Bengals 38 Bears 17

[mrschaney]

Really feeling good about this one. With all the Bengals have done to improve and with what little the Bears have done in the way of improvement, this should be a great warm up game to start the season.
After watching last nights debacle, I'm LOLing at the Ravens front office for riding the Flaco bus. He IS NOT a top tier Qb!
With that said, Andy Dalton is poised to take it to the next level and be THE TOP TIER QB in the AFC.
I predict him to be in the 38 to 44 TD per season range starting this season.
It might be a little premature, but barring any serious injuries I think we had better stock up on the long handled uderdrawers because this years super bowl looks to be "piercing" cold according to the farmers almanac. Speaking of piercing, I have a camal toe from hell that I need to take care of if you know what I mean. I'm outa here.

 

[RobBase]

38 points? Not in Soldier Field.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I have been back and forth on scores this week, but I think I am going to finally go with a solid 24-20 win for the Bengals.

 

[bengaldoug]

Someone is going to win 20-17.....probably the Bears.....

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Someone is going to win 20-17.....probably the Bears.....

Bite your tongue Douglas.

 

[bengaldoug]

I calls em like I sees em. It's a close matchup, could go either way. The Bears have the homefield edge. The linemaker is calling Bears by 3, that means he sees the teams dead even. It's never easy to beat a good team in their house.

 

[bengaldoug]

Bite your tongue Douglas.

Answer me this, crash. Has Andy Dalton ever made big plays to help the Bengals beat a good team on the road? They are going to need him to do just that to beat the Bears in their house. His blind side protector is out, and the guy coming from that side is an all pro. I just don't like our chances. I'm frequently wrong though.

 

[ckhokie]

Answer me this, crash. Has Andy Dalton ever made big plays to help the Bengals beat a good team on the road? They are going to need him to do just that to beat the Bears in their house. His blind side protector is out, and the guy coming from that side is an all pro. I just don't like our chances. I'm frequently wrong though.

That is the key to our season. I have no reason to assume some dramatic change has occurred, so I am going with 24-17, Bears. I think our D plays well, but the Bears capitalize on short fields. I hope I am completely incorrect in this prediction

 

[cincygrad]

Viva la June!

Bears 23, Bengals 16

 

[DanBengalfan]

I'll side with Crash.

 

[Cincyfan78]

27-24, Bengals.

Bengals will lead early, and fight off frantic Bears finish in the 4t qtr to hold on.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Answer me this, crash. Has Andy Dalton ever made big plays to help the Bengals beat a good team on the road? They are going to need him to do just that to beat the Bears in their house. His blind side protector is out, and the guy coming from that side is an all pro. I just don't like our chances. I'm frequently wrong though.

Not too much, but last year alone he had two tough road games he was able to help win with his arm.

Pittsburgh 12/23/12 | 13-10
Washington 9/23/12 | 38-31

Besides, that was last year with less weapons, less experience, and Def. Coord.'s game planning him different based on film from the previous year.

While I think Dalton has shown signs of being an above average QB, but not an elite type of QB, he hasn't had a whole lot of weapons around him besides Green. Gresham has the droppsies, the run game has been iffy, the Oline has struggled at times, he has had no #2.

I still think the run game will struggle a little bit with BJGE in there on first and 2nd downs, I think overall, this offense is MUCH improved. I think the offense can average over 24 points a game this year, and with our defense, that could be a season in the 9-11 win range pretty easy.

I still say Bengals 24-20, as an optimist.

 

[cincygrad]

Not too much, but last year alone he had two tough road games he was able to help win with his arm.

Pittsburgh 12/23/12 | 13-10
Washington 9/23/12 | 38-31

Besides, that was last year with less weapons, less experience, and Def. Coord.'s game planning him different based on film from the previous year.

While I think Dalton has shown signs of being an above average QB, but not an elite type of QB, he hasn't had a whole lot of weapons around him besides Green. Gresham has the droppsies, the run game has been iffy, the Oline has struggled at times, he has had no #2.

