Quick little special sauce post today. Had some thoughts for things to watch for.
#24 and #21 on defense. Brandon Ghee and Pacman Jones. Two guys with all the upside in the world but have yet to touch the field on defense this year. Will be interesting to see what Jennings can do in a full time role too.
But Ghee and Jones are going to be the keys to whether or not we can continue this playoff run. They may start out slow this week since it is their first game this year, however they have the physical tools to keep us playing man coverage and keep this defense aggressive down the stretch.
On offense, it will be interesting to see what formations Gruden cooks up with AJ about 80% sure to be out. Marvin doesn't like to start players who couldn't practice so I doubt he suits up.
Look for more fancy personnel groupings and formations to make up for the talent drop. In particular watch out for Andrew Hawkins #16. He's a bit of a wildcard. He'll be playing the slot full time this week but they always dial up some interesting plays to get the ball in his hands in space so keep an eye out for him. I think he's going to surprise some people with his speed.
Last thing of note, if a WR has to step up in Green's absence I'm guessing it's going to be Caldwell. He's been Ravens killer before and he has the speed and consistency to make a difference after practicing on the outside all week.
Enjoy the game!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
vs Stillers
I thought this week would be an angry post. I was so mad on Sunday I could have punched a 10 year old girl in the face if she was wearing a Ward jersey. For the first time since 2004 I didn't watch the game. I got up and left the bar after we went down 14 nothing and showed 0 signs of life. It looked like it would be a blow out for sure.
I was almost punished for my lack of faith. I ended up going back to the bar after we tied it up. I figured I'd catch the end of the game and then watch my Lions (oops).
By the way, I realize this is out of order, but I went to a new bar this week for the first time this season. There are too many stillers fans at the bar I usually go to. They clap and yell like they're at the god damn game and it's all I can do to not throw them out of their fucking chairs. It's only stillers fans too. What the fuck is wrong with those people? THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS ON THE TV CAN NOT HEAR YOU CLAPPING.
So anyway, I go into this deserted bar. Only two other football fans walk in a few minutes after us and one of them is a GOD DAMN STILLERS FAN. AND HE'S CLAPPING AT THE TV! I'm not saying all stillers fans are retards, but I would have have no problem pushing the button that teleports 90% of them into the middle of the ocean.
ANYWAY, football. I went back and rewatched the portions I missed. I couldn't watch the whole thing twice because I'd rather see the terrorists win than the stillers, but what I saw was encouraging. Getting down 14-0 and rallying to being 30 yards from tying the game at the end showed a lot of heart and talent. All of this without A.J. Green or Leon Hall too.
When A.J. went down it changed what the stillers did on defense. They weren't afraid of the deep ball so they were able to crowd the line more and sit on short routes. It's interesting because the top 3 receivers we had left Caldwell, Simpson and Andrew Hawkins, are all plenty fast. I would have liked to see more deep shots to those guys because they can all scoot. Regardless, A.J. has more indirect impact on the game than people might realize and it hurt us in the second half.
The Leon Hall injury is devastating. Not only for this year, but he may never be the same after an Achilles tear. In my mind that injury switched this season from a surprising playoff run, to the rebuilding year it was supposed to be. I'm sure we'll stay competitive, but I was really leaning on Pacman coming back and giving us 3 solid corners for the stretch. Quick aside here, I tweeted Adam Jones and he said he was cool with his fans calling him Pacman, but the media has to call him Adam. Pretty cool that he tweeted me back!
So the upside here is we get to see what we have in Pacman and Brandon Ghee, who was called up from the practice squad. Coach Lewis had some good things to say about Ghee who was cut because he never got a chance to get on the field due to injury more than because of his lack of talent. When he came out of college he was compared physically to J-Joe, so I'm excited to see what we have in him.
Who knows, maybe those two will step up, Kelly Jennings will figure his life out and we'll be able to do some of the same things on defense. However this is probably the position we could least afford to lose our top guy. Unfortunate how we went from possibly the most stacked team at corner in the NFL last year to only having 2 healthy ones left. Neither of which were on the roster last year either.
I was impressed with our ability to run the ball on the stillers. Both backs looked good but this was mostly on the O-line. They beat the stillers front 7 in the run game and the pass which was exciting. I'm confused as to why Benson is still the starting back though. It seems like he always gets whats there which is good, certainly, but B Scott can do that and make things happen on his own. He makes guys miss and still runs hard inside. Benson is still a good back but I'm willing to go on record saying that Bernard Scott is a better NFL running back than Cedric Benson. The carries are getting closer to 50/50 though so I'm ok with it.
Last thing before I give out awards, I hope Frostie Rucker gets a contract. He took a long time to get it together, but he is really a complete D lineman at this point. He does a great job on run downs from the end position and can generate pass rush from inside and outside. He's not going to go to any pro bowls but any team would be happy to have him in the rotation.
Two awards this week. The Surprisingly It's Not Your Fault They Lost award goes to:
Cornerbacks Kelly Jennings and Nate Clements.
I didn't realize that Leon went down half way through the game. Chris Crocker gets part of this award too because he played in the nickel back spot when we only had 2 corners left. While he got beat a few times, he never should have been one on one against Antonio Brown in the first place.
Both of our remaining healthy corners played well enough for me to not notice when Leon went down until the second time watching through. While I can't tell exactly how well they did because I can't see the "all 22" angles (fuck you NFL) there were a few time Rapelithsburger had to hold on to the ball too long and you don't get 5 sacks on him without some good corner play.
I was certain that Leon had gone down at the end of the game because we never would have been in it without him. However, we were able to mount a comeback despite his absence. Good team defense.
The Not Your Fault They Lost Award goes to: Andrew Hawkins (aka Baby Hawk)
For those of you who don't get why he's called Baby Hawk, it's the younger brother of former Bengals DB Artrell Hawkins. I love this guy. He's fast, he's shifty, he makes tough grabs. I'm sure the coaches are wondering why they haven't been using him more this year. He should be the punt returner on this team.
When A.J. went down I was thinking "who the hell comes in now". I was stoked to find it was Baby Hawk. They moved Caldwell outside and used Hawkins in the slot where he made a few plays. He even smoked Polamalu on a corner route before A.J. went down and made a tough diving catch. Not a lot of receivers can say they smoked Polamalu one on one. I'll say it again, I love this kid. I hope he sticks on the team for a few years and finds an expanded role on both the offense and special teams.
Sorry I missed last week. Thanks for reading!
I was almost punished for my lack of faith. I ended up going back to the bar after we tied it up. I figured I'd catch the end of the game and then watch my Lions (oops).
By the way, I realize this is out of order, but I went to a new bar this week for the first time this season. There are too many stillers fans at the bar I usually go to. They clap and yell like they're at the god damn game and it's all I can do to not throw them out of their fucking chairs. It's only stillers fans too. What the fuck is wrong with those people? THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS ON THE TV CAN NOT HEAR YOU CLAPPING.
So anyway, I go into this deserted bar. Only two other football fans walk in a few minutes after us and one of them is a GOD DAMN STILLERS FAN. AND HE'S CLAPPING AT THE TV! I'm not saying all stillers fans are retards, but I would have have no problem pushing the button that teleports 90% of them into the middle of the ocean.
ANYWAY, football. I went back and rewatched the portions I missed. I couldn't watch the whole thing twice because I'd rather see the terrorists win than the stillers, but what I saw was encouraging. Getting down 14-0 and rallying to being 30 yards from tying the game at the end showed a lot of heart and talent. All of this without A.J. Green or Leon Hall too.
When A.J. went down it changed what the stillers did on defense. They weren't afraid of the deep ball so they were able to crowd the line more and sit on short routes. It's interesting because the top 3 receivers we had left Caldwell, Simpson and Andrew Hawkins, are all plenty fast. I would have liked to see more deep shots to those guys because they can all scoot. Regardless, A.J. has more indirect impact on the game than people might realize and it hurt us in the second half.
The Leon Hall injury is devastating. Not only for this year, but he may never be the same after an Achilles tear. In my mind that injury switched this season from a surprising playoff run, to the rebuilding year it was supposed to be. I'm sure we'll stay competitive, but I was really leaning on Pacman coming back and giving us 3 solid corners for the stretch. Quick aside here, I tweeted Adam Jones and he said he was cool with his fans calling him Pacman, but the media has to call him Adam. Pretty cool that he tweeted me back!
So the upside here is we get to see what we have in Pacman and Brandon Ghee, who was called up from the practice squad. Coach Lewis had some good things to say about Ghee who was cut because he never got a chance to get on the field due to injury more than because of his lack of talent. When he came out of college he was compared physically to J-Joe, so I'm excited to see what we have in him.
Who knows, maybe those two will step up, Kelly Jennings will figure his life out and we'll be able to do some of the same things on defense. However this is probably the position we could least afford to lose our top guy. Unfortunate how we went from possibly the most stacked team at corner in the NFL last year to only having 2 healthy ones left. Neither of which were on the roster last year either.
I was impressed with our ability to run the ball on the stillers. Both backs looked good but this was mostly on the O-line. They beat the stillers front 7 in the run game and the pass which was exciting. I'm confused as to why Benson is still the starting back though. It seems like he always gets whats there which is good, certainly, but B Scott can do that and make things happen on his own. He makes guys miss and still runs hard inside. Benson is still a good back but I'm willing to go on record saying that Bernard Scott is a better NFL running back than Cedric Benson. The carries are getting closer to 50/50 though so I'm ok with it.
Last thing before I give out awards, I hope Frostie Rucker gets a contract. He took a long time to get it together, but he is really a complete D lineman at this point. He does a great job on run downs from the end position and can generate pass rush from inside and outside. He's not going to go to any pro bowls but any team would be happy to have him in the rotation.
Two awards this week. The Surprisingly It's Not Your Fault They Lost award goes to:
Cornerbacks Kelly Jennings and Nate Clements.
I didn't realize that Leon went down half way through the game. Chris Crocker gets part of this award too because he played in the nickel back spot when we only had 2 corners left. While he got beat a few times, he never should have been one on one against Antonio Brown in the first place.
Both of our remaining healthy corners played well enough for me to not notice when Leon went down until the second time watching through. While I can't tell exactly how well they did because I can't see the "all 22" angles (fuck you NFL) there were a few time Rapelithsburger had to hold on to the ball too long and you don't get 5 sacks on him without some good corner play.
I was certain that Leon had gone down at the end of the game because we never would have been in it without him. However, we were able to mount a comeback despite his absence. Good team defense.
The Not Your Fault They Lost Award goes to: Andrew Hawkins (aka Baby Hawk)
For those of you who don't get why he's called Baby Hawk, it's the younger brother of former Bengals DB Artrell Hawkins. I love this guy. He's fast, he's shifty, he makes tough grabs. I'm sure the coaches are wondering why they haven't been using him more this year. He should be the punt returner on this team.
When A.J. went down I was thinking "who the hell comes in now". I was stoked to find it was Baby Hawk. They moved Caldwell outside and used Hawkins in the slot where he made a few plays. He even smoked Polamalu on a corner route before A.J. went down and made a tough diving catch. Not a lot of receivers can say they smoked Polamalu one on one. I'll say it again, I love this kid. I hope he sticks on the team for a few years and finds an expanded role on both the offense and special teams.
Sorry I missed last week. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
At Seattle
Who Dey? Can you believe how many games we've won already? I re-watched the game last night and I've got a ton of stuff so I'm going to just jump right in.
I'll start off with a couple shout outs to guys I saw playing well that you may not have noticed. Chris Presley, our starting fullback, has looked really good so far. He almost always finds a guy to get a hat on and does a great job of not only popping the defender on contact, but sustaining his block. The run game wasn't very good but he was certainly not the problem. Even caught a first down pass to boot.
Cedric Peerman has been noticeably good on special teams. I was happy to see him get some snaps on offense, though unfortunately no touches. A few times he was lined up at running back with Leonard in as a fullback. Cool personnel change up but never really provided anything.
I'd love to see Peerman get 2-3 touches per game. He's fast and he's elusive, he's active every game for special teams so you might as well let him contribute on offense like they do with Andrew Hawkins (baby hawk).
The tight ends played well this week in Gresham's absence. Donald Lee had some really clutch catches and didn't show up in the run game (which is a good thing for tight ends). Cochart has yet to really contribute as a pass catcher but I think we may have found another Reggie Kellyesque type tight end. Certainly not to that extent yet, but I'm very impressed with his blocking, particularly pass protection. He did a great job of keeping guys off of Dalton and sustaining those blocks for a ridiculously long time for a tight end.
The D tackles stood out to me as well. It seems Like Geno Atkins gets at least 2-3 plays per game where you say "wow". He could be a budding pro bowl player. Then again he could be at his ceiling. But he's so quick and his motor is so strong, he makes splash plays in both the run and pass game with some regularity. Pat Sims also looked pretty good, especially against the run. I saw him split a double team like man and make a play on Lynch that was very impressive. Peko was good as always. I didn't realize how much DT Fanene and Rucker actually play, even on early downs. Those two are true defensive linemen. Not tackles, not ends. Just put them wherever you want and that'll make plays.
I paid particular attention to the defense while watching through the game again. I noticed a lot more interesting alignments and personnel than I realized they ran. The Bengals base D is a 4-3 but it still gets pretty exotic which I think is really cool. Here is some neat stuff I noticed.
Because of match-up problem type guys, particularly TEs that run like WRs, some teams have adopted a "Big Nickel" personnel group. The Bengals are one of those teams. This week they used 4 DL 2 LBs and 2 CBs and 3 S quite a bit to combat the 3 wide no huddle the Seahawks were using.
They used Nelson at SS, Gibril Wilson at FS (did you know he was on the team? I almost forgot too) and Crocker in the slot. I haven't been a Crocker fan but he played really well this week.
Its because of Crocker that they can make this quite versatile. He blitzes fairly well, he can man up on lesser slot receivers and does an adequate job in run support. Not great at anything but not bad at anything either.
Anyway, that is probably the least interesting thing they did. At different times I saw both Peko and Geathers standing up over the A gap kinda milling around the line of scrimmage before the snap while still having 4 guys in a 3 point stance. I saw Michael Johnson, one of our best pass rushers, dropping into coverage more than a few times. I think that experiment with him at SAM backer his rookie year has paid off in versatility at this point. He's athletic and long enough to not be a liability in coverage as long as they don't ask too much of him.
There was one play specifically where they brought 7 of 8 guys on the line and the only guy that dropped off was Johnson. I would NOT expect that if I was an offensive lineman.
Last thing I noticed is that while Reggie Nelson still makes occasional mental errors, he is bringing a lot to this defense right now. He saved the touchdown on the last play of the half. He read run quickly and was the only guy available to stop Lynch from getting in.
I think my favorite thing they do with Reggie, and they've been doing this a bit over the past few weeks, is blitz one of the outside corners and instead of playing zone behind it like most teams do, they have Nelson come down and man up on the WR. When I've seen it the QB and WR read the corner blitz and throw hot, only to have an athletic Reggie Nelson drop the WR where he stands for short or no gain. He started a few games at corner for Jacksonville before they sent him over here and he has the man to man skills to do it.
The one sour note I saw on offense after re-watching was the guard play. Both Williams and Livings were just awful in pass protection. The tackles, backs and TEs held up pretty well but the guards just couldn't handle their guys one on one. I wouldn't be upset if the Bengals spent high draft picks on 2 guards this year because both of them are a problem in the pass game. Which hurts me to say because I love Bobbie Williams. That being said, they were both decent in the run game.
Quick rundown of how Dalton played.
Overall he had an efficient day. He did an excellent job of sliding around in the pocket and bailing out at the right time when there was pressure. Specifically on the long TD to Green. I'm confident that would have been a sack if Carson was still our QB. But Andy bought some time, stepped up and threw a good enough deep ball. Another 2 yards would have been nice because AJ smoked Earl Thomas and a short throw let the safety catch up and contest the catch.
Quick side note, Earl Thomas is awesome. If that were any of like 95% of the other safeties in the league that play wouldn't have been close. A.J. had him set up and Earl didn't start to flip his hips until Green was even with him and heading down field. Thomas got his direction changed REAL quick and kept up as well as anyone could there.
The first INT was on Dalton, AJ and bad luck. Green was well covered so AJ probably shouldn't have thrown it up there but with AJ on the other end, its usually worth a shot. AJ and the defender went up for the ball an if that safety isn't in the perfect spot it falls harmlessly to the ground.
The second pick though was all on Dalton. A.J. was goooooone. Had like 3 steps on the dude and Andy just strait under threw that ball. Hopefully in time his deep ball placement will get a little better as it seems he still doesn't realize how fast this NFL athletes are yet. I've seen him throw farther so I don't think he was maxing out on this throw.
Other than that, he missed about 2 wide open throws yet still had a really good day all in all.
Whew, sorry for being long winded. Anyway, awards.
This week's Not His Fault They Lost Award goes to: Carlos Dunlap...again...
Don't blame me for the repetition, blame him for continuing to pop off the screen when I re-watch the game. He had the sack, sure, but he dominated the man across from him all day. He was really impressive in the run game especially. He single handedly blew up at least 3 runs and I was even more impressed with him standing up Carpenter, who is a big man, several times.
The line-up can say whatever it wants, Carlos is the starting LDE for this team and is already well above average in this league.
I had a hard time with the Surprisingly It Wasn't His Fault They Lost award this week. It had more to do with Seattle not being scary anywhere than my faith in the Bengals positions. It was between:
Nate Clements: I just don't think he's very good and I knew he was going to get Sidney Rice occasionally on his side. However I'm not sure a pass was completed against him all game. Leon got picked on more than him, however that could be a product of Zimmer protecting Clements.
Chris Crocker: Talked about this before. Good game for a player I don't trust.
Brandon Tate: He has been far too dancy so far. He has been ok, but I think with the blocking he has gotten he should have had a better year. When Pacman got his return and just slammed it into a seam, you saw what happened. He would have scored if he hadn't blown a wheel (hamstring) making a guy miss earlier in the return. He'll be ok by the way, he didn't literally blow out his hammy. Will probably be out week or two.
But glory hallelujah, he finally got a punt return and just went. He took off like he can, found a seam (thank the blockers Brandon!), shook a tackle and scored.
So not because he had the best performance, but because I had the least faith in him, Brandon Tate gets the Surprisingly Not Your Fault They Lost award for this week.
Seems silly that it's the not your fault they lost award while we're kicking this much ass doesn't it?
Anyway, skipping the Not your fault they lost young buck award this week because the whole GD team is made up of young bucks. That and I've already rambled on way too long.
Thanks a TON to anyone who read this far. I don't know if anyone actually reads these but big thanks to anyone that does.
Till next week, (please pardon this part, but I'm far too excited about how well we've done)
Who Dey! Who Dey! Who Dey think gonna beat them Bengals? Noooooooody!
I'll start off with a couple shout outs to guys I saw playing well that you may not have noticed. Chris Presley, our starting fullback, has looked really good so far. He almost always finds a guy to get a hat on and does a great job of not only popping the defender on contact, but sustaining his block. The run game wasn't very good but he was certainly not the problem. Even caught a first down pass to boot.
Cedric Peerman has been noticeably good on special teams. I was happy to see him get some snaps on offense, though unfortunately no touches. A few times he was lined up at running back with Leonard in as a fullback. Cool personnel change up but never really provided anything.
I'd love to see Peerman get 2-3 touches per game. He's fast and he's elusive, he's active every game for special teams so you might as well let him contribute on offense like they do with Andrew Hawkins (baby hawk).
The tight ends played well this week in Gresham's absence. Donald Lee had some really clutch catches and didn't show up in the run game (which is a good thing for tight ends). Cochart has yet to really contribute as a pass catcher but I think we may have found another Reggie Kellyesque type tight end. Certainly not to that extent yet, but I'm very impressed with his blocking, particularly pass protection. He did a great job of keeping guys off of Dalton and sustaining those blocks for a ridiculously long time for a tight end.
