Time to give the defense some love

[BengalChris]

(11-30-2015, 03:57 PM)BritishBengal Wrote: They are playing great. It's going to be an ugly drop off at the end of this season. Needs to be a D heavy draft, specifically at defensive back, what with Nelson, Hall and Adam Jones out of contract and getting a little long in the tooth. I would not be against taking an early cornerback again.

Yeah, the secondary is going to be the focus in the off season, either resigning, drafting or both. The only starter in the secondary under contract next year is Kirkpatrick. Iloka is still young so we should make a run at resigning him, while Nelson and Jones are playing at high levels.

It's difficult to draft players for this secondary and start them as rookies.

[Earendil]

(12-01-2015, 08:52 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: And then there is Kirkpatrick. Smh. This kids needs to calm down as he is a weak link. He is good, but his mistakes are very costly.

In his defense, he's been playing better as of late.

[Luvnit2]

(12-01-2015, 06:15 AM)wolfkaosaun Wrote: The defense has certainly taken it's game up a notch. With a healthy Atkins and Dunlap playing well, it seems everyone is playing much better.

My only gripe with the team is the backup D-lineman. Gilberry is good and certainly a good rotational guy, but Clarke and Hunt have made no impact. Thompson and Sims are loved by people on the boards, but don't get playing time. Hunt is still Hunt.

Carter is the only bright spot with potential. Mainly in his pass rushing because he can run full speed and bend like Dunlap (something we've lacked).

My concern is what happens if (God forbid) we lose one of the starters? There's a huge drop off in production. That's my biggest concern, but it's more so caution rather than criticism.

It is hard for any team with a dominant DE or DT like we have with Carlos and Geno to replace them if injured.

Gilberry seems to playing very hard, but his sack production seems to way down the past 2 years so hopefully he can pick it up and Clarke with experience can also

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(11-30-2015, 12:02 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Our defense has played well all year and especially stingy giving up points.

They are back to the number 1 scoring defense in the NFL

Geno is back and disrupting offenses each week.

Dunlap and Geno are both top 5 in sacks (we were last in the NFL in 2014 in sacks with around 20 I believe) and huge improvement

Nelson leads the NFL in interceptions with 6

Hall has become a great slot CB

Jones just gets better with age and having an awesome year

Rey M. is an enforcer and proved a year ago he helps our run defense be one of the best on the league

Peko is having a very good year plugging the middle and making vet plays

Burfict is getting better every week

Keep it up defense, we need you to propel us to a top seed and then continue the stellar play in the playoffs

I am sure I missed a few things, but our defense in much improved over 2014

Really cool stuff. I thought the Defense would be much better this year with Geno, Burfict and MJ back
and also with Geunther having a year under his belt to build his own Defense. Reggie is a ballhawk and
Iloka is a great cover/big hitting Safety. I think we might have one of the best Safety tandems in the NFL.

Geno and Burfict are really the keys. Geno is consistently dominant when he is healthy and Burfict is one
of the best LB'er in the league at reading Offenses and he is intimidating.

Loving this team as a whole honestly, on both sides. Just need a little more consistency, especially on
Offense. That Texans game really messed with my head. The Texans D should not be THAT good being
able to shut down an Offense with THIS many weapons.

[Luvnit2]

(12-01-2015, 01:55 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Really cool stuff. I thought the Defense would be much better this year with Geno, Burfict and MJ back
and also with Geunther having a year under his belt to build his own Defense. Reggie is a ballhawk and
Iloka is a great cover/big hitting Safety. I think we might have one of the best Safety tandems in the NFL.

Geno and Burfict are really the keys. Geno is consistently dominant when he is healthy and Burfict is one
of the best LB'er in the league at reading Offenses and he is intimidating.

Loving this team as a whole honestly, on both sides. Just need a little more consistency, especially on
Offense. That Texans game really messed with my head. The Texans D should not be THAT good being
able to shut down an Offense with THIS many weapons.