I still think the run game will struggle a little bit with BJGE in there on first and 2nd downs, I think overall, this offense is MUCH improved. I think the offense can average over 24 points a game this year, and with our defense, that could be a season in the 9-11 win range pretty easy.

I still say Bengals 24-20, as an optimist.

He made one big play in that Pittsburgh game -- Otherwise, he was ineffective. That game was won by our defense.

I wouldn't call that Washington win a big one either -- They hadn't hit their stride yet and their secondary was awful.

Regardless, I see your point about the supporting cast. I haven't been impressed with his playmakers at all - Outside of Green, he simply hasn't had many threats. And the blocking has been suspect at times which has led to struggles against good defense. What I find interesting is that most fans around here are adamant in their support of giving Sanu and Jones a chance at receiver, while acknowledging that they haven't brought much to the table. If we were so concerned about having more playmakers, why didn't we pay someone in FA?

I suspect that our rookies will take some time and the offense won't get better until the middle of the season. I think we'll have a difficult time with the opportunistic Bears D and I think we'll lose.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

He made one big play in that Pittsburgh game -- Otherwise, he was ineffective. That game was won by our defense.

I wouldn't call that Washington win a big one either -- They hadn't hit their stride yet and their secondary was awful.

Regardless, I see your point about the supporting cast. I haven't been impressed with his playmakers at all - Outside of Green, he simply hasn't had many threats. And the blocking has been suspect at times which has led to struggles against good defense. What I find interesting is that most fans around here are adamant in their support of giving Sanu and Jones a chance at receiver, while acknowledging that they haven't brought much to the table. If we were so concerned about having more playmakers, why didn't we pay someone in FA?

I suspect that our rookies will take some time and the offense won't get better until the middle of the season. I think we'll have a difficult time with the opportunistic Bears D and I think we'll lose.

Didn't the Steelers have a better defense than us last year? So I mean, it isn't like our defense alone won that game for us, as the Steelers were playing a worse defense than we were, with a younger QB. Dalton was also on teh road, and he struggled a bit, but he helped and made the plays he had to when the game was on the line to put us in FG range for the win. I mean, you can discount Dalton's play all you want, but Ben had it easier, at home against a worse defense and he couldn't pull out the win.

Then, you can say all you want about the Washington team not hitting their stride and being bad in coverage, but they put up 31 points, and Dalton had to keep pace and keep ahead on t he road in a hostile environment to pull out that win.

Granted, Dalton has had some stinkers on the road in the past, but he is a young QB learing, and getting better each year, all without a real good supporting cast. Granted, he il probably never be an elite QB with his particular skill set, but he can be a dang fine QB on a team that has a little help for him.

 

[cincygrad]

Didn't the Steelers have a better defense than us last year? So I mean, it isn't like our defense alone won that game for us, as the Steelers were playing a worse defense than we were, with a younger QB. Dalton was also on teh road, and he struggled a bit, but he helped and made the plays he had to when the game was on the line to put us in FG range for the win. I mean, you can discount Dalton's play all you want, but Ben had it easier, at home against a worse defense and he couldn't pull out the win.

Then, you can say all you want about the Washington team not hitting their stride and being bad in coverage, but they put up 31 points, and Dalton had to keep pace and keep ahead on t he road in a hostile environment to pull out that win.

Granted, Dalton has had some stinkers on the road in the past, but he is a young QB learing, and getting better each year, all without a real good supporting cast. Granted, he il probably never be an elite QB with his particular skill set, but he can be a dang fine QB on a team that has a little help for him.

Dalton gave Washington their first touchdown in that game by throwing an interception on his own goal line. AJ Green threw one of our touchdowns and another touchdown was made by Armon Binns when he took a 5 yard pass and inexplicably all of the Washington defenders forgot to tackle his slow ass.

As for the Steelers.... Their offense sucked last year - Especially toward the end of the year. Why do you think Ben was bitching about Todd Haley?

