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Game Thread: Week 4: Bengals vs. Dolphins

cincygrad

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For whatever reason, these two teams always have interesting games. Tonight should be the same. Who you got?
 

DanBengalfan

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7-6
10-6 with anyone that has common sense running things.

....

Tua got greedy though and got sacked. that was dumb, our offense is stalling because no one can figure out how to move the chains with an all new OL, 3 elite receivers, a heisman winner, and a big new Tight end.
 

DanBengalfan

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dolphins poorly managed tua's injuries. he'll be back next week, hopefully.
 

cincygrad

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so, the offensive line looked very good on that drive and TD
Everyone gets obsessed with analytics which says that you should got for it on those close 4th down plays. But analytics does not say that you are supposed to have a shitty line, a washed up back and a coach that calls a sweep.
 

DanBengalfan

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amazing players making amazing plays to pull it out. it's frustrating watching zac taylor almost sabotage things.
 

DanBengalfan

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Everyone gets obsessed with analytics which says that you should got for it on those close 4th down plays. But analytics does not say that you are supposed to have a shitty line, a washed up back and a coach that calls a sweep.
yea. 4th down conversions are great, but there's some parity in this league, it's not high school and you have to calculate your advantage. It's similar to doubling down in blackjack if you know you have a good hand. if you have a 6 and the dealer has a 10, you don't double down, but if it's reversed, sure, it's a good idea.
 

futballiscool

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Everyone gets obsessed with analytics which says that you should got for it on those close 4th down plays. But analytics does not say that you are supposed to have a shitty line, a washed up back and a coach that calls a sweep.

Usually I'm not an analytics guy buy I'm in favor of going for it on 4th and 1 at the goal line, especially when you have a kicker like McPherson. The best case outcome is a touchdown. Even if you don't get it you leave the opposing offense pinned down at the 1 and you get the ball back in fringe FG territory if your defense can force a 3 and out.
They won a close game so the call worked but I thought it was an obvious situation to go for it
 

cincygrad

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Usually I'm not an analytics guy buy I'm in favor of going for it on 4th and 1 at the goal line, especially when you have a kicker like McPherson. The best case outcome is a touchdown. Even if you don't get it you leave the opposing offense pinned down at the 1 and you get the ball back in fringe FG territory if your defense can force a 3 and out.
They won a close game so the call worked but I thought it was an obvious situation to go for it
Yeah, I thought the move to kick at the goal line was really weird - I thought they should have gone for that one. I was thinking more about the 4th and 1 around the 30.... The analytics also say you go for it at that point, but given our short yardage issues, that's when I would have kicked.
 

DanBengalfan

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Nixon was never really a pound into the front 7 and move the line type of back. he hits holes, makes a move, and sometimes it works out great. we haven't had that kind of running back for some time now. It's like, "Oh, Nixon isn't getting many yards per carry, we need to establish him by forcing things that never really worked for him anyway." we're a west coast style offense, we use screens and short passes to offset the lack of a real ground and pound run game, we're a passing team.
 

Be Weary of Query

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Usually I'm not an analytics guy buy I'm in favor of going for it on 4th and 1 at the goal line, especially when you have a kicker like McPherson. The best case outcome is a touchdown. Even if you don't get it you leave the opposing offense pinned down at the 1 and you get the ball back in fringe FG territory if your defense can force a 3 and out.
They won a close game so the call worked but I thought it was an obvious situation to go for it
I'm with ya for the most part but the flip of it is Baltimore losing today when they didn't take the sure thing (the lead on the FG) late in the game.

That was a signal that Harbaugh didn't trust his defense against Buffalo. The Bengals most trustworthy phase (currently) is their Defense.
 

cincygrad

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I'm with ya for the most part but the flip of it is Baltimore losing today when they didn't take the sure thing (the lead on the FG) late in the game.

That was a signal that Harbaugh didn't trust his defense against Buffalo. The Bengals most trustworthy phase (currently) is their Defense.
I thought that was a horrible decision. Buffalo has been very bad in low scoring games - I think a field goal at that point puts a lot of pressure on the Bills. I get that they eventually scored a TB, but I think the Bills drive is different if they are down 3.
 

