Game Thread: Bengals vs. Patriots

[BKBroiler9000]

You know, now that I think about it, the fact that Sam Whyche was fired three seasons after winning the AFC and only one losing season after a playoff birth might be the most surprising fact of the Mike Brown era.

Never thought about that lol.

Now it all makes sense. Mike regrets firing Wyche prematurely. Which is why he held onto mediocre Marv all those years. And will hang onto to Taylor until they completely waste Joe Burrow’s career.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

Side note: the best player on the field today for the Bengals was Ryan Rehkow. Just has a cannon for a leg. Flipped field position to keep them alive.

If Robbins was punting we lose by 21. No way in hell should he ever kick for this team again. But it’s the Bengals and Zac Taylor. So I fully expect they’ll trot him out there when healthy.

 

[cincygrad]

Mixon ran for 159 yards today. This should tell you something about how mismanaged our offense has been over the years.

 

[cincygrad]

Side note: the best player on the field today for the Bengals was Ryan Rehkow. Just has a cannon for a leg. Flipped field position to keep them alive.

If Robbins was punting we lose by 21. No way in hell should he ever kick for this team again. But it’s the Bengals and Zac Taylor. So I fully expect they’ll trot him out there when healthy.

This was the biggest shocker to me today. He also did it in a big moment, late in the game when he absolutely had to flip the field. Incredible showing.

 

[futballiscool]

They start slow on offense every season

 

[cincygrad]

They start slow on offense every season

I mean, to be fair, Andy Dalton threw for 450 yards on the road in Zac Taylor's first game. And then we had all the weird seasons with Burrow not getting work in the offseason. So, I think it was at least somewhat reasonable to hope that this year would be different.

 

[DanBengalfan]

well, ain't no way in hell they beat the chiefs playing like this.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

They start slow on offense every season

Outside of like 5 games in the middle of 2021, I don’t know that we’ve ever seen the “fast” version of this offense.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

well, ain't no way in hell they beat the chiefs playing like this.

I’m going into hibernation this week. That game is gonna be so toxic.

Our idiot fanbase is gonna be obnoxious on Twitter with the “3-1 Burrow” and “Burrowhead” BS. I’m sure Chase or some backup DB will make a comment this week that the Chiefs will use as bulletin board material.

The Chiefs will curbstomp us by 24 and shine their rings while Taylor Swift calls the plays.

 

[DanBengalfan]

I’m going into hibernation this week. That game is gonna be so toxic.

Our idiot fanbase is gonna be obnoxious on Twitter with the “3-1 Burrow” and “Burrowhead” BS. I’m sure Chase or some backup DB will make a comment this week that the Chiefs will use as bulletin board material.

The Chiefs will curbstomp us by 24 and shine their rings while Taylor Swift calls the plays.

if they can prove a point that the Bengals do not belong in this league, then they will do that.

 

[cincygrad]

I’m going into hibernation this week. That game is gonna be so toxic.

Our idiot fanbase is gonna be obnoxious on Twitter with the “3-1 Burrow” and “Burrowhead” BS. I’m sure Chase or some backup DB will make a comment this week that the Chiefs will use as bulletin board material.

The Chiefs will curbstomp us by 24 and shine their rings while Taylor Swift calls the plays.

Well shit.... I was sorta hoping this loss would humble them enough to keep their mouth shut this week (our players, not the twitter idiots).... But you're probably right.

 

[cincygrad]

This is concerning. I'm tired of the 'we take what they give us' checkdown approach to offense. Either Burrow's wrist is still a major issue, he is still mentally adjusting coming off of injury, or the offense is broken. Could be all three, but it's not a good sign.

x.com

x.com

 

[futballiscool]

I mean, to be fair, Andy Dalton threw for 450 yards on the road in Zac Taylor's first game. And then we had all the weird seasons with Burrow not getting work in the offseason. So, I think it was at least somewhat reasonable to hope that this year would be different.

This year had the WR asterisk with one out due to injury and the other skipping training camp and playing with virtually no practice time.

 

[alf8478]

I think Dax Hill just missed another tackle.

 

[Cincyfan78]

One team looked like they had prepared and played some games in the pre-season. They weren't the best, but they were certainly more oiled and ready to go.

The other team was the Bengals. Once again - no pre-season work for starters and game one looks like slop.

I'm sure next year we'll hear about how they will change things, again, and play guys - only to not play guys and start the season 1-3 again.

For the third straight Week 1 for the Bengals: -- They were held without a touchdown-- Are trailing by 10 or more points. Second straight year Cincinnati is scoreless in the first half of the opener. They are 1-10 in Weeks 1-2 in the Zac Taylor era and 0-5 in the last 5 despite being favored in all of them, and favored by at least 7 in 3.

And - for the love of all that is Good and Holy - can someone else call a 4th down play instead of Zach Taylor? His love for those end-arounds, and behind the line passes has caused a ton of missed 4th down conversions - and every time he talks about how it wasn't the right call and that he should do this or that at that juncture - and then the very next time it comes up - same damn call every time.

Taylor is very good at talking about the change needed. He is very poor at actually making the change needed.

While writing this - 13 more missed tackles happened by the Bengals defense. Lou better get this shit figured out. That can't happen at the NFL level.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Yep. Taylor is a pussy and too much of a players coach where he lets them all take it easy leading up to the season because he is afraid of stars getting hurt.

This definitely doesn't make or break our season, but we will lose against the Chiefs next week like we do in weeks 1 and 2, and we will have to dig our way out again.

1-10 right now, 1-11 next week.

They are 7-21-1 when failing to score in the first quarter under Taylor. 29 games we have not scored in the first quarter in 5 years basically.

