A little perspective

[Bengalholic]

3 straight road games.

Won first 2 by 20+ points, including putting a beatdown on the Ravens in their own house.
Lost the 3rd by 3 points, coming off a huge emotional win and facing a team that had gotten humiliated the week before.

This is the NFL...it happens. Good teams can have letdowns after huge wins. The Jets also beat the Titans, who are now 6-2.

Last week was an outstanding win. This week was an embarrassing loss. Overall, they are still in good shape at 5-3...which I think is better than most of probably thought before the season started. 

Beating the Browns next week is a must now though, so that they can go into the bye 6-3 and stay in contention for the division title. Still a lot of football left, and the fact is, they are 5-3 and haven't even played their best football yet.  Still a lot of room to get better and areas to improve on. IMO, that's a good sign and a reason to remain very optimistic going forward. 

IDK, maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age and not being as cynical as I used to be.

[grampahol]

(10-31-2021, 06:03 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: 3 straight road games.

Won first 2 by 20+ points, including putting a beatdown on the Ravens in their own house.
Lost the 3rd by 3 points, coming off a huge emotional win and facing a team that had gotten humiliated the week before.

This is the NFL...it happens. Good teams can have letdowns after huge wins. The Jets also beat the Titans, who are now 6-2.

Last week was an outstanding win. This week was an embarrassing loss. Overall, they are still in good shape at 5-3...which I think is better than most of probably thought before the season started. 

Beating the Browns next week is a must now though, so that they can go into the bye 6-3 and stay in contention for the division title. Still a lot of football left, and the fact is, they are 5-3 and haven't even played their best football yet.  Still a lot of room to get better and areas to improve on. IMO, that's a good sign and a reason to remain very optimistic going forward. 

IDK, maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age and not being as cynical as I used to be.

It all sounds reasonable to me and it's how I feel. Crying over every loss to a lesser team? What's that get you other than a lot of tears and a lot of people who think you're a weenie.. Not to mention the bookmakers lost a boatload of money on this one..

[The American Dream]

Good post and I always keep the faith. With the Bengals you have too. I see no reason we can't bounce back and take care of the Jets; just really need not to play down to our opponent like we did today or we will accomplish nothing this season.

[fredtoast]

If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

[motoarch]

On to Cleveland

[*Awful Llama*]

(10-31-2021, 06:07 PM)The American Dream Wrote: Good post and I always keep the faith. With the Bengals you have too. I see no reason we can't bounce back and take care of the Jets; just really need not to play down to our opponent like we did today or we will accomplish nothing this season.

I like it, we should be waiting for the Jets in the Meadowlands parking lot.

[Interceptor]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

Not exactly. They shredded our Prevent defense all day long. We still scored 31 points on them, which is a lot better than average.

[Shake n Blake]

The nicest take I have is this: plenty of good teams have lost to some QB who came out of nowhere. There wasn't much tape on this White guy, and he looks pretty good.

This loss was definitely on the coaches though. They need to get back in the lab and have these guys better prepared next week.

This season is still an open book. We could finish anywhere between 14-3 and 5-12. We as fans like to re-write the narrative every week, but in truth we won't know the whole story with this team until the book is finished.

[thompson19osu]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

This exactly. A statistically putrid offense just put it on us. If Lamar Jackson did this and we lost by 3 so be it, but to these Jets??? Rather than being excited going into next week I’m now terrified to think of what we will see from that defense.

[Au165]

This is a game you watch the tape once and move on to Cleveland. If you want to self scout on it during the bye that’s fine but honestly not much to take here other than a bad day, so no reason to harp on it.

[Nicomo Cosca]

I’m just mad they ruined my favorite holiday.

[ezekiel23]

Well,looks like the euphoria is put on hold for now.Time to get psyched up for the Browns game.Putting this game in the rearview isn’t easy,but it has to be done.We had a lot of fun after the Ravens win,but it didn’t last long.Who knows?This might help to make the Bengals a better team.They might not lose another game the rest of the year.

[samhain]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

It should probably put the brakes on the greatness of Anarumo narrative.  He's going to have to defend against that offense all year in the copycat league.  If he can't come up with something better than he did today, they are toast.

[Whacked]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)motoarch Wrote: On to Cleveland

After a loss … at home….to the Stoolers….
They are going to come to play !!
They will feel like this is a must win.
Worse ….
The Browns > Jets … big time!

[grampahol]

(10-31-2021, 06:15 PM)thompson19osu Wrote: This exactly. A statistically putrid offense just put it on us. If Lamar Jackson did this and we lost by 3 so be it, but to these Jets??? Rather than being excited going into next week I’m now terrified to think of what we will see from that defense.

Our "putrid offense" still put up 31 points against a pretty good defensive front..  The D was putrid today..

[Essex Johnson]

I posted this in game day thread but it works in this thread: A young team and staff first time facing being in 1st and it seemed we struggled but had it under control up 11 late but it's the NFL, there are not scrubs playing , every week or two these games seem to happen in NFL..the difference is rebounding, win at home go 3 -0 in Division 6-3 at break and we have still put yourself in position to compete.. it is a 17 game season NOT a game season

[Joelist]

All that happened today was that the tiny glimmer of hope that the Bengals might actually be for real and that the fans would finally get something good for their longsuffering support of this franchise went back to its usual state of an almost cold ember. A legit team finds a way to win ESPECIALLY when a lesser team is bringing it. Instead they lost in the worst way possible; choking away an 11 point lead and giving up record setting offensive numbers to a first time starter who clearly had no deep ball - the "defense" got beat by the same small set of plays over and over and over.

It being one game in a season doesn't matter. This franchise doesn't have the history of success to lean back on when things don't go right. They can't say R E L A X like Aaron Rodgers because they haven't EARNED the right to. When they can point to Lombardi's on the shelf at PBS then they can do the "it's just one game" bit. Until then EVERY game is critical and they need to be 100% in the game and on the mark every play. Hope they enjoy coming home and having PBS filled with more Browns fans than Bengal fans - any chance they had of really getting their fans to support them went up in smoke.

[*rfaulk34*]

(10-31-2021, 06:03 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: 3 straight road games.

Won first 2 by 20+ points, including putting a beatdown on the Ravens in their own house.
Lost the 3rd by 3 points, coming off a huge emotional win and facing a team that had gotten humiliated the week before.

This is the NFL...it happens. Good teams can have letdowns after huge wins. The Jets also beat the Titans, who are now 6-2.

Last week was an outstanding win. This week was an embarrassing loss. Overall, they are still in good shape at 5-3...which I think is better than most of probably thought before the season started. 

Beating the Browns next week is a must now though, so that they can go into the bye 6-3 and stay in contention for the division title. Still a lot of football left, and the fact is, they are 5-3 and haven't even played their best football yet.  Still a lot of room to get better and areas to improve on. IMO, that's a good sign and a reason to remain very optimistic going forward. 

IDK, maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age and not being as cynical as I used to be.

Yep. The loss today means they need to beat the Browns if they want to hold on to serious aspirations for a playoff birth. 

[BengalFanInNJ]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

This.

It's not that they lost (for the most part), it's the way it happened. We didn't stop the worst offense in the NFL who was starting a new QB and missing two starting OL. 

They were also starting 2 rookie CB's. 

[*rfaulk34*]

(10-31-2021, 06:09 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If we had lost on some fluke big plays or turnovers then I would be more understanding.

But the Jets just beat the shit out of us.

That happens when you read too many of your own press clippings and don't prepare the same every week. In the NFL you don't just get to throw your helmet on the field to win games against bad teams for a win.