Bengals @ Texans Game Thread

[TJJackson]

didn't understand why the offense was snapping the ball with 10-15 seconds left on the playclock in the final 3 minutes - got to milk that baby down to 2-3 seconds then snap.

Makes me crazy

Happy for another road win, tho

[ArmyBengal]

This game wasn't as close as the score indicated and had the Bengals held on to the numerous picks they should have had, the score would have been a blowout as well.

On a side note, we had a great time down here in Houston and will make our way back tomorrow.

The Bengals front office needs to send their staff to a Texans home game to figure out how to draw fans to the stadium.

This place was AWESOME !! I would pay more to watch a game in this stadium.

The Bengals and PBS can't compare to this stadium experience.

Happy for the win. 3 more in a row and I'm back on board.

[gregcook68]

Would have been better with a Browns loss, the bengals have no room for error at all.

Last year with the Browns sucking, Pitt not the same, Ravens not the same the bengals had there way with getting the division. This year is tough, and we will see what this team is made of this year.

For all the bitching and moaning the Bengals are 0.5 games (and would be 1 game if Nuge could kick) better than they were at this point last season. And that's with a tougher sked and tougher division.

And they haven't had their best defensive player all year!

[HoosierCat]

looks like we knocked Mallett out for a few weeks.

/>http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/23/mallett-could-miss-several-weeks-with-pectoral-injury/

Welcome back Ryan Fitzpatrick!

[gregcook68]

I saw something yesterday, I had never seen before, and when I saw it, I felt like it 'might' be a turning point for the whole team.

I'm sure most of you picked up on it, but there was one pass that Green caught near the sideline, and after the catch, when he turned to come back to the huddle, he was VERBALLY FIRED UP!! He wasn't talking trash to anybody else, just kind of to himself and anyone of the teammates around that heard him. You could tell by watching that he was yelling whatever he was saying!

I've NEVER seen that from him, and maybe, just maybe, it will carry on into December and January!

[volcom69]

He yelled "You better get somebody else to cover me"

Yea it was nice to see them fired up

[HoosierCat]

I saw something yesterday, I had never seen before, and when I saw it, I felt like it 'might' be a turning point for the whole team.

I'm sure most of you picked up on it, but there was one pass that Green caught near the sideline, and after the catch, when he turned to come back to the huddle, he was VERBALLY FIRED UP!! He wasn't talking trash to anybody else, just kind of to himself and anyone of the teammates around that heard him. You could tell by watching that he was yelling whatever he was saying!

I've NEVER seen that from him, and maybe, just maybe, it will carry on into December and January!

Yup. I've said before that AJ is an incredibly physically gifted player, but he has a tendency to coast on those gifts. But the last couple of weeks, coaches have gotten on him to take his game to the next level and we've seen the results. When he actually applies himself on top of his natural abilities, he's nearly unstoppable.

This has been one of my hobbyhorses with this team for quite some time: they have games where they don't exactly play badly, but no one makes a play. Everyone is kind of waiting for someone else to make a splash. And they finally addressed that after yesterday's game.

"Cleveland was a game we felt like we were prepared for but just went out there and kind of waited for something to happen for us instead of coming out with that confidence, swagger and zip on the ball, running crisp routes, powerful running, those kind of things we really felt like defined who we are," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "Those things, you have to make them happen. This team has finally taken that step."

DING DING DING we have a winner! But I would take issue with that last sentence. To quote Marvin later in the same piece:

"No," Marvin Lewis said. "We are going to keep turning corners. There is no 'arrived' in the NFL."

"There is no arrived in the NFL." Can the coaches please please PLEASE spray paint that on every available surface inside PBS? This is the heart of the problem that leads to everything above. This team has a couple good games and they think they've done something, and the result is stuff like Cleveland.

Honestly, in 20/20 hindsight I'm kind of glad Cleveland happened. They took a pie to the face on national TV, every talking head jumped off the bandwagon and wrote about how they stink, and the fan base lined up to whiz in their Cheerios. If that's what it took to finally get this team to figure out that every game is its own 3-hour season, then it was well worth it.

[princeton]

I think these Not-Ready-for-Prime-Timers are more Chevy Chase than Bill Murray.

but, let them talk.

as for me, wake me after December 22.

[gregcook68]

I saw something yesterday, I had never seen before, and when I saw it, I felt like it 'might' be a turning point for the whole team.

