Final Thoughts on the game now that it's over?

[Sea Ray]

This should have been an ugly win. Sure the offense was horrible but they still should have won the game. Why can't we get an ugly win? Why can't the football Gods grant us a win that we didn't earn?

[damiancasey]

This should have been an ugly win. Sure the offense was horrible but they still should have won the game. Why can't we get an ugly win? Why can't the football Gods grant us a win that we didn't earn?

Schleprock has had a luxury box at Riverfront and PBS for over 20 years.

[HoosierCat]

This should have been an ugly win. Sure the offense was horrible but they still should have won the game. Why can't we get an ugly win? Why can't the football Gods grant us a win that we didn't earn?

The football gods help those that help themselves, that's why.

The '85 Bears allowed 12 points a game, for heaven's sake.

If all you can score is 7 points, you will lose.

The Bengals didn't lose because they scored less than the Broncos. The Bengals lost because they couldn't score at all.

[vettespd20]

I think our Oline was good, our defense played good enough. i think Coles KILLED US TODAY, he had three dropped passes that cause 4th down. thats three times we had to kick the ball away when we shouldnt have had to. I think carson was rusty as well. over not upset with the way we played i think as the season goes along we will be very strong, lets hope it turns around FAST!!

[Ickey44]

Problems today were this:

-Coles dropping three passes.

-The offense still has no answer when a defense blitzes. (Case in point, Palmer got blown up today when Benson whiffed on a block).

-Holding penalties.

-Aside from a couple of different looks, this looks like the same Bratkowski offense. Almost everytime they're going to run, there's a WR behind the oline which makes it so effin predictable.

I know they're supposed to be committed to the run this year, but if it's not working try something else for God sakes.

[wpeldios]

Just wanted to add some stuff. I watched the Joseph int/out of bounds about 10 times on my big screen, and im 99% sure he was out of bounds. No int, that said, it was closer than to caldwell td and should of been reviewed.

That said I may of heard wrong, but any word on how the bengals got charged a challenge and a time out on the play with 42 seconds left, clearly a booth challenge, meaning the game clock should have started up with the play clock.

Todd Collins was not good today, the rest of the o line seemed to hold up nicely. Great job by the d most of the day. and catch the damn ball.

[Ickey44]

Just wanted to add some stuff. I watched the Joseph int/out of bounds about 10 times on my big screen, and im 99% sure he was out of bounds. No int, that said, it was closer than to caldwell td and should of been reviewed.

That said I may of heard wrong, but any word on how the bengals got charged a challenge and a time out on the play with 42 seconds left, clearly a booth challenge, meaning the game clock should have started up with the play clock.

Todd Collins was not good today, the rest of the o line seemed to hold up nicely. Great job by the d most of the day. and catch the damn ball.

I don't know about that time out either. I was screaming at the TV when they got charged with that because inside of two minutes you can't use a challenge it has to come from upstairs. That extra 18 seconds gave the Broncos the time they needed to get the fluke play in.

And yes, JJ was out of bounds on the INT.

[Esiason#7]

Just wanted to add some stuff. I watched the Joseph int/out of bounds about 10 times on my big screen, and im 99% sure he was out of bounds. No int, that said, it was closer than to caldwell td and should of been reviewed.

That said I may of heard wrong, but any word on how the bengals got charged a challenge and a time out on the play with 42 seconds left, clearly a booth challenge, meaning the game clock should have started up with the play clock.

Todd Collins was not good today, the rest of the o line seemed to hold up nicely. Great job by the d most of the day. and catch the damn ball.

I don't know about that time out either. I was screaming at the TV when they got charged with that because inside of two minutes you can't use a challenge it has to come from upstairs. That extra 18 seconds gave the Broncos the time they needed to get the fluke play in.

And yes, JJ was out of bounds on the INT.

Marvin didn't challenge the Caldwell play, but he did call timeout right after the play happened hoping the booth would review whether Caldwell had scored or not. If you watch his postgame interview on Bengals.com he explains how that whole situation happened.

[Sea Ray]

Marvin immediately called a TO after Caldwell's catch. It was only after his TO that the boothe decided to review the play

[princeton]

Bengals needed to show they were READY for this season, and the offense and special teams don't seem to be ready at all. Sure, there are excuses: Carson's injury in camp, ASmith's holdout/injury, RKelly out. but, those are just excuses. the RT was particular disappointment.

Zimmer had his men ready, at least. can he coach offense?

there's time but need to turn it around quickly against Green Bay. Do not go 0 for September.

[ct_bengal]

Bengals needed to show they were READY for this season, and the offense and special teams don't seem to be ready at all. Sure, there are excuses: Carson's injury in camp, ASmith's holdout/injury, RKelly out. but, those are just excuses. the RT was particular disappointment.