The D tackles stood out to me as well. It seems Like Geno Atkins gets at least 2-3 plays per game where you say "wow". He could be a budding pro bowl player. Then again he could be at his ceiling. But he's so quick and his motor is so strong, he makes splash plays in both the run and pass game with some regularity. Pat Sims also looked pretty good, especially against the run. I saw him split a double team like man and make a play on Lynch that was very impressive. Peko was good as always. I didn't realize how much DT Fanene and Rucker actually play, even on early downs. Those two are true defensive linemen. Not tackles, not ends. Just put them wherever you want and that'll make plays.
I paid particular attention to the defense while watching through the game again. I noticed a lot more interesting alignments and personnel than I realized they ran. The Bengals base D is a 4-3 but it still gets pretty exotic which I think is really cool. Here is some neat stuff I noticed.
Because of match-up problem type guys, particularly TEs that run like WRs, some teams have adopted a "Big Nickel" personnel group. The Bengals are one of those teams. This week they used 4 DL 2 LBs and 2 CBs and 3 S quite a bit to combat the 3 wide no huddle the Seahawks were using.
They used Nelson at SS, Gibril Wilson at FS (did you know he was on the team? I almost forgot too) and Crocker in the slot. I haven't been a Crocker fan but he played really well this week.
Its because of Crocker that they can make this quite versatile. He blitzes fairly well, he can man up on lesser slot receivers and does an adequate job in run support. Not great at anything but not bad at anything either.
Anyway, that is probably the least interesting thing they did. At different times I saw both Peko and Geathers standing up over the A gap kinda milling around the line of scrimmage before the snap while still having 4 guys in a 3 point stance. I saw Michael Johnson, one of our best pass rushers, dropping into coverage more than a few times. I think that experiment with him at SAM backer his rookie year has paid off in versatility at this point. He's athletic and long enough to not be a liability in coverage as long as they don't ask too much of him.
There was one play specifically where they brought 7 of 8 guys on the line and the only guy that dropped off was Johnson. I would NOT expect that if I was an offensive lineman.
Last thing I noticed is that while Reggie Nelson still makes occasional mental errors, he is bringing a lot to this defense right now. He saved the touchdown on the last play of the half. He read run quickly and was the only guy available to stop Lynch from getting in.
I think my favorite thing they do with Reggie, and they've been doing this a bit over the past few weeks, is blitz one of the outside corners and instead of playing zone behind it like most teams do, they have Nelson come down and man up on the WR. When I've seen it the QB and WR read the corner blitz and throw hot, only to have an athletic Reggie Nelson drop the WR where he stands for short or no gain. He started a few games at corner for Jacksonville before they sent him over here and he has the man to man skills to do it.
The one sour note I saw on offense after re-watching was the guard play. Both Williams and Livings were just awful in pass protection. The tackles, backs and TEs held up pretty well but the guards just couldn't handle their guys one on one. I wouldn't be upset if the Bengals spent high draft picks on 2 guards this year because both of them are a problem in the pass game. Which hurts me to say because I love Bobbie Williams. That being said, they were both decent in the run game.
Quick rundown of how Dalton played.
Overall he had an efficient day. He did an excellent job of sliding around in the pocket and bailing out at the right time when there was pressure. Specifically on the long TD to Green. I'm confident that would have been a sack if Carson was still our QB. But Andy bought some time, stepped up and threw a good enough deep ball. Another 2 yards would have been nice because AJ smoked Earl Thomas and a short throw let the safety catch up and contest the catch.
Quick side note, Earl Thomas is awesome. If that were any of like 95% of the other safeties in the league that play wouldn't have been close. A.J. had him set up and Earl didn't start to flip his hips until Green was even with him and heading down field. Thomas got his direction changed REAL quick and kept up as well as anyone could there.
The first INT was on Dalton, AJ and bad luck. Green was well covered so AJ probably shouldn't have thrown it up there but with AJ on the other end, its usually worth a shot. AJ and the defender went up for the ball an if that safety isn't in the perfect spot it falls harmlessly to the ground.
The second pick though was all on Dalton. A.J. was goooooone. Had like 3 steps on the dude and Andy just strait under threw that ball. Hopefully in time his deep ball placement will get a little better as it seems he still doesn't realize how fast this NFL athletes are yet. I've seen him throw farther so I don't think he was maxing out on this throw.
Other than that, he missed about 2 wide open throws yet still had a really good day all in all.
Whew, sorry for being long winded. Anyway, awards.
This week's Not His Fault They Lost Award goes to: Carlos Dunlap...again...
Don't blame me for the repetition, blame him for continuing to pop off the screen when I re-watch the game. He had the sack, sure, but he dominated the man across from him all day. He was really impressive in the run game especially. He single handedly blew up at least 3 runs and I was even more impressed with him standing up Carpenter, who is a big man, several times.
The line-up can say whatever it wants, Carlos is the starting LDE for this team and is already well above average in this league.
I had a hard time with the Surprisingly It Wasn't His Fault They Lost award this week. It had more to do with Seattle not being scary anywhere than my faith in the Bengals positions. It was between:
Nate Clements: I just don't think he's very good and I knew he was going to get Sidney Rice occasionally on his side. However I'm not sure a pass was completed against him all game. Leon got picked on more than him, however that could be a product of Zimmer protecting Clements.
Chris Crocker: Talked about this before. Good game for a player I don't trust.
Brandon Tate: He has been far too dancy so far. He has been ok, but I think with the blocking he has gotten he should have had a better year. When Pacman got his return and just slammed it into a seam, you saw what happened. He would have scored if he hadn't blown a wheel (hamstring) making a guy miss earlier in the return. He'll be ok by the way, he didn't literally blow out his hammy. Will probably be out week or two.
But glory hallelujah, he finally got a punt return and just went. He took off like he can, found a seam (thank the blockers Brandon!), shook a tackle and scored.
So not because he had the best performance, but because I had the least faith in him, Brandon Tate gets the Surprisingly Not Your Fault They Lost award for this week.
Seems silly that it's the not your fault they lost award while we're kicking this much ass doesn't it?
Anyway, skipping the Not your fault they lost young buck award this week because the whole GD team is made up of young bucks. That and I've already rambled on way too long.
Thanks a TON to anyone who read this far. I don't know if anyone actually reads these but big thanks to anyone that does.
Till next week, (please pardon this part, but I'm far too excited about how well we've done)
Who Dey! Who Dey! Who Dey think gonna beat them Bengals? Noooooooody!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
THE TRADE!
Damn it! Ok ok, I'm back. Well played Bengals organization. We all knew I'd come around, I just thought it would be next season. This trade (at least on the surface) shows true change and a commitment to winning, which is all I've ever wanted from the Bungs.
To clarify, the players and coaches have always been committed to winning under the Marvin regime, but ownership was certainly not. This is well documented.
For anyone who doesn't know, Carson Palmer, the retired player who was useless to the Bengals, was traded to the Oakland Raiders this week for a 1st round pick in 2012 and a 2nd round pick in 2013 which could be elevated to a 1st rounder if the Raiders make it to the AFC championship game in either year,
Bananas. Absolutely Bananas. Wonderful stuff. Trades like this just don't happen in the NFL. I think Al Davis might have Tupac'ed this deal (done it from the grave. I cite the example below). Seems like something his crazy ass would do right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLABXmjySE
By the way, can we talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire? Carson wanted out of the Bengals because it was a dysfunctional organization. Is there a worse (recently) franchise he could have gone to? I know the crypt keeper is dead (Oakland rejoices!) but you're going to a team with basically no draft in 2012 and a depleted one in 2013. Enjoy that CP.
By the way, love or hate Carson, if you're Bengals fan you should be rooting against the Raiders every for the next two years. I've got nothing against the Raiders and I actually wish the best for Hue Jackson, but the worse they do the higher we pick!
Anyway, this post is just to let everyone know I'm back and I'm stoked. I'll pick it back up after the bye week.
To clarify, the players and coaches have always been committed to winning under the Marvin regime, but ownership was certainly not. This is well documented.
For anyone who doesn't know, Carson Palmer, the retired player who was useless to the Bengals, was traded to the Oakland Raiders this week for a 1st round pick in 2012 and a 2nd round pick in 2013 which could be elevated to a 1st rounder if the Raiders make it to the AFC championship game in either year,
Bananas. Absolutely Bananas. Wonderful stuff. Trades like this just don't happen in the NFL. I think Al Davis might have Tupac'ed this deal (done it from the grave. I cite the example below). Seems like something his crazy ass would do right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLABXmjySE
By the way, can we talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire? Carson wanted out of the Bengals because it was a dysfunctional organization. Is there a worse (recently) franchise he could have gone to? I know the crypt keeper is dead (Oakland rejoices!) but you're going to a team with basically no draft in 2012 and a depleted one in 2013. Enjoy that CP.
By the way, love or hate Carson, if you're Bengals fan you should be rooting against the Raiders every for the next two years. I've got nothing against the Raiders and I actually wish the best for Hue Jackson, but the worse they do the higher we pick!
Anyway, this post is just to let everyone know I'm back and I'm stoked. I'll pick it back up after the bye week.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Week 2 - At Denver
This one was a heart breaker. I don't know why I ever get my hopes up. You'd think I would have learned by now. Denver was a shitty team to begin with, throw in all the injuries and I thought this was a perfect match-up.
The more disappointing the loss the longer its going to take me to put up my post so that is why this one waited till Friday. I'm sure no one is interested at this point anyway so I'll keep it quick.
The story of this game was 3rd down for the Bungs. They went like 1 for 11 or some awful crap like that. They couldn't convert a 3rd and short to save their lives and good teams don't fail there. I watched a few of the 3rd and short plays and I couldn't really put my finger on any one player that got them beat. The play calling was good. They ran (hallelujah!) and used play action but just couldn't get it done. They didn't get much push but no one got smoked either. I think Benson may have been a little *too* patient instead of slamming the ball inside. You just need 1 yard big guy. Pick a crack and hit it with yo bad self.
When Brian Leonard wouldn't find the first down marker on a screen in the 4th quarter, you knew the Bengals were having a bad fucking day.
Also, that "play" where Clements and Crocker retarded themselves all over Eric Decker? Embarrassing. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole game again but from what I remember, Decker was not open and Orton heaved it up anyway. Clements somehow lost track of the ball and the receiver while Crocker came sprinting across the field so he could fall down somewhere near the play and be no help whatsoever. The two most veteran guys on the team making the dumbest play of the day, together, united in futility.
Just found it. Title says it all.
http://denver.sbnation.com/denver-broncos/2011/9/21/2440078/eric-deckerl-broncos-bengals-touchdown
Anyway, Dalton was awesome. I was going to give him an award but he missed a few key throws on a 3rd and short early in the game and on the last drive when Simpson was wiiiide open on 3rd and about 8 I believe.
Only one award this week, and the 2nd Not His Fault They Lost award of the season goes to:
A.J. Green. Did you see the catch?
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d8225ad04/Green-five-yard-TD?r_src=ramp
You're welcome. What a freak. He played a solid game overall. Impressive for a rookie's 2nd day on the job.
If we win this week (banking on the west coast to east coast sluggishness) look for a post at a more relevant time!
The more disappointing the loss the longer its going to take me to put up my post so that is why this one waited till Friday. I'm sure no one is interested at this point anyway so I'll keep it quick.
The story of this game was 3rd down for the Bungs. They went like 1 for 11 or some awful crap like that. They couldn't convert a 3rd and short to save their lives and good teams don't fail there. I watched a few of the 3rd and short plays and I couldn't really put my finger on any one player that got them beat. The play calling was good. They ran (hallelujah!) and used play action but just couldn't get it done. They didn't get much push but no one got smoked either. I think Benson may have been a little *too* patient instead of slamming the ball inside. You just need 1 yard big guy. Pick a crack and hit it with yo bad self.
When Brian Leonard wouldn't find the first down marker on a screen in the 4th quarter, you knew the Bengals were having a bad fucking day.
Also, that "play" where Clements and Crocker retarded themselves all over Eric Decker? Embarrassing. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole game again but from what I remember, Decker was not open and Orton heaved it up anyway. Clements somehow lost track of the ball and the receiver while Crocker came sprinting across the field so he could fall down somewhere near the play and be no help whatsoever. The two most veteran guys on the team making the dumbest play of the day, together, united in futility.
Just found it. Title says it all.
http://denver.sbnation.com/denver-broncos/2011/9/21/2440078/eric-deckerl-broncos-bengals-touchdown
Anyway, Dalton was awesome. I was going to give him an award but he missed a few key throws on a 3rd and short early in the game and on the last drive when Simpson was wiiiide open on 3rd and about 8 I believe.
Only one award this week, and the 2nd Not His Fault They Lost award of the season goes to:
A.J. Green. Did you see the catch?
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d8225ad04/Green-five-yard-TD?r_src=ramp
You're welcome. What a freak. He played a solid game overall. Impressive for a rookie's 2nd day on the job.
If we win this week (banking on the west coast to east coast sluggishness) look for a post at a more relevant time!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Week 1 - At Cleveland
Alright! I'm back. I'm going to make an effort to write up EVERY GAME this year. I'll try to get the games re-watched by Tuesday night and get the post up by Wednesday or Thursday.
I've only had a chance to watch about a quarter of Browns game again so this will be abbreviated.
Feels pretty good to start off with a win right? Wasn't pretty, but I'll take it however I can get it. I was convinced the game was over when Dalton went out. The Browns gave us a little help in the 4th quarter though and the defense was stellar all day minus a few big gains on some odd looking plays and it was enough.
So lets get right to it. I thought Dalton looked sharp. I know he's supposed to have a weak arm but there wasn't a damn thing wrong with it on that 22 yard bullet to Gresham in the first quarter. Last year on the NFL replay I could post clips but they changed the UI, I'll keep trying to figure it out for you guys. Anyway, I was pissed Dalton went down, more because I wanted to evaluate him than anything else.
I've heard people talking about how Joe Haden shut down A.J. Green. I'm not big on "should haves" in football cause there are a lot of variables but for reals A.J. should have had at LEAST 3 touchdowns. I know you're probably thinking I'm being a super homer here but I think these were pretty clear so I don't feel bad about using "shoulda's".
1st shoulda been TD - On the first drive, A.J. cold smokes Haden to the front pylon and is waiting for the ball. Dalton was late seeing it allowing Haden to recover and bat the ball away, making people think he's awesome. (I'm not saying he isn't, just wasn't on that play)
That reminded me of the college clip they kept showing where Haden was in a short zone and picked off a ball in front of A.J. that was all on the QB. Nothing any receiver could have done. That's not Haden winning the match-up, that's the QB making a mistake.
2nd shoulda been TD - A.J. pulls a sweet double move on Sheldon Brown on the second drive and is going to be wide open in the end zone. He ran a slant hook then spun around and took off deep. Brown knows he's cooked so he does the smart thing and just grabs on, not letting the receiver get the free touchdown. The penalty was called and helped set up a TD.
3rd shoulda been TD - Late in the 4th Green is one on one with Haden who tries press coverage. A.J. makes him miss entirely on the jam and takes off on a fly route. Haden grabs on and gets towed down field making Green come up a few yards short on the pass. Holding wasn't called and if I had not already resigned to defeat when I saw Dalton was hurt I would have flipped shit right in the bar. Refs blew that call pretty bad. Luckily the football gods made up for it when the Browns broke the defensive huddle late and A.J. got a free TD.
Anyway, this year's first Not His Fault They Lost award goes to - Marvin Lewis.
I believe there were only 3 penalties on the Bengals and I'm pretty sure none of them were pre snap. Thank sweet baby jesus! For the most part they looked disciplined on both sides of the ball. That 4th quarter free touchdown the Browns gave up looked like some Bengals shit but we were the ones on the other side of it with the quick snap. I'm not sure if it was called before hand or not but both Green and Simpson took off strait down the field when they saw they weren't being covered.
The fact that the team was able to rally and keep their shit together when Dalton went down, also a credit to Marvin and Gradkowski in my option.
So, for keeping his young team together and creative 3rd down defensive packages (that may have been all Zim) the first award goes to Marvin.
OhByTheWay, I REALLY want to get in to the cool 3rd and long defenses that the Bengals used but I don't have time right now. Hopefully they do it all year and I can talk more about them then.
The first Surprisingly It Wasn't His Fault award goes to - Clint Boling, Rookie RG
This poor guy had to step in for Bobbie Williams against some big SOBs in Ruben and Phil Taylor. From what I saw he actually held up really well and even got some movement in the run game. Looks like this guy could be the real deal at either guard.
Finally the Not Your Fault Young Buck award goes to - Colin Cochart, Rookie TE
I don't think he had any catches but he looked great at blocking which is encouraging. Every run play I saw him in he was making a key block and executing it well. He was a big part of that late 4th quarter TD run by Benson. He came flying inside and sealed the hell out of the edge to help open up that giant hole Ced had to run through.
Last thing I wanted to mention. Mid way through the first quarter the Browns tried to run right and Fanene made Joe Thomas look like a bitch when he knifed through on an inside move and wrecked the Hillis in the backfield. Was awesome to watch and a brutal hit. I'm so glad they resigned him. This Blog is going to be way better once I figure out how to post links to the plays...
Sorry it was so short this week! I can tell I rushed through this one, I hope you can't Enjoy the win Bengals faithful! Will be back next week!
I've only had a chance to watch about a quarter of Browns game again so this will be abbreviated.
Feels pretty good to start off with a win right? Wasn't pretty, but I'll take it however I can get it. I was convinced the game was over when Dalton went out. The Browns gave us a little help in the 4th quarter though and the defense was stellar all day minus a few big gains on some odd looking plays and it was enough.
So lets get right to it. I thought Dalton looked sharp. I know he's supposed to have a weak arm but there wasn't a damn thing wrong with it on that 22 yard bullet to Gresham in the first quarter. Last year on the NFL replay I could post clips but they changed the UI, I'll keep trying to figure it out for you guys. Anyway, I was pissed Dalton went down, more because I wanted to evaluate him than anything else.
I've heard people talking about how Joe Haden shut down A.J. Green. I'm not big on "should haves" in football cause there are a lot of variables but for reals A.J. should have had at LEAST 3 touchdowns. I know you're probably thinking I'm being a super homer here but I think these were pretty clear so I don't feel bad about using "shoulda's".
1st shoulda been TD - On the first drive, A.J. cold smokes Haden to the front pylon and is waiting for the ball. Dalton was late seeing it allowing Haden to recover and bat the ball away, making people think he's awesome. (I'm not saying he isn't, just wasn't on that play)
That reminded me of the college clip they kept showing where Haden was in a short zone and picked off a ball in front of A.J. that was all on the QB. Nothing any receiver could have done. That's not Haden winning the match-up, that's the QB making a mistake.
2nd shoulda been TD - A.J. pulls a sweet double move on Sheldon Brown on the second drive and is going to be wide open in the end zone. He ran a slant hook then spun around and took off deep. Brown knows he's cooked so he does the smart thing and just grabs on, not letting the receiver get the free touchdown. The penalty was called and helped set up a TD.
3rd shoulda been TD - Late in the 4th Green is one on one with Haden who tries press coverage. A.J. makes him miss entirely on the jam and takes off on a fly route. Haden grabs on and gets towed down field making Green come up a few yards short on the pass. Holding wasn't called and if I had not already resigned to defeat when I saw Dalton was hurt I would have flipped shit right in the bar. Refs blew that call pretty bad. Luckily the football gods made up for it when the Browns broke the defensive huddle late and A.J. got a free TD.
Anyway, this year's first Not His Fault They Lost award goes to - Marvin Lewis.
I believe there were only 3 penalties on the Bengals and I'm pretty sure none of them were pre snap. Thank sweet baby jesus! For the most part they looked disciplined on both sides of the ball. That 4th quarter free touchdown the Browns gave up looked like some Bengals shit but we were the ones on the other side of it with the quick snap. I'm not sure if it was called before hand or not but both Green and Simpson took off strait down the field when they saw they weren't being covered.
The fact that the team was able to rally and keep their shit together when Dalton went down, also a credit to Marvin and Gradkowski in my option.
So, for keeping his young team together and creative 3rd down defensive packages (that may have been all Zim) the first award goes to Marvin.