I'm sure most of you picked up on it, but there was one pass that Green caught near the sideline, and after the catch, when he turned to come back to the huddle, he was VERBALLY FIRED UP!! He wasn't talking trash to anybody else, just kind of to himself and anyone of the teammates around that heard him. You could tell by watching that he was yelling whatever he was saying!

I've NEVER seen that from him, and maybe, just maybe, it will carry on into December and January!

Yup. I've said before that AJ is an incredibly physically gifted player, but he has a tendency to coast on those gifts. But the last couple of weeks, coaches have gotten on him to take his game to the next level and we've seen the results. When he actually applies himself on top of his natural abilities, he's nearly unstoppable.

This has been one of my hobbyhorses with this team for quite some time: they have games where they don't exactly play badly, but no one makes a play. Everyone is kind of waiting for someone else to make a splash. And they finally addressed that after yesterday's game.

"Cleveland was a game we felt like we were prepared for but just went out there and kind of waited for something to happen for us instead of coming out with that confidence, swagger and zip on the ball, running crisp routes, powerful running, those kind of things we really felt like defined who we are," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "Those things, you have to make them happen. This team has finally taken that step."

DING DING DING we have a winner! But I would take issue with that last sentence. To quote Marvin later in the same piece:

"No," Marvin Lewis said. "We are going to keep turning corners. There is no 'arrived' in the NFL."

"There is no arrived in the NFL." Can the coaches please please PLEASE spray paint that on every available surface inside PBS? This is the heart of the problem that leads to everything above. This team has a couple good games and they think they've done something, and the result is stuff like Cleveland.

Honestly, in 20/20 hindsight I'm kind of glad Cleveland happened. They took a pie to the face on national TV, every talking head jumped off the bandwagon and wrote about how they stink, and the fan base lined up to whiz in their Cheerios. If that's what it took to finally get this team to figure out that every game is its own 3-hour season, then it was well worth it.

Well said. There's one area that could set Green apart from the pack and that's the aggressive instinct to come 'back' to a poorly thrown ball. I didn't see the replays yet, but it seemed like he may have been able to come back and at least contest the interception and pick 6 yesterday. I could be wrong. He may not have had the opportunity on that particular ball, but that's also an area in his game that Jackson has addressed with him.

[HoosierCat]

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this but I put the pick 6 squarely on the refs.

The reason Dalton threw a bad ball was that he was falling away from Clowney who was about to level him. And the reason Clowney was in his face so fast was that the refs let him line up in the neutral zone and get a head start on his pass rush.

I've never been one to buy "the games are fixed" conspiracies but yesterday sorely tempted me. That wasn't the only play Houston lined up offsides on and didn't get called. One ref tried twice to flag the Bengals for unnecessary roughness only to have his flags picked up by the other refs. The hold on Hewitt was a joke. And apparently JJ Watt is allowed to get free hits on the QB whenever he wants, no flag, because, you know, he's an MVP and all. Ultimately none of it mattered but it was still a horrible day of officiating.

[cincyhokie]

I saw something yesterday, I had never seen before, and when I saw it, I felt like it 'might' be a turning point for the whole team.

I'm sure most of you picked up on it, but there was one pass that Green caught near the sideline, and after the catch, when he turned to come back to the huddle, he was VERBALLY FIRED UP!! He wasn't talking trash to anybody else, just kind of to himself and anyone of the teammates around that heard him. You could tell by watching that he was yelling whatever he was saying!

I've NEVER seen that from him, and maybe, just maybe, it will carry on into December and January!

I saw that too! From that play on it just seemed like the Bengals day.

[Wraith]

Cincyjungle has a great writeup on the Clooney neutral zone issue. You are absolutely correct and it was even postulated that maybe Dalton thought he had a free play.

[gregcook68]

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this but I put the pick 6 squarely on the refs.

The reason Dalton threw a bad ball was that he was falling away from Clowney who was about to level him. And the reason Clowney was in his face so fast was that the refs let him line up in the neutral zone and get a head start on his pass rush.

I've never been one to buy "the games are fixed" conspiracies but yesterday sorely tempted me. That wasn't the only play Houston lined up offsides on and didn't get called. One ref tried twice to flag the Bengals for unnecessary roughness only to have his flags picked up by the other refs. The hold on Hewitt was a joke. And apparently JJ Watt is allowed to get free hits on the QB whenever he wants, no flag, because, you know, he's an MVP and all. Ultimately none of it mattered but it was still a horrible day of officiating.