Zimmer had his men ready, at least. can he coach offense?

there's time but need to turn it around quickly against Green Bay. Do not go 0 for September.

it looks like some preseason bengal sloppiness carried over into the regular season, but i do think denver is better than everyone believes.they shud have won the west last year had they not **** the bed, and lost the last 4 games or so. and cutler actually looked worse last nite in greenbay than i have seen orton play. looks like he's really missing his former o-line.

[redsbengalsbucks]

It's not like the Bengals were in the red zone all day.

TRUE STATEMENT, the Bengals did not get inside the twenty

Other than the botched FG they weren't close to scoring

FALSE STATEMENT, the Bengals did get very close the Grahams range 4-5 times in the first half. Most ended with a sack or penalty that moved them back out of range and resulted in Huber pinning the Bronco's inside the twenty again.

[Pidge]

What also helped the D was finally finally, after yrs and yrs of waiting, getting good field position most times. Making them go 80+ yds most of the time. The offense was even given a shorter field a couple of times. Hopefully that continues because that is a huge part of a winning football team in the long term. Good job from Huber especially. Nothing spectacular but no screw ups.

[ArmyBengal]

This is the perfect example of how things can happen each and every Sunday in the NFL. Sort of like the ghost roughing the passer call against Tampa Bay a couple years back. SH*T happens. Sadly though, it seems to happen to the Bengals more often than not.

The offense I heard people saying wasn't bad, SUCKED until the last drive when Carson put things together and drove them for the go ahead TD. If we can see THAT offense the remainder of the way, yeah, good things will happen for this team. If we get the offense we saw BEFORE that drive, the team will struggle again.

The defense held and I was impressed with certain players at certain times. Odom gets two sacks on the day and the Bengals had 3 overall. That sounds great, but that was three plays. There were far more where it appeared there was little to no pressure on Orton. This is the priority for this defense and I just didn't see it.

Was it a fluke play ?? Sure it was and I'm already by it, but I was thinking the same thing Marvin mentioned in his press conference, WHERE THE HELL WERE THE SAFTIES PLAYING DEEP ?? I know everyone wants to come up and deliver the big blow to end a game like that, but there also has to be some discipline and between Williams and Crocker, there is no excuse in my book. Poor execution.

I could have sworn the offense was installing new plays, but that looked like a steaming heap of hot garbage. I've not been a fan of Bratkowski at all and this effort only solidified my poor opinion of his abilities as the offensive coordinator. Sure the players have to execute, but holy crap did it look stale.

With two teams that played in the AFC Championship game last year in your division winning in week one and the schedule we are looking at in the next few weeks, they just couldn't afford to lose this game. Here's to hoping they can pull themselves together and realize this team can still win some games...

[Sea Ray]

It's not like the Bengals were in the red zone all day.

TRUE STATEMENT, the Bengals did not get inside the twenty

Other than the botched FG they weren't close to scoring

FALSE STATEMENT, the Bengals did get very close the Grahams range 4-5 times in the first half. Most ended with a sack or penalty that moved them back out of range and resulted in Huber pinning the Bronco's inside the twenty again.

OK, Graham's range is 45 yards so that means the Bengals have to get to the Denver 27. I don't know what your definition of "very close" is but show me how many times the Bengals got "very close" to the Denver 27?

[Ickey44]

Just wanted to add some stuff. I watched the Joseph int/out of bounds about 10 times on my big screen, and im 99% sure he was out of bounds. No int, that said, it was closer than to caldwell td and should of been reviewed.

That said I may of heard wrong, but any word on how the bengals got charged a challenge and a time out on the play with 42 seconds left, clearly a booth challenge, meaning the game clock should have started up with the play clock.

Todd Collins was not good today, the rest of the o line seemed to hold up nicely. Great job by the d most of the day. and catch the damn ball.

I don't know about that time out either. I was screaming at the TV when they got charged with that because inside of two minutes you can't use a challenge it has to come from upstairs. That extra 18 seconds gave the Broncos the time they needed to get the fluke play in.

And yes, JJ was out of bounds on the INT.

Marvin didn't challenge the Caldwell play, but he did call timeout right after the play happened hoping the booth would review whether Caldwell had scored or not. If you watch his postgame interview on Bengals.com he explains how that whole situation happened.

Yeah, I watched the interview after I posted that.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

When you employ almost an entire side of the ball with dumb football players who were rejected by other teams, you get bone-headed plays like at the end of the game yesterday.

You have 2 guys who were looking for the big hit instead of playing the ball like a smart football player. I mean really do you need 3 guys to make a play on the ball and one WR at the sidelines in that scenario? Just stupid.

Why wasn't there anyone behind Stokley? Who was the numb nut safety who tag teamed the WR after the ball was tipped and he had no possibility of catching it any ways?

Just stupid football.

