ArmyBengal

If you go by history, the Bengals are going to lose this game. They suck coming out of the bye week and suck more when facing a divisional opponent coming out of the bye week. Burrow is 4-7 against the Ravens. 5-7 if you include the post season. When Lamar has been out for those games, Burrow and the Bengals are 2-0. 3-0 if you include the post season. I agree the Ravens will want VERY much to get Jackson back for this game. I think the Bengals lose and we see yet again another failure on the part of Zac to prepare his team. With a loss, as Hoosier mentioned, they will be playing catch up something fierce. I'm going to do like the front office does and hope and pray this works out.

Rabid Buckeyes fan and thought the same thing. Fahey is a true freshman but passed up St. Claire on the depth chart. Might want to rethink that. Arthur Smith has sucked everywhere he’s been and it continues to show up in Columbus. Dude has a mad amount of talent and gets mixed results. Not really a fan of Sayin’s.

Nice to know people aren’t giving up even when you know it’s over.

I don't really care "what" they do, I care "how" they do it. As I mentioned previously, I don't think using Perine in an under center look is going to get them what they are looking for. Them not getting it from Brown misses the two key points I mentioned. The o-line is in perpetual pass block mode every snap and they have not been good at run blocking. Couple that with running while under center 75% of the time and it's not hard to figure out why they aren't getting explosive plays.

I don't disagree with dumping the under center stuff, because I simply think Burrow prefers it and it probably works better when running an RPO look to things. However, I don't thinking dumping it as a whole is what's needed. Just mix it up more. Get the run pass ratio closer to a 50/50 mix and it should get closer to what they were thinking when implementing the look. It kind of surprises me that they put so much effort into the under center looks and then turned it into a tell for the offense. When coupling that with an o-line that has to consider pass blocking damn near every snap and the outcome shouldn't be shocking.

Here's my thing regarding Perine vs Brown. I'm not buying that Perine is faster than Brown. More decisive at this point? Probably, but not faster. Why does this matter? Because the under center option is built for the more explosive player. (Note to COB, Brown is not going to explode on the field Sunday) Since Perine has been more decisive, you can look at the workload in that Perine has already almost drawn even with Brown. However, even with that being the case, when they run under center looks, Brown damn near gets all of the carries. If they want to change that up and use Perine in those under center looks, I'm not sure it will bear fruit or at least have my doubts. Again, I think the Bengals are making things too predictable for opposing defenses when they run from that formation 75% of the time. I also think Perine is a superior pass blocker, so why not just limit under center further or at least change up the pass run ratio? If they want to continue running RPO, why not have both Perine and Brown in the backfield? They could mix up the workload AND have an added pass blocker in simultaneously. Then again, maybe I need to give up trying to make sense of this travesty of an offensive approach and go work at Home Depot? I'm sure there is someone I could assist with the spray snow for Christmas Trees and windows. Maybe unclogging hair from drains?

I know people aren't going to want to hear this, but I still think the problem has less to do with the RB's and more with the o-line. Yes, they spent a lot of time working under center during the offseason. We heard about it non-stop. Move forward into the start of the season and they have ran 69 plays under center out of 322 offensive plays in total through week 5. That's a little better than 21% of the plays. That is good enough for the 3rd fewest amount of plays under center in the league. Now, when they do run plays under center the execute running plays 71% of the time or nearly 3 out of every 4 times. That in and of itself is a pretty big tell if the defense is guessing which play the offense is going to run. How does this relate to the o-line when the Bengals are hoping this produces more explosive plays? (Better COB?) The o-line has produced inconsistent results and has not at all looked explosive on their end when blocking. Running under center has netted them 3.3 YPC as opposed to 4.0 YPC out of the shotgun. The success rate of those runs is horrible. I might be over thinking it's an individual thing versus scheming, but something is amiss with this approach. If they can't get it figured out, just run the offense out of the shotgun more than you already do. It doesn't sound like they have a good bead on how to execute what they are thinking up in their heads. If they think Perine is the answer to this problem, fine. I won't be holding my breath waiting for those results.

You would think the Bengals would want the guy commenting about things of this nature to be the one calling plays for those players. Also, when considering what I posted earlier in this thread about why the run game has been lacking, does it even matter? Wrong focus, wrong person, and will probably equate to the wrong outcome. See you next week in Baltimore...

