A few thoughts

[Shake n Blake]

1. It's time for people to quit arguing over Hill and Gio. As we saw today, they're both good when they get holes to run through. Hill had more yards in 9 carries today (168) than Gio had in the first 6 games (167). The talent Hill displayed in 2014 is still there. Gio is still his dynamic self. Fwiw, Hill is now up to 5.2 YPC on the season.

2. It's also probably time for some to admit they were wrong about LaFell. He's now on pace for 850 yards + 9 TDs. Still leads the team in TD catches (which even I will admit I didn't see coming). Maybe he's not the long term answer, but it looks like he's completely over the injury that led to the Pats releasing him.

3. Mike Nugent is not a good kicker.

4. Dalton is on pace for 4720 yards and is sporting a 100.7 rating. Not sure what else there is to say about the guy. He keeps working and keeps getting better. He may be a guy that is considered top 5 after Brady, Brees, etc retire.

5. AJ Green is in the midst of a career year. On pace for almost 1800 yards. Its not all about the numbers either. He just looks like a man on a mission this year. So many amazing one-handed catches.

6. It's been beaten to death, but Ogbuehi is killing us. I honestly can't recall a tackle looking this bad for us. We've been spoiled.

7. 9-7 might win this division. With the Ravens spiraling out of control and Ben out 4-6 weeks, this division is about to start looking real ugly. I know we all have our doubts about Marv in the playoffs, but I'll always take the chance, however small it may be.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(10-23-2016, 06:25 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: 1. It's time for people to quit arguing over Hill and Gio. As we saw today, they're both good when they get holes to run through. Hill had more yards in 9 carries today (168) than Gio had in the first 6 games (167). The talent Hill displayed in 2014 is still there. Gio is still his dynamic self. Fwiw, Hill is now up to 5.2 YPC on the season.

2. It's also probably time for some to admit they were wrong about LaFell. He's now on pace for 850 yards + 9 TDs. Still leads the team in TD catches (which even I will admit I didn't see coming). Maybe he's not the long term answer, but it looks like he's completely over the injury that led to the Pats releasing him.

3. Mike Nugent is not a good kicker.

4. Dalton is on pace for 4720 yards and is sporting a 100.7 rating. Not sure what else there is to say about the guy. He keeps working and keeps getting better. He may be a guy that is considered top 5 after Brady, Brees, etc retire.

5. AJ Green is in the midst of a career year. On pace for almost 1800 yards. Its not all about the numbers either. He just looks like a man on a mission this year. So many amazing one-handed catches.

6. It's been beaten to death, but Ogbuehi is killing us. I honestly can't recall a tackle looking this bad for us. We've been spoiled.

7. 9-7 might win this division. With the Ravens spiraling out of control and Ben out 4-6 weeks, this division is about to start looking real ugly. I know we all have our doubts about Marv in the playoffs, but I'll always take the chance, however small it may be.

I agree with all of your thoughts Shake, i have some to add...

AJ Green is a beast, those 2 catches today were insane, the TD was just great concentration and 
the sideline catch was a great one hander. I really like Lafell as you know and he has been even
better than both of us thought and we were both backers of the guy when we signed him.

Also nice seeing Eifert get a catch, i only saw the one so i didn't know if he got more, but still,
good signs all the way around today except for the coaching. I think most of us saw the fails once
again and the players making up for them.

Saw some great stuff out there, hopefully the coaches don't revert to the shit that don't work.

Just do what works people, it isn't that complicated. Great blocking on the Hill TD, he has rare
speed for a back that big.

[TheCincinnatiKid]

Completely agree with OP, though I personally won't sleep on Landry Jones keeping the Steelers ship sailing.... unfortunately they just don't tank when Roethlisberger goes down.

But yeah, this season is proof that Andy is an absolute franchise QB for us. AJ Green is an absolute beast. LaFell was indeed a good pickup, I imagined he would be a good #2 WR tbh. As for Hill and Gio.... Hill is the better primary back, Gio is capable of a big play on any play. They're different guys, but I would start #32.

[Shake n Blake]

(10-23-2016, 06:57 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: Completely agree with OP, though I personally won't sleep on Landry Jones keeping the Steelers ship sailing.... unfortunately they just don't tank when Roethlisberger goes down.

