Chargers @ Bengals Pregame Chatter

[HoosierCat]

From a Brit I chat with on twitter. Nice!

/>https://mobile.twitter.com/Son_Of_Ray/status/417790635999911936/photo/1

[TJJackson]

Unfortunately, San Diego will beat us

Yes, Yes, I know, I am a big ole traitor and a dirtbag and I know nothing. I hear it from my wife far more often than from you all, so I am used to it :-)

But there are immutable laws of nature at work here, and you see, San Diego has been chosen by fate to win this year's superbowl

Or by the folks who do the scheduling of NFL games, if you prefer that

What the hell are you babbling about, TJ?

This: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/22098477/chargers-will-win-super-bowl-xlviii-according-to-eagles-schedule

[gregcook68]

Unfortunately, San Diego will beat us

Yes, Yes, I know, I am a big ole traitor and a dirtbag and I know nothing. I hear it from my wife far more often than from you all, so I am used to it :-)

But there are immutable laws of nature at work here, and you see, San Diego has been chosen by fate to win this year's superbowl

Or by the folks who do the scheduling of NFL games, if you prefer that

What the hell are you babbling about, TJ?

This: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/22098477/chargers-will-win-super-bowl-xlviii-according-to-eagles-schedule

I don't listen to talking heads.

Next thread!!

[volcom69]

So a couple things I have read/seen from week 13 match up. Bengals won because of there running game, guys like Whit pulling, and blowing up the chargers. BJGE had a great game going up the middle. All of this because it was a not so great Andy day.

Defense in this game gave up some big plays, and big yards to the chargers, 336 yards of total offense. However bengals did get 3 turnovers which helped them out.

So this week to best them, Robinson needs to have a huge game at center, he did get pushed around against Baltimore. The run game needs to be there, and Gruden can't be afraid to use it. A much better Andy better show up this time, they will need it. Defense can't give up those big plays, and more of those turnovers would help out big time.

So the more I think about it, I really think it's going to be a tough game. I hope guys are healthy to return they sure do need them. Chargers are 5-2 against playoff teams with a huge win in Denver. No stupid mistakes, no stupid turnovers they should be ok, but if that happens not sure they can over come them this time. Chargers are a better offense then the Ravens! Just win this week it's all I ask.

[jjakq27]

1388445976' post='409397']

From a Brit I chat with on twitter. Nice!

https://mobile.twitt...9911936/photo/1

Very cool. He is the prototype hip flexer/knee bender.

[jjakq27]

1388446518' post='409405']

Unfortunately, San Diego will beat us

Yes, Yes, I know, I am a big ole traitor and a dirtbag and I know nothing. I hear it from my wife far more often than from you all, so I am used to it :-)

But there are immutable laws of nature at work here, and you see, San Diego has been chosen by fate to win this year's superbowl

Or by the folks who do the scheduling of NFL games, if you prefer that

What the hell are you babbling about, TJ?

This: http://www.cbssports...eagles-schedule

Wow that's a crazy stat.

Playing here at home has to be a huge advantage. And the Chargers were 4-2 in their division meaning they went 5-5 outside the West so they have holes and weaknesses like everyone else. They clinched a spot on the last day of the season for a reason.

And this year things just feel different. Having Burfict eases my mind. This is his team.

[ArmyBengal]

For those locally who don't care about where they sit, there are tickets in the uppers for $59 bucks a piece on Ebay.

I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I suspect we will head down for the game.

[cincyhokie]

For those locally who don't care about where they sit, there are tickets in the uppers for $59 bucks a piece on Ebay.

I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I suspect we will head down for the game.

I think I'm going to make it as well. Going to need to take 4 hours off of work but it will be worth it.

[kingwilly]

Joe Reedy ‏@joereedy 9m

Marvin on EVERY injury question -- "We'll see Sunday."

Geoff Hobson ‏@GeoffHobsonCin now

Cook on crutches: No comment

I'd rather have Robinson at 100%, than Cook at any degree of injured-ness.

Line played just fine with Robinson snapping.

[HoosierCat]

So a couple things I have read/seen from week 13 match up. Bengals won because of there running game, guys like Whit pulling, and blowing up the chargers. BJGE had a great game going up the middle. All of this because it was a not so great Andy day.

Defense in this game gave up some big plays, and big yards to the chargers, 336 yards of total offense. However bengals did get 3 turnovers which helped them out.

So this week to best them, Robinson needs to have a huge game at center, he did get pushed around against Baltimore. The run game needs to be there, and Gruden can't be afraid to use it. A much better Andy better show up this time, they will need it. Defense can't give up those big plays, and more of those turnovers would help out big time.

So the more I think about it, I really think it's going to be a tough game. I hope guys are healthy to return they sure do need them. Chargers are 5-2 against playoff teams with a huge win in Denver. No stupid mistakes, no stupid turnovers they should be ok, but if that happens not sure they can over come them this time. Chargers are a better offense then the Ravens! Just win this week it's all I ask.