OhByTheWay, I REALLY want to get in to the cool 3rd and long defenses that the Bengals used but I don't have time right now. Hopefully they do it all year and I can talk more about them then.
The first Surprisingly It Wasn't His Fault award goes to - Clint Boling, Rookie RG
This poor guy had to step in for Bobbie Williams against some big SOBs in Ruben and Phil Taylor. From what I saw he actually held up really well and even got some movement in the run game. Looks like this guy could be the real deal at either guard.
Finally the Not Your Fault Young Buck award goes to - Colin Cochart, Rookie TE
I don't think he had any catches but he looked great at blocking which is encouraging. Every run play I saw him in he was making a key block and executing it well. He was a big part of that late 4th quarter TD run by Benson. He came flying inside and sealed the hell out of the edge to help open up that giant hole Ced had to run through.
Last thing I wanted to mention. Mid way through the first quarter the Browns tried to run right and Fanene made Joe Thomas look like a bitch when he knifed through on an inside move and wrecked the Hillis in the backfield. Was awesome to watch and a brutal hit. I'm so glad they resigned him. This Blog is going to be way better once I figure out how to post links to the plays...
Sorry it was so short this week! I can tell I rushed through this one, I hope you can't Enjoy the win Bengals faithful! Will be back next week!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Preseason weeks 2 and 3
I know I'm always right on time with these. Hours before the 4th game.
Just a quick review here. From week 2 to week 3 Who Dey Nation went from despair to cautious optimism. I liked the two trades. Taylor Mays may be a total bust but he also has potential. All they gave up was a 7th round pick 2 years from now which is basically free. If nothing else he should be able to play special teams well.
I don't know much about the CB from Seattle Jennings but the Bengals have a history of turning former first round picks into something useful and I have yet to hear anything bad about him. Corner was a real area of concern after the 2 starters. You need at least 3 good corners to compete in this league. I liked how DT McDonald (the guy we traded for him) looked but we had a pretty serious roster crunch on the D line so he might not have gotten on the field much. Will be interesting to see what this Jennings guy can do.
Three things from the Jets game. First of all, Michael Johnson has looked damn near unblockable at times coming off the edge. He made a top 10 LT in Ferguson look like a scrub a few times. Particularly on a play where he did a half spin and come back the other way to crush Sanchez. That is a pretty sick counter move that you don't see often. That was fun to watch.
2. Dalton looks resilient if nothing else. He seems to get some early game yips then settles into his groove. He's done that in all 3 games so far. WRs certainly didn't help against the Jets with all kinds of drops. I can live with that for this year because he looks really solid once he gets settled in.
3. Run defense! Also solid all preseason. Jets have a really good rushing attack and they were held to almost nothing through out the whole game.
The Panthers game was fun to watch wasn't it? Other than the fumbled exchange between Dalton and Benson I was all smiles. Running game was great, receivers were running wide open, pass rush was kicking some ass. Just, fun stuff.
I'm re-watching it as I write and Geno Atkins looked unstoppable. He was taking guards and placing them in Newton's lap all day. If he can do that consistently that goes a really long way towards having a top tier defense.
It seems like there is a huge discrepancy between Cam Newton and Andy Dalton doesn't it? Newton looked like a lost rookie out there while Dalton was pretty well poised. Now, Dalton did miss some passes that hurt, like the first fade route that AJ Green smoked Chris Gamble on but he had a solid day and made up for it later with the touchdown bomb...even though that was a little behind too (thank you Mr. Green).
It's a shame that Bo Scaife went down for the season. It seems like veteran #2 tight ends are cursed here. Remember Ben Utech? Exactly. I hear nothing but good things about Colin Cochart though, undrafted rookie TE out of South Dakota State, so it will be exciting to see if he can contribute. I've also been waiting forever to see what Chase Coffman can do too. I feel like it is his last chance to make something happen.
I'm hoping the run game was a product of the Bengals running well rather than the Panthers being bad at run D. Didn't matter who was in the backfield, there were holes. Reminds me of '09 except with the potential to be able to pass too.
I could give the Not His Fault They Lost Award to a lot of guys this week, but I'm going to give it to the starting 4 Wide Receivers AJ Green, Jerome Simpson, Jordan Shipley and Andre Caldwell. Not for constantly smoking Panther corners but for the blocking in the run game. It's so good to see that again. These guys were aggressive and trying to move guys. It's a big part of why the running game was so successful during this game. I considered the fullbacks too. They both looked really good. No matter which one we keep, I'm excited.
Just saw A.J. smoke Gamble again but Dalton didn't look his way. He looks like a good one.
Just a quick review here. From week 2 to week 3 Who Dey Nation went from despair to cautious optimism. I liked the two trades. Taylor Mays may be a total bust but he also has potential. All they gave up was a 7th round pick 2 years from now which is basically free. If nothing else he should be able to play special teams well.
I don't know much about the CB from Seattle Jennings but the Bengals have a history of turning former first round picks into something useful and I have yet to hear anything bad about him. Corner was a real area of concern after the 2 starters. You need at least 3 good corners to compete in this league. I liked how DT McDonald (the guy we traded for him) looked but we had a pretty serious roster crunch on the D line so he might not have gotten on the field much. Will be interesting to see what this Jennings guy can do.
Three things from the Jets game. First of all, Michael Johnson has looked damn near unblockable at times coming off the edge. He made a top 10 LT in Ferguson look like a scrub a few times. Particularly on a play where he did a half spin and come back the other way to crush Sanchez. That is a pretty sick counter move that you don't see often. That was fun to watch.
2. Dalton looks resilient if nothing else. He seems to get some early game yips then settles into his groove. He's done that in all 3 games so far. WRs certainly didn't help against the Jets with all kinds of drops. I can live with that for this year because he looks really solid once he gets settled in.
3. Run defense! Also solid all preseason. Jets have a really good rushing attack and they were held to almost nothing through out the whole game.
The Panthers game was fun to watch wasn't it? Other than the fumbled exchange between Dalton and Benson I was all smiles. Running game was great, receivers were running wide open, pass rush was kicking some ass. Just, fun stuff.
I'm re-watching it as I write and Geno Atkins looked unstoppable. He was taking guards and placing them in Newton's lap all day. If he can do that consistently that goes a really long way towards having a top tier defense.
It seems like there is a huge discrepancy between Cam Newton and Andy Dalton doesn't it? Newton looked like a lost rookie out there while Dalton was pretty well poised. Now, Dalton did miss some passes that hurt, like the first fade route that AJ Green smoked Chris Gamble on but he had a solid day and made up for it later with the touchdown bomb...even though that was a little behind too (thank you Mr. Green).
It's a shame that Bo Scaife went down for the season. It seems like veteran #2 tight ends are cursed here. Remember Ben Utech? Exactly. I hear nothing but good things about Colin Cochart though, undrafted rookie TE out of South Dakota State, so it will be exciting to see if he can contribute. I've also been waiting forever to see what Chase Coffman can do too. I feel like it is his last chance to make something happen.
I'm hoping the run game was a product of the Bengals running well rather than the Panthers being bad at run D. Didn't matter who was in the backfield, there were holes. Reminds me of '09 except with the potential to be able to pass too.
I could give the Not His Fault They Lost Award to a lot of guys this week, but I'm going to give it to the starting 4 Wide Receivers AJ Green, Jerome Simpson, Jordan Shipley and Andre Caldwell. Not for constantly smoking Panther corners but for the blocking in the run game. It's so good to see that again. These guys were aggressive and trying to move guys. It's a big part of why the running game was so successful during this game. I considered the fullbacks too. They both looked really good. No matter which one we keep, I'm excited.
Just saw A.J. smoke Gamble again but Dalton didn't look his way. He looks like a good one.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Preseason week 1
Well, I'm back. I've had some time to calm down after losing J-Joe and have decided to keep writing. Having the Lions to root for really takes the edge off the ineptitude of my favorite franchise.
Let start with a quick off-season review. I'll give the Bungs a C+ for the whole thing. I thought the draft was very strong, hitting needs and more importantly talent and value. This off season is really going to hinge on Dalton as much as I hate to admit it. I hate how much this league is based on QB play.
So the draft was the only thing that kept it from being an F+. Between not trading Palmer, losing the best football player on your team for nothing, and whatever the hell happened with Donte Whitner, free agency did not go well. There were a ton of free agent safeties available and lord knows they needed help back there.
Nate Clements was about as good of a replacement as you were going to find for the real 22 and I liked the Manny Lawson pick up. He's playing a little out of position right now but he's a talented and versatile defender.
Before we get into the game, I wanted to point out that I have yet to see anyone cover Green in the training camp videos 1v1. While that is exciting, we used to have a guy that could do it...
Also I want to remind everyone that I try to stay away from the obvious on this blog as much as possible. Even in games that are as big of train wrecks as this one, SOMEONE must have played well and I did the digging to find them.
The first Not His Fault They Lost Award of the year goes too:
Michael Johnson - For being the only pass rusher who bothered to show up last Friday. He had provided some good pressure and when the 2s came in and he switched to left end he embarrassed the guy across from him. Every pass play it was a textbook roasting of Detroit's back up RT. He looked like Robert Mathis with an unstoppable speed rush and the awesome looking angle where he runs passed the RT at like 45 degrees. There is a better word for that but is escapes me. He didn't have any sacks but that is because the ball was already out of the QBs hands before anyone could get there if the O-line wasn't there at all. Rough coverage. Very rough.
The Surprisingly It Wasn't Hit Fault They Lost Award goes to, and get used to this methinks:
Andy Dalton - I know he opened up with the pick but he nothing besides accurate after that. Dude has only been a professional football player for 2 weeks and he goes 11 of 15? Yes please!
He didn't have any long completions but Detroit never blitzed either. They rushed 4 very good D linemen and dropped 7, would be very difficult to get anything down field. He was efficient, intelligent and accurate with the ball. He did a great job of spreading the ball around to different receivers and let them try to do something with it after the catch.
I'm sure there was a lot of concern after the first play pick, but I think Andy was maybe the 3rd guy I blame for that. First of all, he was getting crushed as he threw. The 1st team guards did not play well. I know Detroit has the best DTs in the world but you have to at least try to slow them down. Bottom line, he had to get rid of the ball with a quickness and he did a good job of that.
I know the ball was a little inside, but the range on it was actually pretty good. AJ should have helped him out more on that play. He later said he lost the ball in the lights and after watching the replay it sure looks like it. He was in perfect stride to get after it but didn't come inside to contest it with Chris Houston. Houston caught it against his chest and if AJ went up to high point it, he might have taken the ball right off of his silver helmet.
The point is, I'm sure Dalton expected more help from Green and will probably get it 9/10 times.
Like I said, throw was not awful, but it certainly could have been a lot better. AJ Green's ball skills are a million times better than Houston's ball "skills" so I don't question the decision so much. Just would have liked to see that ball further outside. It might have been wiser to dump the ball off to Benson who was able to sneak through the line and broke open to the left but it may have been a called bomb.
For the preseason I'm going to do a areas of concern section.
First and foremost: The starting guards. Yuck. Someone needs to step up and take that job away from Nate Livings. Too many penalties and looks lost at time in pass protections. He's sufficient in the run game but so are a lot of guys. I'm looking for rookie Clint Boling to step up and take his job by the end of the preseason. While Bobby Williams is still a beast in the run game, he got embarrassed by Suh a few times. I know Suh is a freak but he didn't look good in pass pro. This may be his last year. I hope he gets into better form, he's one of my favorite Bengals.
2nd: The coverage! Oh God the coverage! So bad! Right now there is just nothing behind Hall and Clements. With Pacman, Ghee and Wade out there is no one left to cover receivers. Don't get me wrong, the whole team was bad at it on Friday however you need at least 3 corners to play defense in the NFL.
I'm going to make 2 bold predictions here. While never being the official starting corner, if Pacman gets healthy I think he becomes the defacto starter before the end of the season with Clements sliding inside in the nickle package and not always being in on base.
Also, Wade might surprise some people. He played well last year in limited action and should make the team as the last corner.
I did notice that the dynamic didn't change much though with J-Joe being gone. No one throws at 22 and they pick on Leon hall instead.
3rd: Where is the pass rush! Can Mike Brown sacrifice his daughter to Satan (would you miss Katie Blackburn? would ya?)for some pass rush please. I know Dunlap was out but someone needs to get some push somewhere somehow. Geathers looked lethargic. Dunlap will be the defacto starter as soon as he's back
For the returning readers we know I try to stay as positive as possible so I'll have a bright spots section for the preseason too.
1. Geno Atkins - Really good vs the run on Friday. More than once he took his blocker and put him 3 yards in the backfield. He also tracked down that screen from the other side of the field. Love this kid. Also, if anyone else had any pass rush at all is was Geno.
2. Jordan Shipley - This guy just always looks good. <3
3. Jerome Simpson - He sure looks like the real deal doesn't he? I don't want to invite this comparison but doesn't he look like Chad as far as movement and body type?
4. Green and Dalton. Both look pretty damn good.
5. Benson and the right side of the line looked pretty sexy in the run game. I'm excited to see the run game with B Scott back.
Anyway, I should do some work. Don't have time to proof read right now or my boss will rip me apart so please excuse me. Will be checking in next week. Thanks for reading!
Let start with a quick off-season review. I'll give the Bungs a C+ for the whole thing. I thought the draft was very strong, hitting needs and more importantly talent and value. This off season is really going to hinge on Dalton as much as I hate to admit it. I hate how much this league is based on QB play.
So the draft was the only thing that kept it from being an F+. Between not trading Palmer, losing the best football player on your team for nothing, and whatever the hell happened with Donte Whitner, free agency did not go well. There were a ton of free agent safeties available and lord knows they needed help back there.
Nate Clements was about as good of a replacement as you were going to find for the real 22 and I liked the Manny Lawson pick up. He's playing a little out of position right now but he's a talented and versatile defender.
Before we get into the game, I wanted to point out that I have yet to see anyone cover Green in the training camp videos 1v1. While that is exciting, we used to have a guy that could do it...
Also I want to remind everyone that I try to stay away from the obvious on this blog as much as possible. Even in games that are as big of train wrecks as this one, SOMEONE must have played well and I did the digging to find them.
The first Not His Fault They Lost Award of the year goes too:
Michael Johnson - For being the only pass rusher who bothered to show up last Friday. He had provided some good pressure and when the 2s came in and he switched to left end he embarrassed the guy across from him. Every pass play it was a textbook roasting of Detroit's back up RT. He looked like Robert Mathis with an unstoppable speed rush and the awesome looking angle where he runs passed the RT at like 45 degrees. There is a better word for that but is escapes me. He didn't have any sacks but that is because the ball was already out of the QBs hands before anyone could get there if the O-line wasn't there at all. Rough coverage. Very rough.
The Surprisingly It Wasn't Hit Fault They Lost Award goes to, and get used to this methinks:
Andy Dalton - I know he opened up with the pick but he nothing besides accurate after that. Dude has only been a professional football player for 2 weeks and he goes 11 of 15? Yes please!
He didn't have any long completions but Detroit never blitzed either. They rushed 4 very good D linemen and dropped 7, would be very difficult to get anything down field. He was efficient, intelligent and accurate with the ball. He did a great job of spreading the ball around to different receivers and let them try to do something with it after the catch.
I'm sure there was a lot of concern after the first play pick, but I think Andy was maybe the 3rd guy I blame for that. First of all, he was getting crushed as he threw. The 1st team guards did not play well. I know Detroit has the best DTs in the world but you have to at least try to slow them down. Bottom line, he had to get rid of the ball with a quickness and he did a good job of that.
I know the ball was a little inside, but the range on it was actually pretty good. AJ should have helped him out more on that play. He later said he lost the ball in the lights and after watching the replay it sure looks like it. He was in perfect stride to get after it but didn't come inside to contest it with Chris Houston. Houston caught it against his chest and if AJ went up to high point it, he might have taken the ball right off of his silver helmet.
The point is, I'm sure Dalton expected more help from Green and will probably get it 9/10 times.
Like I said, throw was not awful, but it certainly could have been a lot better. AJ Green's ball skills are a million times better than Houston's ball "skills" so I don't question the decision so much. Just would have liked to see that ball further outside. It might have been wiser to dump the ball off to Benson who was able to sneak through the line and broke open to the left but it may have been a called bomb.
For the preseason I'm going to do a areas of concern section.
First and foremost: The starting guards. Yuck. Someone needs to step up and take that job away from Nate Livings. Too many penalties and looks lost at time in pass protections. He's sufficient in the run game but so are a lot of guys. I'm looking for rookie Clint Boling to step up and take his job by the end of the preseason. While Bobby Williams is still a beast in the run game, he got embarrassed by Suh a few times. I know Suh is a freak but he didn't look good in pass pro. This may be his last year. I hope he gets into better form, he's one of my favorite Bengals.
2nd: The coverage! Oh God the coverage! So bad! Right now there is just nothing behind Hall and Clements. With Pacman, Ghee and Wade out there is no one left to cover receivers. Don't get me wrong, the whole team was bad at it on Friday however you need at least 3 corners to play defense in the NFL.
I'm going to make 2 bold predictions here. While never being the official starting corner, if Pacman gets healthy I think he becomes the defacto starter before the end of the season with Clements sliding inside in the nickle package and not always being in on base.
Also, Wade might surprise some people. He played well last year in limited action and should make the team as the last corner.
I did notice that the dynamic didn't change much though with J-Joe being gone. No one throws at 22 and they pick on Leon hall instead.
3rd: Where is the pass rush! Can Mike Brown sacrifice his daughter to Satan (would you miss Katie Blackburn? would ya?)for some pass rush please. I know Dunlap was out but someone needs to get some push somewhere somehow. Geathers looked lethargic. Dunlap will be the defacto starter as soon as he's back
For the returning readers we know I try to stay as positive as possible so I'll have a bright spots section for the preseason too.
1. Geno Atkins - Really good vs the run on Friday. More than once he took his blocker and put him 3 yards in the backfield. He also tracked down that screen from the other side of the field. Love this kid. Also, if anyone else had any pass rush at all is was Geno.
2. Jordan Shipley - This guy just always looks good. <3
3. Jerome Simpson - He sure looks like the real deal doesn't he? I don't want to invite this comparison but doesn't he look like Chad as far as movement and body type?
4. Green and Dalton. Both look pretty damn good.
5. Benson and the right side of the line looked pretty sexy in the run game. I'm excited to see the run game with B Scott back.
Anyway, I should do some work. Don't have time to proof read right now or my boss will rip me apart so please excuse me. Will be checking in next week. Thanks for reading!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Final picks and thoughts
Well, they've done it. They finally killed my love of the Bengals. By they I mean he, mike brown. By letting J-Joe go, letting Carson retire and not doing a god damn thing in free agency mike brown has killed my interest in this team. It may come back, it usually does, but for now I'm done. I actually hope they don't hit the salary floor, I want to see what happens.
It was reported that J-Joe got 48.5m over 5 years. Less than 10 million a year and little mikey can't pony up? That is a steal for that kind of talent under the new CBA. Does he know there is a salary floor? He started out free agency needing to spend about 15-20 mil I believe just to make the bare ass minimum you're allowed to pay your team, which I'm sure is as high as he'll go. So far he's gone about 20 million in reverse. Just heard from Clayton that the bungs now have $50 mil in cap space. What do they plan to spend it on? There isn't much left out there. Is Fanene gonna make 15 million per year or something? I really truly, to the bottom of my heart HATE mike brown and I hope he dies very soon. I'd do it myself if I knew I could get away with it.
I read an interview with Zimmer about how upset he is that they let J-Joe go. Apparently he was told they'd have J-Joe back. He's talking like he really doesn't know what to do with himself of the defense at this point. Its gonna be a mess.
I guess I'll recap the rest of the draft picks, not that it matters. No matter how well the Bengals draft, and they have done exceptionally well in recent years, they'll never be any good because mike dumbfuck brown won't pay to keep his own. Even when the league mandates that he spends money his dumb ass still won't do it.
