this is a bad sign

[vancelot23]

Joe Reedy recently posted this ominous message on Twitter:

"Alexander with a pretty strong endorsement of Livings"

Really?? Was he watching the same game as the rest of us?

 

[Cincyfan78]

Maybe he meant strong endorsement to be replaced?

Or, maybe it's one of those things...like a coach that you know is going to get fired, but gets the "endorsement" from the owner about a week before the owner fires him?

 

[vancelot23]

Or, maybe it's one of those things...like a coach that you know is going to get fired, but gets the "endorsement" from the owner about a week before the owner fires him?

God, I hope so. He's the Ghiacuic of guards.

 

[bengaldoug]

Turnstile!

 

[Tubbs1518]

Even turnstiles put up a little resistance. Livings doesn't even do that.

 

[bengaldoug]

I also think many here overrate Cook.....and I've been a fan of Bobbie Williams since he came here, but it looks as though he's through now.....they really could change all three interior positions and it wouldn't bother me at all......

 

[Tubbs1518]

Matt Kalil is who I want in the next draft and we will have our C for the next 15 years.

 

[flamingrey]

I also think many here overrate Cook.....and I've been a fan of Bobbie Williams since he came here, but it looks as though he's through now.....they really could change all three interior positions and it wouldn't bother me at all......

Everyone on our line is overrated due to the first half of the 2009 season. When teams finally got real film of Cook, Livings, and Roland, it was all down hill from there.

 

[bengaldoug]

I do think Whitworth is first rate, and who knows, maybe Tits McGee can still make it a solid set of bookends, but that's yet to be proven.....for sure though the whole interior of the line will be exploited all season, and our rookie quarterback is well on his way to David Carr syndrome.....hope I'm wrong.....

 

[bengaldoug]

Alexander should be fired on the spot if he's stupid enough to believe what he said about Livings......

 

[flamingrey]

I also like Whitworth, but do believe we overrate him a bit.

 

[vancelot23]

Alexander should be fired on the spot if he's stupid enough to believe what he said about Livings......

Agreed. If he thinks Livings is good, we're screwed and Mr Dalton better be ready to run.

 

[cincygrad]

I like Whitworth - I think he's good and I think the stats back it up. He does tend to jump offsides a lot though.

I also agree that people overrate the line based on the 2009 season. Believe it or not, Bengal fans should credit Bratkowski for the success that occurred early in the season. He rolled out an unbalanced line - Something we had never done before. He brought in Roland as a tight end and was able to roll up rushing yards on the strong side. We won tons of games early that year, and fell apart late in the year.

 

[flamingrey]

The thing is even in the beginning of 2009, our offense was never good. Our defense kept us in a LOT of games and Palmer was able to finish it off with a bunch of late game drives. But those unbalanced lines were very good for the first 6 or so games.

As for Whitworth, he's very good, but the biggest reason he doesn't give up a huge number of sacks is because he "holds" the defender before he can get to Palmer.

 

[vancelot23]

Flaming is right. Our offense in 2009 wasn't good at all. We struggled to score more than 18 points, and our defense had to win a lot of games.

 

[bengaldoug]

The only thing our offense was good at in 2009 was possessing the ball. Didn't we average around 32 min/gm? That kept our defense from getting tired. Many of those 6-8minute possessions, unfortunately, ended with only 3 points.

 

[flamingrey]

Between 2009 and 2010, there was only a 23 second difference in TOP.

 

[Cincyfan78]

Defense was better in 2009 than it was in 2010 by leaps and bounds.

 

[vancelot23]

Defense was better in 2009 than it was in 2010 by leaps and bounds.

Agreed, and we didn't turn the ball over as much, which as Flaming pointed out, did at least result in 3 points.

 

[bengaldoug]

Between 2009 and 2010, there was only a 23 second difference in TOP.

I couldn't believe that, so I looked it up on NFL.com -- according to their stats the Bengals were fifth in the league in time of possession at 32:29 in 2009, while thirteenth in the league (still higher than I thought) at 31:13 in 2010.....that's still a significant difference, though not as much as I thought....and yes, the defense played much worse in 2010, but maybe that was as much a function of the schedule as anything else.....