Been reading @JustBeWarned again, eh? Yeah, a nice look back.

I'm not worried. Could the Bengals lose? Of course, but it's hard to ask for a better set-up for Cincy. We get them at home where we are undefeated this year. The game is at 1 on Sunday so no changes needed to the team routine. We played our normal early slot yesterday. SD played late and ended up going deep into OT. Now they have to travel across country and play at what is 10 am for them. And it looks like it will be chilly and rainy.

More? The Bengals are the playoff veteran team this time. Chargers haven't been here since 09. I'll take confident and experienced over loose anytime.

As usual, I think there is only one team on the field next Sunday that can beat the Bengals and that's the Bengals. Settle down, play their game, and we'll be in Foxboro next week.

[volcom69]

Very good Hoosier, I enjoy reading his stuff. I have no doubt the bengals have the better team, I'm just ready for them to take that step. It seemed to me last year, they were over thinking there game, and just didnt play the way they could.

[HoosierCat]

Oh, I should add that it appears some fraction of the SD team may be hung over or in the drunk tank on gameday.

/>http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/31/chargers-linebacker-thomas-keiser-arrested/

Chargers linebacker Thomas Keiser arrested

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on December 31, 2013, 1:14 AM EST

AP

Celebrating a playoff berth has apparently proved to be a bad idea for San Diego Chargers linebacker Thomas Keiser.

According to Teri Figueroa and Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Keiser was arrested at a restaurant in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego on a misdemeanor battery charge after an altercation Sunday night.

Keiser was arrested after police were called to break up a fight between Keiser and another man.

“We’re aware of the issue involving Thomas,” the Chargers said Monday night in a statement to the Union-Tribune. “We’ll continue to monitor the situation and let the legal process run its course.”

The Chargers had just wrapped up a playoff berth earlier in the day with an overtime victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. San Diego will play at Cincinnati this weekend in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Keiser is expected to play for the Chargers.

Keiser has 4.5 sacks, 21 tackles and an interception this year in 12 games for the Chargers.

[COB]

Who in the world is willing to brawl with a drunken nfl linebacker? Crazy.

[gregcook68]

This is why I don't listen to talking heads. Especially a turd like Adam Schein who hasn't played a snap of organized football that is recorded anywhere.

I was browsing the NFL site to check on coach firings, to see what coaches the teams are looking for, and if Zimmer's name pops up, and ran across this yahoo Adam Schein.

/>http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000307046/article/philip-rivers-san-diego-chargers-looking-dangerous-for-playoffs

Here are some excerpts:

Yes, I know the Bengals are dominant and unblemished at home. I also know San Diego won in Denver.

And I know, as I have written before, that, a strong regular season aside, I won't trust Bengals QB Andy Dalton or coach Marvin Lewis in the playoffs or pick them to win a game until I actually see it happen.

Let's be honest. Which quarterback would you put your faith in: Dalton or Rivers?

Through two career playoff games, Dalton has zero touchdowns against four picks. Remember, if Dalton had hit A.J. Green in Houston last year, Green would still be running and Cincy would have won.

If (when) the Chargers top the Bengals, the Bolts will face Denver in the divisional round. McCoy, a former Broncos offensive coordinator, knows Manning and the Broncos very well, as evidenced by the upset special earlier this season. All the pressure in such a matchup would be on Manning.

Sunday's heart-stopping insanity made it a quintessential day for Chargers fans, right? This team has looked brilliant this year -- and it's also had mind-numbing losses to the Raiders and Titans. Nothing was worse than the excruciating overtime defeat to the lowly Redskins in early November, a game that featured play-calling and execution from the 1-yard line in the dwindling moments of regulation that was straight out of the Norv Turner playbook.

Ultimately, though, San Diego was better than Baltimore, Miami and Pittsburgh.

The Chargers have more upside. And McCoy, who has been fantastic overall in his first year as an NFL head coach, has the matchup he needs.

The Bolts should beat the Bengals -- and I think they will. Again, ask yourself, which quarterback do you trust? And ask yourself, do the Broncos want to see the Chargers in two weeks?

Again, I really hope that the Bengals staff has someone who is assigned to scour the web for these kind of articles to hang in the locker room!

[membengal]

Just checking, isn't Dalton 2-0 against Rivers in his career?

I am really going to enjoy the butt-kicking the Bengals are going to dish out this weekend. Really, really enjoy it.

[jjakq27]

The Chargers got hot after they played us four weeks ago and they have a lot to crow about. However they benefited by playing the KC B-team on Sunday and still needed a lot of help to get in. Based on second half results the Steelers were better than the Chiefs down the stretch, but weren't quite good enough.