But yeah, this season is proof that Andy is an absolute franchise QB for us. AJ Green is an absolute beast. LaFell was indeed a good pickup, I imagined he would be a good #2 WR tbh. As for Hill and Gio.... Hill is the better primary back, Gio is capable of a big play on any play. They're different guys, but I would start #32.

Agree on all counts. Landry Jones has been awful in the past, but with the way he's playing today...I think they might win a couple. I still don't see them finishing any better than 10-6 though. They'll probably be 4-3 after today, and they've had some real stinkers against supposedly inferior competition.

[HarleyDog]

(10-23-2016, 06:57 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: Completely agree with OP, though I personally won't sleep on Landry Jones keeping the Steelers ship sailing.... unfortunately they just don't tank when Roethlisberger goes down.

But yeah, this season is proof that Andy is an absolute franchise QB for us. AJ Green is an absolute beast. LaFell was indeed a good pickup, I imagined he would be a good #2 WR tbh. As for Hill and Gio.... Hill is the better primary back, Gio is capable of a big play on any play. They're different guys, but I would start #32.

Andy is doing awesome work out there with what he has to work with. Imagine what he could do if he had the time in the backfield? He's much better mentally than he's ever been. He's focused. He still has his flaws he needs to work on, but man, this dude is better than many on here ever expected.

[*bfine32*]

Agree with all, except the Nuge assessment. Dude just had a bad day. If it becomes a trend then we'll go from there.

Additional thoughts:

Could we have found anyone anymore useless to replace Tate?

George Illoka has been very disappointing

Shawn Williams should be LB, because all but V.Rey are not getting it done

[BengalRed]

(10-23-2016, 07:12 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Agree with all, except the Nuge assessment. Dude just had a bad day. If it becomes a trend then we'll go from there.

Additional thoughts:

Could we have found anyone anymore useless to replace Tate?

George Illoka has been very disappointing

Shawn Williams should be LB, because all but V.Rey are not getting it done

It was pretty windy out there today. I know kickers are supposed to  account for that but it's tough sometimes.

[Shake n Blake]

(10-23-2016, 07:12 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Agree with all, except the Nuge assessment. Dude just had a bad day. If it becomes a trend then we'll go from there.

Additional thoughts:

Could we have found anyone anymore useless to replace Tate?

George Illoka has been very disappointing

Shawn Williams should be LB, because all but V.Rey are not getting it done

Well I didn't say Nuge was terrible, just said he's "not good". He's been a bottom tier kicker statistically for awhile now. He's now sitting at 78% which is awful by today's standards. Sure, the wind, but all kickers have games in the wind or poor weather.

I'll begrudgingly agree on Erickson. He's not looking good at all. I wasn't exactly a Tater hater over the course of his career, but I'd say it was the right time to move on. We can do better than this though. 

[*rfaulk34*]

O.T. 

How's this for a thought...

Former Bengals draft pick, Cobi Hamilton, working the Pats over in the 3rd quarter for the...Steelers (spit!).

[Shake n Blake]

(10-23-2016, 07:43 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: O.T. 

How's this for a thought...

Former Bengals draft pick, Cobi Hamilton, working the Pats over in the 3rd quarter for the...Steelers (spit!).

After this, they might just sign Dez Briscoe and Ryan Whalen.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-23-2016, 06:25 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: 1. It's time for people to quit arguing over Hill and Gio. As we saw today, they're both good when they get holes to run through. Hill had more yards in 9 carries today (168) than Gio had in the first 6 games (167). The talent Hill displayed in 2014 is still there. Gio is still his dynamic self. Fwiw, Hill is now up to 5.2 YPC on the season.

I'm pretty positive I am not ready to crown Hill because of 1 game against the Browns.

Last year in the second Browns game, he ran for 98 yards at 4.5ypc and and people were like "He's back! Slump over!" Then he proceeded to get 206 yards at 3.4ypc over the final four games of the season.

1 game doesn't wash away 1.5 seasons. It does give some hope, though. I'd like to see it happen against a team that isn't the Bad News Browns, too, unless you think the Bengals run O is suddenly one that will be able to put up 271 yards rushing at 9 yards a pop.

