Where's the "Fire Brat" thread?

[derekshank]

Brat was guilty of most of the things that people like to criticize him for. He only ran Rudi 16 times... We predictably ran the ball right into the teeth of a stacked 8 man front late in the game causing us to go 3-and-out three straight times in the 4th quarter, and worst of all - we ran that shovel pass play that everyone hates in a 3rd and long situation (which worked by the way).

So here's my theory:

When we lose... it doesn't matter how good the game plan is... we're going to complain about Brat. But when we win - even if we do the same exact things, we don't find fault. Interesting. That's not fickle at all.

P.S. Brat's the man. Our game plan was incredible against their defense... and when we got a lead, and found that the defense could hold it, we played field position. The next "Fire Brat" thread I see will make me throw up in my mouth a little.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Personally I love Brat and have since 2003.

It's the guys on the field who don't execute things too often.

The lack of a running game the last two weeks is a concern - Rudi is not getting holes, and is not showing that burst to make things happen when he has to.

I think too often people forget the caliber of defenses in the North and that Baltimore is a top 3 defense (if not #1 at this point) and you are not going to just run over them no matter how good you are.

It was the defense' game to win last night and they stepped up and did the job again.

[bengalboomer7]

Personally I love Brat and have since 2003.

It's the guys on the field who don't execute things too often.

The lack of a running game the last two weeks is a concern - Rudi is not getting holes, and is not showing that burst to make things happen when he has to.

I think too often people forget the caliber of defenses in the North and that Baltimore is a top 3 defense (if not #1 at this point) and you are not going to just run over them no matter how good you are.

It was the defense' game to win last night and they stepped up and did the job again.

How bout a little praise for your man, Paul Alexander

[UK Bengal]

FIRE BRAT!!! HE SUCKS

[Tasher]

I fired my BRATS last night, put some mustard and ketchup with onions and pickle relish...

mmmm, mmmm

went perfect with the warsteiner, washed down very nicely, just perfect with the weather and the football

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

Brat was guilty of most of the things that people like to criticize him for. He only ran Rudi 16 times... We predictably ran the ball right into the teeth of a stacked 8 man front late in the game causing us to go 3-and-out three straight times in the 4th quarter, and worst of all - we ran that shovel pass play that everyone hates in a 3rd and long situation (which worked by the way).

So here's my theory:

When we lose... it doesn't matter how good the game plan is... we're going to complain about Brat. But when we win - even if we do the same exact things, we don't find fault. Interesting. That's not fickle at all.

P.S. Brat's the man. Our game plan was incredible against their defense... and when we got a lead, and found that the defense could hold it, we played field position. The next "Fire Brat" thread I see will make me throw up in my mouth a little.

A few things:

1) A good D will make up for a lot.

2) He did call for the flea-flicker which was perfectly timed given the way Reed was peeking into the backfield. Excellent call, credit due, 40-yd TD.

3) While the playcalling was a little unbalanced (32 passes to 23 runs), that's not atrocious. It wasn't like 50-15 difference. The game was short in terms of the total number of plays. Need to account for that too!

4) He gave some carries to other guys, which I have no problem with. Keeps them guessing and reduces the wear on Rudi.

5) You're right, running the clock and letting a shutout-throwing D do their thing with a long field behind them is exactly the right thing to do. Maybe in another situation it won't be the right thing to do. Let's see how he reacts to that.

So I'd say he's not necessarily doing the exact same things. He did run Rudi some more, at least as a fraction of the number of total plays run. He involved the other backs. He took shots down the field. Give the man his due, a conservative plan for the second half was the way to go, but it wasn't that conservative in the 1st half, but he still found ways to get Rudi the carries that are necessary to maintain balance.

That says, if he screws up later, I reserve the right to bitch about it.

[bengalboomer7]

Personally I love Brat and have since 2003.

It's the guys on the field who don't execute things too often.

The lack of a running game the last two weeks is a concern - Rudi is not getting holes, and is not showing that burst to make things happen when he has to.

I think too often people forget the caliber of defenses in the North and that Baltimore is a top 3 defense (if not #1 at this point) and you are not going to just run over them no matter how good you are.

It was the defense' game to win last night and they stepped up and did the job again.

How bout a little praise for your man, Paul Alexander

I gonna bump this thread till you say it through clenched teeth Shula

I fired my BRATS last night, put some mustard and ketchup with onions and pickle relish...

mmmm, mmmm

went perfect with the warsteiner, washed down very nicely, just perfect with the weather and the football

Warsteiner is my fav

[Kazkal]

---When we lose... it doesn't matter how good the game plan is... we're going to complain about Brat. But when we win - even if we do the same exact things,---

I hope your just not finding this out now.....Just teasing

[HairOnFire]

It's hard to define, but Willie Anderson may have said it best when he slammed the team for abandoning the run against Atlanta. He flat out called the smallish Atlanta front a joke, and pointedly stated that the Falcons "weren't the Ravens." Well, that goes farther than I'm willing to, but there are plenty of times where I feel the same way. However, last night wasn't one of those times precisely because that was the Ravens, and you're not going to make a living running the ball all night long.

Frankly, I've never felt like Brat should be fired, and consider him to be one of the best OC in the NFL. But I'm a big fan of running the football, controlling the clock, and in short...imposing your will on the other guy, so it rankles me when Brat ignores a running game that is working just fine. And yeah, he's done that very thing on more than one occasion, prompting loud barking from my chair. But again, that wasn't the case for most of last night and I had absolutely no problem with the pass first mentality. In fact, the Bengals seem almost perfectly built to whip the Ravens through the air everytime they meet, so I say let's play pass happy yardball the next time, too.

But let's not kid ourselves about what we just saw. Without the stellar performance of the Bengal defense the Bengals probably lose that game....because 6 or 13 points scored won't beat most good teams. So shouldn't the thread title ask..."Where's the fire Bres thread?"

[derekshank]

But let's not kid ourselves about what we just saw. Without the stellar performance of the Bengal defense the Bengals probably lose that game....because 6 or 13 points scored won't beat most good teams. So shouldn't the thread title ask..."Where's the fire Bres thread?"

That's true... but I would argue we would have scored more than 13 if we needed to. We were pitching a shut-out on defense, so Brat playing field position against a team that couldn't move the ball. If they had been moving the ball on our defense, we would have stayed aggressive. We might not have scored 30... but we certainly would have earned more than 13.