Round 6, Ryan Whalen
This is where the wheels started to fall off the draft. From the reports I hear this guy isn't really athletic enough to play in the NFL. Smart route runner, great hands and all that wonderful shit but we already have 3 slot receivers on the roster and only 2 outside guys. With better players like Dane Sanzenbacher still on the board I didn't like this pick and still don't. Even Armon Binns would have been better here I think.
Round 7, Korey Lindsey
I don't know anything about this guy. Maybe he's alright, I didn't think we needed another corner at the time. Little did I know we would go into camp not having enough corners to run a dime package. I hope this guy just so happens to be a super star cause otherwise the defense is fucked.
Round 7, Jay Finley
I'm not even sure I got this guy's first name right. I don't know anything about him either. I thought there were better running backs on the board like Derrick Locke out of KY. Darren Evans or John Clay might have been worth a gamble too. Who knows, maybe they got great value here. In the post pick interview Marvin said they like what he can do on 3rd down. But with the bungals not having a number 1 back on the team I would have liked to have seen them grab someone a little less specialized. Whatever, like I said. Not that it matters.
There were a few undrafted guys I would have liked to have seen the bungles give a shot in camp but it seems they were failures here too. Andre Smith, TE out of VT would have been a nice body to have compete for the 3rd TE spot. Great blocker. There we some RBs that I think could have competed for the lead spot like Darren Evans, John Clay and Derrick Locke. Whatever, I don't have the energy anymore.
I just learned that the salary floor doesn't apply till 2013. 2 more years of not paying your team a fucking dime if you don't have to mike brown. Go die in a ditch you fuck.
Anyway, I'll be a Lions fan going forward. I always have been. If you think I'm jumping on a bandwagon, tell that to my Kevin Jones jersey. I was there through 0-16. I'm just more of a fan now because I'm finally free of hoping that the people under mike brown can put together a good team despite his efforts. It can't be done, not for more than a year. It's like the pirates trying to compete against the yankees, except the bungs are the pirates and the rest of the league is the yankees cause they actually spend close to the salary cap.
To all the bungles faithful out there, I encourage you to abandon ship until mike brown dies, quits or hires a GM. He doesn't deserve your money. He doesn't deserve oxygen. Try to find another team to invest your emotional energy and money into because as long as he's at the helm this team will always disappoint. I recommend the Lions.
For all the future games out there, the Not His Fault They Lost award goes to...Everyone except mike brown.
Fuck you mike brown. Fuck you.
It was reported that J-Joe got 48.5m over 5 years. Less than 10 million a year and little mikey can't pony up? That is a steal for that kind of talent under the new CBA. Does he know there is a salary floor? He started out free agency needing to spend about 15-20 mil I believe just to make the bare ass minimum you're allowed to pay your team, which I'm sure is as high as he'll go. So far he's gone about 20 million in reverse. Just heard from Clayton that the bungs now have $50 mil in cap space. What do they plan to spend it on? There isn't much left out there. Is Fanene gonna make 15 million per year or something? I really truly, to the bottom of my heart HATE mike brown and I hope he dies very soon. I'd do it myself if I knew I could get away with it.
I read an interview with Zimmer about how upset he is that they let J-Joe go. Apparently he was told they'd have J-Joe back. He's talking like he really doesn't know what to do with himself of the defense at this point. Its gonna be a mess.
I guess I'll recap the rest of the draft picks, not that it matters. No matter how well the Bengals draft, and they have done exceptionally well in recent years, they'll never be any good because mike dumbfuck brown won't pay to keep his own. Even when the league mandates that he spends money his dumb ass still won't do it.
Round 6, Ryan Whalen
This is where the wheels started to fall off the draft. From the reports I hear this guy isn't really athletic enough to play in the NFL. Smart route runner, great hands and all that wonderful shit but we already have 3 slot receivers on the roster and only 2 outside guys. With better players like Dane Sanzenbacher still on the board I didn't like this pick and still don't. Even Armon Binns would have been better here I think.
Round 7, Korey Lindsey
I don't know anything about this guy. Maybe he's alright, I didn't think we needed another corner at the time. Little did I know we would go into camp not having enough corners to run a dime package. I hope this guy just so happens to be a super star cause otherwise the defense is fucked.
Round 7, Jay Finley
I'm not even sure I got this guy's first name right. I don't know anything about him either. I thought there were better running backs on the board like Derrick Locke out of KY. Darren Evans or John Clay might have been worth a gamble too. Who knows, maybe they got great value here. In the post pick interview Marvin said they like what he can do on 3rd down. But with the bungals not having a number 1 back on the team I would have liked to have seen them grab someone a little less specialized. Whatever, like I said. Not that it matters.
There were a few undrafted guys I would have liked to have seen the bungles give a shot in camp but it seems they were failures here too. Andre Smith, TE out of VT would have been a nice body to have compete for the 3rd TE spot. Great blocker. There we some RBs that I think could have competed for the lead spot like Darren Evans, John Clay and Derrick Locke. Whatever, I don't have the energy anymore.
I just learned that the salary floor doesn't apply till 2013. 2 more years of not paying your team a fucking dime if you don't have to mike brown. Go die in a ditch you fuck.
Anyway, I'll be a Lions fan going forward. I always have been. If you think I'm jumping on a bandwagon, tell that to my Kevin Jones jersey. I was there through 0-16. I'm just more of a fan now because I'm finally free of hoping that the people under mike brown can put together a good team despite his efforts. It can't be done, not for more than a year. It's like the pirates trying to compete against the yankees, except the bungs are the pirates and the rest of the league is the yankees cause they actually spend close to the salary cap.
To all the bungles faithful out there, I encourage you to abandon ship until mike brown dies, quits or hires a GM. He doesn't deserve your money. He doesn't deserve oxygen. Try to find another team to invest your emotional energy and money into because as long as he's at the helm this team will always disappoint. I recommend the Lions.
For all the future games out there, the Not His Fault They Lost award goes to...Everyone except mike brown.
Fuck you mike brown. Fuck you.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Draft Recap: Round 5
This is another very interesting pick.
Robert Sands: West Virginia, Safety 6'5'' 218 lbs
Kiper's grade: 7.5 #3 best safety in the draft
If you're a hardcore football fan, your first reaction should be "Holy FUCK that is a big safety". 6'5'' 220 is a very large man to be patrolling the back end of your defense. Almost unheard of large.
I'll admit I don't know a ton about this guy but I like what I've heard. He's obviously very large but still athletic. Has good range and loves to hit. Seems to be more effective as a strong safety playing near the line of scrimmage. I've also heard that he can be a little stiff in coverage as long legged high cut athletes like himself tend to be. That said, you don't want to be catching the ball going into his zone cause he's a whole lot of man and he's not afraid to launch it at you.
The Bengals grabbed another physical freak here which is exciting for the 5th round. He's proven himself at WV in run support. What I'm excited to see is how he does back in coverage. He's just so long that he will have a huge radius to knock balls away and hopefully bring a few down with him. While I'm sure he'll get ample time around the line of scrimmage I think he's built to patrol the middle, contesting deep balls with that build up speed and freakish height.
I hear all the time about how some tight ends are too athletic to cover with a linebacker and too big to cover with a corner. Well hopefully this guy is your answer.
He seems like a fit for the strong safety spot on the Bengals and should be a big contributor on special teams right away. I'd be surprised to see him start this as he has to transition into a more pro style defense and work on his coverage skills. However if the Bengals don't make a big splash in free agency for a safety he may be called into action. Might not be the worst thing either with the Bengals unlikely to compete for the playoffs this year due to a young team and abbreviated off season. This is definitely a guy to keep your eye on.
Robert Sands: West Virginia, Safety 6'5'' 218 lbs
Kiper's grade: 7.5 #3 best safety in the draft
If you're a hardcore football fan, your first reaction should be "Holy FUCK that is a big safety". 6'5'' 220 is a very large man to be patrolling the back end of your defense. Almost unheard of large.
I'll admit I don't know a ton about this guy but I like what I've heard. He's obviously very large but still athletic. Has good range and loves to hit. Seems to be more effective as a strong safety playing near the line of scrimmage. I've also heard that he can be a little stiff in coverage as long legged high cut athletes like himself tend to be. That said, you don't want to be catching the ball going into his zone cause he's a whole lot of man and he's not afraid to launch it at you.
The Bengals grabbed another physical freak here which is exciting for the 5th round. He's proven himself at WV in run support. What I'm excited to see is how he does back in coverage. He's just so long that he will have a huge radius to knock balls away and hopefully bring a few down with him. While I'm sure he'll get ample time around the line of scrimmage I think he's built to patrol the middle, contesting deep balls with that build up speed and freakish height.
I hear all the time about how some tight ends are too athletic to cover with a linebacker and too big to cover with a corner. Well hopefully this guy is your answer.
He seems like a fit for the strong safety spot on the Bengals and should be a big contributor on special teams right away. I'd be surprised to see him start this as he has to transition into a more pro style defense and work on his coverage skills. However if the Bengals don't make a big splash in free agency for a safety he may be called into action. Might not be the worst thing either with the Bengals unlikely to compete for the playoffs this year due to a young team and abbreviated off season. This is definitely a guy to keep your eye on.
Draft Recap: Round 4
In the 4th round the Bengals took:
Clint Boling: Offensive Guard, Georgia 6'4'' 307 lbs
Mel Kiper's Rating: 8.6, #4 best guard in the draft.
Big fan of this pick. If it were up to me I'd never go a draft without taking an offensive lineman. In the NFL these guys make the world go 'round. The common fan probably doesn't realize how important good line play is.
Anyway, Clint was a 4 year starter at Georgia which in itself is a pretty big accomplishment. He's also started at all line spots throughout his career except center which is even more impressive. That versatility is a huge bonus in the NFL where you generally only suit up 7 or 8 linemen on game day. He plays with a mean streak and is very consistent. Only knock I've heard on him is he doesn't blow you away on tape. Should be a plug and play guy with all his experience and solid technique. He could win the left guard job outright and stay there for many years. Seems like a very safe pick sandwiched in between two projects with big upside. I think they got great value for grabbing him in the 4th. Kiper had him as one of the highest rated guys on the board at the time. Not that Kiper is always right.
With the Bengals I see him as more of a left guard than right. They love huge mashers on their line in Cincy and right guard is usually the biggest meanest guy one. Now this could just be because Bobbie Williams has held that spot down for so long and he has been great there. I think Clint would do just fine at either guard spot. I think he'll come into camp and probably be competing with Nate Livings at left guard who has been adequate for a few years there. I wouldn't be surprised to see Clint win the job and stay put for many years to come. I also wouldn't be surprised to see him be the versatile back up this year and step in for Bobbie Williams the year after at right guard. The Bengals have needed some guard help for a while and I think one way or another this guy will win a job and keep it for a long time.
Clint Boling: Offensive Guard, Georgia 6'4'' 307 lbs
Mel Kiper's Rating: 8.6, #4 best guard in the draft.
Big fan of this pick. If it were up to me I'd never go a draft without taking an offensive lineman. In the NFL these guys make the world go 'round. The common fan probably doesn't realize how important good line play is.
Anyway, Clint was a 4 year starter at Georgia which in itself is a pretty big accomplishment. He's also started at all line spots throughout his career except center which is even more impressive. That versatility is a huge bonus in the NFL where you generally only suit up 7 or 8 linemen on game day. He plays with a mean streak and is very consistent. Only knock I've heard on him is he doesn't blow you away on tape. Should be a plug and play guy with all his experience and solid technique. He could win the left guard job outright and stay there for many years. Seems like a very safe pick sandwiched in between two projects with big upside. I think they got great value for grabbing him in the 4th. Kiper had him as one of the highest rated guys on the board at the time. Not that Kiper is always right.
With the Bengals I see him as more of a left guard than right. They love huge mashers on their line in Cincy and right guard is usually the biggest meanest guy one. Now this could just be because Bobbie Williams has held that spot down for so long and he has been great there. I think Clint would do just fine at either guard spot. I think he'll come into camp and probably be competing with Nate Livings at left guard who has been adequate for a few years there. I wouldn't be surprised to see Clint win the job and stay put for many years to come. I also wouldn't be surprised to see him be the versatile back up this year and step in for Bobbie Williams the year after at right guard. The Bengals have needed some guard help for a while and I think one way or another this guy will win a job and keep it for a long time.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Round 3
Before I get into the 3rd round, quick stats the Bengal's first pick I forgot to provide:
A.J. Green 6' 3.5'' 210 (thanks for the half inch NFL combine) WR, Georgia
Mel Kiper grade: 9.4, #1 overall WR. #3 best player overall
The Bengals 3rd round pick was the most intriguing to me. Here's a look at the guy we got.
Dontay Moch 6'1'' 247, DE/OLB Nevada.
Mel Kiper grade: 8.8 #3 best OLB
Moch is a freak athlete for a guy any size, let alone as large as he is. I can't emphasize enough how fast he is for a 250 pound man. The times he put up are literally unheard of. He was the fastest defensive lineman EVER at the combine posting a 4.42 in the 40 yard dash. He was tied for 15th fastest guy at the combine and that is against 175-200 pounders. He has been clocked at 4.31 at Nevada which is elite speed at any position.
His athleticism isn't just limited to strait line speed either. He blew away all linebackers and linemen in the vertical leap (42 inches) and broad jump (10' 8'') as well. While those stats don't directly translate to the position they are a good indicator of lower body explosiveness which does directly translate to the position.
Moch isn't just a workout warrior either, he was quite productive and a good football player. He had a lot of un-tallied production as well according to Mel Kiper in the form of holding calls on O-lineman that just couldn't deal with his speed. While speed is his main weapon in pass rush he also has a very productive bull rush he uses as a counter to overpower blockers. There is that lower body explosiveness I was talking about. He was used primarily as a defensive end with his hand in the dirt but they also stood him up and even used him to blitz the A gap as a linebacker.
So the guy is obviously a physical specimen that is built to rush the passer. What makes him so intriguing is that he's too small to be an NFL DE and has never played linebacker. The natural fit for him would be a 3-4 defense as a pass rushing outside linebacker but the Bengals are interested in playing him at SAM linebacker. In our 4-3 defense this is more of a traditional tackle and cover position so it will be a big transition. Now I'm sure Zimmer will tailor the position to his strengths a little more and we've had a converted DE at SAM before in Rashad Jeanty who played quite well.
Early on he will probably be a situational pass rusher who will both stand up and put his hand in the dirt to get after the QB on obvious passing downs. I'm sure they'll move him around to get him in good match ups and just cut him loose. It may be a year or two before he can contribute as an every down player if ever.
So the bad news is he is a project that may not be able to contribute as a regular SAM linebacker. The good news is, the worst case scenario is you have a freakish athlete that is a situational pass rusher. And any defensive coordinator in the league will tell you you can never have enough pass rushers.
Also, can we talk about special teams real quick? This guy runs like an elite corner, is 250 pounds and is used to contact every down. He might be one of the scariest cover guys in the league right out of the gate.
Now at the time I would have like to have maybe seen the Bengals grab Martez Wilson instead as he was more of a pure linebacker but Moch has so much potential that my mind has kind of changed. Also he'll contribute more on 3rd down which is a big part of NFL football.
So to summarize, freak athlete with huge potential. Probably should have gone in the second round. Is a project for SAM linebacker but should contribute as a pass rusher and on special teams right away. Look out for this guy a few years down the road, could be making pro bowls.
A.J. Green 6' 3.5'' 210 (thanks for the half inch NFL combine) WR, Georgia
Mel Kiper grade: 9.4, #1 overall WR. #3 best player overall
The Bengals 3rd round pick was the most intriguing to me. Here's a look at the guy we got.
Dontay Moch 6'1'' 247, DE/OLB Nevada.
Mel Kiper grade: 8.8 #3 best OLB
Moch is a freak athlete for a guy any size, let alone as large as he is. I can't emphasize enough how fast he is for a 250 pound man. The times he put up are literally unheard of. He was the fastest defensive lineman EVER at the combine posting a 4.42 in the 40 yard dash. He was tied for 15th fastest guy at the combine and that is against 175-200 pounders. He has been clocked at 4.31 at Nevada which is elite speed at any position.
His athleticism isn't just limited to strait line speed either. He blew away all linebackers and linemen in the vertical leap (42 inches) and broad jump (10' 8'') as well. While those stats don't directly translate to the position they are a good indicator of lower body explosiveness which does directly translate to the position.
Moch isn't just a workout warrior either, he was quite productive and a good football player. He had a lot of un-tallied production as well according to Mel Kiper in the form of holding calls on O-lineman that just couldn't deal with his speed. While speed is his main weapon in pass rush he also has a very productive bull rush he uses as a counter to overpower blockers. There is that lower body explosiveness I was talking about. He was used primarily as a defensive end with his hand in the dirt but they also stood him up and even used him to blitz the A gap as a linebacker.
So the guy is obviously a physical specimen that is built to rush the passer. What makes him so intriguing is that he's too small to be an NFL DE and has never played linebacker. The natural fit for him would be a 3-4 defense as a pass rushing outside linebacker but the Bengals are interested in playing him at SAM linebacker. In our 4-3 defense this is more of a traditional tackle and cover position so it will be a big transition. Now I'm sure Zimmer will tailor the position to his strengths a little more and we've had a converted DE at SAM before in Rashad Jeanty who played quite well.
Early on he will probably be a situational pass rusher who will both stand up and put his hand in the dirt to get after the QB on obvious passing downs. I'm sure they'll move him around to get him in good match ups and just cut him loose. It may be a year or two before he can contribute as an every down player if ever.
So the bad news is he is a project that may not be able to contribute as a regular SAM linebacker. The good news is, the worst case scenario is you have a freakish athlete that is a situational pass rusher. And any defensive coordinator in the league will tell you you can never have enough pass rushers.
Also, can we talk about special teams real quick? This guy runs like an elite corner, is 250 pounds and is used to contact every down. He might be one of the scariest cover guys in the league right out of the gate.
Now at the time I would have like to have maybe seen the Bengals grab Martez Wilson instead as he was more of a pure linebacker but Moch has so much potential that my mind has kind of changed. Also he'll contribute more on 3rd down which is a big part of NFL football.
So to summarize, freak athlete with huge potential. Probably should have gone in the second round. Is a project for SAM linebacker but should contribute as a pass rusher and on special teams right away. Look out for this guy a few years down the road, could be making pro bowls.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Round 2
Good news Bungs fans. I have a job where I sit at a desk all day again so I should get more regular with these posts. I know the draft happened a million years ago so I'll try to push through these quickly and get into stuff like college free agents and positional breakdowns.
I've discovered that on ESPN3 they have some bowl games available for replay, which is awesome for me. Any football I can get my hands on in the middle of the off season is glorious. So with Ipod in hand, armed with Mel Kiper's draft report and a list of draft eligible players I do a little scouting. It's not good scouting certainly, one game does not a player make but you can sometimes get an idea of how explosive or athletic a guy is or isn't. They had the TCU game available so I was able to watch our key stone pick, Andy Dalton.
Andy Dalton, 6'2'' 215. QB, TCU
Mel Kiper Jr's Grade : 8.8, 4th best QB on his board
Having the 3rd pick on the 2nd day created a ton of tension for me over night. I was hoping and praying he would fall to us and I'm still stoked that he did. Very intelligent, very accurate and appears to be a stand up guy. As Andy Dalton goes, so goes the franchise and I trust him to develop. Some said he is the most NFL ready QB in the draft and I think he'll be ready to go sooner rather than later. The only knock I heard on him all the way through was arm strength. And the knock is that his arm is average. I'll take it! Jamarcus Russell and his purple drank can launch the ball 70 yards but that doesn't do you much good when its no where near a friendly helmet. Besides that, I can think of three guys who came into the league with questionable arm strength, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady. Three guys who came into the league more highly touted with rocket launcher arms: Kyle Boller, Byron Leftwich and Jamarcus Russell. It used to be that by the time a guy was drafted his arm was as good as it was going to be. With modern strength training that is no longer the case. It's much easier to fix arm strength than stupid.