No one is ready to play. That is why in the elimination pool I am playing in I refused to pick the Bengals even though they were most heavily favored this week, because of this. 1/3 of the participants are eliminated because they choose Cincinnati.

The only win they have in that span,is the Opening Day against Minnesota where we wound up going to the SB that year. We miss Reader really bad on the DLine. Rankins is nothing close to Reader.

I think we are still an 11 win team, but hate that we always have to dig a hole like this, especially in our division.

 

[Cincyfan78]

Yep. Taylor is a pussy and too much of a players coach where he lets them all take it easy leading up to the season because he is afraid of stars getting hurt.

This definitely doesn't make or break our season, but we will lose against the Chiefs next week like we do in weeks 1 and 2, and we will have to dig our way out again.

1-10 right now, 1-11 next week.

They are 7-21-1 when failing to score in the first quarter under Taylor. 29 games we have not scored in the first quarter in 5 years basically.

No one is ready to play. That is why in the elimination pool I am playing in I refused to pick the Bengals even though they were most heavily favored this week, because of this. 1/3 of the participants are eliminated because they choose Cincinnati.

The only win they have in that span,is the Opening Day against Minnesota where we wound up going to the SB that year. We miss Reader really bad on the DLine. Rankins is nothing close to Reader.

I think we are still an 11 win team, but hate that we always have to dig a hole like this, especially in our division.

Hard to really know about Rankings - remember Readers' 1st year wasn't great and then he got hurt. It also hurts that 2 big rotational pieces in McKinley-Jackson and Jenkins were out, and look like will be out for some time. So, on that front - I'll give a pass for now because you can't predict injuries...but maybe if Rankins had played more in the pre-season he'd have been more ready to take up a bigger load when the other guys went down.

As it is - this team was woefully unprepared - and that's no shock. It's the Taylor way. The more things like this happen, and on offense the ineptness, the more I'm being convinced that the Bengals are going to waste away Burrow's best years....

 

[cincygrad]

One team looked like they had prepared and played some games in the pre-season. They weren't the best, but they were certainly more oiled and ready to go.

The other team was the Bengals. Once again - no pre-season work for starters and game one looks like slop.

I'm sure next year we'll hear about how they will change things, again, and play guys - only to not play guys and start the season 1-3 again.

For the third straight Week 1 for the Bengals: -- They were held without a touchdown-- Are trailing by 10 or more points. Second straight year Cincinnati is scoreless in the first half of the opener. They are 1-10 in Weeks 1-2 in the Zac Taylor era and 0-5 in the last 5 despite being favored in all of them, and favored by at least 7 in 3.

And - for the love of all that is Good and Holy - can someone else call a 4th down play instead of Zach Taylor? His love for those end-arounds, and behind the line passes has caused a ton of missed 4th down conversions - and every time he talks about how it wasn't the right call and that he should do this or that at that juncture - and then the very next time it comes up - same damn call every time.

Taylor is very good at talking about the change needed. He is very poor at actually making the change needed.

While writing this - 13 more missed tackles happened by the Bengals defense. Lou better get this shit figured out. That can't happen at the NFL level.

We are a freak Dalvin Cook fumble away from being 0-11 in weeks 1-2 under Taylor. I have a hard time blaming Lou for the tackling, unless he holds the same philosophy about practice intensity as Taylor. Something tells me he doesn't but it's not his call. The encouraging thing is that the D was in the right places yesterday and there were no explosives. Stevens yards above expectation were insane due to missed tackles. But, there really isn't a good reason for the Bengals to be a poor tackling unit. CTB and Dax Hill are both physical corners. The safeties shouldn't have issues. But again, if you don't really tackle until Game 1, I'm guessing it has an impact.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Hard to really know about Rankings - remember Readers' 1st year wasn't great and then he got hurt. It also hurts that 2 big rotational pieces in McKinley-Jackson and Jenkins were out, and look like will be out for some time. So, on that front - I'll give a pass for now because you can't predict injuries...but maybe if Rankins had played more in the pre-season he'd have been more ready to take up a bigger load when the other guys went down.

As it is - this team was woefully unprepared - and that's no shock. It's the Taylor way. The more things like this happen, and on offense the ineptness, the more I'm being convinced that the Bengals are going to waste away Burrow's best years....

I thought Taylor was actually going to play guys in preseason this year and prep them, but one quality drive by the starters he thinks he had seen enough and benches them the rest of the preseason. Pussy. I would rather risk injury in preseason than come out unprepared every single year.

As a side note, Gieski dripping the TD, and Hudson fumbling when going into the end zone sealed our fate. Jones fumbling deep in our territory on a point return cost us also. Lots of mistakes. As bad as we were playing, we win that game if not for the terrible timing turnovers.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I thought Taylor was actually going to play guys in preseason this year and prep them, but one quality drive by the starters he thinks he had seen enough and benches them the rest of the preseason. Pussy. I would rather risk injury in preseason than come out unprepared every single year.

As a side note, Gieski dripping the TD, and Hudson fumbling when going into the end zone sealed our fate. Jones fumbling deep in our territory on a point return cost us also. Lots of mistakes. As bad as we were playing, we win that game if not for the terrible timing turnovers.

Yes - mistakes that looked like rust because they hadn't faced any kind of game situation since 2023....

Taylor talks A LOT about things that need to change. He's talked at length about his play calling, his 4th down approach, and his pre-season approach. He's talked A LOT about how he was going to do things differently, specifically this year regarding entering the season coming off a pre-season where starters would get work.

He talks A LOT.

I see better than I hear, though....