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For those who wanted a 3-4 defense?


Kazkal

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I had the same thought watching the game. Aside from Justin possibly leaving as a free agent, what part of our new and improved D-line are we willing to voluntarily downgrade?

And to do that so that we can give more playing time to two unreliable second year guys (often-injured Pollack and pee-testing Odell) and a few unproven rookies (Jeanty, Brooks, Nicholson)? Sounds to me like Tiger Woods changing his golf swing after winning the Masters.

If I were Marvin, I'd maintain the current number of lineman and backers on the roster and try to adapt with the circumstances as they arise (injuries, quality of play, etc.). I think adaptability is the key, not a formal 3-4 or 4-3 declaration in the off-season.

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If you're talking about using yesterday's defensive domination as evidence that it ain't broke and shouldn't be fixed...let's wait until the Bengals beat a team that isn't breaking in two new tackles. One that's started a single game, and one that's a walking corpse.

That said, it was sure encouraging to see LJ stopped at 68 yards after the mess he gave us last year.

Oh, and one other thing OT...

I believe we just broke LJ's streak of 100 yard games. So the rest of the NFL can thank us that they don't have to keep seeing that damned graphic during every Chiefs game and SportsCenter highlight. Won't have to hear about him breaking the record either.

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Just win.

The Chiefs put up some #'s yesterday regardless - LJ had well over 100 total yards and both Qb's lit it up on completion % and had some decent #'s.

The Bengals' d is still living off of timely turnovers and that is going to come back and bite them sooner or later when that doesn't happen every time they give up a long drive.

That weak KC o-line was just dominated yesterday as the game wore on, it won't be like that every week. Let's not get too cocky.

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Just win.

The Chiefs put up some #'s yesterday regardless - LJ had well over 100 total yards and both Qb's lit it up on completion % and had some decent #'s.

The Bengals' d is still living off of timely turnovers and that is going to come back and bite them sooner or later when that doesn't happen every time they give up a long drive.

That weak KC o-line was just dominated yesterday as the game wore on, it won't be like that every week. Let's not get too cocky.

C'mon Shula. I'll agree that it's too early to anoint us the second coming of the '85 Bears... but give credit where it's due. This is the KC offense that led the league in yards with 387/game, and nearly 6 yards/play. We held them to 289 yards, with only 4.3 yards/play.

A ton of the yards we gave up were because we completely collapsed the pocket, and they were able to get us with the screen. That is how LJ racked up his recieving yardage. But we shut down their run... and the WR's only caught for 69 yards. When the only thing the QB can get done is dump it off to the RB and TE before getting hit, it means we played pretty well.

KC also scored more than 25 points/game last year... and we held them to 3 points until the meaningless TD with less that 4 minutes left.

As far as the turnover's go... we did get a few, but KC simply wasn't moving the ball on us. Only one of their turnovers occured in Bengals territory. They went 3-and-out 5 times... that has nothing to do with turnovers. We simply dominated them. You can't explain it all away. We are very improved.

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If you're talking about using yesterday's defensive domination as evidence that it ain't broke and shouldn't be fixed...let's wait until the Bengals beat a team that isn't breaking in two new tackles. One that's started a single game, and one that's a walking corpse.

That said, it was sure encouraging to see LJ stopped at 68 yards after the mess he gave us last year.

Oh, and one other thing OT...

I believe we just broke LJ's streak of 100 yard games. So the rest of the NFL can thank us that they don't have to keep seeing that damned graphic during every Chiefs game and SportsCenter highlight. Won't have to hear about him breaking the record either.

I'm not saying we will have top 15 defense just wanted opions of those who wanted 3-4 if defense does break out this year if they still would want a switch.

I agree with what some others have said...people are just a little too caught up in this 3-4 v. 4-3 discussion. Marvin has said countless times that he wants to be able to do both.

That's good enough for me.

Agreed I like the 4-3 base with power switch too 3-4 with all the same guys in there.

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I'm not saying we will have top 15 defense
Why not? I think that is a fairly reasonable assertion. Top 15 is average. I think we're better than that. I think we can be top 10... and if we play like that every week, we'll be top 5.

People can always focus on the negative if you really want to... for instance:

You can cite their their 67% completion percentage.

But if you do that, you have to consider that their yards/pass was only 4.2. The QB couldn't find open WR's because of a heavy pass-rush, and great secondary play. Little dinky passes were completed and that always means a higher completion percentage... but they don't get good yardage, they don't get 1st downs, and they don't result in points. That means we played well.

You can cite their 4.5 yards/rush.

If you do that you must consider the fact that LJ only ran 17 times, meaning he wasn't overly effective (If he was playing as well as expected, they would have run him far more than 17 times... even if they were losing). The fact is, LJ wasn't converting for 1st downs.

Also, 29 of their rushing yards came off of 5 QB runs (almost 6 yards/carry). That means that there was an intense pass rush, and there was no one open down field, so the QB gained some yardage. That happens... but more importantly, it was a broken play, because our defense was playing well. I'd much rather give up a 6 yard scramble, than give the QB all day to find an open WR down field.

The point is... this defense played outstanding. There are certainly things we can work on... like making sure the QB doesn't get those extra yards... but this was one of the better offenses in the league, and they couldn't move the ball. There are plenty of reasons to expect this defense to finish in the top 10 this year.

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Why not? I think that is a fairly reasonable assertion. Top 15 is average. I think we're better than that. I think we can be top 10... and if we play like that every week, we'll be top 5.

The point is... this defense played outstanding. There are certainly things we can work on... like making sure the QB doesn't get those extra yards... but this was one of the better offenses in the league, and they couldn't move the ball. There are plenty of reasons to expect this defense to finish in the top 10 this year.

Good analysis. LJ got some all-purpose yards, but they were definitely empty yards.

I have to say this is no longer one of the better offenses in the league, though, as the tackles will prevent LJ from having a 1500 yard season, and they have no WRs to speak of. The game yesterday spoke volumes to that, but it wasn't anything new, really. If Kennison is your best receiver...you're screwed.

So what's the over/under on their next offer to get Meat Roaf to unretire this year? $5M?

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The point is... this defense played outstanding. There are certainly things we can work on... like making sure the QB doesn't get those extra yards... but this was one of the better offenses in the league

...last year.

That's the caveat. Yes, the D played much better than usual...but frankly we don't know if KC's offense is any good this year. And with the Green injury, it's possible we may never know.

On top of that, remember that defenses are almost always ahead of offenses at this time of year. Look at the other games around the league and you will find plenty of poor offensive outings by teams that were putting up points in bunches last year. Seattle scored 9. Indy's offense was sputtering much of last night. New England, Denver, even us, were all struggling on offense.

Yesterday was a good omen. A good start. But whether it heralds the arrival of a top-tier, or even top-half, defense remains to be seen.

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Why not? I think that is a fairly reasonable assertion. Top 15 is average. I think we're better than that. I think we can be top 10... and if we play like that every week, we'll be top 5.

Because some people will hate on me for saying it :P just throwing it out there if defense is good if people still want switch.

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I'm constantly amazed by how quickly many Bengal fans are to dismiss this teams ability to force turnovers. Too many of you look at it like it was the result of fluke plays or something that will stop happening overnight.

Granted, this defense isn't a proven commodity and if you want to remain skeptical that they'll become a top 5-15 unit then continue to express your doubts. But c'mon, give credit where credit is due. This may be a group that too often fails at basic tasks, but they are a proven big play defense.

This stuff has been going on for three seasons in a row, and there's nothing remotely flukey about it.

This is what they gameplan for.

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