Odds & Ends

Hi.

Good news, bad news.  Good news is we actually wrote something at WDR!  Bad news is that it's for another site...it's cool, though, follow the link to go to Texanschick, a blog run by the excellent Steph Stradley about Houston footbaw.  It's a Q&A type post where I elaborate a little on my take of the broader narrative of this season.

Blackouts, I remind everyone, are a good thing.  Doc's cooking something up that should help those of you looking to watch the games locally find some relief.  Check out this blog post and look for a follow up column.  Spoiler alert:  Slingbox is pretty sweet.

Last, please read both this Joe Reedy article on stadium attendance and Cincy Jungle's poll results on why Bengals attendance has COLLAPSED in 2011.  I'll weigh in with my own take later but the drop in attendance is truly staggering when compared to underlying trends across the rest of the NFL.  Something unique is brewing here.

Assuming Bengals take care of Rams & Cardinals, they need to take 1 of 2 from Texans and Ravens to get to that magical 10 win number for a wild card berth.  It's not a must-win per se, but a headless Texans team on the surface might be more realistic to beat than the Ravens.  Personally, I'm not particularly sanguine because I don't see a lot of points coming on offense and our defense is wearing thin. 

Fortunately both are home games.

Who Dey.

Comments

[blesterov]

Great interview Bien. This weekend's game has me really perplexed since the match ups are really unusual.

The Bengals are disadvantaged in the secondary and the pass rush again with Clements and Dunlap most likely out; both being a huge loss again. On the flip side, the Texans are missing Schaub and Johnson. However, even without Johnson, I think the Texans WR's are too good for our watered down secondary. I have to stick with my foundation and go with the Texans having the advantage when they have the ball, since they have one of the best OL's in the league right now and they still have Foster at RB. It may be difficult to force Yates into making mistakes since his OL should be able to negate our weakened pass rush and provide time for him to find the open man. If he locks on WR's due to his inexperience, Zimmer should be able to scheme to capitalize. So I think it is going to come down to Zimmer being able to work with what players he has available to try some smoke and mirror magic to confuse Yates when he makes his pre-snap reads. However, if the Texans can force Zimmer to overcompensate for the weakened secondary, running lanes will be easier for them to open up and Foster will tear it up.

When the Bengals have the ball, the Texans defense is just too good. Wade Phillips vs. Gruden will be interesting to watch to see how he stacks up. But since our OL shouldn't match up well to their front seven, I don't see them having the ability to sustain long drives and put up a lot of points. So again, I have to give the advantage to the Texans.

This has the makings for a low scoring game, and I think the Texans can pull this one off which will cause some people to lose their shit on this site. The only way the Bengals can win is if Marvin is able to get everything out his players and have them buy into his talk that this is the most important game of his tenure here. Regardless of the outcome, I think the safe place to put your money this week is on the Texans at +1.5 underdogs in the first half, and the under for the 1st half at 19.5.

[TigerJ@w]

“I named the two young stars of the defense already (Atkins & Dunlap), but they aren’t necessarily household names. Our entire linebacking crew has been just wonderfully solid all year. You probably know Ray Maualuga, but Thomas Howard and Manny Lawson have been great contributors. I’m also told Reggie Nelson, an afterthought the past few seasons, is having a pro-bowl caliber year at safety. But I wouldn’t know since TV coverage prevents you from actually seeing what your secondary is doing until the play has already happened. Those guys can contribute positively. I prefer both our backup runnings backs to starter Chris Benson. So keep in mind the names Bernard Scott and Cedric Peerman.

-------------------

you are kidding, right? Our LBs are not that great! They stop nobody behind the LOS and Sacks do not happen with them. Rey Rey runs around with his head cut off. LOL Reggie Nelson is having a Pro Bowl caliber year? LOL Our DBs are horrible. Yea, I would say you have not been watching the games. Not to hammer you dude, but when did we get this Chris Benson player? I am sure you meant Cedric. If you had mentioned Gresham then I would say you have been watching games, but other than him on the O side then I would agree they are just a mediocre team coached by mediocre head coach.

[TigerJ@w]

oh, i forgot to add, please tell me your are not related to Jim Lippincott? or are you?

[#DoNotOccupyPaulBrownStadium]

This could be one of those games where the Bengals make some unknown QB look like Bart Starr.

Clear Zimmer will sell out to stop the run against a top running team. I think the Texans will look at film of the Bengals pass defense and come out throwing; and only start running after the Bengals are confused. I also don't think the Bengals offense is good enough to get more than 14 on the Texans D. Start Owen Daniels in your fantasy league.

[Dan]

I would actually agree with pretty much all of the personnel assessments from Bienemy. Exceptions are that Nelson is overrated, and Ced is underrated. I don't really get all the "start Scott" chatter - they should be splitting the carries, and for the most part, they are. I just wish Marv wasn't so dead set on having one guy in per drive. Mix it up on the same drive even - it's not anathema to bring Leonard in on 3rd down, so it shouldn't be that hard to switch Benson and Scott in and out.

I think our defense will struggle today, but my prediction is that today will be the first time all year Green and Simpson both bring it in the same game. Simpson, when he's on, is as almost as good as Green. The problem is he's usually only "on" when Green is out of the game. Hopefully that changes today. If so, we'll put up 27 or 30 points, which should be enough.

[guttersnake]

Its a sign of some sort of cosmic alignment when I agree with Dan, but I do... except for the 27 or 30 points thing; I'd be shocked if they got 17 or 21. Nelson is coming around, and his play increases every game... which is a lot for me to say, because I hated him until about game 7, and he only really won me over last week by being one of the only plays out there gutting it out in the forth quarter for nothing more than pride and heart. My current stance on Cedric is that he needs to move to full back, which isn't that much of a stretch when you look at how he attacks plays, hitting the line regardless of whether the hole is closing or not. Cedric jukes outside maybe .5 times a game, something more fullback than hard-nosed RB. He's fine where he is for now (this season is what it is, not what it will be), but next year needs to be a re-evaluation of his talet, and more specifically, his role on this team. And yes, I think he should have a role.

As far as Scott goes, I look at it like this: sometimes we sit are argue Cedric's worth when he averages 2.8 or 2.2 YPC. Where is that same agruement for Scott when he rushes for -4 yards total on 8 carries? I'll take a low numbers RB to a negative numbers RB any day. ...admittedly, neither is a best case scenario.

I got nothing to add about today's game. I think it will be a good one. Better than last week for sure. I think you've got to wonder how much fire these young guys are going to be carrying with them into the game, and if it will make a difference. I think the Texans have the edge today, but its still too close to really call.

[Steroids]

Assuming Bengals take care of Rams & Cardinals, they need to take 1 of 2 from Texans and Ravens to get to that magical 10 win number for a wild card berth. It's not a must-win per se, but a headless Texans team on the surface might be more realistic to beat than the Ravens. Personally, I'm not particularly sanguine because I don't see a lot of points coming on offense and our defense is wearing thin.

[justin bieber shoes]

It is rediculous to even suggest that. It is not fair to take the actions and ideas of group of people.