WhoDeyRevolution

FIRE BRATKOWSKI!

Since I didn't get to watch the game this weekend, I can't comment on the actual X's & O's this week, but I can comment on this: I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF BRATKOWSKI'S BULLSHIT PLAY CALLING & LEWIS FALLING ON THE SWORD FOR HIM.

Following the game on my iPhone thanks to ESPN’s Game-tracker on my drive home from Virginia Beach, for three quarters, it looked like things were going pretty well: a couple of nice long scoring drives, but it didn’t look like I was missing anything too dramatic outside of the TO TD, and Benson's performance. Then we get to the fourth quarter, and "SQUIRREL!" 

First of all, Lewis’s excuse that they were being aggressive is complete horseshit, and the media needs to call him out on this. The play calling speaks for itself.

Starting with the second drive of the forth quarter, Bengals ahead 21-14, starting on the Bengals’s 6 with 8:51 to play: 1-10, Benson run; 2-6, Benson run; 3-1, Benson run; 1-10, Palmer 4 yard pass to TO; 2-6, Benson run; & 3-2, Leonard run for a loss of two yards. REAL AGGRESSIVE PLAY CALLING ASSHOLE.

Bucs get the ball back on starting on their own 20 with 4:51 left in the game. Zimmer forces them into three downs and out, and the Bengals get the ball back starting on their own 41 with 3:17 left to play. They are only 60 yards away from ending the game with a statement, or if they can just get a couple of first downs and we walk off the field with another unconvincing win. 

Brat comes out guns blazing on first down: Benson up the gut for zero yards; 2-10, Benson off LT for a 2 yard gain.

Before I go any further, if you are attacking the Bucs to end the game by being aggressive as Lewis claimed, you don’t come out with two running plays most likely against eight men in the box. I am assuming the Bucs put eight in the box since they most likely knew the Bengals were going to try to run out the clock (please correct me if I am wrong about this). If you are aggressive, you come out and call a play action pass to take advantage of the defense looking for the run. I would have been 100% in support of being aggressive and taking this risk because it could have put the game away with one play. Instead, the Bengals were basically running against a wall that our OL is not good enough to break through. Forget the idea that we were averaging over 6 yards a carry for the game, it doesn't apply when the opposing defense stacks the deck to shut down the run. Sure enough, we tried to run out the clock and we weren't able to move the ball against a defense looking for it. REAL AGGRESSIVE PLAY CALLING ASSHOLE.

Next play is a false start on Gresham, pushing it to 3^rd & 13 with 2:28 to play. From the highlights, the Bucs bring out what looks to be their dime package. Brat decides to still go for the first ignoring the potential disaster. Unfortunately Palmer doesn’t check down into his favorite laizze fare running play that has probably only netted us 10 yards in the past three seasons. Sure enough Palmer forces the throw into tight covereage and its behind TO. Results in 7 points for the Bucs. 

This had to be the stupidest play call I have ever witnessed, second to Belicheck’s crazy forth down play call a couple of years ago. This “aggressive” play is nothing but a culmination of his incompetent decisions. You don’t throw the ball when the Bucs are expecting it, have their dime package on the field, and there is less then two and half minutes to play with only a seven point lead. In this case, there is too much to lose so do the always unsuccessful draw play and punt the ball to make the Bucs drive 80+ yards with less than 2 minutes left. 

Ironically, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I called for his head because Bratkowski was too conservative against the Ravens and it almost cost us the game. I would have been perfectly fine with that approach Sunday. 

If you want to be aggressive and attack the defense, then DO IT WHEN THEY AREN'T EXPECTING IT! Unfortunately, Mike Brown is not going to mess with his hand picked staff and this dumb ass is staying put to make my Sundays suck.

I would accept a Brian Billick hiring over continuing with this asshole, and from the looks of it TO would tend to agree since it sounds like he doesn’t like Brats route trees either. The video's cut right to the good stuff.  My favorite part is his statement that he's been around some "great football minds"...the implication being he's not exactly seeing the same thing from his offensive coaching here.

 

TO trust me, we feel your pain.

Wk4: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

A loss is a loss, and this one definitely sucks since it was a divisional game. Most of us expected the Bengals to at least split with the Browns this season since they are a team on the rise. The Browns will definitely surprise a few teams this season. But at least there are a couple of good things to take away from this game.

The Good:

1)  Palmer. #9 looked like I expected to see him rebound at some point this season. It was great to see it sooner than later. His passes were on target, had great velocity, and his presense looked the closest thing to 2005 we have seen in sometime. Palmer took advantage of what the Browns gave him and stayed strong in the pocket making some key throws even with guys at his feet. Leading up to this week, you would have thought Palmer needed to be sitting in an old folks home with an adult diaper full of his own steamy crap of mixed veggies.

I love how the media went from Palmer is top five QB to he is done in just a one week span. This is just another example of how the media overhypes its subject matter, whether it is politics or sports, and is too lazy to do their job: investigate and report. Where were they between 2006 and 2008 while #9 was getting raped on the field? They could have at least put pressure on Mike Brown to adequately field an OL that could protect their $100 million dollar investment. Unfortunately, they were to busy cherry picking stats that made it look like he was still on top of his game.

