Game Thread: Week 1: Bengals vs. Indy

[Myles]

Was this just a bad game for Luck or are the Bengals really that good this year? Great comeback victory.

Luck played very well. Very little rust after 2 years off. The youth of the rest of the Colts showed. This game could have went either way. Congrats to the Bengals for coming out on top.

 

[Yo Tee]

Luck played very well. Very little rust after 2 years off. The youth of the rest of the Colts showed. This game could have went either way. Congrats to the Bengals for coming out on top.

I would've thought Luck would've played a little better. There was some rust in his first possession.

 

[CaptainStubing]

Luck played well but the rest of the Colts roster is trash. Still not sure what to make of the Bengals quite yet. Next 3 are against Ravens, Falcons, and Panthers... 3 good tests. Will have a better idea after those ....

 

[Myles]

I would've thought Luck would've played a little better. There was some rust in his first possession.

You would have thought he would have played better? He had a very good game. Especially after 2 years off.

 

[Yo Tee]

You would have thought he would have played better? He had a very good game. Especially after 2 years off.

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Yeah, I would've thought he would have played better.

 

[Myles]

Yeah, I would've thought he would have played better.

Why would you think that? Makes no sense. 39/53 for 319 yards and 2 TD's. Rating of 93.2. That is better than most expected for a guy coming back after 2 years.

 

[Yo Tee]

Why would you think that? Makes no sense. 39/53 for 319 yards and 2 TD's. Rating of 93.2. That is better than most expected for a guy coming back after 2 years.

Just my opinion. Really expected him to torch the Bengals secondary.

 

[cincygrad]

Just my opinion. Really expected him to torch the Bengals secondary.

Why? The Bengals pass defense was in the top 10 last year and has been good for the past 5 or 6 seasons. That's generally not the reason they suck.

 

[cincygrad]

And good lord...Aside from one ill-advised pass, Luck had a damn good day. And he was playing without his best lineman.

 

[Yo Tee]

Why? The Bengals pass defense was in the top 10 last year and has been good for the past 5 or 6 seasons. That's generally not the reason they suck.

I know the pass defense has gotten much better over the last 2-3 years, I just thought Luck was gonna want to sling the ball all over the place and show that he hasn't lost a step in the last year and a half.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I wondered about this when I saw Luck's numbers but not very many 'big' plays. This seems to be a theme of a Marvin Lewis team, no matter who the coordinator is. We've heard all summer about the more aggressive defensive approach, but it seems to be the same scheme..... They just have slogans about turnovers and stuff now.

Don't know if that is entirely true. How many times have we seen the safety or DB get burnt deep over the past few years? I think it was by specific design. IMO, the easiest thing to do would have been to chuck the ball down field, if I am Luck. I think it would be tougher, after missing 600+ days of football, to come back and instantly have to dissect a quick pattern against a defense. I don't fault that plan in general, and it certainly did work for the most part. The two turnovers hurt, but Bengals got 2 of their own, and made the winning margin in the closing seconds what it was when Luck was driving.

I would have liked to have seen more pressure from the LB spot, but you also have to credit Indy and their OL. Sometimes you just tip your cap and move on. I think that's all we can learn from this right now.

 

[Cincyfan78]

And let's not forget, while the Bengals do have some veterans who have been around for awhile, they are still in the top 3 of youngest player average in the NFL.

That was a great road win. It was much tougher than I thought it would be, and credit due to the colts for getting up for Lucks' return. This game easily could have been looked at as "Well, Luck came back, and Indy just fed off that emotion. It was close, but on the road the Bengals didn't have enough".

Instead "When the chips were down, the Bengals defense did what it needed to, and the offense rose to the occasion. On the road, with the Colts feeding off the return of Luck, this is as good as a road win early in the season as you can get".

As an aside, Redmond got the start, and for all of the SportsHoopla about his strength and aggressiveness was the 2nd worst rated OL on the day for the Bengals (Shockingly, I know, it was Hart who was the worst).

What the hell did Westerman do to get buried so deep on the depth chart that the highest graded OL in the pre-season can't even get a SNIF on the OL? Hart was terrible with the Giants and he's terrible here. Plug in Westerman at RG, and Fisher at RT and just go from there. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same around here.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Was this just a bad game for Luck or are the Bengals really that good this year? Great comeback victory.

don't worry, the colts are terrible. they should have never been favored to win, the first week of the season is always the hardest for odds makers.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Hmmmph ...I see the Bungles won. Don't expect the same outcome on Thursday night.