Despite being a redhead QB (can you name a successful one?) he seems to have the right qualities to lead as well. Intelligent, polite and in a recent interview Andrew Whitworth, the team's incumbent leader, Andrew said Dalton's personality reminded him of Drew Brees. You love to hear that. The more he has in common with Drew the better.
Now lets dig into the bowl game I watched vs. Wisconsin and their impressive defense. The first thing that jumped out at me was Dalton being more athletic than I realized. Wisconsin seemed to be focused in on stopping the running backs early so using zone reads he ripped off a few 8-12 yard runs on the first two drives. It's not like he was an electrifying runner or anything but he was smart with where he went and how to take the hits. He also made 1 or 2 guys miss and grabbed a few extra yards after contact. One play that stuck out to me was when he misread Defensive end JJ Watt, the 11th overall pick, on a zone read. JJ is a great athlete for someone his size and had Dalton dead to rights. So Andy beat feet to the outside and was able to get around him and score a touchdown from I think it was about 5 yards out. Impressive feat.
His throws and decision making didn't surprise me because they were as awesome as advertised. I only saw 1 or 2 throws that were bad decisions/poor throws (couldn't tell which from TV broadcast) but they weren't terrible. It would have taken a pretty impressive play for those balls to be picked off and his guy had a shot at it too. Most of his incompletions came from his receiver slipping on the wet field. He hit most throws perfectly and receivers didn't have to break stride to catch them. I suppose I was a bit surprised to see him drill an out route pretty hard. Still perfectly accurate but he nailed that thing in there like a pro. Didn't seem to have an arm strength issue to me.
Alright, lunch break over. Back to the grind. Hang in there football fans, we'll get through this lockout one way or another. Look for me to start doubling up rounds here going forward. Thanks for reading!
I've discovered that on ESPN3 they have some bowl games available for replay, which is awesome for me. Any football I can get my hands on in the middle of the off season is glorious. So with Ipod in hand, armed with Mel Kiper's draft report and a list of draft eligible players I do a little scouting. It's not good scouting certainly, one game does not a player make but you can sometimes get an idea of how explosive or athletic a guy is or isn't. They had the TCU game available so I was able to watch our key stone pick, Andy Dalton.
Andy Dalton, 6'2'' 215. QB, TCU
Mel Kiper Jr's Grade : 8.8, 4th best QB on his board
Having the 3rd pick on the 2nd day created a ton of tension for me over night. I was hoping and praying he would fall to us and I'm still stoked that he did. Very intelligent, very accurate and appears to be a stand up guy. As Andy Dalton goes, so goes the franchise and I trust him to develop. Some said he is the most NFL ready QB in the draft and I think he'll be ready to go sooner rather than later. The only knock I heard on him all the way through was arm strength. And the knock is that his arm is average. I'll take it! Jamarcus Russell and his purple drank can launch the ball 70 yards but that doesn't do you much good when its no where near a friendly helmet. Besides that, I can think of three guys who came into the league with questionable arm strength, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady. Three guys who came into the league more highly touted with rocket launcher arms: Kyle Boller, Byron Leftwich and Jamarcus Russell. It used to be that by the time a guy was drafted his arm was as good as it was going to be. With modern strength training that is no longer the case. It's much easier to fix arm strength than stupid.
Despite being a redhead QB (can you name a successful one?) he seems to have the right qualities to lead as well. Intelligent, polite and in a recent interview Andrew Whitworth, the team's incumbent leader, Andrew said Dalton's personality reminded him of Drew Brees. You love to hear that. The more he has in common with Drew the better.
Now lets dig into the bowl game I watched vs. Wisconsin and their impressive defense. The first thing that jumped out at me was Dalton being more athletic than I realized. Wisconsin seemed to be focused in on stopping the running backs early so using zone reads he ripped off a few 8-12 yard runs on the first two drives. It's not like he was an electrifying runner or anything but he was smart with where he went and how to take the hits. He also made 1 or 2 guys miss and grabbed a few extra yards after contact. One play that stuck out to me was when he misread Defensive end JJ Watt, the 11th overall pick, on a zone read. JJ is a great athlete for someone his size and had Dalton dead to rights. So Andy beat feet to the outside and was able to get around him and score a touchdown from I think it was about 5 yards out. Impressive feat.
His throws and decision making didn't surprise me because they were as awesome as advertised. I only saw 1 or 2 throws that were bad decisions/poor throws (couldn't tell which from TV broadcast) but they weren't terrible. It would have taken a pretty impressive play for those balls to be picked off and his guy had a shot at it too. Most of his incompletions came from his receiver slipping on the wet field. He hit most throws perfectly and receivers didn't have to break stride to catch them. I suppose I was a bit surprised to see him drill an out route pretty hard. Still perfectly accurate but he nailed that thing in there like a pro. Didn't seem to have an arm strength issue to me.
Alright, lunch break over. Back to the grind. Hang in there football fans, we'll get through this lockout one way or another. Look for me to start doubling up rounds here going forward. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Draft recap, round 1
I know this is really late and most people have probably lost interest by now but since the dust has settled and I've had some time to take in information on the picks, I'll go through and break down the Bengals draft. I'll include what these guys bring and how they might fit in with the team. I've also gotten a chance to get Mel Kiper's draft report for 2011 which is available for 2.99 now which is pretty awesome. It's usually like 30 bucks, you can get it as an app. Just sayin'.
Anyway, round 1. I was sitting in an empty bar with a mouth full of onion rings begging the football gods to give the Bengals Patrick Peterson after thanking them for making the Panthers take Newton. They broke my heart a little bit by passing but I'm still very happy with the A.J. Green.
This is literally the ONLY draft prospect that I can remember no one having anything bad to say about. Not just this year, ever (I'm only 25 so it's not that long, but still). No questions about any part of his game or character. People were saying he's the best receiving prospect since Calvin Johnson and he is the safest pick in the draft and possibly the best. The only knock I heard is he plays wide receiver which some people don't regard as an important position. I tend to agree to an extent but he's just so damn good. Very complete receiver. He has great body control, speed, precise routes, blocks adequately, runs well after the catch, rarely has drops, tracks the ball well in the air, makes the contested catch and whatever else a receiver needs to be able to do, this guy does it all.
I believe he will be the type of player that makes the whole offense better. It may not happen year one but he should be the type of guy that defenses have to plan for. They can't load 8 in the box because they don't want to leave him 1 on 1 with anyone so that helps the run game. Defenses will probably have to roll coverages towards him which should help open up the other receivers and whenever their QB gets in trouble he can always just heave it to A.J. like so many QBs in Detroit have done with Calvin Johnson and he can go fight for the ball in the air.
Now we may have to taper our expectations for year one for several reasons. First off the WR position is notoriously difficult for rookies to transition from the college game to the NFL. Jordan Shipley is a freak and we can't expect everyone to do what he did. Number 2, who is going to be throwing to him? Dalton? Probably, and he is a rookie too who is transitioning at possibly the only position that is harder to be a rookie at. Lefevour? He doesn't have much more experience. 3rd and possibly most importantly, abbreviated off season. He's already missed a few OTAs (organized team activities) and it could get much worse with the the lock out continuing. If they can't start working soon it will be difficult for any rookie to contribute.
So as an at least partially educated fan, which all of you are now for having read this, you're not allowed to scream bust after his rookie year. All that said, I'd say there is a pretty decent chance he comes out and shows the world why he went #4 overall right away.
More recap coming up! Thanks for reading!
Anyway, round 1. I was sitting in an empty bar with a mouth full of onion rings begging the football gods to give the Bengals Patrick Peterson after thanking them for making the Panthers take Newton. They broke my heart a little bit by passing but I'm still very happy with the A.J. Green.
This is literally the ONLY draft prospect that I can remember no one having anything bad to say about. Not just this year, ever (I'm only 25 so it's not that long, but still). No questions about any part of his game or character. People were saying he's the best receiving prospect since Calvin Johnson and he is the safest pick in the draft and possibly the best. The only knock I heard is he plays wide receiver which some people don't regard as an important position. I tend to agree to an extent but he's just so damn good. Very complete receiver. He has great body control, speed, precise routes, blocks adequately, runs well after the catch, rarely has drops, tracks the ball well in the air, makes the contested catch and whatever else a receiver needs to be able to do, this guy does it all.
I believe he will be the type of player that makes the whole offense better. It may not happen year one but he should be the type of guy that defenses have to plan for. They can't load 8 in the box because they don't want to leave him 1 on 1 with anyone so that helps the run game. Defenses will probably have to roll coverages towards him which should help open up the other receivers and whenever their QB gets in trouble he can always just heave it to A.J. like so many QBs in Detroit have done with Calvin Johnson and he can go fight for the ball in the air.
Now we may have to taper our expectations for year one for several reasons. First off the WR position is notoriously difficult for rookies to transition from the college game to the NFL. Jordan Shipley is a freak and we can't expect everyone to do what he did. Number 2, who is going to be throwing to him? Dalton? Probably, and he is a rookie too who is transitioning at possibly the only position that is harder to be a rookie at. Lefevour? He doesn't have much more experience. 3rd and possibly most importantly, abbreviated off season. He's already missed a few OTAs (organized team activities) and it could get much worse with the the lock out continuing. If they can't start working soon it will be difficult for any rookie to contribute.
So as an at least partially educated fan, which all of you are now for having read this, you're not allowed to scream bust after his rookie year. All that said, I'd say there is a pretty decent chance he comes out and shows the world why he went #4 overall right away.
More recap coming up! Thanks for reading!
Friday, April 29, 2011
3rd round?
Well, the Chargers broke my heart by grabbing Marcus Gilchrist in the 2nd. Would have been a good conversion guy. But we have our QB and that makes me happy! Good draft so far. I thought Rosi Dowling out of Virginia might have slipped into the 3rd but he went at the top of the 2nd. Not really sure who I want the Bengals to take here. WR Hankerson out of Miami is still there which is surprising but we certainly don't need him now.
Lets hope they did more research for the draft than I did!
I wouldn't mind seeing Edmond Gates in the 4th round. WR that is Bernard Scott's cousin. Crazy fast.
Enjoy the rest of the draft!
Lets hope they did more research for the draft than I did!
I wouldn't mind seeing Edmond Gates in the 4th round. WR that is Bernard Scott's cousin. Crazy fast.
Enjoy the rest of the draft!
2nd round board
Crap! In all the excitement I forgot to put up my board for the 2nd round! So with a few minutes to go here are my guys.
1. Andy Dalton, QB TCU
Super accurate, great decision maker, never lost a game in his life. Love him to death, wouldn't mind them moving up to make sure they got him.
Downside, doesn't have a huge arm. I can live with that though. Doesn't need one for our system.
2. Aaron Williams, DB Texas
I would LOVE this guy as a free safety. Was a corner at Texas and played at a high level. Ran just fine and makes big plays all day and all night. He should have gone in the first round probably and if the QB is gone then we can get our conversion guy right here.
3. Marvin Austin, DT UNC
I heard people say he could be a top 15 pick if he had played this year. Don't know a whole lot about him other than people I trust say he has top 10 talent. I'd roll the dice at this point.
4. Dequan Bowers, DE Clemson
This guy has top 5 talent but doctors are concerned about his knee. They say he might only be able to play a few years before his career is cut short. But then again, maybe not. Wouldn't be the worst gamble the Bengals ever took.
5. Ryan Williams, RB Virginia Tech
This dude is has that prototype size you want, runs well, makes people miss. Good back just needs to stay healthy. I don't want them to take a back here but you could certainly do worse.
Doomsday scenario
Ryan Mallet, QB Arkansas
He throws the ball well but he's not a great decision makes, has a really long delivery which is gonna get you killed in the NFL and is slow as christmas. Worst part is all the character concerns. I've heard him dropping as low as the 4th round but I could see the Bengals pulling the trigger anyway.
I'll have analysis and hopefully some guys to look for in the 3rd round up shortly. Sorry for the late notice!
1. Andy Dalton, QB TCU
Super accurate, great decision maker, never lost a game in his life. Love him to death, wouldn't mind them moving up to make sure they got him.
Downside, doesn't have a huge arm. I can live with that though. Doesn't need one for our system.
2. Aaron Williams, DB Texas
I would LOVE this guy as a free safety. Was a corner at Texas and played at a high level. Ran just fine and makes big plays all day and all night. He should have gone in the first round probably and if the QB is gone then we can get our conversion guy right here.
3. Marvin Austin, DT UNC
I heard people say he could be a top 15 pick if he had played this year. Don't know a whole lot about him other than people I trust say he has top 10 talent. I'd roll the dice at this point.
4. Dequan Bowers, DE Clemson
This guy has top 5 talent but doctors are concerned about his knee. They say he might only be able to play a few years before his career is cut short. But then again, maybe not. Wouldn't be the worst gamble the Bengals ever took.
5. Ryan Williams, RB Virginia Tech
This dude is has that prototype size you want, runs well, makes people miss. Good back just needs to stay healthy. I don't want them to take a back here but you could certainly do worse.
Doomsday scenario
Ryan Mallet, QB Arkansas
He throws the ball well but he's not a great decision makes, has a really long delivery which is gonna get you killed in the NFL and is slow as christmas. Worst part is all the character concerns. I've heard him dropping as low as the 4th round but I could see the Bengals pulling the trigger anyway.
I'll have analysis and hopefully some guys to look for in the 3rd round up shortly. Sorry for the late notice!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
First round big board!
I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited! Finally draft day! Lets get right to it here with my Bengals Big Board for round one.
For the draft noobs, a big board is what a team makes to use as a guide during the draft. They will list each prospect they've scouted, usually around 120, 150 in the order they would take them and with a grade for each guy. There is one of these sitting in every team's draft room and it is the culmination of a year's worth of work and debate.
For obvious reasons these are kept very secret so what I'm going to do here is put together a little board here for the order in which I think, from the information I synthesized, the Bengals should have their prospects for the first round. If you're the Bengals you really only need like 3 guys here but in case of a trade down or something else unforeseen I'm going to make a list a little bit longer so hopefully you will have an idea on how to feel about their pick this year.
Cincinnati Bengals Draft Board
1. Patrick Peterson, CB LSU
Corner is certainly not a need even if they let Jonathan Joseph go. However I believe from what I've heard that this guy will be a stud and some still think he's the best player in the draft. He can play all over the secondary for you and I think with his size and tackling ability he'd be a great fit with us as a safety/corner hybrid ala Charles Woodson if not a strait safety. Something I haven't talked about is he is a great return man too. Very dangerous with the ball in his hands. You don't take a guy at number 4 for his return skills but it sure does help. When a talent like this falls in your lap I think you would be stupid to let it go. Don't worry about the need, just grab a great player at an important position. I don't think there is a way you don't feel good about this pick.
2. Marcell Dareus, DT Alabama
If this guy is still on the board at number 4 they should sprint up to the podium, tuck the card into the commissioner's breast pocket, give it a pat smile and wink and skip back to their desk whistling a jaunty tune. I don't think he'll be there but this guy is another one I've heard as the best guy in the draft. He's big and very athletic. Has a high motor, productive, no off the field issues. Saw a replay of him tracking down Cam Newton who was trying to do his best Michael Vick impression of escaping out of the backfield. Darues tracked him down one on one and made the sack. Would love to see this guy hemming in Rapelisthburger. He really doesn't have anything going against him and he's at an important position. I think this is a safe pick with low bust potential and plenty of upside. We don't need a DT but once again, when talent like this falls into your lap you've got to take that opportunity.
3. A.J. Green, WR Georgia
This one sort of breaks my heart because it means one of our young talented receivers is going to come off the field. Once again though, I keep hearing how he's the best player in the draft. I know I said that about the last 2 but thats the nice thing about picking 4th this year. I think as long as one of these 3 are here you can feel really good about the value of the pick. Would be surprised if all 3 were gone since I'm pretty sure at least 1 team isn't going to be unable to resist Cam Newton between Carolina and Buffalo (sorry Pratt). Von Miller should be taken before number 4 too so it's pretty safe to say one of these 3 will be there.
So while WR isn't a terribly important position with them being easy to find and easy to take out of games this guy is just too good to pass on if you can't find something on defense you like. I've heard he's the best WR prospect since Megatron (Calvin Johnson). The Lions were a down trodden franchise and they went ahead and took the freak wide out because they knew he was far too talented to pass up and it worked out well for them. Like I said, I don't like taking a receiver this high and it takes a young talented player off the field but he's just too good to pass up.
4. Nick Fairly, DT Auburn
There is a significant jump in bust potential after those 3 on the board. Fairly was once considered a sure shot for the top 2 in this draft but for some reason has fallen as low as 8 in a lot of mock drafts without playing a snap. Well you're not fooling me media. Drafts almost always find a way to come back to the tape. I've heard work ethic concerns and character issues, all kinds of stuff about this guy. Great, whatever, dude is a freak. I've heard more than one experienced draft expert that I trust say they were giggling at his pro day about how fast he is for being so big. Not strait line speed but with his hands and agility which is what you want. Explosive is the key word here. He's dominated a high level of competition and taken over games like Ndamukong Suh used to in college. I'm not saying he's Suh because he's not. But there is no questioning the talent here.
I think I might have a spoiler alert on this one and I almost feel bad telling you guys cause it might ruin the surprise but I did hear that very recently John Hays (Bengals D line coach) was seen leaving Fairly's house. Could have tipped their hand. While he's obviously not my top choice I think he would still be a good pick up. He has that bust potential but also a crazy high ceiling (ceiling is what they use to refer to a guy's potential get better).
5. Von Miller, LB Texas A&M
Well, this pick doesn't make much sense to me. He's pretty clearly a 3-4 outside linebacker and is viewed as the best pass rusher in the draft. He's a great player and a very safe pick but I'm not sure where the Bengals put him. He's not going to be an every down defensive end and you can't use a 4th overall pick on your SAM linebacker as I discussed in the last post. You sure as hell can't use it on a situational pass rusher either. I'm sure Zimmer could find something to do with him on every down but I just don't think its a good fit. All that said, if they take him in the first you can't be too upset about it. He's a great talent and he could be the kind of guy you make room for in your defensive scheme.
6. Blaine Gabbert, QB Missouri
Well, he makes the list because you're sort of out of players worth the 4th pick at this point. It would be a reach but so would anything else at this point besides the players listed above. Good news is this guy can strait spin it. Has the big gun for an arm you look for, good accuracy and did a lot with a little at Missouri as far as receivers. He's athletic and smart for the position as well.
The reason he would be a reach is he isn't great in a pocket. When he gets pressured he gets bad. Has happy feet and will bail out and run instead of sliding in the pocket and keeping his eyes down field. He also struggled against bump and run coverage on his receivers. When he couldn't read the hole in the defense right away he looked lost. All this is what I've heard.
Maybe this is correctable, maybe its not. Scares me a bit though. If the Bengals take him here you shake your head a little and say "Damn it Mike Brown, I hope someone knows something about him I don't". He could be a very good starting QB but there are much more talented players that will be on the board at 4th overall.
Speaking of being scared, here are the doomsday scenarios for the Bengals that might actually happen.
7. Julio Jones, WR Alabama
I'm not saying Julio isn't a great player because he is. But he is NOT the 4th best player in this draft. I've heard reports that he Bengals have him ahead of Green which freaks me out a little. He's just not as good at football as A.J. Green. Julio is crazy athletic sure and I heard Mel Kiper say that he's the best blocking receiver he's EVER graded which is a hell of a thing since Mel has been at this shit since like 1972 or whatever. Coach Lewis loves his blocking WRs too but you sure as shit don't pay them 10 millions dollars a year to block defensive backs. This would be a mistake. Lets hope it doesn't come to this.
8. Cam Newton, QB Auburn (Noooooo!)
This is worst plausible scenario I can think of for the Bengals as far as it stands right now. This guy is loaded with potential sure, but he just has all those red flags that scare you to death. Upside here is he is big, strong, fast and has a god damn howitzer mounted on his right shoulder.
Downside is he's inaccurate, seems pretty dumb and I'm not convinced he won't stop giving a shit about football as soon as he gets a hold of his big fat signing bonus. He's just not a fit for the West Coast offense. Could be a bad fit for any offense. Lets hope this guy is gone well before the Bengals pick at number 4 so Mike isn't tempted to pike up Akili Smith 2.0.
