Why we lost to Houston

[mrschaney]

We have to establish the run! I don't care if we have to "waste" a couple of drives early on if the run isn't there, but with our offensive line and 2 top tier running backs we should be wearing down a defense eventually. That will open up our passing game. Our passing game wasn't there, but we didn't abandon that? We need to be running the ball down defenses throats first, then the pass. Our defense played great, but if we were controlling the clock with the run, they might not have scored even those 10 points.

 

[mrschaney]

Looking at the rushing stats:

Gio 36 rushing yards
Dalton 30 rushing yards
Hill 15 rushing yards

When Dalton is right there with the rushing leaders, you know our offense is off!

 

[DanBengalfan]

yea, we put it on the shoulders of the passing game when the pass defense was doing a great job on the other side. made perfect nonsense.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

We lost because Eifert and Green can't hang onto the damn ball. That, and Hue Jackson coached like a retard. Typical primetime weaksauce.

 

[tedman2012]

We lost because Eifert and Green can't hang onto the damn ball. That, and Hue Jackson coached like a retard. Typical primetime weaksauce.

was it that eifert just had a bad game ? it looked like he dropped 4 or 5 balls .

 

[DanBengalfan]

we need to replace the light bulbs at PBS with lights that don't bother these guys as much. Either that, or just remove the lights so we can't possibly have night games at PBS until Dalton retires.

 

[DanBengalfan]

was it that eifert just had a bad game ? it looked like he dropped 4 or 5 balls .

reverted to his old self more or less. yes the defense was doing a better job than other defenses, but many of the passes were in his hands and he bobbled them.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

We had too many penalties, we dropped too many passes, we had 2 turnovers, one of which sealed our fate.

Hue spent too much time trying to get cute with the offensive game plan, rather than rushing the ball up the gut. Hill spent too much time running sideline to sideline on his carries and Bernard didn't get enough carries. We tried too many screens, reverses, and trickery plays. I think Hue was trying too hard to interview for HC jobs during this prime time game that he lost track of how to actually beat the Texans and didn't stick with what has made this offense great. Keep that extra offensive lineman in there for protection against a tough DL, do more quick timing routes over the middle for Dalton, and do a lot more running.

All in all, this game was not Dalton's fault at all, but he had a hand in the blame game along with Green, Eifert and the offensive line that had issues blocking or caused too many holding penalties.

The defense played great, but on the other hand, the guy that beat us was Yates again, a guy cut lose by the Texans, only to get picked up by Atlanta and then get cut in the preseason, and sat on his couch until he got an opportunity thanks to Mallett being craptastic. We got beat by a backup QB who was cut by two teams in the before the preseason even ended.

8-1 is great, and we knew that we struggle in primetime and we knew we were not going to be undefeated. However, I don't think any of us thought it would be against a horrible Houston team.

We are on to Arizona obviously, but this one stings a bit because Houston is terrible.

 

[cincygrad]

We had too many penalties, we dropped too many passes, we had 2 turnovers, one of which sealed our fate.

Hue spent too much time trying to get cute with the offensive game plan, rather than rushing the ball up the gut. Hill spent too much time running sideline to sideline on his carries and Bernard didn't get enough carries. We tried too many screens, reverses, and trickery plays. I think Hue was trying too hard to interview for HC jobs during this prime time game that he lost track of how to actually beat the Texans and didn't stick with what has made this offense great. Keep that extra offensive lineman in there for protection against a tough DL, do more quick timing routes over the middle for Dalton, and do a lot more running.

All in all, this game was not Dalton's fault at all, but he had a hand in the blame game along with Green, Eifert and the offensive line that had issues blocking or caused too many holding penalties.

The defense played great, but on the other hand, the guy that beat us was Yates again, a guy cut lose by the Texans, only to get picked up by Atlanta and then get cut in the preseason, and sat on his couch until he got an opportunity thanks to Mallett being craptastic. We got beat by a backup QB who was cut by two teams in the before the preseason even ended.

8-1 is great, and we knew that we struggle in primetime and we knew we were not going to be undefeated. However, I don't think any of us thought it would be against a horrible Houston team.