So I think it will be a tough game on Sunday but I believe the Bengals will win. This year feels different.

And I don't think we will get any national love until we win a couple of playoff games and knock off Denver or New England. And I'm ok with that. Truthfully we haven't really earned a whole lot yet. Andy and Marvin now have the opportunity to quiet their critics a little and continue to move this franchise forward.

I do need to point out that Tom Jackson and Mike Golic are the only two commentators that consistently praised the Bengals throughout the year. And Peter King ranked the Bengals as the number three team in the AFC behind NE and Denver. So props to them for taking the time to see the reality of this team. Screw the rest lol.

[skyline]

Honestly, I think this was the best matchup possibility for us.

1) Yes, the Chargers offense is something to be worried about. But if you're going to face them, then no better place to do it than at PBS. Not to mention the fact that we've shut it down once before, and this time it's the Chargers that will have to travel accross the country and play in weather they aren't accustomed to. At an odd time of day for them to top it off.

2) On the other side of the ball, their defense is not strong. If the game DOES turn into a shootout, then it's one in which our offense should be able to keep up. And, if it falters a bit, hopefully we can fall back onto point #1.

All assuming, of course, that they get over their big game jitters and execute. Granted, this is a big IF and it's the main question we're all waiting for an answer to.

[Wraith]

Well we won't know until Sunday, I mean it isn't as if the Bengals and the Chargers played this season....right? What would really be nice was if we had tape of a 2013 Bengals-Chargers game where both teams had everything on the line, that would really tell us which was the better team particularly if the game was IN San Diego, but alas we must just wish and wait for Sunday lacking any empirical evidence to make an accurate prediction.

I wonder what excuse the talking heads will come up with when the Bengals win on Sunday....wait...the SUN was in the Chargers' eyes the entire game....or perhaps the Chargers got in late and didn't get enough sleep...perhaps the, just wasn't built to play in this weather, card will come up...anything but giving the Bengals credit for being the better team and *gasp* having the better football organization.

The entire sports talking world will grind to a halt if the Bengals beat the Patriots in Foxboro BTW. Peter King might have a coronary, the entire ESPN NFL staff could have a collective aneurysm. Bruschi and Harrison might be struck dumb, just another reason to root for a Bengals win I guess.

[HoosierCat]

I read that piece by Schein (who rarely misses and opportunity to rag on the Bengals) too, Greg, and I think it falls apart once you examine his central premise:

Again, ask yourself, which quarterback do you trust?

Granted, Dalton has had two poor outings in the playoffs. OTOH, Phillip Rivers is hardly a postseason machine. In his 7 postseason games since 2006, Rivers is 3-4 and 1-2 on the road, and has thrown 9 picks to match his 9 TDs. His sole road win came in Indianapolis in January 2008 when the Colts coughed up the ball three times. And even that has an asterisk since Rivers left the game at the end of Q3 (knee) with the score 21-17 Chargers. Indy would retake the lead on a Vineteri FG and it was Billy Volek who led the game-winning Q4 drive.

So basically Andy Dalton is 0-0 at home in the playoffs, and Rivers is 0-2 in complete road playoff games. That's hardly a reason to trust Rivers more.

[Stripes]

The entire playoff game will be decided by Dalton and Rivers having a thumb war on the "B" logo.

[101Airborne]

I read that piece by Schein (who rarely misses and opportunity to rag on the Bengals) too, Greg, and I think it falls apart once you examine his central premise:

Again, ask yourself, which quarterback do you trust?

Granted, Dalton has had two poor outings in the playoffs. OTOH, Phillip Rivers is hardly a postseason machine. In his 7 postseason games since 2006, Rivers is 3-4 and 1-2 on the road, and has thrown 9 picks to match his 9 TDs. His sole road win came in Indianapolis in January 2008 when the Colts coughed up the ball three times. And even that has an asterisk since Rivers left the game at the end of Q3 (knee) with the score 21-17 Chargers. Indy would retake the lead on a Vineteri FG and it was Billy Volek who led the game-winning Q4 drive.

So basically Andy Dalton is 0-0 at home in the playoffs, and Rivers is 0-2 in complete road playoff games. That's hardly a reason to trust Rivers more.

The premise itself isn't even a logical argument. Which QB should we trust? How about which team do we trust? Since, you know, last time I checked the game had several phases and wasn't a playoff version of HORSE. But why bother looking at the defenses when we can just pretend that whichever team has the "better" QB is a lock for a win? If a sports writer is going to pick a team to win a game, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to have a better analysis of the game than "My guts tell me Rivers is da man and Andy Dalton is a bum." It kills me that forum posters find the time to look at games, trends and stats closer than the guys who are paid to do it.

[gregcook68]

I read that piece by Schein (who rarely misses and opportunity to rag on the Bengals) too, Greg, and I think it falls apart once you examine his central premise:

Again, ask yourself, which quarterback do you trust?