CrashDavisSports

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I was in a different camp. We were winning 10-6, I thought we should have gone for the FG in the 2nd. It is early in the game, you are winning, you put yourself up by a full TD when you are at home and in the lead. I agreed with the second FG as well. We were winning. You push that score to 8 points as the game is closing down. I might be remembering some of this wrong because I can barely remember this weekend more less thursday night. However, I completely disagreed with the 4th and 1 to go for it call, and I agreed with the FG at the GL call to push the lead to a full score.
 

futballiscool

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I'm with ya for the most part but the flip of it is Baltimore losing today when they didn't take the sure thing (the lead on the FG) late in the game.

That was a signal that Harbaugh didn't trust his defense against Buffalo. The Bengals most trustworthy phase (currently) is their Defense.

That was a bit of an anamoly in that Lamar got picked in the end zone and ruined the advantage you get by leaving the opposing team's offense pinned at their own goal line. I thought that was the right call with poor execution. Buffalo seemed to adjust to the poor weather conditions and dominated the 2nd half.
 

alf8478

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That was a bit of an anamoly in that Lamar got picked in the end zone and ruined the advantage you get by leaving the opposing team's offense pinned at their own goal line. I thought that was the right call with poor execution. Buffalo seemed to adjust to the poor weather conditions and dominated the 2nd half.

The problem though when a QB scrambles around to extend that play on that part of the field is that the defense only has to cover 12 yards of the field, so there are more defenders in the passing lanes and less windows for the QB to throw into.
 

DanBengalfan

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We currently have the championship "Belt"

Rams lost it to Buffalo, Buffalo lost it to the Dolphins, and the Dolphins lost it to us.

my rule for the "Belt" : whoever wins the superbowl steals the belt from whomever has it regarldless if they were in the superbowl or not.
after that, it goes to the victor, in the event of a tie, the belt owner retains the belt.
 

Cincyfan78

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Taylor is not a great play caller. He never has been. He was awful at his time at UC as the OC. He's a great HC, but he needs to give up the play calling.

After calling a 4th and 1 toss the week prior and then admonishing that call after the game, he comes right back out the next week and calls a 4th and 1 toss....He did this several times last year, as well. He'd make a bad call. Call himself out on it. Come back the next week and do the exact same dumb thing.

His offensive scheme is unimaginative and gets less out of more. I was very impressed with how the Dolphins use their formations to create space and get the ball out of Tua/Teddy's hands. Imagine if Burrow had some plays like that - helping to negate the OL - but also creating space for Chase to get more catches instead of just relying on him deep...things like that.

Also - Hurst is a beast. I fully believe that one of the big keys to unlocking this offense is to start using him more in the middle passing game. It will force LB's to stay in space more, open up a bit more at the LOS, but also prevent the LB's from dropping too deep to help with deeper routes.
 

cincygrad

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Taylor is not a great play caller. He never has been. He was awful at his time at UC as the OC. He's a great HC, but he needs to give up the play calling.

After calling a 4th and 1 toss the week prior and then admonishing that call after the game, he comes right back out the next week and calls a 4th and 1 toss....He did this several times last year, as well. He'd make a bad call. Call himself out on it. Come back the next week and do the exact same dumb thing.

His offensive scheme is unimaginative and gets less out of more. I was very impressed with how the Dolphins use their formations to create space and get the ball out of Tua/Teddy's hands. Imagine if Burrow had some plays like that - helping to negate the OL - but also creating space for Chase to get more catches instead of just relying on him deep...things like that.

Also - Hurst is a beast. I fully believe that one of the big keys to unlocking this offense is to start using him more in the middle passing game. It will force LB's to stay in space more, open up a bit more at the LOS, but also prevent the LB's from dropping too deep to help with deeper routes.
I think there are too many cooks in the kitchen on offense. The offense looks like a blend of Calahan, Taylor, Pollack, and Burrow and it has no real identity from drive-to-drive, let alone from game-to-game. I watch games every weekend with teams that have offensive lines that are no good.... Yet, a lot of these teams find ways to mask their problems and put up big yards. Dallas had no issue against us even though they lost both tackles from last year. Miami held up okay against us even though they were starting one of the worst guards in the league and they had bigger issues than we did last year. Baltimore is starting a rookie center and had several issues to fix from last season. All of these teams are able to run functional offense even with some suspect play at line. I honestly don't think the players we currently have on our line are that big of a problem (Collins is clearly impacted by injury so maybe that's an exception), but the D clearly knows the plays we are running and first and second options are too easy to take away leading to pressure sacks.
 
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