Too bad you don't still have Dennis Pitta, he could beat the entire team single handily, one of the old raven's posters has us convinced that he was basically a god like hercules, aries, zeus, or mercury.

 

[Scapegoat]

Mixon had decent stats. How has he been playing?

 

[cincygrad]

Mixon had decent stats. How has he been playing?

I think it's clear that he's a pretty special talent. He hasn't had the luxury of playing behind a very good line. Hopefully this year's version of the line is better than last...

 

[cincygrad]

And let's not forget, while the Bengals do have some veterans who have been around for awhile, they are still in the top 3 of youngest player average in the NFL.

That was a great road win. It was much tougher than I thought it would be, and credit due to the colts for getting up for Lucks' return. This game easily could have been looked at as "Well, Luck came back, and Indy just fed off that emotion. It was close, but on the road the Bengals didn't have enough".

Instead "When the chips were down, the Bengals defense did what it needed to, and the offense rose to the occasion. On the road, with the Colts feeding off the return of Luck, this is as good as a road win early in the season as you can get".

As an aside, Redmond got the start, and for all of the SportsHoopla about his strength and aggressiveness was the 2nd worst rated OL on the day for the Bengals (Shockingly, I know, it was Hart who was the worst).

What the hell did Westerman do to get buried so deep on the depth chart that the highest graded OL in the pre-season can't even get a SNIF on the OL? Hart was terrible with the Giants and he's terrible here. Plug in Westerman at RG, and Fisher at RT and just go from there. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same around here.

I didn't realize how bad our linebackers were beaten up as well.... Take Williams out of the game, Preston Brown out of the game, Vinny Rey was limited.... I don't want to make excuses for all those crossing routes, but you can start to understand why there were some issues. Its also worth mentioning that as much as most of us our uneasy about Burfict's antics, this defense is night and day different when he plays.

As for the line... Its really hard to understand what they are doing. I mean at this point, we're just looking for serviceable at RT.... How bad is your line when Margus Hunt gets two sacks against you?

 

[CrashDavisSports]

And let's not forget, while the Bengals do have some veterans who have been around for awhile, they are still in the top 3 of youngest player average in the NFL.

That was a great road win. It was much tougher than I thought it would be, and credit due to the colts for getting up for Lucks' return. This game easily could have been looked at as "Well, Luck came back, and Indy just fed off that emotion. It was close, but on the road the Bengals didn't have enough".

Instead "When the chips were down, the Bengals defense did what it needed to, and the offense rose to the occasion. On the road, with the Colts feeding off the return of Luck, this is as good as a road win early in the season as you can get".

As an aside, Redmond got the start, and for all of the SportsHoopla about his strength and aggressiveness was the 2nd worst rated OL on the day for the Bengals (Shockingly, I know, it was Hart who was the worst).

What the hell did Westerman do to get buried so deep on the depth chart that the highest graded OL in the pre-season can't even get a SNIF on the OL? Hart was terrible with the Giants and he's terrible here. Plug in Westerman at RG, and Fisher at RT and just go from there. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same around here.

Starting to wonder if they should start looking at Westerman as a RT candidate.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

As for the line... Its really hard to understand what they are doing. I mean at this point, we're just looking for serviceable at RT.... How bad is your line when Margus Hunt gets two sacks against you?

I refuse to believe that Jake Fisher is so terrible that he could be worse than Bobby Hart. It’s almost like guilt by association because Ogbuehi is a bust (still on the roster btw). Who knows, maybe the coaches were blown away by Hart’s tape with the Giants that was so amazing he was cut by an o-line needy team.

Westerman must’ve banged somebody’s wife. Don’t understand how the top rated lineman from the preseason can’t even make the dress list for game day. When RG is a huge deficiency. Hobs keeps pumping up Redmond like he’s the second coming. It’s obvious the dude is a spare.

It needs to be Westerman/Fisher on the right side of the line. Plug them in and let it ride. I’m sure we’ll see a change in December when the team is out of playoff contention.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

Starting to wonder if they should start looking at Westerman as a RT candidate.

They won’t play him at guard. They’re sure as hell not playing him at tackle.