HoosierCat

Great breakdown of the screen game by Joe this week. And I totally endorse his comments at the end about marrying the two offenses.

Mullins named starter for Minny. Bengals didn’t practice today but said Ja’Marr would have been DNP (ankle)

Which is why this game scares me. It’s another classic trap game. Bengals are on a two game hot streak and have a huge game coming up next week in Pitt. Oh, and it’s a short week, too. Need the coaching staff to keep them focused on the task at hand.

While I’m there, Mel’s rankings, updated four days again. Quarterbacks 1. Caleb Williams, USC 2. Drake Maye, North Carolina 3. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado 4. Jayden Daniels, LSU 5. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan 6. Michael Penix Jr., Washington 7. Carson Beck, Georgia 8. Bo Nix, Oregon 9. Michael Pratt, Tulane 10. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina Running backs 1. Jonathon Brooks, Texas 2. Trey Benson, Florida State 3. Audric Estime, Notre Dame 4. Blake Corum, Michigan 5. MarShawn Lloyd, USC 6. Dillon Johnson, Washington 7. Braelon Allen, Wisconsin 8. Bucky Irving, Oregon 9. Donovan Edwards, Michigan 10. Ray Davis, Kentucky Wide receivers 1. Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State 2. Rome Odunze, Washington 3. Malik Nabers, LSU 4. Keon Coleman, Florida State 5. Xavier Worthy, Texas 6. Brian Thomas Jr., LSU 7. Adonai Mitchell, Texas 8. Emeka Egbuka, Ohio State 9. Xavier Legette, South Carolina 10. Ladd McConkey, Georgia Tight ends 1. Brock Bowers, Georgia 2. Ja'Tavion Sanders, Texas 3. Cade Stover, Ohio State 4. Luke Lachey, Iowa 5. Theo Johnson, Penn State 6. Mitchell Evans, Notre Dame 7. Tyler Warren, Penn State 8. Erick All, Iowa 9. Caden Prieskorn, Ole Miss 10. AJ Barner, Michigan Fullbacks/H-backs 1. Bryson Nesbit, North Carolina 2. Ben Sinnott, Kansas State 3. Jaheim Bell, Florida State 4. JJ Pegues, Ole Miss 5. Jared Wiley, TCU 6. Dallin Holker, Colorado State 7. Rivaldo Fairweather, Auburn 8. Brant Kuithe, Utah 9. Trey Knox, South Carolina 10. Hayden Large, Iowa Offensive tackles 1. Olu Fashanu, Penn State 2. Joe Alt, Notre Dame 3. Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State 4. Amarius Mims, Georgia 5. JC Latham, Alabama 6. Jordan Morgan, Arizona 7. Tyler Guyton, Oklahoma 8. Kingsley Suamataia, BYU 9. Patrick Paul, Houston 10. Javon Foster, Missouri Guards 1. Troy Fautanu, Washington 2. Zak Zinter, Michigan 3. Christian Haynes, Connecticut 4. Cooper Beebe, Kansas State 5. Javion Cohen, Miami 6. Joshua Gray, Oregon State 7. Donovan Jackson, Ohio State 8. Christian Mahogany, Boston College 9. Dominick Puni, Kansas 10. Sataoa Laumea, Utah Centers 1. Graham Barton, Duke 2. Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia 3. Zach Frazier, West Virginia 4. Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon 5. Matt Lee, Miami 6. Drake Nugent, Michigan 7. Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin 8. Beaux Limmer, Arkansas 9. Dylan McMahon, NC State 10. Eli Cox, Kentucky Defensive ends 1. Jared Verse, Florida State 2. JT Tuimoloau, Ohio State 3. Adisa Isaac, Penn State 4. Darius Robinson, Missouri 5. Mohamed Kamara, Colorado State 6. Brandon Dorlus, Oregon 7. Gabriel Murphy, UCLA 8. Justin Eboigbe, Alabama 9. Keith Randolph Jr., Illinois 10. Jack Sawyer, Ohio State Defensive tackles 1. Jer'Zhan Newton, Illinois 2. T'Vondre Sweat, Texas 3. Leonard Taylor III, Miami 4. Kris Jenkins, Michigan 5. Braden Fiske, Florida State 6. Rylie Mills, Notre Dame 7. Tyleik Williams, Ohio State 8. McKinnley Jackson, Texas A&M 9. Byron Murphy II, Texas 10. Mekhi Wingo, LSU Off-ball linebackers 1. Edgerrin Cooper, Texas A&M 2. Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Clemson 3. Deontae Lawson, Alabama 4. Jaylan Ford, Texas 5. Smael Mondon, Georgia 6. Cedric Gray, North Carolina 7. Junior Colson, Michigan 8. Tommy Eichenberg, Ohio State 9. Tyrice Knight, UTEP 10. Danny Stutsman, Oklahoma Outside linebackers 1. Laiatu Latu, UCLA 2. Dallas Turner, Alabama 3. Chris Braswell, Alabama 4. Chop Robinson, Penn State 5. Jonah Elliss, Utah 6. Payton Wilson, NC State 7. Bralen Trice, Washington 8. Javon Solomon, Troy 9. Seth Coleman, Illinois 10. Jaylen Harrell, Michigan Cornerbacks 1. Cooper DeJean, Iowa 2. Kool-Aid McKinstry, Alabama 3. Kamari Lassiter, Georgia 4. Nate Wiggins, Clemson 5. Terrion Arnold, Alabama 6. Quinyon Mitchell, Toledo 7. Denzel Burke, Ohio State 8. T.J. Tampa, Iowa State 9. Kalen King, Penn State 10. Josh Newton, TCU Safeties 1. Kamren Kinchens, Miami 2. Tyler Nubin, Minnesota 3. Javon Bullard, Georgia 4. Jaylin Simpson, Auburn 5. James Williams, Miami 6. Tykee Smith, Georgia 7. Cole Bishop, Utah 8. Xavier Watts, Notre Dame 9. Calen Bullock, USC 10. Lathan Ransom, Ohio State Kickers and Punters 1. Tory Taylor, Iowa (P) 2. Cam Little, Arkansas (K) 3. Austin McNamara, Texas Tech (P) 4. Will Reichard, Alabama (K) 5. Jack Bouwmeester, Utah (P) 6. Joshua Karty, Stanford (K) 7. Ryan Rehkow, BYU (P) 8. Jose Pizano, UNLV (K) 9. John Hoyland, Wyoming (K) 10. Spencer Shrader, Notre Dame (K)