I think our offense has been very consistent. They are #4 in points scored and 7th in yards while we know they shut down the offense in the 4th quarter in the Rams, Raiders and arguably a few others.

I think the Texans game was more about penalties on the OL with false starts and holding putting us in bad down and distance situations it seemed almost every drive. The Texans are one of the best if not the best 3rd and long team (their defense) in the NFL so we helped them get us into those bad situations. Eifert just had a very bad game and dropped 2 or 3 passes (all first downs at least) that he normally catches.

If we can cut down the penalties on offense, our offense is tough to stop.

[Bengal Dude]

(12-01-2015, 12:27 PM)Earendil Wrote: In his defense, he's been playing better as of late.

Not too hard to do. Dre was looking just awful earlier this year. It was a few weeks ago that PFF had him ranked 112th out of 113 CBs. You can take PFF for what it's worth, but that was an alarming ranking.

[Luvnit2]

(12-01-2015, 04:56 PM)Bengal Dude Wrote: Not too hard to do. Dre was looking just awful earlier this year. It was a few weeks ago that PFF had him ranked 112th out of 113 CBs. You can take PFF for what it's worth, but that was an alarming ranking.

If PFF had Dre ranked 112 out of 113 CB's then I say using it for anything may be useless.

I watch almost every game every week and watch CB's get beat for long TD's every week, I see poor tackling by CB's as well. No doubt, Dre was not playing well early, but no way he is the worst starting CB of over 3 other CB's per team on average in the NFL.

I am curious, for those of us who don't get PFF, what was his weekly ranking last week against the Rams?

I have seen major improvement of late and have yet to remember him giving up a long TD in 2015, but I am old so may be wrong. I know there was an issue with a broken coverage blamed on Lemur by coaches at one home game (Seattle), but can't remember any others. I also think the Bengals defense is #1 in the NFL giving up plays of over 30 yards so I am not sure how we could have any CB ranked that poorly.

[Bengal Dude]

(12-01-2015, 05:04 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: If PFF had Dre ranked 112 out of 113 CB's then I say using it for anything may be useless.

I watch almost every game every week and watch CB's get beat for long TD's every week, I see poor tackling by CB's as well. No doubt, Dre was not playing well early, but no way he is the worst starting CB of over 3 other CB's per team on average in the NFL.

I am curious, for those of us who don't get PFF, what was his weekly ranking last week against the Rams?

I have seen major improvement of late and have yet to remember him giving up a long TD in 2015, but I am old so may be wrong. I know there was an issue with a broken coverage blamed on Lemur by coaches at one home game (Seattle), but can't remember any others. I also think the Bengals defense is #1 in the NFL giving up plays of over 30 yards so I am not sure how we could have any CB ranked that poorly.

As far as I know, that ranking comes from whatever PFF's new system is. You'd have to ask Truck about it. PFF posted that little tidbit on Twitter. That's about all I see from PFF. As for Dre, I don't think he's #112 out of #113, but Dre was definitely rough to watch earlier this season.

[J24]

(12-01-2015, 01:55 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Really cool stuff. I thought the Defense would be much better this year with Geno, Burfict and MJ back
and also with Geunther having a year under his belt to build his own Defense. Reggie is a ballhawk and
Iloka is a great cover/big hitting Safety. I think we might have one of the best Safety tandems in the NFL.

Geno and Burfict are really the keys. Geno is consistently dominant when he is healthy and Burfict is one
of the best LB'er in the league at reading Offenses and he is intimidating.

Loving this team as a whole honestly, on both sides. Just need a little more consistency, especially on
Offense. That Texans game really messed with my head. The Texans D should not be THAT good being
able to shut down an Offense with THIS many weapons.

The Texans defense has been pretty good lately.

[Luvnit2]

(12-01-2015, 05:21 PM)Bengal Dude Wrote: As far as I know, that ranking comes from whatever PFF's new system is. You'd have to ask Truck about it. PFF posted that little tidbit on Twitter. That's about all I see from PFF. As for Dre, I don't think he's #112 out of #113, but Dre was definitely rough to watch earlier this season.