I think Boomer made the most observant comment this past week out out of all the talking heads (from his interview with Hob, the grand pooh-bah of cherry picking stats – third on the list of course to Shawn Hannity and Keith Olberman).

The Truly Ugly

Only one person gets this distinction, and it goes to Bratkowski, whom I am betting will receive this almost every week. He single handedly almost cost us this game with his ingenious personnel packages, astute third and short calls, and non-linear  play calling. The key point in that link is that non-linearity "gives rise to interesting phenomena such as chaos".  Chaos may be "interesting" to the wikipedia editors, but it's infuriating to Bengals fans who must continue to watch this offense.

For example, when the game was on the line, Brat was ok with burning some clock and giving the ball right back to the Ravens instead of trying to put the game away. With JJoe and Jones hurt there was a good chance the Ravens could have capitalized, luckily Zimmer didn't let them.

Sometimes I picture Bratkowski as man who lives in a house filled with junk since his logic is so disjointed.  Or, to steal John Stewart's joke about the media, maybe he is like the dog in UP, easily and instantly distracted at every new shiny it sees. It is the only way I can understand the way his brain works.

One minute the guy is a fucking genius, moving the ball with efficiency by pounding the ball down the Ravens throats choreographed to perfectly executed timing routes to a variety of receivers. Then "Squirrel!" he starts calling plays that have no consistency or linear relationship to what just moved the ball down the field against one of the league's best defensive units. No play action passes that are built off the successful running plays you just ran; no TE seam routes to take advantage of the secondary focusing on the WR's; no RB's out of the backfield; no pump fake/ misdirection routes to play off the timing routes. Nothing; it is just organized chaos.

On top of this, he can't coach his players to be a disciplined unit. It is like they are a physical representation of his mind, totally disjointed. One minute they are beating down the opponent, the next they behave like little leaguers.

Mix in the third and short situations where he brilliantly decides to run toward the weak link in the run blocking. We know Gresham isn't a dependable blocker yet, the defense knows this, Benson knows this, Gresham knows this, Brat knows this, and my German Shepherd watching the game does too. But nevermind all that, Brat says "fuck it" and does it anyway. This probably means he was an absolute blast to party with in college but it's a disaster from an offensive coordinating standpoint.

Ideally, we need to begin passing on 3rd and short (like the Pats did to us all day), but there is a small problem with that as well.   As our commenters noted, Brat's passing trees receive a grade of F-suck.  The route trees are not very complex, which is why we never seem to confuse a defense. It always seems like the yards we earn in the passing game are hard fought because the WR's are always covered. It is not a random fluke that we are a team that has to be near the bottom in YAC's as opposed to teams like the Eagles, Packers, Texans or Colts. It is completely by design (or lack thereof): organized chaos.  Bratkowski.  Ugh.

Week 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

1. Zimmer. Glad to see he didn't pull a Breshnahan again this week. He clearly won the chess match yesterday, and the players executed his plan perfectly. 

2. Geno Atkins (#97) & Pat Sims (#90). Any time Flacco dropped back to pass, at least one of these two guys were collapsing the pocket and forcing Flacco to hurry his throws. Everyone in the media is always fascinated by the glamorous sack stat. Don't fall for it.

For example, Hob clings to the sack stats when defending the actually terrible 2007 Bengal's OL which caused Palmer to learn some bad habits that he is still trying to work through. It is pressure that really effects the opponents QB efficiency rating by forcing the QB to hurry and make poor decisions. No pressure the first week = Brady 120.9 with a 71.4% completion percentage (seemed like 95% while watching the game). Constant pressure from the front four this Sunday = Flacco 23.8 with a 43.6% completion rate and four INT's. According to the NFL stats, no Bengal defensive player recorded a single sack against the Ravens. I would be perfectly happy if this team doesn't get another sack the rest of the season, as long as they produce like they did Sunday.

3. Bengals OL. It wasn't pretty, but they managed to give Palmer the time and space he needs. Even with the rotating timeshare at RT, they picked up almost every blitz package and stunt the Ravens threw at them. Roland held his own against Suggs for the most part, which is a very difficult thing to accomplish. Personally, I think the RT timeshare is as cheesy in football as it is in real estate, and Smith has to take over the position to solidify the OL at some point.

The Bad:

1. Palmer. He had the time and space and he couldn't take advantage of it. His poor performance yesterday made this game a nail biter when it shouldn't have been even close. The mistakes made Sunday are the remaining scars of the years of abuse he took behind a sub-par OL from 2006 to 2008. Unfortunately, his recovery is a work in progress and it will take time to work these things out since they are mostly mental. The throwing errors we are seeing are most likely from Palmer still feeling like he needs to force his throws to avoid being hit. His passes are either too early, too late, or off target because of this.

