bengs at browns

[jbuck]

time to wake up and get after it

 

[alf8478]

Exciting first quarter

 

[DanBengalfan]

yea. another slow start so far.

we could still beat the browns though, need to have a better second half. no excuses.

 

[DanBengalfan]

well, we gotta lose a few games to start the season. Can't be the best team that ends up playing all playoff games on the road if you start the season by winning games that you should win.

 

[cincygrad]

Despite all the rhetoric about how this year's missed camp would be different for Burrow, I think it's pretty clear that he's the type of guy that needs reps. He just didn't look comfortable at all and there were a lot of communication issues. I think the line had their own communication issues and they got beat on several occasions, but Burrow had some clean pockets and just didn't make good throws. Definitely missed a touchdown to Tee that might have changed the flow of the game.

I suspect next week will be no better. The Ravens will be looking for revenge and their D will be tough despite the injuries. We probably need to steal a few victories in September/October before rounding into shape.

 

[Cincyfan78]

The entire offense looked like it needed reps. SHOCKING.

You know who else needs reps? Taylor. He needs to get into game mode calling plays for the starters. The slow starts, the lack of scheme and setup versatility is glaringly poor. This is now year 4 under Burrow...and the scheme should not be so vanilla in terms of formation/play-calling.

The Bengals are going to get away with it more often than not because Burrow, Chase, Higgins are that good, and the defense is also really good...but at some point, the offense is going to have to carry the load when the defense isn't going to be as stacked, or when Lou finally gets a shot as a HC...and the details that have been talked about on offense for 4+ years that have been glossed over will suddenly become a major issue, IMO.

Taylor is a great HC.

He leaves a lot for want in being an offensive play caller and offensive scheme. He needs to find someone and just hand it over to them. To further illustrate...this cannot be a thing with Burrow...it makes the offense extremely easy to defend...4 targeted passed over the middle of the field. 4. NONE further than 5-6 yards. Also, almost nothing deep. If defenses are going to take away the deep, and send pressure, the middle is there for the taking. Taylor fights himself far too often to adjust. He has a game plan and he wants it to be THAT...or nothing. Far too often it takes too many games for the offense to finally adjust. Again, in year 4 of Burrow, this should not be a thing.

 

[DanBengalfan]

yea, this is the kind of game where we didn't know what to expect.

either burrow is completely ready and recovered, or he isn't.
it would appear that he was just trying to suck it up and play.

Bengals fans were expecting a route, but like the Bengals beating the Browns by 20.

it all seems very familiar, it would seem to be a flaw of the coaching, something isn't quite organized, and the team not quite prepared.

 

[jbuck]

well the rest of the NFL looked ready to go. Burrow looked horrible. no other way to put it

 

[cincygrad]

The entire offense looked like it needed reps. SHOCKING.

You know who else needs reps? Taylor. He needs to get into game mode calling plays for the starters. The slow starts, the lack of scheme and setup versatility is glaringly poor. This is now year 4 under Burrow...and the scheme should not be so vanilla in terms of formation/play-calling.

The Bengals are going to get away with it more often than not because Burrow, Chase, Higgins are that good, and the defense is also really good...but at some point, the offense is going to have to carry the load when the defense isn't going to be as stacked, or when Lou finally gets a shot as a HC...and the details that have been talked about on offense for 4+ years that have been glossed over will suddenly become a major issue, IMO.

Taylor is a great HC.

He leaves a lot for want in being an offensive play caller and offensive scheme. He needs to find someone and just hand it over to them. To further illustrate...this cannot be a thing with Burrow...it makes the offense extremely easy to defend...4 targeted passed over the middle of the field. 4. NONE further than 5-6 yards. Also, almost nothing deep. If defenses are going to take away the deep, and send pressure, the middle is there for the taking. Taylor fights himself far too often to adjust. He has a game plan and he wants it to be THAT...or nothing. Far too often it takes too many games for the offense to finally adjust. Again, in year 4 of Burrow, this should not be a thing.

I agree 100%. It bugs me that the Bengals offensive identity is to line up in 11 personnel and hope that Joe finds something that will work on that particular afternoon. As pointed out by a number of folks, they rarely scheme up high percentage passes or other plays that can kick-start a drive or break up a stagnant attack. And, we have to be the worst screen team in the league, which doesn't make sense at all given other teams commitment to collapsing the pocket. It goes beyond this game.... Look at our preseason performance. There is just no identity to the offense and anyone, except Burrow when he is cooking, looks lost and like they are playing in a system that nobody has run before.

I also think that they have gotten worse with this over time. In 2021, they would rotate through personnel groupings and formations to find weak spots in a D. I remember in that Jacksonville game, they were having some trouble so they came in heavy, with an unbalanced line and started running the ball. That freed up some bootleg, play-action stuff that ended up winning the game.

 

[DanBengalfan]

last year, we were 4-4 after week 8. we finished 12-4 (and could have rightfully been 13-4)
some of the teams we beat in that first half were arguably weak, but that helped us ease through the slow start.

we lost to the browns, ravens, and steelers during that time.

...


hopefully, this team wakes up quicker than that.
I think they need to.

 

[cincygrad]

well the rest of the NFL looked ready to go. Burrow looked horrible. no other way to put it

 

[Cincyfan78]

last year, we were 4-4 after week 8. we finished 12-4 (and could have rightfully been 13-4)
some of the teams we beat in that first half were arguably weak, but that helped us ease through the slow start.

we lost to the browns, ravens, and steelers during that time.