So apparently I still have access behind the paywall at espn on my iPad, I guess it hasn’t registered that I dumped them yet. New mock from Matt Miller today: Works for me. For those who want to go in a different direction the next three picks are WR Xavier Worthy, CB Kalen King and OT JC Latham.

Sounds like Jefferson will play. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39091893/vikings-justin-jefferson-good-chance-play-saturday

Oh, and one more note on Pitt-Indy: Tomlin has ruled out Pickett, so it will be Mitch Trubisky vs. Gardner Minshew. What a year.

I don't think it matters much. The Bengals are 0-4 in the division, so they've already lost the tiebreaker in the AFCN to everyone else (all the other teams have 3 wins). Both Indy and Pit are 5-4 in the conference while the Bengals are 3-6. That means whoever of Pitt or Indy wins only needs one more AFC win to secure that tie breaker. I guess there might be some scenario where Indy winning and Jax collapsing puts the Colts on top in the AFC South and the Jags out of the playoffs which might be helpful in the end. It's certainly more likely than any such thing happening in the North. And Pitt sucks, of course. So I'm going to root for Indy.

It's Volson's kind of game. It's not a coincidence that he's had a couple of his best games since Burrow went out and the offense has switched from a "bombs away!" approach to one focused on runs, short passes and screens. That means most of what he is doing now is blocking, which is his strength, versus pass protecting which...is not. Really I think the whole offensive line has looked much better with Browning at the helm. That's NOT to say that Browning is better than Burrow or anything like that. But when we talk about how Burrow's play style contributes to the uncomfortably high number of hits and sacks he takes, the scheme is contributor to that.

Not just him. The postgame bitching this morning was eye rolling. A whole bunch of articles along the lines of “ok the WR was obviously offsides and it was obviously a legit penalty but they shouldn’t have called it because the play was cool.” Cry me a river.

McCarron should have had a TD yesterday, that push off call on Tee was weak sauce.

Good if brief look at how the O has changed with Browning. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39087518/balance-spurs-bengals-offense

The Worst Year Ever for NFL QBs continues.

Bills win too. At least we own the head to head there.

Pretty much.

Have to see who is playing QB for the Vikes, Dobbs got benched during the game. https://www.si.com/fannation/bringmethesports/vikings/vikings-beat-raiders-3-0-dobbs-benched-for-mullens-jefferson-to-hospital

Now he’s hurt too. Some guy named Stick in at QB. Chargers eat an L.

The Vikings played the Raiders today in perfect playing conditions and won with 3 points. Not by 3 points, with 3 points. It was 0-0 with about 2 minutes left in the game before Minny kicked a FG. 3-0. If the Bengals can’t win this they don’t deserve a postseason.

Justin Jefferson hurt again. Missed the last seven games, hurt again today, taken to the hospital for observation. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/vikings-justin-jefferson-exits-with-chest-injury-vs-raiders-taken-to-hospital-for-observation/

14-7

Probably KC but I’d have to look at tiebreakers

Jags td

Stafford lobbing bombs

Jags fail

Ravens score