I think our definition of rough may be a tad critical.

I watched the Chiefs, Ravens and Seahawks CB's blow many 4th quarter leads and their CB's were the main culprit.

That is why the 112 out of 113 seemed very harsh to me, but the good news is I have seen great improvement of late.

[wolfkaosaun]

(12-01-2015, 12:31 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: It is hard for any team with a dominant DE or DT like we have with Carlos and Geno to replace them if injured.

Gilberry seems to playing very hard, but his sack production seems to way down the past 2 years so hopefully he can pick it up and Clarke with experience can also

This is true. But you can tell when Atkins and Dunlap are out because there's a huge drop off on the defense.

Gilberry is pretty decent as a rotational guy. Clarke has shown nothing positive.

[Luvnit2]

(12-01-2015, 06:11 PM)wolfkaosaun Wrote: This is true. But you can tell when Atkins and Dunlap are out because there's a huge drop off on the defense.

Gilberry is pretty decent as a rotational guy. Clarke has shown nothing positive.

Remove JJ Watt and the Texans defense is average

Remove Clay Matthews and the same result

Remove a team's stud on offense or defense and the team is much weaker

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(12-01-2015, 02:37 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I think our offense has been very consistent. They are #4 in points scored and 7th in yards while we know they shut down the offense in the 4th quarter in the Rams, Raiders and arguably a few others.

I think the Texans game was more about penalties on the OL with false starts and holding putting us in bad down and distance situations it seemed almost every drive. The Texans are one of the best if not the best 3rd and long team (their defense) in the NFL so we helped them get us into those bad situations. Eifert just had a very bad game and dropped 2 or 3 passes (all first downs at least) that he normally catches.

If we can cut down the penalties on offense, our offense is tough to stop.

Thank you for this, i never got to see the Texans game and all i heard on here was completely depressing remarks.

I just watched the Rams game for the first time and this team is impressive. Except for that 3rd quarter against the Cards
this team has played great all season on both sides of the ball and they have also been good on ST's.

Fun team to watch and Geno is the man fellas, watching him play against the Rams was just amazing. The term Beast gets
thrown around all too often but it is truly the case with Mr. Geno Atkins.

[wolfkaosaun]

(12-01-2015, 08:07 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Remove JJ Watt and the Texans defense is average

Remove Clay Matthews and the same result

Remove a team's stud on offense or defense and the team is much weaker

Packers defense isn't really that good to begin with. Texans have had a good defense outside of Watt.

That is true. But there's no defensive line depth on this team that's going to step up and play well outside of Gilberry. And even that's iffy.

[Utts]

Is that schmuck Paulie finally learning to fully utilize the weapons at his disposal, or is just a matter of Tez and Geno getting back to 100% and raising the level of everybody around them?

[RoyleRedlegs]

(12-02-2015, 02:26 AM)wolfkaosaun Wrote: Packers defense isn't really that good to begin with. Texans have had a good defense outside of Watt.

That is true. But there's no defensive line depth on this team that's going to step up and play well outside of Gilberry. And even that's iffy.

Clay Matthews is so entirely overrated. And the Texans defense has a lot of good players. Even at their best, the rest of our active DTs are fringe roster players...not legit NFL guys. 

(12-02-2015, 03:05 AM)Utts Wrote: Is that schmuck Paulie finally learning to fully utilize the weapons at his disposal, or is just a matter of Tez and Geno getting back to 100% and raising the level of everybody around them?

...what weapons? What weapons has he been provided with? 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(12-01-2015, 05:58 PM)J24 Wrote: The Texans defense has been pretty good lately.

Yeah, they are damn good. I just couldn't see even THAT good of a Defense holding us to 6 points.

But as Luvnit said we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties against a Defense that is the best at holding up in 3rd and long situations.