They are stupid, they make penalties, flub snaps, run wrong routes, make mistakes, or are fat and stupid like Bobbie Williams and Andre Smith.

Championship/playoff teams do not play like morons, but Marvin and Mike have collected an entire roster full of players no one else wants, for a reason.

When you try to find a bargain player around every corner, this is what you get - mediocrity at best, bad football at worst.

A bunch of dumb asses that are going to get schooled by the better teams in the league.

[derekshank]

When you employ almost an entire side of the ball with dumb football players who were rejected by other teams, you get bone-headed plays like at the end of the game yesterday.

You have 2 guys who were looking for the big hit instead of playing the ball like a smart football player. I mean really do you need 3 guys to make a play on the ball and one WR at the sidelines in that scenario? Just stupid.

Why wasn't there anyone behind Stokley? Who was the numb nut safety who tag teamed the WR after the ball was tipped and he had no possibility of catching it any ways?

Just stupid football.

They are stupid, they make penalties, flub snaps, run wrong routes, make mistakes, or are fat and stupid like Bobbie Williams and Andre Smith.

Championship/playoff teams do not play like morons, but Marvin and Mike have collected an entire roster full of players no one else wants, for a reason.

When you try to find a bargain player around every corner, this is what you get - mediocrity at best, bad football at worst.

A bunch of dumb asses that are going to get schooled by the better teams in the league.

With a loss as brutal as that, I didn't think it would be possible to overreact.

Touché.

[Walrus]

It's taken me a while to get over this one, but I think I'm finally there. Strangely, this video helped...

[membengal]

The most heartening thing for me was watching the defense get off the field. They contested the short passing game, and did a nice job breaking up balls that in the past were completed to move the chains. Very nice to see. I thought the pressure was consistent on Orton. I loved what Huber got done in terms of controlling the field on behalf of special teams.

The offense was a major disappointment. Moving the ball is well and good, but they need to finish in the worst sort of way. That means getting to the 30 and having a plan. For me, the most disppointing part of Brat's day was the lack of a plan to finish drives. They know TJ is gone, he used to excel in that spot, and they missed him. That should have been addressed already. Instead, it was a a continuation of a problem we saw in the pre-season (and, frankly, a holdover from the last few years). It has been touched on elsewhere, but Brat needs to unwrap some new toys. Try Scott on the edge. Abandon the between the tackles stuff in general? Benson's best runs came on the edge as well.

All that in a blender, and they should be 1-0. But, hell, they should have been up about 20-3, rather than 7-6, and none of that hell comes to pass. A killer instinct remains AWOL on this team, and that is the part that I kinda lay at Palmer's feet. A team takes its cues from its leaders, and he is this team's leader. They need him to take the game by the short-hairs and pull, and do so throughout.

[Sea Ray]

It's taken me a while to get over this one, but I think I'm finally there. Strangely, this video helped...

Must they use a Brown's helmet on that? Oh well, hopefully that video didn't break the bank...

[ArmyBengal]

Final thoughts on the game ??

It's over. Thank God...

Sunday can't get here soon enough and hopefully we have something better to talk about !!!

[Walrus]

It's taken me a while to get over this one, but I think I'm finally there. Strangely, this video helped...

Must they use a Brown's helmet on that? Oh well, hopefully that video didn't break the bank...

Actually, I didn't mind that a bit. I just find it much easier to laugh at a plain orange helmet...

[Kazkal]

he RT was particular disappointment.

Shhhhh Collins lack of effort in the run game and 2 sacks given up is helping us and Andre wouldn't be helping team had we got hin in camp at a reasonable time..

[jonahdsage]

When you employ almost an entire side of the ball with dumb football players who were rejected by other teams, you get bone-headed plays like at the end of the game yesterday.

You have 2 guys who were looking for the big hit instead of playing the ball like a smart football player. I mean really do you need 3 guys to make a play on the ball and one WR at the sidelines in that scenario? Just stupid.

Why wasn't there anyone behind Stokley? Who was the numb nut safety who tag teamed the WR after the ball was tipped and he had no possibility of catching it any ways?

Just stupid football.

They are stupid, they make penalties, flub snaps, run wrong routes, make mistakes, or are fat and stupid like Bobbie Williams and Andre Smith.

Championship/playoff teams do not play like morons, but Marvin and Mike have collected an entire roster full of players no one else wants, for a reason.

When you try to find a bargain player around every corner, this is what you get - mediocrity at best, bad football at worst.

A bunch of dumb asses that are going to get schooled by the better teams in the league.

this has been explained already so many times. Zimmer had them in a short zone cover 2. The play on that is for the DB to go for the ball and the safeties to go for the receiver. They had used this nickel coverage all day and shut them down with it. They did exactly the right thing. if they had been in a 2 deep prevent and thrown to 20 yarders, you'd be here complaining that they didn't press coverage and let them get away with an easy 52 yard field goal.