Week Two vs CIN Bengals

[steelcurtain]

Come On boys no fighting!

 

[steelcurtain]

Way to go Woodley

 

[tk83]

bummer

 

[Yu Lee - A Nova Lover]

Good Game.

 

[tk83]

Good Game.

Lookin' 4ward 2 next week!

 

[Yu Lee - A Nova Lover]

Lookin' 4ward 2 next week!

Good luck.

Chicago is a balanced team... but... you will have two games of tape on 'em.

 

[tk83]

No - I mean your boys, Nova - my Packers are goin' to Bengal-land.


As far as Pittsburgh is concerned, I usually just have a friendly interest.
Except this week - GO STEELERS, BEAT THOSE BEARS!

 

[dare2be]

No - I mean your boys - my Packers are goin' to Bengal-land.


As far as Pittsburgh is concerned, I usually just have a friendly interest.
Except this week - GO STEELERS, BEAT THOSE BEARS!

We will get crushed.

 

[tk83]

We will get crushed.

Cutler's over-rated.

But their D is usually good.

 

[dare2be]

Cutler's over-rated.

But their D is usually good.

If they can manage more than 6 points on us, they win. Our O (line mostly) is that bad.

 

[tk83]

If they can manage more than 6 points on us, they win. Our O (line mostly) is that bad.

Sorry 'bout that - I didn't get to see the game tonight.

Was following F#X updates on-line.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Well it was a lot closer than I expected it to be. Aside from the shaky offensive plays, the team played better than expected. My thoughts:

1. I don't know where the disconnect was coming from between the WR's and QB. The entire game it seemed like nobody was on the same page. Not sure who to blame here, but could have been the play calling. I liked some of the aggressiveness to the play calling last night, but for the most part Haley made a lot of bad decisions. I don't see Haley in Pittsburgh for much longer, or at least I hope not. Maybe he'll make it to the end of the season. I could see Kirby Wilson taking over and reinstalling a new scheme.
2. Like ATL has been saying, I just don't think there is enough talent outside of Brown for this offense to thrive. Not trying to take anything away from Cincy, but many of the Steelers WR's could not get open.
3. DEF: It is going to take a little while before Williams & Wilson get the hang of things at ILB. I saw a lot of missed tackles by them, and the rest of the defense for that matter. They weren't terrible by any means, but they seemed out of position when it really mattered. The D-line didn't create a whole lot of pressure. Al Woods made a mistake when he shot the gap on Cincy's first touchdown play. It looked like he could have stood up the center and anchored which would have stopped that play cold.
4. Please, for the love of god, get rid of Redman!!! He is not a starting 'back, and shouldn't be in for crucial situations. For such a big RB, he really lacks physicality. I saw him doing his ridiculous 'dancing' in the backfield again. Also on the RB dump pass where he clearly didn't have much room he decided to stutter step instead of just lowering his head and using his size to power for a few yards (result = negative yards). Felix & Dwyer saw some daylight on a few occasions. I think once the bye week hits & Bell returns, they should release Redman.
5. Fernando Velasco is the real deal. He (& DeCastro) virtually eliminated Atkins for most of the night. The only times I really saw Atkins get into the backfield was when only DeCastro was on him (which was a mismatch). Velasco was great in the run game. He displayed great awareness when he saw Dwyer wasn't going to get that first down so he pushed him over the line. He will continue to get better when he gets more comfortable with the offense. As for the rest of the O-line, they continued to struggle for the most part (mainly the OT positions). Johnson was in the backfield on almost every play.
6. So much for all the SportsHoopla over Harrison. Unless I missed a play, I didn't see Harrison even get close to sacking Ben. Foster handled him nicely on a few plays.

On another note, the officials tonight stunk it up as usual. Terrible calls on both sides of the ball.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Well it was a lot closer than I expected it to be. Aside from the shaky offensive plays, the team played better than expected. My thoughts:

