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A Brutal Stretch Ends


HoosierCat

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It didn't end how we all hoped, but the schedule's worst stretch is now behind the Bengals. To review, from Oct. 13 to Nov. 10, a span of 28 days, the Bengals slogged through five games, four of which came on the road. At the start I thought that they needed a minimum of three wins out of those games, and that's what they got.

From here, the road is friendlier, if not all that much easier. Cincinnati plays four of its final six at home. They do have to travel to SD for one of those away games, but they will be coming off the bye. Three of the final four are home games, with the lone trip being to nearby Pitt.

I think they need at least four more wins. They might get away with three if they are all in the division.

Of their losses, the one that stings the most for me is still the opener against Chicago. In each of the other losses, the team has played poorly enough that it's something of surprise that they weren't all blowouts. But against Chicago they played well, but just couldn't quit shooting themselves in the foot. Right now, if they don't make the playoffs, that will be the loss I look at.

As for postseason hopes, all the injuries have me doubting they go anywhere, but if they get to the dance, who knows?

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I think this has been a decent run. Dropping two OT games in a row is all but unheard of. Now that I've looked at them, Nugent has to take some heat on these losses, too. I'm of the mindset that the D will be just fine, just need to limit the bad penalties. Even though a couple of them were garbage, a la Burfict hit on Flacco oob.

I really feel they could sweep to close the run. no one on the schedule perks my attention as a legit threat. SD and Indy will be good to measure the team and where they stand. The early loss to the Bears does sting, but the loss to Miami is about as bad. No reason to have lost that game.

I see the return of Hawk and Gresh as a big boost. There will be enough to carry it forward, just protect Scut and let him be average.

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That's just it the difference between say the Chiefs and Bengals is there QB does not turn the ball over. The reason they have lost these games, is because of turnovers, giving the other team short fields. Take care of the ball and they win those games! If they can do that I can see them make a good run.

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That's just it the difference between say the Chiefs and Bengals is there QB does not turn the ball over. The reason they have lost these games, is because of turnovers, giving the other team short fields. Take care of the ball and they win those games! If they can do that I can see them make a good run.

The turnovers have hurt but aren't the only problem. Over the last two games they have given up almost 200 penalty yards and Dalton has been sacked 10 times (after being sacked 16 times in the first eight games). In short there is a lot of sloppy play going on. To some extent I can chalk it up to exhaustion. At the moment they are down five starters on D and have only signed two fresh bodies in response, and one of them, Boley, was out yesterday too. They're also down an additional guy in the dline rotation with Still out. So guys are out there longer, not to mention they've had two straight games go into OT.

On the oline I'm not sure what's up. It's easy to point at Whit but they other guys have been making big mistakes too. Zeitler whiffing on Wake for the safety in Miami for one. Some of that is on Andy too, like the play yesterday when he could have hit an easy dump off to Gio but wouldn't let go of the ball.

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Yep the o-line right now is crap. It makes no sense how they played great on a 4 game stretch Dalton hardly got touched, and dosnt have the time. There are times though were Dalton could have moved up or out of the pocket. O-line for sure needs to be fixed.

I'm not saying Dalton is the only problem, I'm just saying dont throw those 3 picks and I think they win the game. I know not all are on him, but 2 of them were just bad.

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Oh yeah, if you don't think we should have beaten the Dolphins, take a look at who beat them last night.

Yeah, the 0-8 Buccaneers are now 1-8.

We can look at Chicago as a game they should have won looking back at the game, but most thought we would lose going in.

The Dolphins game was against a team the Bengals should have beaten the hell out of and looked awful against them.

THAT is the game that really gets under my skin.

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