn't commit penalties just because. A lot of those were forced by our d-line. We deserve more credit than that.

Amen to that.  

[740Bengal]

The liability is Zac Taylor.

[CJD]

I enjoyed the game yesterday, but the Vikings are a perpetual underperformer year after year and we almost blew an easy win against them via bad coaching decisions and/or unfortunate mistakes.

Giving up 2 4th down conversions, that 3rd and 24 and needing an iffy fumble stand call (which, if it was ruled down, it would have stood as down, so we were really just extremely lucky that the refs, who didn't see the play, saw all the Bengals pointing and just kind of went with it) to squeak out a win against a team with over 100 yards in penalties is not a great way to show you're playoff contenders.

But a win is a win. This game counts just as much as if we blew them out 38-3, so we'll take it and hopefully we clean up our mistakes and take care of the Dalton led Bears, who looked pretty bad yesterday.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(09-13-2021, 12:08 AM)C0de_M0nkey Wrote: I know I’ll be called a homer for this. I’m not saying that the Bengals will make the playoffs this year. I’m just saying that we’re a threat. I’ll explain why these two simple reasons.

Defense - Defense wins championships. That includes the AFC North championship. Yes we gave up 24 points. But we made plays when it counted. We lost Carl Lawson but Trey Hendrickson was in Cousins’ face all day. Yes we lost Billy Price (lol), but we got BJ Hill and his two sacks in return. When the game was all but lost, Jesse Bates forced the fumble that led to the W.

Joe Burrow - The offense wasn’t held back by Joe Burrow. It was held back by the coaches who held Joe back to keep him healthy. When we needed a few inches to avoid the loss Joe said no. He said “Im going to audible out of this. I deserve better than this and the city of Cincinnati does too. We’re going to win this game.”

Let’s be honest. Andy Dalton doesn’t make that play. Carson Palmer doesn’t either despite all the talent in the world. I have nothing against them but today truly felt like a “new dey”.

1. Bates had nothing to do with that play, was all Pratt.
2. Zac gave him 2 plays to choose from and even Burrow himself said that he opted out of the sneak, due to the amount of personnel they had over the C (Au165 also mentioned this), otherwise they would've run the sneak.

It was a common conclusion, not, "Burrow picked a different play because Zac sucks," like everyone is making it out to be.

[*Awful Llama*]

(09-13-2021, 05:02 AM)grampahol Wrote: What IF...they go on to win the superbowl? not that I believe that in a million years this season, but stranger things happen.. If they do Zac will suddenly be the greatest Bengals coach of all time by default..

If he managed to pull that off I'd crown him as such.  Hell, I'll even contribute for the statue of him to go outside of PBS and take off work for his birthday every year.

[Southpaw Frerotte]

1. Coaches and play calling is still suspect. I'd rather have Burrow just call the plays from the LOC then give the coaches any responsibility.
2. Center play was atrocious and is going to result in Burrow getting hit more than he should.
3. There has to be a better option for backup corner than Eli Apple. The bum literally gifted the Vikings a TD over two plays.

I think we'll be around .500 at the end of the season. Might have a chance to sneak in as a WC but I have no confidence with Zac's game plans against the Browns and Ravens.

[Sled21]

Same old tune. Zac sucks because he won't run the ball. Yesterday, he runs the ball, we win, and he still sucks. ZZZZzzzzzzz

Lou sucks too, right?