Bengals Win Out + Broncos & Colts go 2-3, Dolphins go 3-2 & WE'RE IN!!!

[ERIC1]

(3 hours ago)THE PISTONS Wrote: Explain to me how injuries made the defense worse. Who got injured that would have made the defense appreciably better.

you have the ability to peruse the year long injury report.almost everyone on that defensive line has been injured or playing with injuries..including Hubbard and Hendrickson..I am in no way suggesting that this would have been a stellar defense and I would have never gotten rid of Bates and a few others..But, injuries certainly contributed to the problems this year

[THE PISTONS]

(3 hours ago)ERIC1 Wrote: I think 88 year old Mike Brown wants to keep this team in his family and in Cincinnati..I think that with lease negotiations coming up..with players like Burrow  voicing their concerns we may start seeing some definitive movement this off-season..just a hunch..I also think that as miserable a year this has been..some of these young players ..especially on defense have gotten some pretty good reps ...lets hope for the best

The thing is, with Burrow and Chase...this team will always win 8-9 games IF they are healthy.

That's the floor for this team. You could probably bring any journeyman coach in the NFL in and win 8-9 games here. I don't think the Bengals play some complex scheme. It appears basic to me and it relies on the players to win their matchups.

The team aspires for SB wins. To get there, you have to become elite and the best of the best. That's where they fail.

Some organizations view a .500 season as a failure. Here, we've stacked a bunch of wins vs 3 win teams and it's somehow being viewed as the team developing.

[THE PISTONS]

(3 hours ago)ERIC1 Wrote: you have the ability to peruse the year long injury report.almost everyone on that defensive line has been injured or playing with injuries..including Hubbard and Hendrickson..I am in no way suggesting that this would have been a stellar defense and I would have never gotten rid of Bates and a few others..But, injuries certainly contributed to the problems this year

Playing both sides of the fence? Ie they made bad personnel moves, but would be better without injuries.

What team in the NFL wouldn't be better if they were perfectly healthy?

[Sled21]

(3 hours ago)THE PISTONS Wrote: Explain to me how injuries made the defense worse. Who got injured that would have made the defense appreciably better.

Dax Hill and DJ Turner were a couple of our fastest DBs. We played the first 4 or five games with virtually no Defensive Tackles healthy. While there may not be one particular player who would make the defense appreciably better, the sheer amount of players injured definitively affected it. 

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

The Rankins signing and letting Reader go was a complete disaster.

Murphy is behind Ossai in year 2, and Ossai ain't exactly lighting it up. Hubbard has fallen off a cliff.

The Burton as Boyd/Higgins replacement is a nearly complete bust after year 1. And Yoshi is bottom 3 via PFF. Though 6 TDs ain't nothing.

All as the two-way TE gamble looks a bust due to injuries.

Stone, Battle, Jenkins, and Jackson have all shown some signs of life lately, and Dax & Turner were not horrible in coverage before their injuries. Neither was Wilson. Pratt is top 10 in the league in tackles, for all his struggles.

The D is a long way from dominant. No pass rush outside of Trey. Ooor iverall run D/tackling. No CB1. And the LBs and S's are slow by NFL standards.

But if we can get it to middling, fix the IOL, and lock up Chase & Higgins, we'll be back in business.

[Ell Prez]

(3 hours ago)ERIC1 Wrote: dude..I make no excuses for injuries 99% of the time..and the organization needs to hire a GM and some more scouts..But this year..this was kamazazied by injuries on both sides of the ball..now that the second stringers and the younger rookies have had a little chance to play together..they looked pretty damn good yesterday

lol we played the browns with a third string QB. I can appreciate looking at things on a positive note. I’m trying to do that. But this defense is awful and if we go in to next year with the same team + draft picks and 3rd wave of FA players, we’re missing the playoffs again.

Next year it will be hard for Burrow and Chase to stay at this pace. So to be equal to this year, almost making playoffs, we need defense to take a step forward. If we want to make playoffs, we need big steps forward. Super Bowl - we need an entire new defense.

[Ell Prez]

(2 hours ago)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: The Rankins signing and letting Reader go was a complete disaster.