Now maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's going to be the best football player in the league 4 years from now and he certainly has the potential to do so but if the Bengals take him here I will be very upset.
There ya have it. Read up and enjoy! By the way I still have my big board I made for the Bengals last year, I'll put it up when I get a chance. Might be interesting to see how my picks turned out compared to where I had them on the wish list last year.
I think this is going to be an exciting draft for the Bengals this year. Past two years it was pretty clear cut who they wanted (Andre Smith and Jermaine Gresham) but I think it's wide open for them in the first round.
I'll put up my 2nd round board either tonight or tomorrow before the round starts. Hopefully the Bengals won't trade up into the first before I get a chance to post it.
Enjoy the first round everyone!
For the draft noobs, a big board is what a team makes to use as a guide during the draft. They will list each prospect they've scouted, usually around 120, 150 in the order they would take them and with a grade for each guy. There is one of these sitting in every team's draft room and it is the culmination of a year's worth of work and debate.
For obvious reasons these are kept very secret so what I'm going to do here is put together a little board here for the order in which I think, from the information I synthesized, the Bengals should have their prospects for the first round. If you're the Bengals you really only need like 3 guys here but in case of a trade down or something else unforeseen I'm going to make a list a little bit longer so hopefully you will have an idea on how to feel about their pick this year.
Cincinnati Bengals Draft Board
1. Patrick Peterson, CB LSU
Corner is certainly not a need even if they let Jonathan Joseph go. However I believe from what I've heard that this guy will be a stud and some still think he's the best player in the draft. He can play all over the secondary for you and I think with his size and tackling ability he'd be a great fit with us as a safety/corner hybrid ala Charles Woodson if not a strait safety. Something I haven't talked about is he is a great return man too. Very dangerous with the ball in his hands. You don't take a guy at number 4 for his return skills but it sure does help. When a talent like this falls in your lap I think you would be stupid to let it go. Don't worry about the need, just grab a great player at an important position. I don't think there is a way you don't feel good about this pick.
2. Marcell Dareus, DT Alabama
If this guy is still on the board at number 4 they should sprint up to the podium, tuck the card into the commissioner's breast pocket, give it a pat smile and wink and skip back to their desk whistling a jaunty tune. I don't think he'll be there but this guy is another one I've heard as the best guy in the draft. He's big and very athletic. Has a high motor, productive, no off the field issues. Saw a replay of him tracking down Cam Newton who was trying to do his best Michael Vick impression of escaping out of the backfield. Darues tracked him down one on one and made the sack. Would love to see this guy hemming in Rapelisthburger. He really doesn't have anything going against him and he's at an important position. I think this is a safe pick with low bust potential and plenty of upside. We don't need a DT but once again, when talent like this falls into your lap you've got to take that opportunity.
3. A.J. Green, WR Georgia
This one sort of breaks my heart because it means one of our young talented receivers is going to come off the field. Once again though, I keep hearing how he's the best player in the draft. I know I said that about the last 2 but thats the nice thing about picking 4th this year. I think as long as one of these 3 are here you can feel really good about the value of the pick. Would be surprised if all 3 were gone since I'm pretty sure at least 1 team isn't going to be unable to resist Cam Newton between Carolina and Buffalo (sorry Pratt). Von Miller should be taken before number 4 too so it's pretty safe to say one of these 3 will be there.
So while WR isn't a terribly important position with them being easy to find and easy to take out of games this guy is just too good to pass on if you can't find something on defense you like. I've heard he's the best WR prospect since Megatron (Calvin Johnson). The Lions were a down trodden franchise and they went ahead and took the freak wide out because they knew he was far too talented to pass up and it worked out well for them. Like I said, I don't like taking a receiver this high and it takes a young talented player off the field but he's just too good to pass up.
4. Nick Fairly, DT Auburn
There is a significant jump in bust potential after those 3 on the board. Fairly was once considered a sure shot for the top 2 in this draft but for some reason has fallen as low as 8 in a lot of mock drafts without playing a snap. Well you're not fooling me media. Drafts almost always find a way to come back to the tape. I've heard work ethic concerns and character issues, all kinds of stuff about this guy. Great, whatever, dude is a freak. I've heard more than one experienced draft expert that I trust say they were giggling at his pro day about how fast he is for being so big. Not strait line speed but with his hands and agility which is what you want. Explosive is the key word here. He's dominated a high level of competition and taken over games like Ndamukong Suh used to in college. I'm not saying he's Suh because he's not. But there is no questioning the talent here.
I think I might have a spoiler alert on this one and I almost feel bad telling you guys cause it might ruin the surprise but I did hear that very recently John Hays (Bengals D line coach) was seen leaving Fairly's house. Could have tipped their hand. While he's obviously not my top choice I think he would still be a good pick up. He has that bust potential but also a crazy high ceiling (ceiling is what they use to refer to a guy's potential get better).
5. Von Miller, LB Texas A&M
Well, this pick doesn't make much sense to me. He's pretty clearly a 3-4 outside linebacker and is viewed as the best pass rusher in the draft. He's a great player and a very safe pick but I'm not sure where the Bengals put him. He's not going to be an every down defensive end and you can't use a 4th overall pick on your SAM linebacker as I discussed in the last post. You sure as hell can't use it on a situational pass rusher either. I'm sure Zimmer could find something to do with him on every down but I just don't think its a good fit. All that said, if they take him in the first you can't be too upset about it. He's a great talent and he could be the kind of guy you make room for in your defensive scheme.
6. Blaine Gabbert, QB Missouri
Well, he makes the list because you're sort of out of players worth the 4th pick at this point. It would be a reach but so would anything else at this point besides the players listed above. Good news is this guy can strait spin it. Has the big gun for an arm you look for, good accuracy and did a lot with a little at Missouri as far as receivers. He's athletic and smart for the position as well.
The reason he would be a reach is he isn't great in a pocket. When he gets pressured he gets bad. Has happy feet and will bail out and run instead of sliding in the pocket and keeping his eyes down field. He also struggled against bump and run coverage on his receivers. When he couldn't read the hole in the defense right away he looked lost. All this is what I've heard.
Maybe this is correctable, maybe its not. Scares me a bit though. If the Bengals take him here you shake your head a little and say "Damn it Mike Brown, I hope someone knows something about him I don't". He could be a very good starting QB but there are much more talented players that will be on the board at 4th overall.
Speaking of being scared, here are the doomsday scenarios for the Bengals that might actually happen.
7. Julio Jones, WR Alabama
I'm not saying Julio isn't a great player because he is. But he is NOT the 4th best player in this draft. I've heard reports that he Bengals have him ahead of Green which freaks me out a little. He's just not as good at football as A.J. Green. Julio is crazy athletic sure and I heard Mel Kiper say that he's the best blocking receiver he's EVER graded which is a hell of a thing since Mel has been at this shit since like 1972 or whatever. Coach Lewis loves his blocking WRs too but you sure as shit don't pay them 10 millions dollars a year to block defensive backs. This would be a mistake. Lets hope it doesn't come to this.
8. Cam Newton, QB Auburn (Noooooo!)
This is worst plausible scenario I can think of for the Bengals as far as it stands right now. This guy is loaded with potential sure, but he just has all those red flags that scare you to death. Upside here is he is big, strong, fast and has a god damn howitzer mounted on his right shoulder.
Downside is he's inaccurate, seems pretty dumb and I'm not convinced he won't stop giving a shit about football as soon as he gets a hold of his big fat signing bonus. He's just not a fit for the West Coast offense. Could be a bad fit for any offense. Lets hope this guy is gone well before the Bengals pick at number 4 so Mike isn't tempted to pike up Akili Smith 2.0.
Now maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's going to be the best football player in the league 4 years from now and he certainly has the potential to do so but if the Bengals take him here I will be very upset.
There ya have it. Read up and enjoy! By the way I still have my big board I made for the Bengals last year, I'll put it up when I get a chance. Might be interesting to see how my picks turned out compared to where I had them on the wish list last year.
I think this is going to be an exciting draft for the Bengals this year. Past two years it was pretty clear cut who they wanted (Andre Smith and Jermaine Gresham) but I think it's wide open for them in the first round.
I'll put up my 2nd round board either tonight or tomorrow before the round starts. Hopefully the Bengals won't trade up into the first before I get a chance to post it.
Enjoy the first round everyone!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Draft!
Welcome Bengals fans and Bengals curious. This week is my Christmas. My team gets new toys! The NFL draft. I know a lot of you football fans that aren't nearly as nerdy as me are a little lost when it comes to the draft. It's no fun if you don't know a lot of the prospects and you have to spend a lot of time researching to learn them. Hell even I get lost after the 3rd round.
My goal here is to distill all the draft knowledge I've gathered for this year and brew it into all the Bengals relevant stuff. Hopefully it will be enough for you to be entertained or at least a little interested in the draft come this weekend.
Lets start with what the Bengals need in this draft. There are varying opinions on this of course but all the information here is a synthesis of what I've heard from experts (not 'experts') and my my educated opinion.
Before I get into this, keep in mind that the draft isn't all about fillings needs as it is finding talent. They don't have to find all these guys in the draft.
Need 1: Quarterback
With Carson bailing out on us we have one of the most uncertain QB situations in the league as it stands right now. I think we would be looking at a QB regardless because Carson's decision making and deep accuracy have been suspect at best over the past few years and those were his best qualities when he was good. I'm actually kind of excited at getting some new blood behind center.
While it would be great to get a guy in this draft, you can't force it eitehr. If you don't think Blaine Gabbert is going to be a very good QB then you don't take him at 4. If Ponder and Dalton are gone by our 2nd round pick you don't want to take a guy that doesn't fit just because you need someone. Remember that before we play football there will be free agency and trades. There are guys out there that can be a stop gap.
Also the Bengals are a great team to protect a weak QB right now. The new west coast offense Gruden is installing will be more QB friendly. Lots of short throws and quick reads. He's said he will rely heavily on the run game which is a QB's best friend. The defense is excellent too which is the last ingredient to having a QB friendly team. Puts less pressure on a QB and minimizes the damage on his mistakes. So while we may not have a great QB situation, the QB that starts will come in to a great situation.
Last thing we need to look at on QB need is the guys we have available. With a west coast system you need a QB that is athletic and accurate. A guy that can move around a little bit. Doesn't need to have a huge cannon as a lot of the offense is generated by yards after catch and the run game.
I know Jordan Palmer isn't an attractive option but he has been getting the team together for off season workouts which is encouraging. I've also heard he's more athletic than his brother as well. I would be willing to see what he can do after a few years of learning.
Dan LeFevour intrigues me a lot for this offense. He was a rookie last year that was nabbed off the waiver wire that I think Chicago was counting on hiding in their practice squad. At Western Michigan he threw and ran for a bajillion yards. More of a passer than runner but effective with the ball in his hands. He seems like a perfect fit for this offense. I don't know a ton about him but I wouldn't be upset if he won the job this year.
Need 2: Safety
I'm a firm believer that the Bengals should keep drafting defense early and often. Putting together a running offense is a lot cheaper than a passing offense so you can really blow your cap on D. We're in pretty good shape across the board on defense except safety. There really isn't much talent at this position for us and I think a good one would push this D over the edge to elite if the D line keeps developing. I do like the Reggie Nelson pick up and thought he played well this year. I'd like to see what he can do with a full camp and more Zimmer coaching. Roy Williams is serviceable but we could upgrade over either and there isn't much behind them. Roy is a free agent too so he might not even be back (I think he will). I would put this need above QB but the importance difference for the positions is just too big.
Here is the tricky thing about safety in the draft this year. There really aren't many good ones. However there are more guys than I can remember that play corner and are projected as possible safetys. I'll give a short list of these guys on my draft boards in the coming posts. Mike Zimmer (our D coordinator) has been calling for a guy like that for a while now. A guy with corner coverage skills he can put at safety. This would be a great time to do it.
The needs are significantly less after this and depend on a few things.
Need 3A: SAM Linebacker
Anyone else notice that no one in the media has mentioned this need? Dhani Jones is leaving via free agency probably and I've heard plenty of talk about Maualuga finally moving to middle this year. This leaves a starting position open on the defense with no one there really. I know it's only half a starting position because teams are in their nickel defense so often but you still need a guy here. Now if they think last year's 4th round pick Roddrik Muckelroy can step in and take that spot then great, we're good to go here. He hasn't worked at SAM much yet but I think he would be fine. Could still use another guy for depth behind both SAM and middle linebackers though. If you move Muck to SAM there isn't anyone behind either spots.
So if they move Muck to SAM this need drops dramatically.
For those of you that aren't familiar a SAM linebacker is the strong side linebacker. This means he typically lines up over the tight end. The 4-3 SAM backer is one of the easiest to find. Usually they are bigger and less athletic than the other spots since they are the first to come off the field when the defense goes into a Nickel defense. (when you have 3 corners and 2 linebackers instead of 2 corners 3 linebackers. It's used to match up against 3 receiver formations) So you want a guy that is a good run stopper. Pass rush skills are nice too.
Need 3B: Guard
This isn't a pressing need but we could stand to upgrade here. Bobby Williams is great but he's old as hell. We drafted a project in Otis Hudson last year for guard (in the 5th round for some reason) but I haven't heard anything about him since. Who knows if he'll pan out or not. The left guard spot isn't bad but its not great either. Would be nice to grab someone here. When you want to run the ball your interior O line is very important.
Need 4: Receiver
I almost feel like this is need 5 but I guess after the top 3 guys there isn't anything. A lot of people have this as the 1st or 2nd need but I really like the receiver corps we have right now. Jerome Simpson really broke out at the end of the season and coaches are saying he should have been on the field sooner. This guy was raw coming out of college and I think he's only going to get better. He needs a chance to play a full year before you say you need an upgrade over him.
Jordan Shipley blew it up in the slot last year as a rookie. I'm not sure if his ceiling is very high but even if he played exactly the same I would still like him as your slot receiver. I think he will get better though. Receiver is a tough position for rookies and he did a great job. When I said I'm not sure how high his ceiling is I meant I don't think he's going to be an elite number 1 receiver at any point like you might expect out of a guy that put up the rookie numbers he did.
Andre Caldwell I don't have as much faith in but I still think he can be a good solid number 2. Especially in the west coast offense since he's so good with the ball in his hands. Dude is wicked fast. He's taken the top off defenses that we're playing him deep and has some clutch catches I'm sure we all remember from '09. I would like to see what he can do with a full season of being the number 2 WR before you go replacing him.
It still makes my needs list because we need a guy behind these 3. If one goes down then who comes in? Quan Cosby? Yikes. Shame we cut Des Brisco for Quan last year. This might not even be a need. Anyway, the ideal guy here would be versatile enough to play all 3 spots and contribute on special teams. Even better if he was a dynamic return man. That would be delish. However if a developmental number 1 type guy is sitting around in the later rounds that wouldn't be a horrible pick up either. We still have a 5th WR spot for a special teams guy.
Need 5: Fullback
I'm sure no one else noticed this (cause I'm a nerd) but the Bengals didn't have a fullback on their roster until the end of the season last year. When they did pick up Chris Pressley the running game got way better. They need to keep one on their roster. They are a running team, keep the fullback. The nice part about that is there aren't many teams that need or want a fullback. You might be able to pick up a total stud in the 5th or 6th round. I think Pressley did a good job last year and if they just want to bring in some college free agents for him to compete with in camp I'm fine with that too.
Need 6: Tight End
Clearly we don't need a number one here. I'm super happy with Gresham and every Bengal and Bengals fan should be too. However there isn't much behind him. I liked that Chase Coffman got a start at the end of last year. Would like to see him continue to develop. I've heard people in the organization say he has the best hands on the team. Would be nice to grab another guy though. Unfortunately this draft sucks for TE so we probably won't get one. Look for the Bengals to either grab a low end free agent or see if Reggie Kelly can do it for another year. Who knows though. Could be some late round magic at this spot.
So that about wraps it up for Bengals needs right now. I guess RB could be on there too but they are a dime a dozen. Now if the Bengals take a player at a position not on this list that doesn't mean it was a bad pick. The best teams draft for talent, not need. You can always use more D lineman and it might just fall that way for them this year at the top of the draft.
I'll post my draft boards each day from rounds 1-3 in the coming days with details about each player and how they might fit or not with the Bengals. Hope you'll read up with me!
Btw draft starts Thursday at 8pm EST. Whose excited!? I know this guy is.
My goal here is to distill all the draft knowledge I've gathered for this year and brew it into all the Bengals relevant stuff. Hopefully it will be enough for you to be entertained or at least a little interested in the draft come this weekend.
Lets start with what the Bengals need in this draft. There are varying opinions on this of course but all the information here is a synthesis of what I've heard from experts (not 'experts') and my my educated opinion.
Before I get into this, keep in mind that the draft isn't all about fillings needs as it is finding talent. They don't have to find all these guys in the draft.
Need 1: Quarterback
With Carson bailing out on us we have one of the most uncertain QB situations in the league as it stands right now. I think we would be looking at a QB regardless because Carson's decision making and deep accuracy have been suspect at best over the past few years and those were his best qualities when he was good. I'm actually kind of excited at getting some new blood behind center.
While it would be great to get a guy in this draft, you can't force it eitehr. If you don't think Blaine Gabbert is going to be a very good QB then you don't take him at 4. If Ponder and Dalton are gone by our 2nd round pick you don't want to take a guy that doesn't fit just because you need someone. Remember that before we play football there will be free agency and trades. There are guys out there that can be a stop gap.
Also the Bengals are a great team to protect a weak QB right now. The new west coast offense Gruden is installing will be more QB friendly. Lots of short throws and quick reads. He's said he will rely heavily on the run game which is a QB's best friend. The defense is excellent too which is the last ingredient to having a QB friendly team. Puts less pressure on a QB and minimizes the damage on his mistakes. So while we may not have a great QB situation, the QB that starts will come in to a great situation.
Last thing we need to look at on QB need is the guys we have available. With a west coast system you need a QB that is athletic and accurate. A guy that can move around a little bit. Doesn't need to have a huge cannon as a lot of the offense is generated by yards after catch and the run game.
I know Jordan Palmer isn't an attractive option but he has been getting the team together for off season workouts which is encouraging. I've also heard he's more athletic than his brother as well. I would be willing to see what he can do after a few years of learning.
Dan LeFevour intrigues me a lot for this offense. He was a rookie last year that was nabbed off the waiver wire that I think Chicago was counting on hiding in their practice squad. At Western Michigan he threw and ran for a bajillion yards. More of a passer than runner but effective with the ball in his hands. He seems like a perfect fit for this offense. I don't know a ton about him but I wouldn't be upset if he won the job this year.
Need 2: Safety
I'm a firm believer that the Bengals should keep drafting defense early and often. Putting together a running offense is a lot cheaper than a passing offense so you can really blow your cap on D. We're in pretty good shape across the board on defense except safety. There really isn't much talent at this position for us and I think a good one would push this D over the edge to elite if the D line keeps developing. I do like the Reggie Nelson pick up and thought he played well this year. I'd like to see what he can do with a full camp and more Zimmer coaching. Roy Williams is serviceable but we could upgrade over either and there isn't much behind them. Roy is a free agent too so he might not even be back (I think he will). I would put this need above QB but the importance difference for the positions is just too big.
Here is the tricky thing about safety in the draft this year. There really aren't many good ones. However there are more guys than I can remember that play corner and are projected as possible safetys. I'll give a short list of these guys on my draft boards in the coming posts. Mike Zimmer (our D coordinator) has been calling for a guy like that for a while now. A guy with corner coverage skills he can put at safety. This would be a great time to do it.
The needs are significantly less after this and depend on a few things.
Need 3A: SAM Linebacker
Anyone else notice that no one in the media has mentioned this need? Dhani Jones is leaving via free agency probably and I've heard plenty of talk about Maualuga finally moving to middle this year. This leaves a starting position open on the defense with no one there really. I know it's only half a starting position because teams are in their nickel defense so often but you still need a guy here. Now if they think last year's 4th round pick Roddrik Muckelroy can step in and take that spot then great, we're good to go here. He hasn't worked at SAM much yet but I think he would be fine. Could still use another guy for depth behind both SAM and middle linebackers though. If you move Muck to SAM there isn't anyone behind either spots.