The good news is that his mechanics and footwork have improved dramatically compared to the previous two seasons, but his read and reaction skills are still a few steps behind. Does this mean Palmer is done? In this case, we have to ask WWLD? I think Lando would recommend the same treatment that he recommended while his men are getting blown to hell: "we have to give him more time." He just needs to learn to relax and play football again, and I expect that we will see Palmer work out these mistakes as the season goes on if the OL can continue to give him the security he needs in the pocket. If the OL continues to provide space for him and he doesn't improve, then yes he is done. So the jury is still out.

2. Batman and Robin's hands. Johnson has never been good at catching a ball while running toward the interior of the field, and this weakness was showcased Sunday with several dropped balls. TO had one or two catchable TD passes and he couldn't bring them in. From the past two weeks only, it seems like if you can cover TO tight, he can't concentrate on catching the ball. TO's decrease in speed doesn't help out in this department either. I still believe he would be better in the slot than as the #2 since he would have more favorable personnel match ups and routes that get him open by taking advantage of the seams in the zones and exploit his ability to get some YAC's like we witnessed against the Ravens. 

3. Gresham's blocking. I wrote at the end of the preseason that we would see Benson get blown up a couple of times while running the stretch play because of his inexperience. However, Bratkowski continues to test Gresham's improvement at the most inconvenient times. There were a couple of 3rd and short plays where they ran toward Gresham's side; almost every time he whiffed and Benson was blown up. They either need to: a) stop calling this play on third and short; b) teach the kid to block aggressively really quick; or c) fire Bratkowski.

The Ugly:

You know what?  This deserves it's own post.

 

Rashad Jeanty: This One Actually Hurts

I wish I had time to get to this yesterday but was busy scrambling after the weekend.  While ultimately I can find comedy and a silver-lining with the high profile Antonio Bryant disaster, I can find nothing of the sort with the Bengals decision to let go of Rashad Jeanty.  Similar to how the Bengals buried the decision to bring the hugely unpopular Brat back in an article about the extension of the hugely popular Mike Zimmer, the Bengals slipped the release of Jeanty into a casual "Update" mostly about the cutting of Bryant.   I first saw the news via Joe Reedy who also appeared surprised and rightly described the move as "a shocker".

The Bengals did this, I would imagine, because both moves sucked and they wanted to avoid the attention.

Well, Jeanty's agent seems determined to make sure that never happens.  He came out blazing, publicly criticizing the Bengals for mishandling Jeanty's injury and creating this predicament in the first place.  Good for him.  For those counting, that's yet another instance of questionable medical judgment by the Bengals staff, and the second in as many days.  But we'll come back to that issue another time.

Instead, I'd prefer to simply note that this is all very shitty.  Because Jeanty a) is a raging bad ass, b) provides critical depth at linebacker, c) provides stability in the locker room and d) is just the type of guy the Bengals should reward, not punish.  I enjoyed Cnati.com while it existed and perhaps my favorite piece they ever produced was this profile of Rashad Jeanty.  I throw out lots of links.  Make sure you read it.  Here it is again.  Just in case.  Some quotes:

"He probably has the highest pain tolerance of anyone in the world," said fellow linebacker Keith Rivers.

(on missing 2nd half a game after broken bone pierced out through the skin) "It's hard to let your teammates down. I feel bad, I've got to be down to not play," Jeanty said. "It's how I feel, I have to play for my teammates. To hell with me, it's for my teammates. I take pride in that, I'm sensitive about my teammates."

Despite starting 15 games for the Bengals at Sam linebacker in 2008, he was pushed from starter to backup when the team selected Rey Maualuga in the second round of the draft. Despite playing the same position, Jeanty has served as a mentor to Maualuga.

I could keep going but I'll stop there.  Literally every sentence in the article reinforces what a remarkably tough, selfless, and dedicated teammate Jeanty was.  So to see it end abrubtly and potentially due to the Bengals own ineptitude fucking pisses me off.  And just when I thought I couldn't get more pissed off, I read Rob Weintraub's twitter feed and saw yet another take:

Strange that Mike Brown--Mr. Open Arms for erratic knuckleheads--would chuck a good soldier like Rashad so cavalierly.

(nodding head in agreement)

Anyway, as Mr Weintraub goes onto note, forget the Bryant thing, this release is the one that is truly awful.  Was Jeanty a super critical piece necessary for a playoff run, well, hopefully not.  But who knows?  And more importantly, who cares?  Even if Jeanty ultimately was expendable, the circumstances of his release reflects horribly on the Bengals.  Welcome to Bengals fandom, where even during an offseason of promise and excitement, Mike Brown still seems to find a way to taint it.

I hope Jeanty lands on a team where he will be appreciated.  He deserves better than the jokers who run the Bengals.

Can We Please Cut Our Players With More Respect?

It's the small things folks.  That's all I ask.  Can we please cut our players like the Jets do here...

...instead of having a troll jump out from behind a water cooler as players walk into practice and scream "Gotcha Bitch!"

Frankly, it's embarrassing for our organization.  And it would be so easy to fix.  Of course, you'll notice that the GM and the Director of Pro Player Personnel do the cutting, so I guess the Bengals would have to go out and do some hiring too.