HoosierCat

Well looks like Detroit has reverted to form. Go Colts!

In case anyone wants to talk about other games this week.

No Deebo for the 9ers game. https://www.threads.net/@bbaby41/post/CyrPZC8uNkl/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

So anyhow, Bengals are off but the rest of the division is playing. Lions @ Ravens: easily our best chance for help. Go Detroit! Browns @ Colts: lol Clowns in a walk. Steelers @ Rams. I’ll go Pitt here. They’re not that good but LA is awful.

There is a good column today in the WaPo that I think hits on a lot of what we are discussing here. Gift link around the paywall here. But the gist of it is that what we ae seeing with the bengals offense isn't unique, it's happing all over the league, because defenses have finally caught up to offenses. How are the doing this and how can offenses respond? Well, if you have been reading this thread you know the answer already. So yeah, the No. 1 thing they should be doing during the bye is looking at ways to run it more. How, I don't care. Put more on Trayveon, give Brown a shot, sign or trade for somebody, I don't care. Hell, give Captain America a few lugs for once.

Just going to leave this here since, in addition to Fournette, there have been a couple online articles calling for the Bengals to work a dead with Denver to bring back Perine. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/mecole-hardman-trade-grades-jets-send-former-chiefs-wr-back-to-kansas-city-for-swap-of-late-round-draft-picks/ I’m fine with what I’ve heard out of Callahan the last couple days, but unless they’re planning on, say, giving Chase Brown a shit ton more carries post-bye, I’m not sure it amounts to much more than rearranging the deck chairs.

Another mile marker on How Times Have Changed Highway: Delta has added two round trip flights to Jacksonville for fans who want to catch the Jags game in person. https://www.eaglecountryonline.com/news/local-news/delta-adds-two-flights-to-bengals-away-game-destination/

The problem with an offensive lineman is it only takes one bad play to erase a bunch of good work. Eric Steinbach was a top tier guard, but he’s remembered for one play here and it was a playoff (and arguably career, for Carson) wrecker. Unfair as hell but it’s an unforgiving job. On another note, there’s some capital-S speculation going around about the Bengals pursuing Fournette. He was scheduled to visit Buffalo today but the visit got cancelled because the RB they thought they were going to lose from their PS is staying. Reportedly Fournette has interest from multiple teams. As someone who argued they should sign him this past offseason I’m obviously a fan of the idea but as far as I can tell this is all smoke, no fire.

I was wondering about the post-Brown protection and if it had an impact on Joe. Can’t catch a break on the o-line can we? And yeah opposing defenses are clearly targeting Volson.

Sorry, only been there twice, both times for business, and one trip I never got out of the airport. Always wanted to tour the USS Constitution...

I think what we are seeing (and talking about in this thread) can be summed up as a rolling series of issues that have compounded to shirt-circuit the offense so far this season. The starting point of the problems is Burrow's calf. That injury killed his mobility outright and mostly killed his ability to plant and throw deep with any accuracy for the first couple weeks, at least. That in turn means that half your playbook goes straight into the trash can for a while since Joe just can't physically execute those plays. Layer on top of that the usual rust and adjustments involved in starting a new season. The first couple games featured those ugly drops Amphar mentioned. That seems to have largely cleared up now but cost them any chance in the first two games. Since then, Joe's calf has gotten better, opening up more of the playbook. But that's revealed a second challenge, which is that the plan to replace Perine and Hurst with Williams and Smith has been a flop so far. Right now the only players the opposing DC really has to worry about are Mixon and Chase. Chase is accounting for nearly a third of Burrow's targets this year, versus about one in five in 2022, and Mixon accounts for nearly 80% of running plays this year, versus just over half in 2022. So yeah there's just really not a lot to the offense right now. They need some guys to start scaring defenses. Burrow has to play better, Higgins has to show the hell up, injured or not (he wants to get paid, right?), someone in the pileup of RBs and TEs has to step up.

Totally different subject: is it just me, or are there way more QB injuries this season? I mean so far this year we have: -- Burrow and his calf -- Aaron Rogers of course -- Watson missing multiple games -- Richardson in Indy likely done for the year (shoulder) -- Fields in Chicago now doubtful (thumb) -- Jones out in NY (neck) -- Trevor Lawrence a ? mark (knee) -- Garappolo left last week's Raiders game late with back issues -- Tannehill out with a high ankle sprain Rough year to be a QB it seems.

A finish around .500 wouldn’t surprise me either at this point. And I very much doubt it gets them a playoff berth, especially since they’re playing in the only division without a team under .500 right now. That said, while expect a loss in two weeks in SF, they are 3-0 against the NFC West so who knows. Hell, the Niners just choked one away in Cleveburg. Anything’s possible. The Bills have come down a bit too this season and they are better at home than on the road this year. Probably a loss but not hopeless. Not sure I see them beating either Cleveland or Balti this year. Pitt I agree a split is a safe projection. Chiefs they always play tough. Texans, Jags, Colts, Vikes yeah they should win all those so I’ll say 2-2 because they always seems to drop a winnable one or two. 9-8 and no playoffs? Yeah, sounds about right.

Some odds & ends: -- In 7 games last year, Drue Chrisman punted 28 times, averaged 42.6 net yards, and dropped 13 punts inside the 20. Through 6 games, Brad Robbins has 32 punts, is netting 39.4 yards a kick and has dropped 6 inside the 20. If Drue Chrisman sucks, Brad Robbins blows. -- First round pick Myles Murphy has 4 tackles and 1 sack though 6 games. I continue to harp on this not because I don't like Murphy. I think he's coming along fairly well given that he's getting like one out of every 9-10 defensive snaps a game. I continue to harp on it precisely because of that snap count. Last April, the Bengals thought they were so stacked that they could spend a first round pick on a guy who would barely play. Just want to keep a pin in that. -- Last season, No. 2 RB Samaje Perine was averaging about 6 carries and 3 targets per game. This season No. 2 RB Trayveon Williams has 5 carries and 6 targets all year (so far). The rushing numbers are bad enough but I don't think enough attention has been paid to the passing numbers. Perine had 38 receptions last year, 11 of which went for first downs and 4 that were TDs. In 6 games Williams has 4 catches, no first downs, no scores. And don't even look at the numbers for Chase Brown and Chris Evans, you will just get depressed. Bottom line, no one has stepped up to replace Samaje and I think this offense really misses him right now — in similar vein, and as Army already noted, Hurst is also sorely missed. All of our TEs combined are on pace to equal about three-quarters of Hayden. And that’s just looking at yards. Hurst had 26 first downs all by himself last year. This year all our TEs have 3 combined so far I think you can make a strong case that the falloff in offensive production that isn‘t attributable to Burrow’s calf can largely be blamed on the failure to replace Hurst and Samaje.

Smith was inactive, Carman sucks, hence Ford. And I’m not surprised they didn’t want to reopen the “Jonah at LT” can of worms. Hopefully Brown can get back. But those kinds of injuries can be tricky.

Fukking chokers

Come on Niners!

Niners suck

Refs handing the game to Cleveland

An ugly W is still a W. 3-3 and a bye to get healthy. I’ll take both.

He took a shot to the head earlier, too.

What a stand

Bs call

Burrow falling apart again

Lap says it’s a groin issue for Brown.