Fixed by providing appropriate focus.

You can also look at this through the eyes of the RPO (run pass option). The Bengals rank 2nd in the league in how often they have called an RPO through the first 5 weeks. When considering what I commented before about the o-linemen being asked to protect depth and space as opposed to driving players backwards, it also makes sense that the run game could suffer with that approach. If nearly 20% of the time the o-line has to consider both run and pass blocking depending on what option Burrow decides, that can be very problematic in establishing a consistent run game. I haven't seen anything about that being a huge impact, but seeing as how they are running it THAT much, it wouldn't surprise me either. I think they have the talent in place to impose their will without all the misdirection and gimmicks. If you are going to throw the ball, pass block and throw that shit. If you are going to run the ball, commit to it and block accordingly. Maybe I'm simplifying things a bit, but this coaching staff has a bad habit of trying to confuse the defense they face and be too cute. You have a top 5 QB in the league, arguably the best WR duo in the league and the best o-line they've had in some time. Go be the bully and impose your will. Stop trying to be so fucking cute. That's what puppies are for.

I really like Endries and think he will make some plays for sure. He simply came into a deep TE room.

That's one of Burrow's favorites. Sucks for him. (Hudson) Heal up Tanner.

I was checking out the run blocking grade for the o-line and saw an interesting analysis into what we see. If you view it through the lens of ESPN Analytics, they rank #1 in run block win rate. This is because it measures how often the o-linemen win their individual blocks for at least 2.5 seconds. However, since teams are so focused on the passing attack, the o-linemen have a mathematical advantage. Then again, if you view it through the lens of PFF and film review, they rank near the bottom around #26. This is because while the line is technically "winning" blocks on paper, they struggle to create physical push, run lanes, or consistently climb to the second level and take on linebackers. Mims is one of the best pass blocking RT's in the league. You might say he's been "elite" there, but he's near the bottom in run blocking. Why? Well, it's because of play calling and the fact he's being asked to protect depth rather than drive defenders backward. The disconnect explains why the team has the "potential" to block well, but ultimately plays in such a pass-heavy scheme that it leaves Brown to take contact right at the line of scrimmage. I'm not sure playing under center is going to matter than much if they aren't committed to the craft. To me it almost comes across like they want to fool teams that they are going to run more. Like being too cute again. The under center approach only works if they work the run game in more consistently. They don't...

Lets look at some guys through the first 5 weeks of the season: Burrow: 5th in the league in passing yards with 1361. 4th in completion percentage at 71.4%. 4th with 11 TD's. He's thrown 3 INT's and has been sacked 9 times. Chase: 22nd in the league in receiving yards with 289. Tied for 12th with 27 receptions. Tied for 4th with 4 TD's. Higgins: 7th in the league in receiving yards with 423. Tied for 12th with 27 receptions. Tied way down the line with 1 TD. Brown: 22nd in the league with 246 rushing yards. 35th with a 3.5 average per carry Tied way down the line with 1 rushing TD. Giesicki actually has 4 receiving TD's to this point, tied for 4th in the league and tied for 1st among TE's. The run game simply has to be better to support this offense and it's not all on Brown. They rank 28th in the league with only 114 attempts. That's play calling from the coaches and Burrow changing plays. I'll look more at the defense in a little bit.

Well we are sitting at 3-2 heading into the bye week. Despite many thinking this is about where we would be when considering the teams we had on the schedule, it doesn't feel good. I didn't expect us to win 3 games playing the way they have. I didn't expect the defense to look so lost yet again. I didn't expect being close to leading the league in penalties through the first 5 weeks. I didn't expect feeling like despite being 3-2, that they really haven't done much. They need to figure out who they are going to be during the bye week. The thing is, Zac is very meh after the bye week. He has gone 3-3 during his time as coach here. All three of his losses after the bye have come against divisional opponents. Who do they play week 7 you ask? The Ravens. I made the comment in another thread that they have the ability to go on a win streak including the Dolphins game. The schedule is not really all that tough and they fix some small areas, they could be a really fun team to root for. Penalties, lack of tackling and poor coaching has killed the team and made them look bad even in wins. If Zac isn't on the hot seat as a coach, they should really look at how that term is defined and used. Just give Pitcher the play calling responsibilities already. Jesus help this team.