We are on to Arizona obviously, but this one stings a bit because Houston is terrible.

It was also really curious to have Carlos Dunlap in coverage so much last night..... I think we're better off when we don't have 11 days to come up with some of this bullshit.

 

[BKBroiler9000]

It was also really curious to have Carlos Dunlap in coverage so much last night..... I think we're better off when we don't have 11 days to come up with some of this bullshit.

It was quite obvious they were overthinking things last night. Trying to prove to the world the Bengals have exorcised their primetime demons. As evidenced by all the trick plays and Marvin inexplicably calling a timeout at the end of the first half, allowing a potentially damaging Hail Mary attempt by Houston.

This should be expected from Marvin. The man is the king of mental midget coaching. Hue on the other hand looked like he was trying to impress potential employers for next year. As others have said. Only problem is, they lost. And scored 6 points. Oops!

 

[DanBengalfan]

we are too quick to give up on the run. Dalton is better, but he's not Brady/Rodgers/Manning better.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

we are too quick to give up on the run. Dalton is better, but he's not Brady/Rodgers/YOUNGER Manning better.

Fixed.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Eli is the younger manning.

I'm sure Joe Montana, Brett Favre, and Dan Marino would have problems too. but they did the smart thing and retired.

 

[alf8478]

I don't understand this idea that Hue was using the game as some sort of job interview video.

 

[cincygrad]

I don't understand this idea that Hue was using the game as some sort of job interview video.

Not sure of his motivation..... But the scheme definitely seemed odd. While all of those shifts might confuse a defense, they don't do you much good when they cause 4-5 procedure penalties. It also seems like he's now fully in love with Dalton in the shotgun and we rarely run power plays with Hewitt in the game. Doesn't make much sense.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Not sure of his motivation..... But the scheme definitely seemed odd. While all of those shifts might confuse a defense, they don't do you much good when they cause 4-5 procedure penalties. It also seems like he's now fully in love with Dalton in the shotgun and we rarely run power plays with Hewitt in the game. Doesn't make much sense.

Not to mention, we used about 100% more tricky plays in this game than we usually do with alignments and personnel. We even had I think two penalties for an illegal formation. We do line up in shotgun too much, as a run play takes longer to develop outside of running up the middle on a draw. Not sure why we are going away from the run so much. I know Hill has struggled, but Bernard has done a very nice job and Hill is capable as well is Burkhead.

Just lineup and play some AFC North football. Heavy line formations, FB, pound and ground along with some timely play actions, a few trick plays, quick reads, timing patterns, lining up under center a majority of the time. Plus, our players need to make catches and hold on to the ball.

 

[DanBengalfan]

I think Houston just did a better job on defense than we are used to seeing. they watched tape on our passing game and knew the best ways to cover. they have owned us in the past, and just in case they get the wild card they wanted to go in with us knowing that they still own us. This game was just more important to them and they did better homework. Dalton couldn't throw quite often because his favorite reads were covered. How do they know which ones are his favorites? game tape. Dalton isn't impossible for good defenses to figure out. that's why he struggles in primetime. He needs to adjust, the Bengals coaches need to adjust.

 

[DanBengalfan]

I'd also like to see Burkhead in a few plays. I don't think he's that much worse than Hill right now.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

So you think if we played Houston on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati that Houston's game plan would have been worse, which is how our prime time game issues are explained? We don't game plan well for prime time games, and other teams do not game plan us well for Sunday afternoon games? Seems kinda far fetched to me man.

 

[DanBengalfan]

So you think if we played Houston on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati that Houston's game plan would have been worse, which is how our prime time game issues are explained? We don't game plan well for prime time games, and other teams do not game plan us well for Sunday afternoon games? Seems kinda far fetched to me man.

I joke about Dalton and the time of day. but what I'm talking about here is "PrimeTime=Better competition". We can slice and dice poorly ran defenses all day, but for some reason we're not making adjustments offensively against good defenses. it's been the story for the Bengals pretty much for a few years now.