A Trend I Like

It seems with the wonder of DVR/Tivo even casual fans are now rewatching and studying film like they're coaches.  This allows for much more informed opinions than, say, watching the game once while drinking and then stomping all over the jump to conclusions mat.  I find this "film study" particularly amusing when some of our sane commenters do it and then tell us what they're seeing after rewatching.

In the comments to this post you'll find a lot of that.  I'll repost two of the more in depth ones so you can read for yourself.  The takeaways from our commenters that seemed most interesting?

1. Carson looks much better despite a couple shitty decisions
2. Zim actually schemed somewhat poorly, which resulted in LBs consistently matching up with WES WELKAH, THE FACKIN HERO TO BAWSTON!!! - a rare occurence and something not likely to happen every week
3. Roland & Livings are not the answer - hopefully this season at some point Mathis and Smith come in to replace them

In general, we have always matched up well with the Ravens and I see no reason why that should change Sunday.  I'm actually more perturbed Atlanta couldn't keep the Steelers down sans Roetherwlihaslgijaer.  I kinda liked Atlanta before that, now I hope their season goes down in flames and the Saints roll them twice.

Some analysis below the fold:

From tide182:

since i am unhealthily obsessed with this team i went over the dvr'd tape of the game late last night and early this morning and came up with the following tidbits, dont know if you all would agree or not:

1) carsons arm looks as good as it ever has, but his head simply needs to get better. there were two specific occasions beyond the pick-6 (an atrocious decision with the football) that illustrate the issue: a) the third and 6 down 10-0 at our own 42 very early in the second quarter when we were still very much in the game. the blitz gave pressure on palmer in the shotgun, and while he correctly read the blitz, he chose the wrong checkdown, no questions asked. he went with about a 1 yard in to a well covered TO to the left, when if he had simply looked right up the middle shipley had been crossing from slot right across the field and was completely uncovered 5 yards past the line of scrimmage. he could have walked backwards to a first down from there, and considering the pocket was collapsing from the outside and had a lane up the middle, its surprising carson went with the tougher throw. that one really hurt as we were trying to get just a toe in the door in the football game. b) obviously, the near pick floating to shipley on our first TD drive. that throw just cannot be made, although perhaps we can chalk this one up to what carson said in his postgame presser about making throws he wouldnt normally make. still, combined with his forcing the ball to TO short early and often, his pick 6, and actually 2 other near picks, the decision making has to make you a little uneasy.

2) roland and livings together on the left side just doesnt work. we did that one time in the first half, and it was the 2nd and 6 where ced ran to the left was destroyed in the backfield and fumbled. roland had motioned from being heavy right as the tight end into a "normal" left tackle position beside livings as it looked like we were trying to trick them into thinking we were running right. we ran left, and some NE guy just blew up right between livings and roland as if they werent even there, and started the swarm in the backfield. there were multiple occasions where roland got tossed around, and considering i thought andre smith looked passable himself, i would welcome a change at RT as early as next week.

3) i know we're giving zimmer a mulligan on the week, but the number of times we saw dhani jones, keith rivers, or brandon johnson on wes welker was completely unacceptable. it was part of the scheme consistently and when that was the case the patriots consistently abused that schematic choice. so many times, including his second td and both third down conversions on the pats clinching drive when it was 31-17, welker literally would just run forward 4 yards at the snap and turn around. nobody would be within 4-5 yards of him as a hole in the zone or whatever, but the point is you simply cannot have an underneath zone manned by linebackers when wes welker is your opponent and he lives by destroying that very situation. the one time we put leon on welker, he couldnt even get half a step on what turned out to be a double move bc leon had jumped the first route and then stayed step for step with him up the field. im not even convinced welker is totally back to being welker, he never even had to be shifty against us, he just went and sat in zones. i think we're talented enough at corner to challenge some people to beat us in man before we have to resort to soft short zones, ESPECIALLY against welker/k faulk types (not a good omen for ray rice receiving next week, please step up zim). this combined with 3 separate occasions in the first half when the bengals were literally just outmanned on a particular side (like the borderline comical 3 v 2 first touchdown which simms literally described as "a play you cant normally get away with in the nfl, thats normally a college type play") was not exactly the defense's finest hour.