Dalton put up six points against the Steelers.... The last three of them set up off a turnover. Leon Hall scored our only touchdown that day. As I said, I give credit to Dalton for making the big throw to Green to set it up, but that was really one of his only good throws that day.

 

[Cincyfan78]

He made one big play in that Pittsburgh game -- Otherwise, he was ineffective. That game was won by our defense.

I wouldn't call that Washington win a big one either -- They hadn't hit their stride yet and their secondary was awful.

Regardless, I see your point about the supporting cast. I haven't been impressed with his playmakers at all - Outside of Green, he simply hasn't had many threats. And the blocking has been suspect at times which has led to struggles against good defense. What I find interesting is that most fans around here are adamant in their support of giving Sanu and Jones a chance at receiver, while acknowledging that they haven't brought much to the table. If we were so concerned about having more playmakers, why didn't we pay someone in FA?

I suspect that our rookies will take some time and the offense won't get better until the middle of the season. I think we'll have a difficult time with the opportunistic Bears D and I think we'll lose.

sometimes that's all it takes. Yeah, it would be nice to see 300 yards passing and 3 TD's, 0 INT, etc...but in tough games, when you need that one play, good players make a play.

I mean, we're talking about a guy who improved in every category last year from his rookie year. I see no reason why he won't continue to improve.

 

[ckhokie]

Not too much, but last year alone he had two tough road games he was able to help win with his arm.

Pittsburgh 12/23/12 | 13-10
Washington 9/23/12 | 38-31

What game were you watching? We had a WR throw a TD and Dandy threw a pick 6 from on our 2 yard line. And that win was far before Washington was good. If we played them after week 8, I don't think we stand a chance.

 

[Cincyfan78]

What game were you watching? We had a WR throw a TD and Dandy threw a pick 6 from on our 2 yard line. And that win was far before Washington was good. If we played them after week 8, I don't think we stand a chance.

I think what he was pointing out was that Dalton threw for 328 yards, 3 TD's and 1 INT, completed 70% of his passes. He also had a long completion of 59 yards.

Against a pretty good Denver defense, he threw for 299 yards 1-1, and had a long completion of 52 yards.

Against a pretty good Steeler defense, as bad as the game seemed, he threw for 278 yards. The killer were the INT's.

And while he didn't rack up a ton of yards, in the NYG game he was 21/30 for 70% and 4 TD's with 0 INT's.


The guy can make some plays. What we need him to continue to do is to make strides in getting better. Continue to work on getting the ball down field, and limit mistakes in games like Pitt and Denver where INT's are such killers when the offense is already struggling to score.

Let's not forget it's only his 3rd year, and he was never expected to be a Manning/Ryan/Brady.

 

[JBUCK66]

I'm 0-1

bengs 28 bears 13

 

[bengaldoug]

I think what he was pointing out was that Dalton threw for 328 yards, 3 TD's and 1 INT, completed 70% of his passes. He also had a long completion of 59 yards.

Against a pretty good Denver defense, he threw for 299 yards 1-1, and had a long completion of 52 yards.

Against a pretty good Steeler defense, as bad as the game seemed, he threw for 278 yards. The killer were the INT's.

And while he didn't rack up a ton of yards, in the NYG game he was 21/30 for 70% and 4 TD's with 0 INT's.


The guy can make some plays. What we need him to continue to do is to make strides in getting better. Continue to work on getting the ball down field, and limit mistakes in games like Pitt and Denver where INT's are such killers when the offense is already struggling to score.

Let's not forget it's only his 3rd year, and he was never expected to be a Manning/Ryan/Brady.

His numbers across the board did improve, but he had the same problems he had as a rookie. He still has a tendency to hold onto the ball too long, taking unnecessary sacks. He still has trouble going through his progressions, tending to lock onto his first read. He has success when he gets rid of the ball quickly, and that simply means his first read was open. He panics under pressure. His passer rating is something like 40 when under pressure, where for example Roethlisberger's actually gets better. His numbers improved last year, but imho he didn't. These are the areas that must get better.
And I even forgot his lack of accuracy downfield.