I didn't see it happen live but I have watched replays of it now, and it's very clear that Clowney was way offsides.

Also, it looks like Green had turned around in time to see the ball was off, and still had a chance to contest.

[HoosierCat]

Exhibit 247 in the category of "why you should take PFF's numbers with a big grain of salt."

/>https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/11/24/refo-bengals-texans-week-12/

Yup. According to PFF, Marshall Newhouse graded out a horrible -5.6 yesterday, while JJ Watt was a tremendous +8.9.

:wacko:/>

[volcom69]

Watt can't do anything wrong its as simple as that! Awesome job by Newhouse yesterday in giving Dalton time, guys might not like him but he did his job. It's not the first game he did that either, need him to keep it up!

[JohnsonX5]

Possibly even worse than the Clowney offside non-call imo, Gio had his facemask ripped completely off his head by Cushing with just under 10 minutes to go. He was the freaking ball carrier on the play! Let me repeat. The ball carrier's helmet is completely pulled off his head by a defender and nobody notices. Unreal. Would've made it first and goal inside their ten. Instead we get two straight incomplete passes and use a timeout.

[HoosierCat]

Thanks for the pic. That's just ridiculous.

[GapControl]

Wow I did not see that face ask penalty watching it live. That is a horrendous missed call! Gio isn't going to have many years in this league. The defense is out to punish him. Cheating even.

[ArmyBengal]

This from a Marvin press conference:

What I was amazed at yesterday when I looked up there at kickoff, all their people were in the stands. It was amazing. I was shocked. I said that to Mike Brown on the bus last night on the way to the airport, ‘I couldn’t believe their crowd was in the seats at kickoff like that.’ It was amazing. People come out there, and they come out to have a good time, but I guess they come out to watch the game too, which is good (Laughs).

This is what I was talking about before. The fans were in their seats prior to kickoff because the Texans organization interacts with the fans before and all throughout the game. When you have a fanbase that knows the front office makes it a point to engage you, the fans make it a point to be there for that. It's part of the stadium experience for the fans there and how the Texans work to make the in stadium experience better than sitting in your recliner at home.

I mentioned it to the people sitting around me that I couldn't believe everyone was in their seats prior to kickoff.

They said, "wait to you see the player introductions !!"

It really was a very cool game experience and my son loved it.

I wish the Bengals would look into that more. It wouldn't take that much at all.

[HoosierCat]

Unfortunately, the media have dismissed his comments as "trolling" Bengals fans. The idea it represents a genuine call to the FO to better engage the fans and thus boost home field advantage has completely escaped them.

[ArmyBengal]

Whatever happened with the new jumbotrons anyway ??

Is that going to happen or are they arguing money ?? Am I incorrect in thinking they had this agreed upon ??

My point is that the Texans use of their widescreens in how they engaged the crowd was amazing.

I felt like I was at a rock concert and would love to see them generate that type of an environment at PBS.

You would have thought the Texans were Super Bowl contenders seeing how the fans reacted and how loud it was there.

It was STUPID loud in that joint !!!

[HoosierCat]

Exhibit 247 in the category of "why you should take PFF's numbers with a big grain of salt."

/>https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/11/24/refo-bengals-texans-week-12/

Yup. According to PFF, Marshall Newhouse graded out a horrible -5.6 yesterday, while JJ Watt was a tremendous +8.9.

:wacko:/>/>

Lol this just in from Brennen on Twitter:

@JustBeWarned: Massive PFF grade corrections for Bengals-Texans game. All 5 offensive lineman and Hewitt have received a bump up. Watt down. Geno down.

[ArmyBengal]

I know there are the stat guys that love that stuff, but it all comes down to the "W" for me.

Was Outhouse a part of getting the Bengals that "W" ?? Yes ?? Color me happy !!!

Next...

[TJJackson]

Exhibit 247 in the category of "why you should take PFF's numbers with a big grain of salt."

/>https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/11/24/refo-bengals-texans-week-12/

Yup. According to PFF, Marshall Newhouse graded out a horrible -5.6 yesterday, while JJ Watt was a tremendous +8.9.

:wacko:/>/>/>

@JustBeWarned: Massive PFF grade corrections for Bengals-Texans game. All 5 offensive lineman and Hewitt have received a bump up. Watt down. Geno down.

I dont see any corrections on their website

[HoosierCat]

See here:

/>http://boards.bengals.com/showthread.php?t=128462