Based off small sample size conclusions, Jay Ajayi is also going to be the best RB in NFL history. Barry Sanders wishes he could hold Ajayi's jock. Lol

[lone bengal]

Agree with everything you said this division is up for grabs.
With Lafell playing this way and Eifert shaking off the rust it gets harder to double A.J. I'm glad we won but this team has some issues, Cleveland is not a good team by any means and if we play better competition we will not win. I don't wanna sound like a downer but I had Super Bowl aspirations for this team last year and I'm not gonna be satisfied with a sloppy win vs the worst team in the league with their 5th string qb, best WR hurt and pro bowl corner back out. Coaching continues to be an issue the Green Hail Mary at the end of the half bailed out the terrible clock management of the coaching staff that even the commentators criticized. The defense has some major issues and can't get off the field on 3rd down to save their lives. They couldn't figure out how to stop a simple option with the qb , Michael Johnson looked lost and refused to tackle the Qb. Speed at linebacker continues to kill us. Hopefully they can clean it up anybody could win this division.

[Fresno B]

We just played the worst team in the NFL.

[Shake n Blake]

(10-23-2016, 07:54 PM)previousTheLeonardLeap Wrote: I'm pretty positive I am not ready to crown Hill because of 1 game against the Browns.

Last year in the second Browns game, he ran for 98 yards at 4.5ypc and and people were like "He's back! Slump over!" Then he proceeded to get 206 yards at 3.4ypc over the final four games of the season.

1 game doesn't wash away 1.5 seasons. It does give some hope, though. I'd like to see it happen against a team that isn't the Bad News Browns, too, unless you think the Bengals run O is suddenly one that will be able to put up 271 yards rushing at 9 yards a pop.

I'd say it's more likely that our run blocking suddenly looked competent against weak competition, than it is that Hill and Gio suddenly developed good vision and speed for one game. Gio has had a bad year running this year too, LL.

Actually, it's more than just this year. In Gio's previous 16 games heading into this week, he only rushed for 470 yards and 0 TDs on 3.73 yards per carry. Awful numbers. Worse than Hill over the same stretch.

I know you really don't like Hill, but Gio's recent numbers are strong evidence that it's more of a blocking problem than just a Hill problem.

[Fresno B]

(10-23-2016, 07:54 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I'm pretty positive I am not ready to crown Hill because of 1 game against the Browns.

Last year in the second Browns game, he ran for 98 yards at 4.5ypc and and people were like "He's back! Slump over!" Then he proceeded to get 206 yards at 3.4ypc over the final four games of the season.

1 game doesn't wash away 1.5 seasons. It does give some hope, though. I'd like to see it happen against a team that isn't the Bad News Browns, too, unless you think the Bengals run O is suddenly one that will be able to put up 271 yards rushing at 9 yards a pop.

Based off small sample size conclusions, Jay Ajayi is also going to be the best RB in NFL history. Barry Sanders wishes he could hold Ajayi's jock. Lol

Agreed. It takes a lot more than a 100yd game every 20 games to make me believe again.  Especially after that postseason fumble.

[Shake n Blake]

(10-23-2016, 08:08 PM)Fresno B Wrote: We just played the worst team in the NFL.

I guess we can disregard the best game Gio has had in 17 weeks as well, then.

After all, he's been terrible for awhile now, and this game came against weak completion.

Gio must be a terrible runner.

[Ravage]

(10-23-2016, 08:08 PM)Fresno B Wrote: We just played the worst team in the NFL.

Yes, they did, and unlike many MANY times before, the Bengals didn't play down to their level. This is a good thing.

[Shake n Blake]

I guess I'm struggling to understand folks who think Hill is a bad runner, but Gio is good, when they've both had bad YPC numbers over the last 2 years. Also, we spend so much time talking about how awful the o-line is, yet some people don't seem to think it's affecting our ability to run.

Seems people who hate Hill just don't want Hill to have an excuse for his performance. Even if that means they have to ignore how bad Gio has been, or how awful the line is.

[Atomic Orange]

Agree with all but who are we kidding. NE is going to the SB.

[J24]

(10-23-2016, 08:36 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I guess I'm struggling to understand folks who think Hill is a bad runner, but Gio is good, when they've both had bad YPC numbers over the last 2 years. Also, we spend so much time talking about how awful the o-line is, yet some people don't seem to think it's affecting our ability to run.

Seems people who hate Hill just don't want Hill to have an excuse for his performance. Even if that means they have to ignore how bad Gio has been, or how awful the line is.

People have their favorites.