cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Did anyone else catch this? He referenced Brady's situation in 2001 when he replaced Bledsoe to lead the Pats to the SB. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000600626/article/aj-mccarron-tom-brady-was-in-the-same-situation I'm weirdly excited to see how all of this plays out. If there's a team that is tight enough to rally around a backup QB, it's this team. If there's a team that's pissed enough to run the table and get a bye, it's this team. If there's a QB that is cocky enough and has championship experience to draw from it's McCarron. I kind of feel like the Bengals are in the drivers seat AND they're playing with house money. That's a good spot to be in. I'm kind of pumped. Am I alone in this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BengalszoneBilly Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Not alone. I like the attitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 “A.J. did a heck of a job,’ Whitworth said. “His passion, his accountability in the huddle. Quarterbacks all have different personalities, but he’s got one of those rally-the-troop personalities. ‘Just give me a chance, let me make this play,’ type of guy. I think he’s got that. It’s a special thing not a lot of guys have and he has that. We’ll see where he goes from here.” http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Hits-Dalton-may-be-out-year-pending-exam-Whit-blames-NFL-McCarron-in-fire-Dre-belted-3rd-downer/d5ec43aa-d1b4-4047-8197-027cac58c05a 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregcook68 Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 I think it comes down to the injury situation, assuming Dalton is done for the season, how severe are the injuries, how many players are affected, etc. If Dalton is the only loss, and AJ gets everyone back, at that point anything is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmyBengal Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 I like AJ at QB if Dalton is done. There are far worse options other teams are currently sporting. He's not the largest concern though. Eifert, Burfict, the secondary. AJ is going to need everyone healthy and motivated to make up for his inexperience. Color me excited to see how he does though. I love the excitement from him, like on that long ball to Green. He was crazy pumped !!! Love THAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 The next Brady. Heh. I'll settle for AJ being the next Jeff Hostetler. But the reality almost certainly is that McCarron is the next...Andy Dalton. The two are virtually clones. If you took their names and teams off their old draft profiles, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which one was which. The trouble is, McCarron is probably 2011 Andy Dalton, before he spent years improving his deep accuracy, pocket presence, decision-making and arm strength. There's also a question about how much of a pounding he can take. Remember, he missed all of last year with a lingering shoulder issue and complained that he was never really healthy at Bama. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COB Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 7 minutes ago, HoosierCat said: But the reality almost certainly is that McCarron is the next...Andy Dalton. How dare you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volcom69 Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 This issue with AJ is he is not proven so we really don't know what they have in him. The other reality is teams needing to go to there backup QB this year have struggled big time. The bengals need all units to step up big time if they want to win, and hopefully this can happen. An actual running game would be nice as well. That is one thing on offense we have not seen much of is a running game. Not sure if that's what this O-line is good at anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 I didn't take it as he was comparing himself to Brady. He was comparing the situation to Brady's. As in...anything can happen. I like his attitude. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmyBengal Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Here's something I find irritating with Dalton's injury. As recently as last week, it was "They can't win a playoff game with Dalton". Today it's, "They can't win a playoff game without Dalton". I would rather have Andy in there, but it is what it is. AJ has a great opportunity. He needs the team to step up and be healthy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 11 minutes ago, volcom69 said: An actual running game would be nice as well. That is one thing on offense we have not seen much of is a running game. Not sure if that's what this O-line is good at anyways. I guarantee you that SF, Denver and Baltimore will all load up the box and dare McCarron to beat them, so you can probably forget about the running game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 4 minutes ago, ArmyBengal said: Here's something I find irritating with Dalton's injury. As recently as last week, it was "They can't win a playoff game with Dalton". Today it's, "They can't win a playoff game without Dalton". I would rather have Andy in there, but it is what it is. AJ has a great opportunity. He needs the team to step up and be healthy. The only people that believe in the team is the team. They're in an underdog role again. Which is where they play their best football. They have plenty of weapons and a solid defense. They've got enough talent to adjust and play to McCarron's strengths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmyBengal Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Will they load the box and dare AJ ?? Probably, but that's where I think getting Eifert back healthy makes the difference. Someone is always going to be left one on one and I think AJ has the ability to take advantage of that. I could be wrong and he might totally implode, but I just don't have that feeling going into this coming game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregcook68 Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 1 hour ago, ArmyBengal said: I like AJ at QB if Dalton is done. There are far worse options other teams are currently sporting. He's not the largest concern though. Eifert, Burfict, the secondary. AJ is going to need everyone healthy and motivated to make up for his inexperience. Color me excited to see how he does though. I love the excitement from him, like on that long ball to Green. He was crazy pumped !!! Love THAT. This.....I said it earlier, if he can get everyone back on both sides of the ball...... you never know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Monday Morning MD on the injury. Quote One misguided play may have changed a season. When Andy Dalton broke his thumb making a tackle on an interception, the Bengals went from a possible #1 seed to just trying to hang on. The Bengals signal caller didn’t even know he was hurt until he tried to grip a football. Any throwing hand thumb injury is devastating for a QB since you can’t throw the ball if you can’t grip a ball. By video, the specific injury is hard to pin down as one cannot definitively see the