...


hopefully, this team wakes up quicker than that.
I think they need to.

Yes, and to think ... if they had come out of the pre-season more prepared, especially along the OL with 3 new starters, they could have still had a 1 seed.

That's the line between really good and great. Winning games like yesterday that are winnable when the offense is rolling and clicking because they've gotten reps, rhythm and are on the same page. Wasting 1-3 games to start every year just isn't smart. With the new set-up of the 3 pre-season games, things need to be tweaked.

It's not just the Bengals...while teams were good yesterday, overall offensive scoring is down over the past 2 years in the opening games as more and more teams sit starters.

It's nice to hang a hat on being 12-4 last year after the slow start, but a SB contending team should be finding ways to win 1-3 more of those 4 losses from last year, and considering the piss poor start...that would have been the OBVIOUS place to look this year...don't get off to a bad start.

 

[BurrowDeep2Chase]

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills - September 7th, 2003 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

New England Patriots 0 at Buffalo Bills 31 on September 7th, 2003 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

Week 1 New England @ Buffalo.

The Patriots get beat down 31-0 by Drew Bledsoe. Tom Brady goes 14-28 with 4 interceptions, before he gets benched for Rohan Davey.
The Patriots go on to finish 14-2 and win the Super Bowl. These games happen. They get blown out of proportion when its Week 1.

The Patriots would win 31-0 in their rematch Week 17.

 

[jbuck]

yea I know stillers looked bad too. along with a few others

 

[Cincyfan78]

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills - September 7th, 2003 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

New England Patriots 0 at Buffalo Bills 31 on September 7th, 2003 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

Week 1 New England @ Buffalo.

The Patriots get beat down 31-0 by Drew Bledsoe. Tom Brady goes 14-28 with 4 interceptions, before he gets benched for Rohan Davey.
The Patriots go on to finish 14-2 and win the Super Bowl. These games happen. They get blown out of proportion when its Week 1.

The Patriots would win 31-0 in their rematch Week 17.

I don't think anyone is upset because of the loss. You are right, bad games happen.

It's one thing to be prepared and have a bad day. It's quite another to have zero preparation heading into the season and then looking like they did.

I think that is where most of the frustration is. Last year they had 3 new OL...and no pre-season. No Burrow in camp. The offense came out and looked like trash for the better part of 3-4 games before getting on their roll. Great.

This year, 2 new OL, no Burrow in Camp....and nothing was changed to try and mitigate the issues from the prior year. That's just bad coaching. Teams can't just hang their hat on wading through 1-2-3 weeks of mediocre play and hope for another 10-12 game win streak to put things back in order.

That is the difference between great teams and really good teams. Right now, it seems, the Bengals and coaches are OK with being really good...they haven't taken that next step to get into the "great" category...doing everything you can to win those extra 1-2-3 games that is the difference between a 1 seed and a 3 seed...or 4 seed....The difference between 1 home game or several home games...

It's time to set the bar higher.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

just a bad bay for the bengals.from a punt fest in the first half to a blowout in the second.things tend to go bad in the rain,but at least the steelers got blown out too.

 

[cincygrad]

I don't think anyone is upset because of the loss. You are right, bad games happen.

It's one thing to be prepared and have a bad day. It's quite another to have zero preparation heading into the season and then looking like they did.

I think that is where most of the frustration is. Last year they had 3 new OL...and no pre-season. No Burrow in camp. The offense came out and looked like trash for the better part of 3-4 games before getting on their roll. Great.

This year, 2 new OL, no Burrow in Camp....and nothing was changed to try and mitigate the issues from the prior year. That's just bad coaching. Teams can't just hang their hat on wading through 1-2-3 weeks of mediocre play and hope for another 10-12 game win streak to put things back in order.

That is the difference between great teams and really good teams. Right now, it seems, the Bengals and coaches are OK with being really good...they haven't taken that next step to get into the "great" category...doing everything you can to win those extra 1-2-3 games that is the difference between a 1 seed and a 3 seed...or 4 seed....The difference between 1 home game or several home games...

It's time to set the bar higher.

Not to mention the fact that in 2021, the offense was shaky during those first 2 weeks. It was masked a little because they ended up beating Minnesota, but they really didn't play that well against a shaky D. And then they looked terrible in week 2 against Chicago. This is an ongoing trend for Taylor's teams and I don't think he can continue to make excuses about it. Something needs to change to make them function better at the beginning of the season.

 

[cincygrad]

I also want to mention that this was not at all surprising for anyone that followed the press reporting during training camp. There was a lot of ink spilled about the incompetencies of our back-up quarterbacks. Perhaps their limitations set the whole offense back. Or, alternatively, this was indicative of a team that has major structural issues with their offense.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I also want to mention that this was not at all surprising for anyone that followed the press reporting during training camp. There was a lot of ink spilled about the incompetencies of our back-up quarterbacks. Perhaps their limitations set the whole offense back. Or, alternatively, this was indicative of a team that has major structural issues with their offense.

This is a good point about the rest of the offense being run by Jake and Trevor all camp.

 

[cincygrad]

One silver lining from yesterday. I thought the safeties held up just fine. The Browns definitely left a few plays on the field, but considering the Bengals only had a few first downs the entire day, the D did okay.