So if they move Muck to SAM this need drops dramatically.
For those of you that aren't familiar a SAM linebacker is the strong side linebacker. This means he typically lines up over the tight end. The 4-3 SAM backer is one of the easiest to find. Usually they are bigger and less athletic than the other spots since they are the first to come off the field when the defense goes into a Nickel defense. (when you have 3 corners and 2 linebackers instead of 2 corners 3 linebackers. It's used to match up against 3 receiver formations) So you want a guy that is a good run stopper. Pass rush skills are nice too.
Need 3B: Guard
This isn't a pressing need but we could stand to upgrade here. Bobby Williams is great but he's old as hell. We drafted a project in Otis Hudson last year for guard (in the 5th round for some reason) but I haven't heard anything about him since. Who knows if he'll pan out or not. The left guard spot isn't bad but its not great either. Would be nice to grab someone here. When you want to run the ball your interior O line is very important.
Need 4: Receiver
I almost feel like this is need 5 but I guess after the top 3 guys there isn't anything. A lot of people have this as the 1st or 2nd need but I really like the receiver corps we have right now. Jerome Simpson really broke out at the end of the season and coaches are saying he should have been on the field sooner. This guy was raw coming out of college and I think he's only going to get better. He needs a chance to play a full year before you say you need an upgrade over him.
Jordan Shipley blew it up in the slot last year as a rookie. I'm not sure if his ceiling is very high but even if he played exactly the same I would still like him as your slot receiver. I think he will get better though. Receiver is a tough position for rookies and he did a great job. When I said I'm not sure how high his ceiling is I meant I don't think he's going to be an elite number 1 receiver at any point like you might expect out of a guy that put up the rookie numbers he did.
Andre Caldwell I don't have as much faith in but I still think he can be a good solid number 2. Especially in the west coast offense since he's so good with the ball in his hands. Dude is wicked fast. He's taken the top off defenses that we're playing him deep and has some clutch catches I'm sure we all remember from '09. I would like to see what he can do with a full season of being the number 2 WR before you go replacing him.
It still makes my needs list because we need a guy behind these 3. If one goes down then who comes in? Quan Cosby? Yikes. Shame we cut Des Brisco for Quan last year. This might not even be a need. Anyway, the ideal guy here would be versatile enough to play all 3 spots and contribute on special teams. Even better if he was a dynamic return man. That would be delish. However if a developmental number 1 type guy is sitting around in the later rounds that wouldn't be a horrible pick up either. We still have a 5th WR spot for a special teams guy.
Need 5: Fullback
I'm sure no one else noticed this (cause I'm a nerd) but the Bengals didn't have a fullback on their roster until the end of the season last year. When they did pick up Chris Pressley the running game got way better. They need to keep one on their roster. They are a running team, keep the fullback. The nice part about that is there aren't many teams that need or want a fullback. You might be able to pick up a total stud in the 5th or 6th round. I think Pressley did a good job last year and if they just want to bring in some college free agents for him to compete with in camp I'm fine with that too.
Need 6: Tight End
Clearly we don't need a number one here. I'm super happy with Gresham and every Bengal and Bengals fan should be too. However there isn't much behind him. I liked that Chase Coffman got a start at the end of last year. Would like to see him continue to develop. I've heard people in the organization say he has the best hands on the team. Would be nice to grab another guy though. Unfortunately this draft sucks for TE so we probably won't get one. Look for the Bengals to either grab a low end free agent or see if Reggie Kelly can do it for another year. Who knows though. Could be some late round magic at this spot.
So that about wraps it up for Bengals needs right now. I guess RB could be on there too but they are a dime a dozen. Now if the Bengals take a player at a position not on this list that doesn't mean it was a bad pick. The best teams draft for talent, not need. You can always use more D lineman and it might just fall that way for them this year at the top of the draft.
I'll post my draft boards each day from rounds 1-3 in the coming days with details about each player and how they might fit or not with the Bengals. Hope you'll read up with me!
Btw draft starts Thursday at 8pm EST. Whose excited!? I know this guy is.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Free Agents
Hey there blogger faithful. Before I get into my Bengals draft board, which is coming, I wanted to take some time to talk about the brief period that teams had after the season to resign their guys.
I'm sure most people who read this know that I LOVE JONATHAN JOSEPH. I think he's one of the top 5 corners in the league right now and will be for a while. I feel good about him going one on one against any receiver all day (maybe a little safety help vs Andre or Calvin Johnson). I think the Bengals blew a great opportunity (surprise) and here's why.
With the CBA going down this is probably the last year with absurd rookie contracts. What will most likely happen to the money saved by having a rookie wage scale is it will be redistributed to proven veterans. Everyone is happy, yay rookie wage scale. This means that the price of veteran players will go up obviously.
Follow me here.
The Raiders resigned their number 2 corner, don't even remember his name, they paid him I think 10 mil a year for like 4 years. So you have to assume that J-Joe is going to ask for more than that after seeing that signing (aren't crazy senile owners fun?). So lets say worst case scenario he wants 13 mil per year. Big price, sure but with corner being a big money position and the market about to inflate for veterans I'm willing to bet thats a damn good price for an elite (top 5) corner in his prime once the new CBA is in place.
Now I would imagine that once a new CBA is in place it will be open season right away. Once J-Joe sees other teams that aren't hopeless throwing him huge offers its hard to imagine Mike Brown letting his equally inept daughter, Katie Blackburn spend the kind of money it would take to keep him.
Here is the cherry on top. Nnamdi Asomugha is about to hit the open market. For those of you that aren't huge football fans this guy is the Tom Brady of cornerbacks. 2nd best if not THE best in the league at his position. He's going to get a huge deal right away and while J-Joe won't get the same, he will look to get something close.
I know a lot of people are probably wondering about Cedric Benson too. It would be nice to resign him for 2 years but I think that will get done at a reasonable price anyway. He's a good player but who else would have him as a starter? Most teams that need running backs this year need depth and youth. The Redskins come to mind but for the most part, the Bengals make the most football sense for him and I know he's stoked on Jay Gruden so far and Jay is stoked on him. So I think a deal gets done for 2-3 years at a reasonable price.
Some might be saying, we're stacked at corner, why not let him leave? I hear ya. Pacman can start for sure. Leon is still a very good corner. We have depth with Morgan Trent playing alright and we drafted Brandon Ghee in the 3rd round last year who could be a serious dude in years to come. There is a very real possibility of who some think is the best player in the draft, corner back Patrick Peterson, staring us in the face at number 4. So I get that argument. Check this out though.
Next year Leon Hall and Pacman Jones's contracts are up. So even if you get Patrick Peterson you're looking at the same problem next year and are treading water instead of making your team better. I guess you resign Leon next year? Is he better than J-Joe? I would have a hard time believing anyone can put together a good argument on that other than he's more durable.
Here are my solutions ranked best to worst. (I'd love to hear what you think)
1. As soon as the new CBA comes out re-sign both J-Joe and Leon Hall until they're 32 or 33. Pay them whatever the hell they want, 11-12 mil a year? No problem. You probably don't have to pay that much with contracts that long anyway. Move all that money from offense (Chad an Carson) to D. Also I think that number is going to look real reasonable with the new CBA. This defense doesn't work without them and this team doesn't work without the defense. The Bengals don't spend money on free agents so they can resign their own. Well, lets see it Bungs. Resign two of your best draft choices in the Lewis era.
2. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this before. I might like this more than my first solution. Resign J-Joe obviously, dude is a beast, pay him what he's worth. Since Leon is in his contract year, shop him around! I know trades don't happen often in this league but this dude is just under elite, in his prime and is high character. He's in the last year of his contract, which he's happy with, so theres no baggage for the trading partner or the Bengals as far as cap penalty. If you're not going to sign both of these guys why not sign the better one and get something in return for the other. My guess is you could get a second and maybe 4th of 5th from a desperate team. Pacman can take his spot and that would make Patrick Peterson make a lot of sense. Am I wrong here? Am I missing something? Sounds like a solid plausible plan to me . Well plausible for a team without a crazy stubborn owner anyway.
3. These options get a little less attractive to me. I guess let J-Joe walk and pick up a 3rd round compensatory draft pick next year and let Pacman step in. I would think you would have to resign both him and Leon next year so have fun with that. Also if Patrick Peterson is there at 4 and you don't have plans to resign J-Joe he looks a lot more appealing. Seems like you're treading water to me though.
4. If they don't resign J-Joe I might just be a full time Lions fan. Their front office knows whats up. Hey Mike Brown! The Ford family might have some insight as to how to run a company! Maybe take a look at how they run their football team. THEY LET PROFESSIONALS DO IT! Actually this is solution number 3 for me. Flip the last 2.
Back to solution number 1 real quick. If Patrick Peterson's big beautiful face is sitting there at number 4 and you already have probably the best corner trio in the league (J-Joe, Hall and Pacman) Go ahead and pull the trigger. Dude is big, 6'1 219. Move him to free safety and you have a pretty nasty secondary. Maybe a corner/safety hybrid ala Charles Woodson. Marvin was just bitching about how there aren't many good safetys out there anymore. Well, how about a dude that runs like a gazelle and has elite coverage skills? Bengals have been hurt by tight ends recently. Heath Miller? How about we just put Patrick Mf'in Peterson on him all day. Try to smoke him on your delayed release you overrated check down artist. He's a willing tackler and while it will probably take a bit for him to learn the new position, that speed makes a lot of mistakes go away at safety.
So there we have it. I know I got a little ranty and less objective but the off season and being a Bengals fan can do that to a guy. Little disappointed I don't have any comments. Would love to hear from you guys. Thanks for reading!
-Joel
I'm sure most people who read this know that I LOVE JONATHAN JOSEPH. I think he's one of the top 5 corners in the league right now and will be for a while. I feel good about him going one on one against any receiver all day (maybe a little safety help vs Andre or Calvin Johnson). I think the Bengals blew a great opportunity (surprise) and here's why.
With the CBA going down this is probably the last year with absurd rookie contracts. What will most likely happen to the money saved by having a rookie wage scale is it will be redistributed to proven veterans. Everyone is happy, yay rookie wage scale. This means that the price of veteran players will go up obviously.
Follow me here.
The Raiders resigned their number 2 corner, don't even remember his name, they paid him I think 10 mil a year for like 4 years. So you have to assume that J-Joe is going to ask for more than that after seeing that signing (aren't crazy senile owners fun?). So lets say worst case scenario he wants 13 mil per year. Big price, sure but with corner being a big money position and the market about to inflate for veterans I'm willing to bet thats a damn good price for an elite (top 5) corner in his prime once the new CBA is in place.
Now I would imagine that once a new CBA is in place it will be open season right away. Once J-Joe sees other teams that aren't hopeless throwing him huge offers its hard to imagine Mike Brown letting his equally inept daughter, Katie Blackburn spend the kind of money it would take to keep him.
Here is the cherry on top. Nnamdi Asomugha is about to hit the open market. For those of you that aren't huge football fans this guy is the Tom Brady of cornerbacks. 2nd best if not THE best in the league at his position. He's going to get a huge deal right away and while J-Joe won't get the same, he will look to get something close.
I know a lot of people are probably wondering about Cedric Benson too. It would be nice to resign him for 2 years but I think that will get done at a reasonable price anyway. He's a good player but who else would have him as a starter? Most teams that need running backs this year need depth and youth. The Redskins come to mind but for the most part, the Bengals make the most football sense for him and I know he's stoked on Jay Gruden so far and Jay is stoked on him. So I think a deal gets done for 2-3 years at a reasonable price.
Some might be saying, we're stacked at corner, why not let him leave? I hear ya. Pacman can start for sure. Leon is still a very good corner. We have depth with Morgan Trent playing alright and we drafted Brandon Ghee in the 3rd round last year who could be a serious dude in years to come. There is a very real possibility of who some think is the best player in the draft, corner back Patrick Peterson, staring us in the face at number 4. So I get that argument. Check this out though.
Next year Leon Hall and Pacman Jones's contracts are up. So even if you get Patrick Peterson you're looking at the same problem next year and are treading water instead of making your team better. I guess you resign Leon next year? Is he better than J-Joe? I would have a hard time believing anyone can put together a good argument on that other than he's more durable.
Here are my solutions ranked best to worst. (I'd love to hear what you think)
1. As soon as the new CBA comes out re-sign both J-Joe and Leon Hall until they're 32 or 33. Pay them whatever the hell they want, 11-12 mil a year? No problem. You probably don't have to pay that much with contracts that long anyway. Move all that money from offense (Chad an Carson) to D. Also I think that number is going to look real reasonable with the new CBA. This defense doesn't work without them and this team doesn't work without the defense. The Bengals don't spend money on free agents so they can resign their own. Well, lets see it Bungs. Resign two of your best draft choices in the Lewis era.
2. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this before. I might like this more than my first solution. Resign J-Joe obviously, dude is a beast, pay him what he's worth. Since Leon is in his contract year, shop him around! I know trades don't happen often in this league but this dude is just under elite, in his prime and is high character. He's in the last year of his contract, which he's happy with, so theres no baggage for the trading partner or the Bengals as far as cap penalty. If you're not going to sign both of these guys why not sign the better one and get something in return for the other. My guess is you could get a second and maybe 4th of 5th from a desperate team. Pacman can take his spot and that would make Patrick Peterson make a lot of sense. Am I wrong here? Am I missing something? Sounds like a solid plausible plan to me . Well plausible for a team without a crazy stubborn owner anyway.
3. These options get a little less attractive to me. I guess let J-Joe walk and pick up a 3rd round compensatory draft pick next year and let Pacman step in. I would think you would have to resign both him and Leon next year so have fun with that. Also if Patrick Peterson is there at 4 and you don't have plans to resign J-Joe he looks a lot more appealing. Seems like you're treading water to me though.
4. If they don't resign J-Joe I might just be a full time Lions fan. Their front office knows whats up. Hey Mike Brown! The Ford family might have some insight as to how to run a company! Maybe take a look at how they run their football team. THEY LET PROFESSIONALS DO IT! Actually this is solution number 3 for me. Flip the last 2.
Back to solution number 1 real quick. If Patrick Peterson's big beautiful face is sitting there at number 4 and you already have probably the best corner trio in the league (J-Joe, Hall and Pacman) Go ahead and pull the trigger. Dude is big, 6'1 219. Move him to free safety and you have a pretty nasty secondary. Maybe a corner/safety hybrid ala Charles Woodson. Marvin was just bitching about how there aren't many good safetys out there anymore. Well, how about a dude that runs like a gazelle and has elite coverage skills? Bengals have been hurt by tight ends recently. Heath Miller? How about we just put Patrick Mf'in Peterson on him all day. Try to smoke him on your delayed release you overrated check down artist. He's a willing tackler and while it will probably take a bit for him to learn the new position, that speed makes a lot of mistakes go away at safety.
So there we have it. I know I got a little ranty and less objective but the off season and being a Bengals fan can do that to a guy. Little disappointed I don't have any comments. Would love to hear from you guys. Thanks for reading!
-Joel
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Off season thoughts take 1
Hey there Bengals fans.
We knew it would be a tough off season after laying an egg at 4-12 but no idea it would be this bad. The Bengals once again find themselves in out looking for a franchise QB. I don't want to get into the Carson situation too much but let me start off with saying, he's gone. He's done with Cincy. It gives a real sense of hopelessness about the franchise that the dude they've given the most money to wants to get out. Our QB, the leader. He's usually rock solid. Really irritating to me. Mike Brown needs to move him as soon as we get a CBA. A draft pick in 2012 would be fine, obviously one this year would be better. Possibly a 3 way trade could work with another QB. If we could strait up get Kolb or Orton for Palmer by sending him to a 3rd team who sends a draft pick to the team sending us a QB that would be fantastic. (ex. Palmer goes to Miami who gives a 2nd rounder to Philly who gives Kolb to Cincy). A trade like that happened 2 years ago with Ernie Sims, Tony Scheffler and a 5th rounder so it's not as crazy as it sounds.
As far as the coaching moves I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm glad Marvin came back. He's a good coach and his return should signal a transition of some power from Brown to Lewis. I know Marvin has some bad seasons but his boss is just SO terrible that it makes having a near 500 win pact impressive. I love the Gruden hire but even more than that I love the Bratkowski firing. They made me sweat when they waited until after the senior bowl. It's well documented that I hate Bratkowski as a football coach. FOOTBALL SAVVY IS NOT ALWAYS HEREDITARY! (Brown and Bratkowski)
In interviews Gruden has been talking about the perfect offense for this team I believe. He's saying we're gonna pound the rock like his brother loved to do. Awesome! Thats what this team was built to do! The O-line is huge and strong, not terribly athletic. In the passing game he wants it to be short high percentage passes that are QB friendly. All good stuff to help an already great defense.
Glad the WR coach went too. Tocho were freelancing way too much last year and it killed us. Could be an advantage having Philly's old QB coach on your staff. He knows all about Kolb who people have been saying would be a great West Coast QB. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather draft a guy but having the inside track on that can't hurt.
That's it for now Bengals fans. I'll start writing more often, thoughts on the draft coming up soon!
We knew it would be a tough off season after laying an egg at 4-12 but no idea it would be this bad. The Bengals once again find themselves in out looking for a franchise QB. I don't want to get into the Carson situation too much but let me start off with saying, he's gone. He's done with Cincy. It gives a real sense of hopelessness about the franchise that the dude they've given the most money to wants to get out. Our QB, the leader. He's usually rock solid. Really irritating to me. Mike Brown needs to move him as soon as we get a CBA. A draft pick in 2012 would be fine, obviously one this year would be better. Possibly a 3 way trade could work with another QB. If we could strait up get Kolb or Orton for Palmer by sending him to a 3rd team who sends a draft pick to the team sending us a QB that would be fantastic. (ex. Palmer goes to Miami who gives a 2nd rounder to Philly who gives Kolb to Cincy). A trade like that happened 2 years ago with Ernie Sims, Tony Scheffler and a 5th rounder so it's not as crazy as it sounds.
As far as the coaching moves I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm glad Marvin came back. He's a good coach and his return should signal a transition of some power from Brown to Lewis. I know Marvin has some bad seasons but his boss is just SO terrible that it makes having a near 500 win pact impressive. I love the Gruden hire but even more than that I love the Bratkowski firing. They made me sweat when they waited until after the senior bowl. It's well documented that I hate Bratkowski as a football coach. FOOTBALL SAVVY IS NOT ALWAYS HEREDITARY! (Brown and Bratkowski)
In interviews Gruden has been talking about the perfect offense for this team I believe. He's saying we're gonna pound the rock like his brother loved to do. Awesome! Thats what this team was built to do! The O-line is huge and strong, not terribly athletic. In the passing game he wants it to be short high percentage passes that are QB friendly. All good stuff to help an already great defense.
Glad the WR coach went too. Tocho were freelancing way too much last year and it killed us. Could be an advantage having Philly's old QB coach on your staff. He knows all about Kolb who people have been saying would be a great West Coast QB. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather draft a guy but having the inside track on that can't hurt.
That's it for now Bengals fans. I'll start writing more often, thoughts on the draft coming up soon!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Bengals vs Browns
Not sure if anyone is still following this. I actually plan on doing some off season stuff but I haven't been at work and I have a hard time writing while not on the company dime. I wrote this forever ago and sent it to a friend to review. Never got the review but thats ok, pretty sure I'm awesome anyway...
Let me start off by talking about what an absolute joy it was to watch this game.
This is the type of football I love. Dominating defense, unstoppable running game
and NO T.O. I feel sorry for all Bengals fans that had to miss this one because of the
blackout. This is how the Bengals win football games. Commit to the run game, even if
its not working. It DID work this time, about every time the Bengals ran you saw Browns
moving backwards. For those of you who don’t watch a ton of football, when your team
runs the ball and you see defenders moving backwards, GET EXCITED. Check it out
next time. Anyway, this is how you make Carson good, the receivers good, the defense
good.
