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Out you demons of stupidity!

October 29, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | 1 comment

Stupid-Bengals

I’m struggling, really struggling, but I suspect by the end of the day I’ll simply need to fire the Bengals.

Ineptitude seems to be contagious in Bengaldom.

Edit (Update): WOW! After the game Coach Marvin Lewis (and I use the term Coach lightly) said:

“In hindsight, we should have gone for it on fourth down rather than take the points.”

Yet, today, one day after the fact, he backpedaled.

“I still feel we’re going to possess the ball three more times, by taking the points,” Lewis said. “We have an opportunity to stop them, get the ball back before halftime then have the ball coming out in the third quarter. So I’m probably going to still kick the field goal at that point with where we were in the game. It was a good yard that way. I have to go with how I’m getting information. We weren’t sure, we had a little bit of rundown on the play clock because they didn’t get the ball spotted exactly right away. If you look at the tape, once I called timeout, it was a little bit further. But again, I have to go with what is there. It’s easy to look back on it now, particularly after they score a touchdown, and think that makes a difference. … It was important to get points.”

Damn son, where’s your conviction? NFL Coaches aren’t paid millions of dollars to waffle on their decisions.

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Bengals now 2-5 as expected.

October 28, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

Watching that game was down right painful and the outlook is now worse than before.

Buffalo beat the Jets and is now 3-4, and nope I don’t think the Bengals can beat Buffalo so we’re probably looking at 2-6 after next week. Equaling their poor start in 2004. They did get to 8-8 that year…

Key disappointments this week:

  • Play calling. Outside of the first drive, it was pitiful, and predictive as hell. When Palmer audibles with a closed fist, they are running. If I can catch that don’t you think the rest of the league has?
  • That gutless 4th and one call. You’ve got to be kidding me. Every team has a sure fire play to gain one yard. Generally a quick slant pass play that’s good for one yard and can’t be stopped. Given the score down 14-3 at the time, knowing you’re already 2-4 and haven’t stopped Pittsburgh all day you have to go for that. The whole complexity of the game changes if you make it.
  • Chad and TJ, though Chad more so than TJ. I understand these guys are getting played soft, and/or double teamed. When a team sits back and takes away the deep stuff, there’s all kinds of open stuff underneath. Good teams (will just pick you apart if you stick to cover-2, and force you to move up, thus opening the long ball. These guys have to get open, if they aren’t someone else is. You can’t blanket cover 3 wide outs and the tight end. Someone is open and Carson had time today.
  • Clock management. From the time O’neal intercepted that ball we should have been in the two minute drill. There wasn’t any sense of urgency with the Bengals. You can take your time and put together a 17 play 8 minute drive when you have the lead, not when playing catch-up. The Steelers drove 67 yards in 9 plays/2 minutes to and the half. I know you need to rest the D and keep the Steelers of the field, but you need points more at that stage of the game.
  • Challenges – my goodness who is Marvin getting feedback from? This person needs their eyes checked.

I thought last week that 4-6 was a possibility. I’m revising that to 3-7… The Bengals *might* steal a win in the next 4 weeks, and expect they’ll maybe finish 5-11 or worse 4-12. Of course adding Chris Henry to the mix will help but it’s not going to help enough.

The best part of today? My weekends have opened up considerably.

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The beloved 2-4 Bengals.

October 26, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

I hadn’t written about the beloved Bengals for a couple weeks. They certainly laid an egg against a very beatable Chiefs team. They darn near lost the game to the Jets. While it was a great come-back in the 2nd half, I find the enthusiasm of fans a bit overwhelming. You’d think they made the playoffs or something.

Injuries aside, they did play well that and half but as much as as they played well, the jets played poorly. So it’s not really as good as it looks.

Looking ahead, this is Pittsburgh week (currently 4-2). Do they have a chance? I’m afraid they probably don’t. The line is currently Pittsburgh by 3.5 I don’t think they have a chance to stop Pittsburgh but they might just get lucky at home. Can Pittsburgh stop them? The proved on Monday night that they were vulnerable, much more so that I’d thought. Of course the Bengals will probably start Rudi instead of Kenny so the first half will be a bust run-wise.

I’m fairly certain they don’t have what it takes to get up for this game. Hack they couldn’t get up for the Chiefs and that was a *must* win, and it took them half the game to get up for the Jets which was a double-must-win game.

The following week it’s the Bills (2-4). We should beat the Bills, but we also should have beaten the Browns, Chiefs and whooped up on the Jets. This game isn’t a mime, the Bengals are notorious for playing to the level of their competition. This game will have a lot of turn-overs in it.

Ravens (4-3) three weeks from now? They Ravens are no where near as good as the Bengals made them look on opening night. This game is also a *must* win but won’t be easy.

Cardinals (3-4) again not a gimmie for the Bengals.

If they get past Pittsburgh with a win, that might be just enough momentum to allow them to win the next 3, moving them from 2-4 to 6-4, but I don’t have faith that will happen even with Henry back for the Ravens and Cardinals.

I’m thinking we’re looking at 4-6, which would pretty much signal the end of the Season for the Bengals.

Bengals 1-3, Currently there are no professional sports in Cincinnati

October 2, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

That was simply unbelievable.

Oh my, where to start?

