A Look Into the AFC North (2nd Half)

[DanBengalfan]

He should probably just skip Cleveland so he doesn't get embarrassed by Joe Haden again. I'm not sure what it is about the matchup, but Haden has made his career (and money) on performances against AJ. Our offense has sucked against Cleveland in the past..... Hopefully Hue can fix it.

I think AJ will have to do what Chad did and beef up his muscle mass. my impression is he's skinny for a pro receiver, kinda like Chris Henry was.

 

[flamingrey]

I'll go with the Bengals as the favorites as long as AJ Green is back soon. They beat the Ravens twice. The Steelers already have two lopsided losses within the division.

With the registered tie against the Panthers, tie-breakers won't come into account for the Bengals. With the exception of the simple fact that a win for us means a loss for another team, divisional games are not any more important or valued than any other game. So, while we do have 2 wins against the Ravens, they're still only a 1/2 game behind us (sort of). Same with the Steelers, their divisional losses don't affect us.

 

[futballiscool]

With the registered tie against the Panthers, tie-breakers won't come into account for the Bengals. With the exception of the simple fact that a win for us means a loss for another team, divisional games are not any more important or valued than any other game. So, while we do have 2 wins against the Ravens, they're still only a 1/2 game behind us (sort of). Same with the Steelers, their divisional losses don't affect us.

That's a really good point. But still, if you're handicapping the race looking for a clear cut favorite, there are tiebreaker scenarios that compromise the Steelers and Ravens chances within the division that wouldn't be there as strongly if the Ravens hadn't lost twice to the Bengals and the Steelers hadn't already lost twice within the division. The loser of the Steelers/Ravens game can be in a last place in the division by a full game plus having to contend with bad tiebreaker issues. Making it basically a two game deficit in the loss column and that's just to get out of last place. It's tough to make either team a division favorite under those circumstances

 

[cincygrad]

With the registered tie against the Panthers, tie-breakers won't come into account for the Bengals. With the exception of the simple fact that a win for us means a loss for another team, divisional games are not any more important or valued than any other game. So, while we do have 2 wins against the Ravens, they're still only a 1/2 game behind us (sort of). Same with the Steelers, their divisional losses don't affect us.

Very true. The tie will keep us from having to look at any type of tie-breaker scenarios for either the division or the wildcard. I do think it means that we'll only need 9 wins to get to the playoffs though..... I figure that in most years a 9 win team gets in and the Bengals would be the only 9 win team without 7 losses.

 

[DanBengalfan]

aww shucks

 

[flamingrey]

Very true. The tie will keep us from having to look at any type of tie-breaker scenarios for either the division or the wildcard. I do think it means that we'll only need 9 wins to get to the playoffs though..... I figure that in most years a 9 win team gets in and the Bengals would be the only 9 win team without 7 losses.

Halfway through, there are 4 wildcard teams sitting on pace for 10 wins (currently 5-3). There are an additional 3 teams that are sitting at 4-3, so who could be on pace for 10-6 as well. That's 7 teams - not including the divisional leaders - potentially on pace for 10 wins.

9 might not do it this time around. In any case, like you said, we're in over any team that ties us in the win-column.

 

[DanBengalfan]

would it be better for Raven/Steelers to split their series, or for one of them to win?

I guess that depends on the schedule.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Doesn't matter. We will wind up with 10 wins + that one tie. We are golden.

 

[bengaldoug]

At this point I want the Ravens to win v the Steelers. Ben is getting hot, and we have to deal with him twice yet. When he gets hot he tends to be very hard on the Bengals. The Steelers also seem to have an easier schedule the rest of the way. A little help from the Ravens can't hurt us.

 

[DanBengalfan]

I think your right.

my guess is if the Steelers are cooking with gas we end up splitting the series. a hobbled AJ Green and other injuries makes us a lot weaker than that team that was banging at the beginning of the season. of course, when the Steelers come to Cincinnati, they always seem to have a lot of fans there as well.

 

[DanBengalfan]

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/playof...=11044511&14=55000055&15=44451045&16=00144050

if we can beat Pitt at home, then we get 3rd seed.

 

[cincygrad]

Odd that the playoff generator is functional even though they skip scenarios for the next 4 weeks. I see they have the Bengals winning all 4..... That aint happening.

 

[DanBengalfan]

when it first comes up you have to pick a scenario (win%, offensive score, defensive score, last matchup, streak)

espn says they won't start theirs up until after week 11

 

[cincygrad]

when it first comes up you have to pick a scenario (win%, offensive score, defensive score, last matchup, streak)

espn says they won't start theirs up until after week 11

Unfortunately there isn't a "your team is coached by marvin lewis" scenario. That would make our performance in those 4 games appear to be random.

 

[DanBengalfan]

ha, if you choose "points against" as the sorter, Cleveland comes to Cincinnati in the first round.

lol

 

[DanBengalfan]

Unfortunately there isn't a "your team is coached by marvin lewis" scenario. That would make our performance in those 4 games appear to be random.

hey, at least he's better than Rex Ryan.

 

[kramer1]

hey, at least he's better than Rex Ryan.

No, he isn't.

 

[DanBengalfan]

just to be clear, we're arguing over which coach is the worst in the NFL?

I believe Rex Ryan is hands down the worst NFL coach, and if it wasn't for Dave Shula, he'd be the worst NFL coach of all time.

Marvin may do some dumb things, but at least he got the Brown family to stop drafting people like this guy:

and this guy

I mean if he kept it up, eventually we'd be drafting this guy:

Rex Ryan took over a program that was on the way up and ran it into the ground.
everything currently wrong with the Jets is his doing.

 

[Cincyfan78]

Hard to argue with that point, Dan.

If nothing else, Lewis should be lauded for his ability to get Brown to move into the current "era" of football, and embrace the changes.

We can all agree that Lewis does some head-scratching things, and needs a Playoff win badly, but his mark on this frachise, from 2010 on especially, is a good one.

 

[cincygrad]

I disagree that Rex is a bad coach. He took a very average football team with a shitty rookie qb and took them deep into the playoffs -- Twice.

He's shown tremendous ability to develop game plans that frustrate other teams even when his team is overmatched -- Look what he's done to the Patriots at times.

He has two major factors going against him. One is that he is a clown. He likes drama and can't seem to keep his mouth shut. Two is that he hasn't developed any offensive talent. It's hard for me to know how much the second problem is his fault. The Jets have always had a GM -- Shouldn't they shoulder the blame?

BTW -- How can you say the Jets were in good shape when he took over? He took over for Eric Mangini!