4) i think the d line, on second observation, wasnt as atrocious as we have all made it out to be last week. brady only had 7 of his 35 passing attempts go longer than 8 yards in the air, and while a couple of those short ones were the result of zero pressure on long drop followed by a checkdown 4th option, a lot of times when we had blitzes on our someone (usually tank) actually was pushing the pocket brady would just fire it out to someone in the flat in about 2-3 seconds. j jo, in particular, seemed to play just too scared of getting beat deep by randy moss on bengals blitzes, and there were several occasions where a bengals blitz looked like it would have gotten to brady if he had not had the option of simply turning right/left at the snap and throwing directly to a moss with 10 yard j jo cushion. considering the 3 wrs of the ravens collectively average about a 6.0 second 40 at this point in their careers, i hope we use a little more press coverage this week. i think we will too bc not only do i still trust zim but i really love hte way we happen to match up w balt.

5) finally, to end the longest post ever, the skill players look very good. ced, other than his fumble, ran pretty well i thought. b scott looked good. chad and TO looked pretty good, shipley looked excellent with limited opportunity and gresham was solid in the passing game if not so much blocking (got blown up a few times).

heres a prediction, i think we not only beat the ravens sunday, call it 23-17, but the jets beat new england as well. i think they can learn from our errors and force new england to do a little more than they did against us. we're still right in the thick of it gentlemen.

From blesterov:

1) Excellent assessment. I noticed that his technique and footwork looked better already compared to last year. My frustration with the Bengals not getting a LG early in the draft was to have them provide Palmer a good pocket where he can be comfortable and wouldn't have to force his throws as often. When he gets into situations where he is pressured, I don't think he makes good decisions and he tends to force throws. It is his main weakness as a QB. The Bengals should have done anything they could to reduce the pass rush pressure to reduce the likelihood of those errors. He also missed a couple of reads, one that I remember was the deep pass to TO down the right side of the field. Shipley was running down the seam wide open after the safety jumped on TO, Palmer was focused on throwing it to TO, and missed the easy 6. Now what kills me about that, Brat or one of his assistants had to have seen that up in the box, and they never came back to it to take advantage of it- that is why Brat sucks.

2) I think they should just put Smith in and go with it. Roland was destroyed on a couple of pass plays on Sunday. Smith may suck at times the first couple of weeks, but to quote Rumfield sometimes you have to go with what you have.

3) Couldn't agree more. We should have used Jones, Hall, and Joe on their best three guys and blitzed Brady all day. It is what the Jets and Dolphins do to them and they typically slow them down. Zimmer must have gotten too tricky-dick or something. Whatever it was it was bad. I would much rather we loose from being too aggressive than looking like a bunch of amateurs.

4) You are right, Brady killed us dinking it short and then they rolled with on the YAC. I don't know how many times Welker was either sitting down in a spot or just would do a four yard dig across the field and it would go for 8-20 yards. It never should have happened. With Brady sitting back in the pocket keeping his jersey clean he could do that. Again, Zims scheme does not call for the front 4 to get the pressure. Its the blitz that you have to watch for. Not many teams can get pressure from just the front 4. The last team that could do it very well was the Giants when they beat the Pats.

I think the Bengals are still a good team and are still contenders. They just need to stop this crap where the need an ass whoop-in to wake up. I would love to finally get to watch a big game that they are in, see how prepared they are, watch them play without hesitation, and be a witness to them physically beating down an opponent like they are capable of.

Comments

[JLH]

Worst news of day: Bengals trying out WDR Hero Eric "Inverse Pancake Machine" Ghiacuc

[MikeBrownStillSucks]

A number of the tryouts this week smack of desperation.

[Major Payne]

I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know that Ghiachic is not the answer. Unless the question is "How can we get Carson killed and collect his insurance money?"

[Rich]

I don't disagree with anything that tide or blesterov said (except that Bush's SECDEF was Rumsfeld - but I digress). I am not capable of that level of analysis anyway.

The question is: Do the Bengals have the wisdom and the stones to change? They always seems both dumb and obstinate in that they don't know what to change or that they don't have the institutional will to do it. When they have a winning season, it seems to be because of a combination of mediocre players playing the freakishly best football of their lives and an easy schedule. They don't have the organization to pull a Pittsburgh and lose the first four games of the season and come back and win the Super Bowl. They rely too much on overpowering bad teams and luck.

My cynicism after watching this team for decades leads me to question their ability to adapt on the fly and make adjustments despite their obvious talent. I hope I am wrong.

[Colin]

Couple comments:

1) the whole team was overpowered the whole game, executed poorly,etc. That sometimes gets obscured when analyzing everything in detail (I'm not complaining). They looked outcoached but they were also outmatched physically.