Granted, Dalton has had two poor outings in the playoffs. OTOH, Phillip Rivers is hardly a postseason machine. In his 7 postseason games since 2006, Rivers is 3-4 and 1-2 on the road, and has thrown 9 picks to match his 9 TDs. His sole road win came in Indianapolis in January 2008 when the Colts coughed up the ball three times. And even that has an asterisk since Rivers left the game at the end of Q3 (knee) with the score 21-17 Chargers. Indy would retake the lead on a Vineteri FG and it was Billy Volek who led the game-winning Q4 drive.

So basically Andy Dalton is 0-0 at home in the playoffs, and Rivers is 0-2 in complete road playoff games. That's hardly a reason to trust Rivers more.

One thing I've learned in my 60 years Hoosier, is the media, be it sports or news, thrives on sensationalism as your point proves.

Example: Our neighbors right across the street was a family of 5. Mother, father, and 3 daughters. After 14 years of depression, the father decided to take his life via suicide by cop. He got his rifle out at 2am in the morning, called 911 and reported a suspicious man with a rifle on our street. Cops came, he refused to drop his rifle, shot into the ground, cops unloaded on him and killed him.

That very morning the news media started pounding on doors and sitting in their vehicles waiting for neighbors to come home from work, for sensationalism. I was not home, and told my wife if they catch you coming home, ignore them!

Being our house was right across the street from the incident, they us staked out and we refused to say word to them, which didn't sit too well with them!

[Wraith]

BTW, there is 0% chance IMHO that this game is a shootout because of the Chargers' offensive production. Analyzing this season our defense hasn't allowed more than 28 points to any team this season (and that was to the Colts where 7 of those point were in garbage time).

Here are the points scored per opponent factoring out drives that went less than 30 yards.

Bears, 21. Steelers, 7 and 16 respectively. Packers, 17. Browns, 14 and 10 respectively. Pats, 6. Bills, 24. Lions, 24. Jets, 6. Dolphins, 10. Ravens, 10 and 11 respectively. Chargers, 7. Colts, 28 (but again 7 of those points were in garbage time with the Bengals holding a 3 TD lead). Vikes, 14.

The ONLY way based of the entire body of work this defense has put together that the Chargers score nor the 21 points is if the Offense gives them scores by turning over the football deep in our territory.

At home the numbers are even more impressive. Point totals against our defense are 7, 17, 10, 6, 6, 11, 14 and the outlier the Colts @ 28 (but I prefer to call that 21 because we were in prevent mode at the end of the game). Guys and Dolls, that equates to 11.5 pts per game on average at home...the Broncos would struggle to score 20 pts against us at home and the Chargers are not the Broncos.

[gregcook68]

BTW, there is 0% chance IMHO that this game is a shootout because of the Chargers' offensive production. Analyzing this season our defense hasn't allowed more than 28 points to any team this season (and that was to the Colts where 7 of those point were in garbage time).

Here are the points scored per opponent factoring in drives that went less then 30 yards were not factored in to this point total.

Bears, 21. Steelers, 7 and 16 respectively. Packers, 17. Browns, 14 and 10 respectively. Pats, 6. Bills, 24. Lions, 24. Jets, 6. Dolphins, 10. Ravens, 10 and 11 respectively. Chargers, 7. Colts, 28 (but again 7 of those points were in garbage time with the Bengals holding a 3 TD lead). Vikes, 14.

The ONLY way based of the entire body of work this defense has put together that the Chargers score nor the 21 points is if the Offense gives them scores by turning over the football deep in out territory.

At home the numbers are even more impressive. Point totals against our defense are 7, 17, 10, 6, 6, 11, 14 and the outlier the Colts @ 28 (but I prefer to call that 21 because we were in prevent mode at the end of the game). Guys and Dolls, that equates to 11.5 pts per game on average at home...the Broncos would struggle to score 20 pts against us at home and the Chargers are not the Broncos.

Talk about a defensive improvement;

We were 11-5 this year and lost 5 games by a total of 29 points.

We were 10-6 last year and lost the first game of the season by 31 points.

[HoosierCat]

The premise itself isn't even a logical argument.

Oh, I know, I just figured I would meet Schein on his own ground. Funny, I was listening to Mike & Mike on the way in today, and the two subs they had (Trev and the coach, I think, whoever they are) were talking about how it's all about the QB because that's all the casual fan cares about. NFL QBs are "Miley Cyruses" according to them and without the stars the casual fan won't care. Per them, if the Cowboys had made the playoffs they would have been a less compelling story because Tony Romo was out.

That's about the point where I thumbed the off switch on the radio.

@gregcook: wow, that's messed up. I would have told the media to get bent, too. Huge tragedy for a family and they completely validate the popular perception of journalists as vultures.