Murphy is behind Ossai in year 2, and Ossai ain't exactly lighting it up. Hubbard has fallen off a cliff.

The Burton as Boyd/Higgins replacement is a nearly complete bust after year 1. And Yoshi is bottom 3 via PFF. Though 6 TDs ain't nothing.

All as the two-way TE gamble looks a bust due to injuries.

Stone, Battle, Jenkins, and Jackson have all shown some signs of life lately, and Dax & Turner were not horrible in coverage before their injuries. Neither was Wilson. Pratt is top 10 in the league in tackles, for all his struggles.

The D is a long way from dominant. No pass rush outside of Trey. Ooor iverall run D/tackling. No CB1. And the LBs and S's are slow by NFL standards.

But if we can get it to middling, fix the IOL, and lock up Chase & Higgins, we'll be back in business.

Pratt is awful. How does he rank in tackles for a loss? I don’t care if Pratt tackles the guy after he picked up the first down. Tackles don’t mean much without looking at the substance.

Pratt sucks and doesn’t deserve his second contact. He’s relatively cheap but if we let him walk we could have easily kept Bates.

[Frank Booth]

(1 hour ago)Ell Prez Wrote: lol we played the browns with a third string QB. I can appreciate looking at things on a positive note. I’m trying to do that. But this defense is awful and if we go in to next year with the same team + draft picks and 3rd wave of FA players, we’re missing the playoffs again.

Next year it will be hard for Burrow and Chase to stay at this pace. So to be equal to this year, almost making playoffs, we need defense to take a step forward. If we want to make playoffs, we need big steps forward. Super Bowl - we need an entire new defense.

I already see bengals media heads praising this defense and saying stuff like "They are progressing and improving"

its such trash. Its setting up the fans to accept the same garbage defense for next year. Idk how some people cant see it. The defense can only handle garbage offenses and qb's

[THE PISTONS]

(2 hours ago)Sled21 Wrote: Dax Hill and DJ Turner were a couple of our fastest DBs. We played the first 4 or five games with virtually no Defensive Tackles healthy. While there may not be one particular player who would make the defense appreciably better, the sheer amount of players injured definitively affected it. 

What NFL team goes through the year with no injuries? It's the lament of the losers. Our team is bad because of injuries.

[THE PISTONS]

(1 hour ago)Ell Prez Wrote: lol we played the browns with a third string QB. I can appreciate looking at things on a positive note. I’m trying to do that. But this defense is awful and if we go in to next year with the same team + draft picks and 3rd wave of FA players, we’re missing the playoffs again.

Next year it will be hard for Burrow and Chase to stay at this pace. So to be equal to this year, almost making playoffs, we need defense to take a step forward. If we want to make playoffs, we need big steps forward. Super Bowl - we need an entire new defense.

3rd string QB. Backup RB. They were on what they're 4th Tackle too?

[THE PISTONS]

(1 hour ago)Ell Prez Wrote: Pratt is awful. How does he rank in tackles for a loss? I don’t care if Pratt tackles the guy after he picked up the first down. Tackles don’t mean much without looking at the substance.

Pratt sucks and doesn’t deserve his second contact. He’s relatively cheap but if we let him walk we could have easily kept Bates.

I think the LB's look bad because of the DT's. If you have guards blocking you, it's tough. Reader made them look better.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 11:15 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: They're beating very bad teams. They've beat bad teams all year and lost to average to good teams. They find ways to lose to those teams.

The script is same. Good offenses shred the defense.

Well, we get to play a very good team in the Broncos Saturday and could put this notion to bed and then again against the stealers 
in the last game. As long as we give ourselves a chance at the Playoffs this team is still a fighter late in the season. We just cannot 
suck at the start of seasons anymore under Zac, this HAS to stop. 

You cannot dig yourselves these holes.

BTW, neither the Broncos or the stealers have good Offenses IMO. If this Defense wants to show something shut these Offenses 
down just the way they did the Browns. Still need to get much better at stopping the run.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(2 hours ago)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: Pratt is top 10 in the league in tackles, for all his struggles.

