Browns 51, Bengals 45
The Bengals are like those dum-dum lollipops with the question marks on the wrapper, you don’t know what flavor you’re gonna get. Sometimes you get the six turnovers and shaky offense flavor. Then other times you get the best offense with no defense at all taste. Imagine the repercussions the Bengals have on Las Vegas. Jimmy the Greek would have gone mad trying to forecast this conundrum of a football team.
No point of discussing the offense this week. They looked like what we expect from them every week, efficient. It should be noted that Glen Holt contributed nicely as a third receiver and as a kick-returner.
Marvin says he wont explain to the world what happened on defense. No need to, Marv, it looked pretty obvious to us. What I saw was a defense running around out there lost. I saw 11 guys who each decided to run their own play. When a corner is playing zone and the safety on that side blitzes, Braylon Edwards happens. When linebackers play zone with they’re backs turned, Kellen Winslow happens. When the entire team runs to one gap during a run, Jamal Lewis happens. It’s pretty fundamental. When a defense doesn’t understand how to play it, you give up fifty points to last week’s worst team in football.
I can’t help but shoulder most of the blame on the coaches. They would tell me that they can’t go out there and play for the players but that wasn’t the issue yesterday. While there definitely were some missed tackles yesterday, the main problems were formation breakdowns and lack of clear communication throughout the entire unit. Blitzes came from areas where blockers waited to pick them up. The secondary seemed to bunch together around the sideline allowing the middle to be open every time. I realize Caleb Miller and Leon Hall were in there as replacement starters and most of the big plays could be tagged on those two, but the coaches need to adjust better for their inadequacies. Did they not watch the tape of Cleveland last week? Pittsburgh blitzed them for four quarters up the middle creating turnovers and chaos for young Derek Anderson. The Bengals blitzed from the outside and became immediately neutralized by tight ends and full backs. Sure Pittsburgh has the greatest defensive mind in the history of football in Dick Lebeau and they play a 3-4 set, but the vulnerabilities were exposed and we didn’t jump on them.
Marvin has already gone through one defensive coordinator in his short tenure here in Cincinnati. Bresnahan has to be nearing the axe after a showing like that.
Now for special teams. Darren Simmons has more starters than most teams playing special teams due to injuries. So in theory, they should be able to tackle better, but that’s not the case. When the Bengals used to be miserable, special teams lost us five or so games a year. Giving the opposition laughable field position regularly is an easy way to rack up avoidable losses. The great Dallas teams of the 90's prided themselves on their starters making their special teams great. We on the other hand, run into blockers and pave running lanes for quick returners to zoom through.
Consistency on this team has proven to be a far-fetched ambition. Our talent is too obviously lopsided on offense and it has killed us for five years now. It is still early and we don’t have to freak out just yet, but the mystery flavors better start tasting better than that. Gross!
Mojokong - disgusted.
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2 comments:
Leon Hall is booty...
Caleb Miller is booty+
Bengals are a question mark
Go UC Football!
Go Xavier Basketball!
Here's my formula for disaster.
Start with a punishing game against Baltimore (both physically and mentally) Monday night in which the longest Bengals drive of the game was the five minute drive after halftime (i.e a game in which the D played hard with little rest all night).
Sprinkle in injuries to special teams players like Ethan Kilmer.
Mix in injured started at OLB. (Jeanty)
Combine all of the above and then add starters to special teams.
Wait five days.
Then injure starting MLB (with starting MLB in game, Browns were 0-5 on passing downs) and injure starting CB.
Watch as mixture explodes.
You can't have starters playing ST and not expect to pay for it on D if your offense isn't sustaining drives. Maybe the worst thing to happen to the Bengals yesterday was the fact that they scored too quickly.
Caleb Miller, I blame wholly and completely for the loss. If I read one more thing about the calls being wrong, the communication on D being bad, the plays being screwed up, I will vomit. Blame the QB of the D aka the MLB. He of one dropped INT and several blown plays.
Lemar Marshall, can contribute, but there is a reason he got cut from the Redskins.
Miller, can contribute, on ST and as a backup. Was clearly not ready yesterday.
Leon Hall, worries me. He worried me when they drafted him because of his propensity toward the end of last season to get beat. You can't just let your dude go and expect safety help. A good WR is always going to run to the corner of the field on a cover 2 like Edwards did on the play on which he rolled into the endzone. The CB can't just give up that area of the field.
The constant in the poor D of the Bengals in the Marvin Lewis era is Marvin, and his failed draft picks. I'm talking Keiwann, Donkey Boy Pollack, Thurman, Miller, Askew, Weathersby, Rucker, Ratliff and others.
Geathers and Peko have shown flashes of brilliance, but not the consistency they'd have to in order to be a great fourth round pick.
Williams is good when the rest of the D is good, and bad when it isn't. Same goes for Landon Johnson, who is only a playmaker when the front 4 is making plays.
I don't blame Marvin for every pick. Some (Weathersby) have been bad luck. Some (Thurman) were risks. Some were bad picks (Pollack, Rucker, Ratliff). What I do blame Marvin for is a failure, complete and utter failure, to build anything resembling a consistent, deep, defense, during his tenure here. I think the Bengals D got pwned yesterday because they were tired. I blame that on the coach. Take it or leave it.
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