Speaking of making the receivers good, I loved watching Caldwell and Simpson
out there showing why we drafted them. I’m such a nerd that I love watching pre season
games because you get to see all the young guys and backups out there. This was even
more fun because you got to watch them run with the 1’s against the 1’s and they got the
job done. I don’t want to say all these losses were T.O.’s fault but he only plays 5 snaps
and we break a 10 game losing streak? In the words of Adam Pratt, I’m not sayin’, I’m
just sayin’.
So I was a little confused as to what to do this week. The blog is called
Nothisfaulttheylost.com but the Bengals won. Some people suggested I make a Not
his fault they won blog about the people who were bad in a victory but this blog was
created in the spirit of positivity in a bad time for Bengaldom. Since I live in Lockland
Ohio “The positive capitol of the world” we’ll just stick to the format. Riiight after I
bitch about the guy that almost lost it for us…
This week’s winner of the Not his Fault they Lost award could have been damn
near anyone on the field except Keiwan Ratliff. STOP SIGNING THIS GUY! You
can’t tell me there isn’t some college free agent that got cut from someone’s camp that
can’t play better than this guy at nickel back or safety. I get that he knows the system
or whatever but his play is painful, it always has been, it always will be. Go back to the
UFL and stay there.
Love,
Joel.
(terminate rant)
Back to the award. Now the obvious candidate for the award is Cedric Benson.
There is not a damn thing wrong with the way he ran. He is fast, agile and VOILENT.
I don’t think people realize how fast he is because of his size and strength but there is
a reason this guy went 4th overall. Last year he outran Ed Reed on an equal start for 20
yards. Not a lot of NFL players can say that. He still has all the tools he did coming
out, the only thing between him being a top 3 back in the world is he runs just a little too
far forward. This is his boon and his bane. He runs though every arm tackle and falls
forward because of it, but how many times have you seen him miss a touchdown because
someone just barely touches a leg and he stumbles about 9 yards before falling down
frustrated. That is nit picking though, awesome game. Yes the Brown’s front 7 was on
roller skates but he made some things happen on his own. He could probably trade mark
the run he bounces outside and makes a dude miss in the backfield for a clutch 3 yard
gain.
So he would be the obvious answer but I like to think we’re above that here at
NHFTL.com. Like how I try to legitimize the blog by saying ‘we’ like its more than
just me typing this up on the company dime? I thought about Bobby Williams, he’s still
a monster and can move damn near anyone in the run game. I thought about Caldwell
and Simpson but I think it was more because I was excited about seeing them than them
actually having a stand out performance. I hope you guys are ready for this because I’m
excited about this selection for a couple reasons. This week’s Not his Fault They Lost (Is
His Fault They Won?) goes to…Chris Pressley!
Now most fans are probably thinking, who the eff is Chris Pressley? Is he even a
Bengal? He is now! You might remember him last year from hard knocks when he came
into camp as a rookie free agent fullback out of Wisconsin. He was a thumper, perfect
for the Bengals system. The Bengals don’t ask their full backs to catch the ball, run the
ball or run screens (often), they just block. They run down hill and throw their body at
the first poor bastard they find. Granted there is a lot more technique at it than that but
for some reason the Bengals cut him out of camp. It was between him and De De Dorsey
and they made the wrong call. Pressley was snapped up by Tampa bay just like everyone
else the Bengals shouldn’t have cut (Corey Lynch and Dez Briscoe).
I was really excited that he was signed back to the team after he was cut from
Tampa’s active roster a few weeks ago and he wasted no time making an impact. For
some reason the Bengals decided not to keep a fullback this year despite being a run
oriented team and having the tight ends take the full back duties. Pressley showed
them why that was a bad idea after one week. After rewatching the game, every time
Pressley blocked a guy that person didn’t make the tackle. He was hitting the hole with
some authority. Full on, no fear, head of steam hits. I feel like he wasn’t all the way
incorporated into the offense yet though because they had him make some second tight
end blocks occasionally, like chopping down the guy with backside contain*.
I’m not saying our tight ends are bad blockers because they’re not. It just takes
a certain mentality and little bit of crazy to lead block in the NFL. Also when you
make a tight end play fullback it takes away from his focus of playing tight end. This is
especially important for a rookie like Gresham. This guy had a lot on his plate to begin
with. Also if you look at how the tight ends have lined up as a fullback this they were
much closer to the line than a traditional fullback would be. They look like a tight end
that motioned into the backfield.
Pressley shows up and the run game goes off, not a coincidence. He did a great
job, well done kid.
This week’s Not Your Fault They Lost Young Buck award goes to the same guy
that is has almost every week, Carlos Dunlap. I can’t help it, I’m sorry. He’s a beast. I
didn’t want to do it but he had two sacks and got the game ball. I didn’t know that until
I started following as many Bengals as I could on twitter. Most of it is total garbage
but occasionally you get a nugget like that. So that I don’t just keep naming Carlos the
young buck player of the week I’m going to make another award. It’s called the Being
Carlos Dunlap Award. The player that is most Carlos Dunlapy that week gets it. I think I
might have a new favorite player. People are having a really hard time stopping this guy.
So this week’s Being Carlos Dunlap Award goes to, Carlos Dunlap. Congrats.
I have a NHFTL.com first this week for the Surprisingly It Wasn’t His Fault They
Lost Award. It goes to coach, one that I’ve been calling for his head for the past 3 years.
He actually did a good job this week though. The award goes to one Mr. Bob “pass
happy” Bratkowski. He kept his finger off the pass trigger almost all game and stuck
with the run despite the passing game’s effectiveness.
Bob has driven me nuts since ’06. He has to be the least creative or deceptive
offensive coordinator in the league. He runs out of heavy formations, he passes out of
spread formations, he throws on first down because you see a lot of base defenses on first
down and if he gains nothing on first down he almost always runs on second to make 3rd
down shorter. After a few years of watching him I’m at least 85% accurate at predicting
run or pass based on formation and down and distance. That is a conservative estimate
too. When you take out Chad and T.O. for Caldwell and an extra lineman then motion
Caldwell in to block, what do you think the call is going to be? If I notice, I would think
that professional coaches and players can do even better.
He never runs into 8 man fronts and he always lets the defense dictate what he
will do. Mathematically most of these things make sense but there needs to be some sort
of deception going on for an offense to work properly (in most cases). Run out of 3 wide
or pass with heavy personnel, something like that. Also, this is a running team. The
offensive linemen are big maulers who were specifically picked for their run blocking
ability. The thing that has driven me crazy all year is Brat sending them out in the
shotgun on 3rd and 2 or less. You built your team to run into the defense and get at least
2 yards every play, let them do that! 3rd and 2 is not a passing down for the Cincinnati
Bengals of 2010 if you want to convert them. If you want to pass on 3rd and two at least
put Carson under center so there is a threat of a run. Lord knows Brat almost never runs
out of the shotgun.
Back to the reason he got the award this week. Brat has been far too pass happy
this year and he blames it on turnovers and being behind on the scoreboard. This week
was different. I don’t have the number in front of me but I can’t imagine the Bengals had
fewer than 50 runs. Almost everything he called worked. He called a nice conservative
game which is what the Bengals are built for. He shortened the game with his rushing
attack and let the defense lock it down for him. On the NFL rewind it has a little notch
for each play that happened that game so you can snap to it. After watching the Browns
at Bengals I watched a Lions game from earlier this season and there were at least 30%
more notches. A good running game goes a long way and with the Bengal’s power
attack you need to stick with it to get it going. Benson is a big back and the linemen are
big guys. You have to keep pounding at that defense and get them worn down. Good
job this week Brat. Now go away.
Few points I want to wrap up on Bratkowski before we move on. I’m really
excited to see what this offense can do with a new coordinator. He makes things hard on
everyone in the offense. By not putting any doubt in the defense’s mind about what he’s
going to do he makes the execution have to be perfect. He puts all of his passing game
on the skill of the players, never the scheme. The receivers get to the top of their route
and have to beat the guy across from him. Rarely does he run drag patterns, slants or
deep crosses where you can just run fast and let the play get you open. We have two fast
outside receivers now, let them use their speed to get open from time to time. He’s
reduced Carson to a pre determining QB because everything is so timing based. Carson
only reads half the field because he doesn’t have time to check back and see if anyone on
the back side is open. Carson has to figure out where he thinks the ball has to go before
the snap to avoid getting killed. A good run game helps this a lot but a new scheme
would tickle me.
Another loose end I want to tie up is when I said at the beginning that it’s not a
coincidence that T.O. went out and we won. I may have mentioned this before but it’s
not hat he isn’t a good receiver because he is. It is because Brat and Carson are so stoked
about him that they throw way too much. It doesn’t help that T.O. is an inconsistent run
blocker at best.
Last thing I want to mention is that little asterisk I have in there under Chris
Pressley’s section. I realize that not all of my readers are total football nerds so I want to
explain some of the more technical terms I use. I’ll probably still miss a bunch but this is
a start. “they had him make some second tight end blocks occasionally, like chopping
down the guy with backside contain*.”
On every running play the direction the run goes (offense’s left or right) is
considered play side and the direction it goes away from is considered backside. There is
always a guy on the defense, usually a defensive end or outside linebacker, whose job it
is to make sure that the running back doesn’t cut back against the grain. This is what I
was referring to as backside contain. It can be called different things in different
defensive scheme’s but it is the same thing. Now the guy furthest on the backside of the
line for the offense, usually a tight end, tackle or fullback, it is usually his job to try to get
this backside contain guy on the ground to open up a cut back. They do this by trying to
dive low on the defender’s legs, or chop block depending on how much lingo you know.
So this week’s winners again are Chris Pressley, Carlos Dunlap, Carlos Dunlap
and Bob Bratkowski. Also every Bengal’s fan that got to watch the game. What a treat.
Thank you for this one Bungs.
Let me start off by talking about what an absolute joy it was to watch this game.
This is the type of football I love. Dominating defense, unstoppable running game
and NO T.O. I feel sorry for all Bengals fans that had to miss this one because of the
blackout. This is how the Bengals win football games. Commit to the run game, even if
its not working. It DID work this time, about every time the Bengals ran you saw Browns
moving backwards. For those of you who don’t watch a ton of football, when your team
runs the ball and you see defenders moving backwards, GET EXCITED. Check it out
next time. Anyway, this is how you make Carson good, the receivers good, the defense
good.
Speaking of making the receivers good, I loved watching Caldwell and Simpson
out there showing why we drafted them. I’m such a nerd that I love watching pre season
games because you get to see all the young guys and backups out there. This was even
more fun because you got to watch them run with the 1’s against the 1’s and they got the
job done. I don’t want to say all these losses were T.O.’s fault but he only plays 5 snaps
and we break a 10 game losing streak? In the words of Adam Pratt, I’m not sayin’, I’m
just sayin’.
So I was a little confused as to what to do this week. The blog is called
Nothisfaulttheylost.com but the Bengals won. Some people suggested I make a Not
his fault they won blog about the people who were bad in a victory but this blog was
created in the spirit of positivity in a bad time for Bengaldom. Since I live in Lockland
Ohio “The positive capitol of the world” we’ll just stick to the format. Riiight after I
bitch about the guy that almost lost it for us…
This week’s winner of the Not his Fault they Lost award could have been damn
near anyone on the field except Keiwan Ratliff. STOP SIGNING THIS GUY! You
can’t tell me there isn’t some college free agent that got cut from someone’s camp that
can’t play better than this guy at nickel back or safety. I get that he knows the system
or whatever but his play is painful, it always has been, it always will be. Go back to the
UFL and stay there.
Love,
Joel.
(terminate rant)
Back to the award. Now the obvious candidate for the award is Cedric Benson.
There is not a damn thing wrong with the way he ran. He is fast, agile and VOILENT.
I don’t think people realize how fast he is because of his size and strength but there is
a reason this guy went 4th overall. Last year he outran Ed Reed on an equal start for 20
yards. Not a lot of NFL players can say that. He still has all the tools he did coming
out, the only thing between him being a top 3 back in the world is he runs just a little too
far forward. This is his boon and his bane. He runs though every arm tackle and falls
forward because of it, but how many times have you seen him miss a touchdown because
someone just barely touches a leg and he stumbles about 9 yards before falling down
frustrated. That is nit picking though, awesome game. Yes the Brown’s front 7 was on
roller skates but he made some things happen on his own. He could probably trade mark
the run he bounces outside and makes a dude miss in the backfield for a clutch 3 yard
gain.
So he would be the obvious answer but I like to think we’re above that here at
NHFTL.com. Like how I try to legitimize the blog by saying ‘we’ like its more than
just me typing this up on the company dime? I thought about Bobby Williams, he’s still
a monster and can move damn near anyone in the run game. I thought about Caldwell
and Simpson but I think it was more because I was excited about seeing them than them
actually having a stand out performance. I hope you guys are ready for this because I’m
excited about this selection for a couple reasons. This week’s Not his Fault They Lost (Is
His Fault They Won?) goes to…Chris Pressley!
Now most fans are probably thinking, who the eff is Chris Pressley? Is he even a
Bengal? He is now! You might remember him last year from hard knocks when he came
into camp as a rookie free agent fullback out of Wisconsin. He was a thumper, perfect
for the Bengals system. The Bengals don’t ask their full backs to catch the ball, run the
ball or run screens (often), they just block. They run down hill and throw their body at
the first poor bastard they find. Granted there is a lot more technique at it than that but
for some reason the Bengals cut him out of camp. It was between him and De De Dorsey
and they made the wrong call. Pressley was snapped up by Tampa bay just like everyone
else the Bengals shouldn’t have cut (Corey Lynch and Dez Briscoe).
I was really excited that he was signed back to the team after he was cut from
Tampa’s active roster a few weeks ago and he wasted no time making an impact. For
some reason the Bengals decided not to keep a fullback this year despite being a run
oriented team and having the tight ends take the full back duties. Pressley showed
them why that was a bad idea after one week. After rewatching the game, every time
Pressley blocked a guy that person didn’t make the tackle. He was hitting the hole with
some authority. Full on, no fear, head of steam hits. I feel like he wasn’t all the way
incorporated into the offense yet though because they had him make some second tight
end blocks occasionally, like chopping down the guy with backside contain*.
I’m not saying our tight ends are bad blockers because they’re not. It just takes
a certain mentality and little bit of crazy to lead block in the NFL. Also when you
make a tight end play fullback it takes away from his focus of playing tight end. This is
especially important for a rookie like Gresham. This guy had a lot on his plate to begin
with. Also if you look at how the tight ends have lined up as a fullback this they were
much closer to the line than a traditional fullback would be. They look like a tight end
that motioned into the backfield.
Pressley shows up and the run game goes off, not a coincidence. He did a great
job, well done kid.
This week’s Not Your Fault They Lost Young Buck award goes to the same guy
that is has almost every week, Carlos Dunlap. I can’t help it, I’m sorry. He’s a beast. I
didn’t want to do it but he had two sacks and got the game ball. I didn’t know that until
I started following as many Bengals as I could on twitter. Most of it is total garbage
but occasionally you get a nugget like that. So that I don’t just keep naming Carlos the
young buck player of the week I’m going to make another award. It’s called the Being
Carlos Dunlap Award. The player that is most Carlos Dunlapy that week gets it. I think I
might have a new favorite player. People are having a really hard time stopping this guy.
So this week’s Being Carlos Dunlap Award goes to, Carlos Dunlap. Congrats.
I have a NHFTL.com first this week for the Surprisingly It Wasn’t His Fault They
Lost Award. It goes to coach, one that I’ve been calling for his head for the past 3 years.
He actually did a good job this week though. The award goes to one Mr. Bob “pass
happy” Bratkowski. He kept his finger off the pass trigger almost all game and stuck
with the run despite the passing game’s effectiveness.
Bob has driven me nuts since ’06. He has to be the least creative or deceptive
offensive coordinator in the league. He runs out of heavy formations, he passes out of
spread formations, he throws on first down because you see a lot of base defenses on first
down and if he gains nothing on first down he almost always runs on second to make 3rd
down shorter. After a few years of watching him I’m at least 85% accurate at predicting
run or pass based on formation and down and distance. That is a conservative estimate
too. When you take out Chad and T.O. for Caldwell and an extra lineman then motion
Caldwell in to block, what do you think the call is going to be? If I notice, I would think
that professional coaches and players can do even better.
He never runs into 8 man fronts and he always lets the defense dictate what he
will do. Mathematically most of these things make sense but there needs to be some sort
of deception going on for an offense to work properly (in most cases). Run out of 3 wide
or pass with heavy personnel, something like that. Also, this is a running team. The
offensive linemen are big maulers who were specifically picked for their run blocking
ability. The thing that has driven me crazy all year is Brat sending them out in the
shotgun on 3rd and 2 or less. You built your team to run into the defense and get at least
2 yards every play, let them do that! 3rd and 2 is not a passing down for the Cincinnati
Bengals of 2010 if you want to convert them. If you want to pass on 3rd and two at least
put Carson under center so there is a threat of a run. Lord knows Brat almost never runs
out of the shotgun.
Back to the reason he got the award this week. Brat has been far too pass happy
this year and he blames it on turnovers and being behind on the scoreboard. This week
was different. I don’t have the number in front of me but I can’t imagine the Bengals had
fewer than 50 runs. Almost everything he called worked. He called a nice conservative
game which is what the Bengals are built for. He shortened the game with his rushing
attack and let the defense lock it down for him. On the NFL rewind it has a little notch
for each play that happened that game so you can snap to it. After watching the Browns
at Bengals I watched a Lions game from earlier this season and there were at least 30%
more notches. A good running game goes a long way and with the Bengal’s power
attack you need to stick with it to get it going. Benson is a big back and the linemen are
big guys. You have to keep pounding at that defense and get them worn down. Good
job this week Brat. Now go away.
Few points I want to wrap up on Bratkowski before we move on. I’m really
excited to see what this offense can do with a new coordinator. He makes things hard on
everyone in the offense. By not putting any doubt in the defense’s mind about what he’s
going to do he makes the execution have to be perfect. He puts all of his passing game
on the skill of the players, never the scheme. The receivers get to the top of their route
and have to beat the guy across from him. Rarely does he run drag patterns, slants or
deep crosses where you can just run fast and let the play get you open. We have two fast
outside receivers now, let them use their speed to get open from time to time. He’s
reduced Carson to a pre determining QB because everything is so timing based. Carson
only reads half the field because he doesn’t have time to check back and see if anyone on
the back side is open. Carson has to figure out where he thinks the ball has to go before
the snap to avoid getting killed. A good run game helps this a lot but a new scheme
would tickle me.
Another loose end I want to tie up is when I said at the beginning that it’s not a
coincidence that T.O. went out and we won. I may have mentioned this before but it’s
not hat he isn’t a good receiver because he is. It is because Brat and Carson are so stoked
about him that they throw way too much. It doesn’t help that T.O. is an inconsistent run
blocker at best.
Last thing I want to mention is that little asterisk I have in there under Chris
Pressley’s section. I realize that not all of my readers are total football nerds so I want to
explain some of the more technical terms I use. I’ll probably still miss a bunch but this is
a start. “they had him make some second tight end blocks occasionally, like chopping
down the guy with backside contain*.”
On every running play the direction the run goes (offense’s left or right) is
considered play side and the direction it goes away from is considered backside. There is
always a guy on the defense, usually a defensive end or outside linebacker, whose job it
is to make sure that the running back doesn’t cut back against the grain. This is what I
was referring to as backside contain. It can be called different things in different
defensive scheme’s but it is the same thing. Now the guy furthest on the backside of the
line for the offense, usually a tight end, tackle or fullback, it is usually his job to try to get
this backside contain guy on the ground to open up a cut back. They do this by trying to
dive low on the defender’s legs, or chop block depending on how much lingo you know.
So this week’s winners again are Chris Pressley, Carlos Dunlap, Carlos Dunlap
and Bob Bratkowski. Also every Bengal’s fan that got to watch the game. What a treat.
Thank you for this one Bungs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)