1. I don't know where the disconnect was coming from between the WR's and QB. The entire game it seemed like nobody was on the same page. Not sure who to blame here, but could have been the play calling. I liked some of the aggressiveness to the play calling last night, but for the most part Haley made a lot of bad decisions. I don't see Haley in Pittsburgh for much longer, or at least I hope not. Maybe he'll make it to the end of the season. I could see Kirby Wilson taking over and reinstalling a new scheme.
2. Like ATL has been saying, I just don't think there is enough talent outside of Brown for this offense to thrive. Not trying to take anything away from Cincy, but many of the Steelers WR's could not get open.
3. DEF: It is going to take a little while before Williams & Wilson get the hang of things at ILB. I saw a lot of missed tackles by them, and the rest of the defense for that matter. They weren't terrible by any means, but they seemed out of position when it really mattered. The D-line didn't create a whole lot of pressure. Al Woods made a mistake when he shot the gap on Cincy's first touchdown play. It looked like he could have stood up the center and anchored which would have stopped that play cold.
4. Please, for the love of god, get rid of Redman!!! He is not a starting 'back, and shouldn't be in for crucial situations. For such a big RB, he really lacks physicality. I saw him doing his ridiculous 'dancing' in the backfield again. Also on the RB dump pass where he clearly didn't have much room he decided to stutter step instead of just lowering his head and using his size to power for a few yards (result = negative yards). Felix & Dwyer saw some daylight on a few occasions. I think once the bye week hits & Bell returns, they should release Redman.
5. Fernando Velasco is the real deal. He (& DeCastro) virtually eliminated Atkins for most of the night. The only times I really saw Atkins get into the backfield was when only DeCastro was on him (which was a mismatch). Velasco was great in the run game. He displayed great awareness when he saw Dwyer wasn't going to get that first down so he pushed him over the line. He will continue to get better when he gets more comfortable with the offense. As for the rest of the O-line, they continued to struggle for the most part (mainly the OT positions). Johnson was in the backfield on almost every play.
6. So much for all the SportsHoopla over Harrison. Unless I missed a play, I didn't see Harrison even get close to sacking Ben. Foster handled him nicely on a few plays.

On another note, the officials tonight stunk it up as usual. Terrible calls on both sides of the ball.

I called it 20-17 CIN...they held up their end of it, we didn't.

Response to your thoughts.

1....I thought the OL played much better...the really bad sack in the 2Q was 100% on Ben imo...had 2 chances to throw the ball, but chose to keep it...the play started on roughly the 30 yd line, he nearly flipped the field position by taking a sack on the 10 or 12 yd line...secondly, when you're struggling on OFC, you really can't afford to kill drives on your own...Paulson's fumble was huge.

2....F. Jones was clearly hitting the hole much quicker than Redman...good the see Moye produce in the RZ, I hope there are more opportunities for him...again Sanders got single coverage most of the night 10 targets, 5 recp 78 yds...not terrible but I think teams will accept that and continue to dbl Brown. If Bell hits the hole like F. Jones does then the running game will be fine with those two...if Miller comes back okay I do feel better about the OFC but I think Wheaton still has to factor for this to be a playoff team. 2 games in...I would not re-sign Sanders for #2 money.

3. Overall I thought the DL played well, the OLB played well...no sacks, but it was not a comfortable pocket for Dalton...he was hit several times, rushed several passes, had a couple knocked down...never thought I would say they missed Foote, but they did...I thought Timmons was supposed to be in coverage and was way too far off and Wilson looked to be covering the TE on that play. Ike, played very well imo, Clark did not.

4. As mentioned, F. Jones hits the hole so much quicker than Redman that it's not funny...I guess you have to keep one of them due to injury, but when Bell returns...I expect them to release Dwyer or Redman...I would let Redman go.

5. Agree on Valesco...looked as good if not better than Pouncey in his 1st game...it will be interesting to see what Tomlin/Colbert do b/c Valesco is a more durable player....some of the bloggers want Beachum in there over Gilbert, but I say stay the course until the bye and change then if they are going to change. I would like to see the current OL with Bell and Miller a few games.

6. JH was sent in coverage more than I expected.

Okay we're 0-2...obviously we're in desperate mode playing CHI @ home...word is Miller may play in this game, but we'll see how the practice goes this week....the trip on Gilbert negating a nice catch and run was totally bogus, but CIN was the better team last night.

 

[evolver115]

Momentum is such a gigantic aspect of football. Two plays that just crushed our woeful offense were the Paulson fumble with a 3-0 lead, and the phantom tripping call after the long AB catch and run with a 10-10 game.

If the OFC is struggling to put together positive plays, and when they finally hit on the big play only to have it nullified by mental mistakes, that's just a killer. Those two plays were momentum building like situations that could lead to more momentum. Instead, they ended up being the opposite for them.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I agree, we could have had a great momentum swing in a few crucial situations. The tripping call was a huge dagger because Cincy scored on the following drive. Hopefully they come back strong at home or else this year could be over before it even began.

Good call on the score ATL! I was barely off!