position of his thumb when it contacts the interceptor’s knee. Although a fracture has been confirmed, the question remains which bone and if it is displaced. The best-case scenario is a non-displaced, stable tip fracture where Dalton might be able to play in 2-4 weeks. The worst-case scenario (and the worry here) is a Bennett’s fracture/dislocation at the carpometacarpal joint. This would mean surgery and end of his season, unless his team has a deep playoff run. Ryan Fitzpatrick recently played through his thumb injury and even had surgery without missing a game, but that was on his non-dominant side. Dalton was having a stellar year but has never won a playoff game. Now it appears that his team will have to get there and win a post-season game without their star QB in order to have a chance to get him back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COB Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Eh, Dalton wasn't exactly shredding defenses with precision passing. He doesn't really extend plays with pocket awareness or movement. A ton of his throws are short dump-offs that let the real athletes on our team gain the yards that Dalton later gets credit for in his passing stats. His downfield stuff just sort of gets in the neighborhood and our pass-catch-radius freak goes and gets them. It's a lot of pre-snap read, and go with it. Really, if a backup qb had to step into any offense mid season and start games, this is the offense. There are very few offenses in this league that ask so little of the quarterback. It's frustrating at times, but then a time like this comes around and you can see the wisdom in it. If we had an irreplaceable, lantern-jawed gunslinger, we'd pretty much be screwed. But with this offense, if they can just teach clipboard jesus not to let defensive backs bait him into throwing picks, I think we'll be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingwilly Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 18 hours ago, cincyhokie said: Did anyone else catch this? He referenced Brady's situation in 2001 when he replaced Bledsoe to lead the Pats to the SB. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000600626/article/aj-mccarron-tom-brady-was-in-the-same-situation I'm weirdly excited to see how all of this plays out. If there's a team that is tight enough to rally around a backup QB, it's this team. If there's a team that's pissed enough to run the table and get a bye, it's this team. If there's a QB that is cocky enough and has championship experience to draw from it's McCarron. I kind of feel like the Bengals are in the drivers seat AND they're playing with house money. That's a good spot to be in. I'm kind of pumped. Am I alone in this? love the enthusiasm but these feels like some pretty bit overstatements. I think the fly in this soup is that AJ is just a passable NFL QB, and by that I mean middle of the road average, without any specific upside, like has good mobility, or a big arm, or is hard to get to the ground. He's quite a bit like Dalton, who I've always felt, until the run this year, is a Kitna level QB. Here's hoping AJ can execute the offense they cater to him. There is quite a bit of talent to largely offset the limitations he has but he can't make the bad throws we saw Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 4 minutes ago, kingwilly said: love the enthusiasm but these feels like some pretty bit overstatements. I think the fly in this soup is that AJ is just a passable NFL QB, and by that I mean middle of the road average, without any specific upside, like has good mobility, or a big arm, or is hard to get to the ground. He's quite a bit like Dalton, who I've always felt, until the run this year, is a Kitna level QB. Here's hoping AJ can execute the offense they cater to him. There is quite a bit of talent to largely offset the limitations he has but he can't make the bad throws we saw Sunday. Meh. Part of the problem with our situation is that we, as fans, have perpetuated the situation in our heads. This isn't the Charlie Brown team we've seen in the past. We have a very good football team to root for. It's not going to stop this season. Its not going to stop if they lose in the playoffs. I'm as guilty as anyone for overreacting when they hit a slide. Damn, they're 10-3 and are in line to win the division. Let's have some fun with this. No one expects them to do shit. Let's see what they can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Also, I think one of the reasons they can tend to taper off and fade out at the end of the season is they play themselves into not being the underdog. Now they are serious underdogs. And if you've been paying attention, that's when this team plays it's best football. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingwilly Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 I am extremely hopeful, and eager to see how they adapt with AJ. Maybe he can be clean and smooth, in the mold of Drew Brees or someone like that. I will be excited to see it, since I'll be there next Sunday in person with my family, so we will see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BengalszoneBilly Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 2 hours ago, cincyhokie said: Damn, they're 10-3 and are in line to win the division. Let's have some fun with this. No one expects them to do shit. Let's see what they can do. I'm with hokie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 The numbers say it's over, unless Dalton can make it back. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/losing-andy-dalton-crushes-the-bengals-championship-hopes/?ex_cid=538twitter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingwilly Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 maybe they could convince ($$$) Favre to come up and play 5 or six games? Would have to be better than McCarron or Ponder, or whoever. Yes, call me cray-cray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregcook68 Posted December 15, 2015 Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 1 hour ago, kingwilly said: maybe they could convince ($$$) Favre to come up and play 5 or six games? Would have to be better than McCarron or Ponder, or whoever. Yes, call me cray-cray. What about Boomer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincyhokie Posted December 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 3 hours ago, HoosierCat said: The numbers say it's over, unless Dalton can make it back. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/losing-andy-dalton-crushes-the-bengals-championship-hopes/?ex_cid=538twitter Personally, I never thought they would get to the Superbowl this year. But what they can do in the playoffs without Dalton might have a bigger impact on the team going into the future. The way I see it right now, the Bengals are on a collision path to play the Steelers in the WC round. They might even get the #2 seed. But,imagine what beating the Steelers in the playoffs would do for them. At this point, they're officially playing with house money. And bring on the Steelers. That's who I want them to play. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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