Bengals vs Colts

With all the well deserved negativity circling the Cincinnati Bungles this year there is some good football being played and going unnoticed. Rather than focus on all the obvious reasons the Bengals lose each game this year this blog will delve into the positive performances going on out there that may not be so easy to pick out in the enormous shadow of all the losing. These are my weekly picks for whose fault it wasn’t that the Bungs lost.
I know I’m getting a late start on this week and the season but I never expected something like this to be necessary. The Indy game was a bit of a surprise even though it went exactly like almost every game they played this year. They got down big early and made a real run at it late. The Bengals are the garbage time champions of the NFL this year.
Before I unveil this weeks winner I want you to keep in mind I’m trying to stay away from the obvious in this blog.
My first ever “Not his fault award” goes to…
Jonathan Joseph, 5th year corner out of South Carolina. Did you see him all game? Yeah me neither. Corners are like O-linemen where when you have your best games, no one hears from you. It can be a little different depending on the game plan. If your team runs a lot of zone coverage then your best games will involve some picks but if you run a lot of man, which the Bengals did while heating up Manning, you should be invisible on the stat sheet. The colts purposely lined up Wayne away from J-Joe and left poor Garcon to get smothered all day. I really wanted to put the whole defense on here as they turned in an amazing 2009-esq performance. Great D Bungs, shame your offense gave up 5 turnovers. Not a defense in the league that can recover from that against Indy.

I actually have more to say about the sub awards I have here. My first one is the “Not your fault young buck” award which goes to…
Carlos Dunlap, rookie defensive end out of Florida. With all the injuries to our ends he was pressed into service at left end on passing downs, which is almost every down against the Colts. I was worried about him when he was inactive for the first few games. That got me thinking he was a bustzilla since he was taken in the second round. Though he wasn’t the starter, on passing downs Robert Geathers slides into the left tackle spot putting Dunlap one on one with the right tackle. He ended up with two tackles for loss and a SACK on Manning which is really rare, along with plenty of pressures. I did notice one adorable rookie move though. Any time you play the Colts your scout team D line is going to be spinning like tops and you see it on film all week. On one play I saw him “bust out” this spin move on their right tackle. It was obviously crazy unpolished and got him nowhere. It is very hard to make a rush move effective in the NFL and he hadn’t worked on this one. My guess is in the heat of the moment he reverted back to his week of preparation and pulled his best Freeny impression. The tackle deals with this shit all day all year 3 times a week. I thought that was cute.

I have two winners for my first ever “Surprisingly it wasn’t your fault” award. These are players I expected to get cold smoked in the game but held up pretty well. I guess I technically have 3 awards for this one. The first 1/3 goes to.
Rico Murray, 2nd year college free agent DB. This poor bastard gets called up off the practice squad the week before and they say “Go cover whoever lines up in the slot”. This dude would be like number 6 or 7 on the depth chart at the beginning of the year. Due to injuries he is pressed into service as the starting nickel back. Yes that is a starting spot in the NFL. Against the Colts you will be in your Nickel package more than your base. Rico Murray isn’t even a full on corner, he is a swing guy between corner and safety. Yet they had him matched up against whoever happened to be in the slot. Instead the Colts running their 3rd best receiver out against him like most teams this poor guy ends up against Reggie Wayne for most of the first half. The Bengals later made the adjustment and had Hall follow him around the left side of the field, which I was shocked they didn’t have that in the initial game plan. This could be because Rico isn’t familiar with the outside technique in the defense. Now don’t get me wrong, they beat up on Rico a little bit but he did surprisingly well and certainly wasn’t the reason we lost this game.
On a side note I was really upset they didn’t run 3rd round pick Brandon Ghee out there to see what they had in him. C’mon, you’re 2-6. It’s time to take a peek at next year. I’m not saying bench all vets but how much worse could Ghee be than Rico? I’ve heard Ghee’s physical talents compared to J-Joe’s coming out of college. Lets see it!

The other 2/3rd of the award goes to Dennis Roland and Andrew Whitworth. I was convinced Roland was going to get beat like a drum by Robert Mathis, possibly the best pass rushing left end in the game. Now granted both of these guys had help almost every pass play but still, you have to do your job regardless. As much as I hate to, I have to give a little credit to Bratkowski on this one. The tragedy of Brat’s offense is it is really well designed ESPECIALLY the protection schemes. He might have the best protection schemes of anyone in the league. He has to going against Baltimore and Shitsburg twice a year. Unfortunately he is a terrible play caller and game planner. Anyway, I knew Whit would handle his bizniz on the left side like he always does but I was really impressed by Roland and his little helpers (Gresham, Kelly and the backs). Surrendering no sacks until it didn’t matter anyway.

Last little shout out I want to give is to Chad. This guy is still a great receiver. He had a monster day with some incredible catches. Broke my heart that his 30+ yard contested catch in the end zone got called back and Carson missed him wide open for a huge play. He might have had the weeks best receiver stats if not for those two plays.

Thanks for reading! I promise I’ll be more on top of this going forward.