Dhani Jones was 11th in tackles in 2010.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(1 hour ago)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think the LB's look bad because of the DT's. If you have guards blocking you, it's tough. Reader made them look better.

Pratt takes terrible angles and he did it again on the big Jerome Ford play yesterday. The DT's were taking up the Guards and Center,
the Linebackers need to take the right angles and tackle the RB in the hole.

[THE PISTONS]

(1 hour ago)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Well, we get to play a very good team in the Broncos Saturday and could put this notion to bed and then again against the stealers 
in the last game. As long as we give ourselves a chance at the Playoffs this team is still a fighter late in the season. We just cannot 
suck at the start of seasons anymore under Zac, this HAS to stop. 

You cannot dig yourselves these holes.

BTW, neither the Broncos or the stealers have good Offenses IMO. If this Defense wants to show something shut these Offenses 
down just the way they did the Browns. Still need to get much better at stopping the run.

The Steelers offense sucked going into our 1st game with them and our defense made them look like the Greatest Show on Turf.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(1 hour ago)THE PISTONS Wrote: The Steelers offense sucked going into our 1st game with them and our defense made them look like the Greatest Show on Turf.

Not the greatest show on turf at all, they were a check down Offense all day and our Defense couldn't stop it which was even more 
embarrassing. We will see if we can stop them the next time around. It isn't a hard Offense to stop, you slow down the run and tackle
the RB's, TE's and WR's on the check downs. They might not even have Pickens the next time we play them. No excuses.

The tackling is still pretty terrible besides Hilton and Battle. I do like what I am seeing from the youth though. Kris Jenkins, McKinnley
and DJ Ivey to name a few.

[*ochocincos*]

With KC's win yesterday, they need just 1 win to get 1st overall seed.
We want KC to win so they have nothing to play for against DEN in the final week of the season.



However, for KC to get this next win, they will have beaten PIT, thereby resulting in PIT having something to play for the final week against the Bengals.

Although PIT being tied with BAL anyway, they may have something to play for the final week of the season regardless whether they win or lose.


EDIT: We need KC to lose to PIT on Christmas so that they have something to play for on the final week (assuming BUF doesn't lose, thereby giving KC the 1st overall seed anyway).
And it looks like regardless, PIT will have a reason to play their starters Week 18 against the Bengals for playoff seeding purposes.

Also, barring a collapse, MIA and/or IND have easy schedules to win out.
Need a miracle win by NYG or JAX against IND, CLE or NYJ against MIA.
If it's going to happen, it's more likely going to be the divisional games in Week 18.

[TheCincinnatiKid]

(1 hour ago)ochocincos Wrote: With KC's win yesterday, they need just 1 win to get 1st overall seed.
We want KC to win so they have nothing to play for against DEN in the final week of the season.

However, for KC to get this next win, they will have beaten PIT, thereby resulting in PIT having something to play for the final week against the Bengals.
Although PIT being tied with BAL anyway, they may have something to play for the final week of the season regardless whether they win or lose.

Also, barring a collapse, MIA and/or IND have easy schedules to win out.
Need a miracle win by NYG or JAX against IND, CLE or NYJ against MIA.
If it's going to happen, it's more likely going to be the divisional games in Week 18.

Isn't this the opposite of what we want? We need KC to beat Denver.

[THE PISTONS]

(1 hour ago)ochocincos Wrote: With KC's win yesterday, they need just 1 win to get 1st overall seed.
We want KC to win so they have nothing to play for against DEN in the final week of the season.

However, for KC to get this next win, they will have beaten PIT, thereby resulting in PIT having something to play for the final week against the Bengals.
Although PIT being tied with BAL anyway, they may have something to play for the final week of the season regardless whether they win or lose.

Also, barring a collapse, MIA and/or IND have easy schedules to win out.
Need a miracle win by NYG or JAX against IND, CLE or NYJ against MIA.
If it's going to happen, it's more likely going to be the divisional games in Week 18.

Yeah...I think Mia and Indy both losing out is improbable.

[THE PISTONS]

(58 minutes ago)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: Isn't this the opposite of what we want? We need KC to beat Denver.

Yes.