2) Everything I said above doesn't matter. The white man cometh: http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Wednesday-notes--Leonard-Caldwell-back-Housh-entertains/97c019a9-ff8c-4a26-afe1-fb0a6d198f17

[Rich]

This is my fan response to an email I received based on this: http://www.bengals.com/stadium/code-of-conduct.html

BENGALS CODE OF CONDUCT
The fans of the Cincinnati Bengals have established a "Bengals Code of Conduct". We are sick of this shit and we are committed to having a comfortable and enjoyable experience for ourselves, both in the stadium and in the parking lots we around the stadium (Lots A,B,C,D,E,U,1, and Freedom Center). We want all fans attending your games to enjoy the experience. Quite frankly, our enjoyment of the games is way too sporadic to be anything but miserable.

The following behavior is prohibited in the stadium and in the parking lots listed above:
• Lack of progress during the game (including throwing quick out routes on third and long that has no chance of success)
• Fire Bratowski – his predicable play calling constitutes irresponsible behavior
• Any player’s behavior within the community that is unruly, disruptive, or illegal in nature – there has been too much of that shit.
• Fouls and penalties that disrupt big plays or effective drives
• Sitting in a location other than first place in the AFC North
• Sitting or loitering in the basement of the division
• Standing financially on our backs while failing to produce a winning team
• Displays of affection not appropriate by a professional football team – that “Batman and Robin” shit is simultaneously infantile and annoying
• Obscene, indecent or offensive stadium deals
• Any stupid fan code of conduct that prevents us from drinking away the pain of a horrible team
• Failing to comply with expectations from fans that have supported your sorry asses for years

All Season Ticket Holders and Parking Pass Holders are displeased with your conduct as well as the lack of improvement over the years. Violations, witnessed by either the Season Ticket Holder or anyone using their tickets or parking passes, may result fans ejecting themselves from the stadium or parking lot, and forfeiting their future season ticket purchases. According to Doc, in two years the price of 3D televisions will be low enough that we can have the ultimate experience watching you lose from the comfort of our own home for less than the cost of a single season ticket package. And we can watch that crappy Avatar movie in 3D, too.

The fans of the Cincinnati Bengals thank you for adhering to our Bengals Code of Conduct.

[hofbraunow]

Yeah, the whole Ghiachic thing is all well and good (read: *sucky* ),

but on yet another side note, if there is a lockout next year, I will place blame on Mike Brown and his methods of doing business as an NFL owner...

...he is in fact, by his current and long-standing methods, poisoning the NFL league/owner atmosphere...I put forth that the current strife among NFL players and owners is a direct result

[hofbraunow]

ALL HAIL THE READING OF THE RULES ---- BRUCE!!!!

[blesterov]

This is a good sign that someone learned their lesson, and it gives me hope that we will see our defense back to its normal ball's out self again this Sunday:

“The players are good guys and they do what they’re asked to do,” said Zimmer. “Paralysis by analysis. We had so much time to prepare playing against a good team, we had to take care of this guy, we had to do that, we had to do this, we had to take care and we forgot to play football so it was my fault. I don’t know what we are right now but we’ll find out. We’ll find out where we are. But this one won’t be on me this week. This one will be on the players. If they don’t play well, it’s on them. I took the last one but that’s the last one I’m taking.”

[TheTruth]

Hofbraunow as much fun as it is to trash MB, i wouldn't hold him responsible for a hold out too quickly. As much crap as we give him MB and Buffalo's owner we the two desenting votes for the last CBA which all the owner later got rid of and lead us into this mess. As stupid as MB is in picking players he was right that the last deal wasn't good. So instead of figuring out a long term deal then the NFL throw shit together and then changed their minds.

[tide182]

so here's peter king's comment for the bengals game this week (he picks the ravens 23-20, fwiw, though that is probably a good thing for us):

Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals
Two of the starters on the Cincinnati offensive line that was semi-shredded by the Patriots the other day were guard Nate Livings and tackle Dennis Roland. They'll start Sunday against the rush-heavy Ravens. Neither was drafted out of college. Meanwhile, the sixth pick in the 2009 draft, tackle Andre Smith, played 10 snaps in New England. What is wrong with this picture?

now, i dont know what's scarier, the fact that he's dead-on accurate or the fact that i am completely in agreement with peter f'cking king

[Ryag]

Bengals Fans living in Pittsburgh: where can I watch a Bengals game within the City Limits of Pittsburgh this sunday!??! I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

[Moncler Outlet]

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