Carson Palmer 21 of 35 for 234 yards, 1 TD and 2 picks. That works out to QB Rating of 65.65 (Ben Rothesburger Type numbers) Carson is supposed to be much better than this.

I counted 2 dropped balls by the rookie, 3 catches that Chad had hands on but that were nearly impossible to catch. The fact that he got hands on them was pretty amazing in and of itself.

About 6 completely blown throws including the miss-communication that lead to the interception. Is that on Carson or Chad? Based upon recent trends, I put that on Carson.

Things that rung loud and true after the game.

New England is a machine, a team of men. The Bengals are still a team of boys. The biggest problem is this offensive unit has been in place now for 5+ years and time is quickly running out.

It was a game that required the third rookie wide receiver and the tight end to come up big and they almost did. Kenny Watson played well too. But in the clutch it was Carson that let the O down from my perspective.

We knew the D would struggle, and all we could hope for was that the O could keep it close. Keeping it close would give them a chance. Nobody really expected a win, but we didn’t expect to be man handled in that way either. Our O, even without Henry should be able to keep pace with *most* teams. At least on paper.

Injuries suck, no doubt about that either, but guys need to step up.

Justin Smith? Come on… Make a play. Our only sack of the game happened because we jumped off sides.

Some Positives

1) S. Graham made all of his field goals.
2) The special teams kick coverage wasn’t horrible.
3) K. Watson, ran well.
4) T.J. 10 catches for 100 yards
5) M. Williams 8 Tackles and he didn’t play the whole game. It’s positive that he made 8 tackles, not positive that he had to make the stops.

It is truly a sad day though when the Cleveland fans can actually feel better about their team than the Bengals fans can.

Marvin was allegedly upset after the game and rightfuly so. But some bad coaching calls were made.

3rd Quarter, down by 17, time running out, and you haven’t made a decent defensive stop all day and you kick the field goal. I understand the logic if your D is playing at least marginally. But that was the time to make a statement. The team mailed it in after that field goal. 3 points is 3 points, but that was the time to make the statement. It’s as if the team mailed it in after that.

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Week 3 (1-2) Which to me means 8-8 is starting to look highly optimistic.

September 23, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

Wow!

The Bengals were in this game the whole game, which was absolutely amazing.

I read in one of the columns were Seattle said they’d focus on Chad and T.J. because Rudi wasn’t worth paying any attention too.

Rudi Johnson: 17 carries for 9 yards… I guess they weren’t too far off the mark. Kenny Watson and J. Johnson combined for 10 carries and 72 yards on the ground. Kenny: 9 for 60, when it mattered this time because we were behind.

Carson and our special ED special teams lost this game.
Carson 27 of 43, 342 Yards 1 TD, 2 INT’s for a QB rating of: 70.10
Vs. Hassleback’s 24 of 37, 248 Yards and 3 TDs, 2 INT’s for a QB rating of 88.56

In the end Shawn Alexander got his 100 yards.

Both Chad and TJ had good games. Chad dropped one, maybe two balls, the rest just simply weren’t catchable. Carson threw some really bad passes while under pressure.

—

Everyone fully expects them to get beat and bad Monday night by the Patriots. Perhaps this Pat’s will play the same kind of game the Bengals did in Cleveland. Somehow I doubt that. Bill Belichick’s teams don’t fold like that.

It’s certainly time for a coaching change, maybe not Marvin, but the guys that are more hands on. Starting with special teams coach Darrin Simmons, then follow up with Chuck Bresnahan. Both of these units have been well below average for 3 seasons now.

We also need some depth at all positions. Our backups/2nd string players are very weak compared to the rest of the league. We had a LB dept issue last year because of injuries. We’re only 3 weeks in and we’re in the same boat.

This is very, very frustrating. Looking ahead I’m thinking 3-4 after week 7 is probably the reality.

Bengals Week 1, off to a good start but…

September 11, 2007 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

Wow, what a game. I think *most* Bengals fans expected a win. But nobody expected this.

The talk of the town today will be the ‘D’ and with good reason.

When a team give you 6 turnovers, or a +4 differential you need to win by more than 7, and the game shouldn’t come down to a goal line stand.

The O? What the… Carson is awesome, no doubt about it, but that might as well have been Kitna. No wait, Kitna would have made a few more of those short passes that were just bad. Over thrown, on the wrong shoulder, behind the receiver. Was he trying to get TJ killed? Carson didn’t have a good night.

The D? Much more aggressive than anyone thought, but if it wasn’t for the fact that the Ravens ‘gave’ us this game by virtue of (6) turnovers. It would have been much uglier.

The corners still need work. A more mobile QB would have killed us last night.

Rudi, lets talk about Rudi. 18 carries for 50 years, one of those a 15 yarder, nice, but the highlight still was his give away. 1 good run by Rudi late in the game isn’t what we need. We’ll take it, but Rudi needs to make an impact, early in the game, not when the game is already decided. Take away the 15 yarder and you have 17 carries for 35 yards. That’s horrible, I don’t care who the other defense is. His fumble let the Ravens back in the game. I certainly hope he’s buying the defense dinner because they saved his bacon.

All in all though, that was probably one of the most up/down/exciting Bengal games I’ve watched in a long time.

Chad? That celebration was weak…

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