Week 11: Bengals @ Ravens Game Thread

[HoosierCat]

I have no hope. Season's end prep begun. Draft talk incoming.

[COB]

Going to be tough to beat the Ravens on the road at night on short rest.  But you know what they say, “Any given Thursday (at night on the road).”  

[HoosierCat]

I think Hobs noted that they haven’t won a prime time road game since 2012.

[volcom69]

I know they are 5-4, but this 5-4 seems different then other years. Something about Sundays game just seemed off, the atmosphere, the emotions of the players things just seemed off. Reporters were saying the team was quite and just blah after the game, where as other games they would be pissed yelling things like that, not that this means anything but it just had a different feeling to it.

Im just not sure anymore about Zac calling these plays, that goal line sequence was terrible, I know Boyd dropped the pass, but before that his play calling sucked. I will once again can we run the ball more then 12 times a freaking game!!! Also anyone else notice when the Bengals get off script because of how a defense is playing that Zac has no clue to over counter it, and the offense plays like shit. I thought it was because of Joes calf, I think it’s more of his play calling. Oh and get a new o-line coach please, this o-line still has no clue how to block. Other teams get the lead then start blitzing and these guys look so lost out there.

So now they have no DE, Murphy has been pretty much a no show, sure he showed signs, but for a first rounder I would hope for me then just signs! They do nothing again on trade deadline, for somebody to come in and help. 
 

Hopefully they can overcome things and get on a winning streak here, but just does not feel like other years.

[Stripes]

I’m just gonna see what happens. It’ll be even tougher with both DEs out. But frankly, the Ravens in their current regime are never as good as they look.

[HoosierCat]

1 hour ago, volcom69 said:

I know they are 5-4, but this 5-4 seems different then other years. Something about Sundays game just seemed off, the atmosphere, the emotions of the players things just seemed off. Reporters were saying the team was quite and just blah after the game, where as other games they would be pissed yelling things like that, not that this means anything but it just had a different feeling to it.

Im just not sure anymore about Zac calling these plays, that goal line sequence was terrible, I know Boyd dropped the pass, but before that his play calling sucked. I will once again can we run the ball more then 12 times a freaking game!!! Also anyone else notice when the Bengals get off script because of how a defense is playing that Zac has no clue to over counter it, and the offense plays like shit. I thought it was because of Joes calf, I think it’s more of his play calling. Oh and get a new o-line coach please, this o-line still has no clue how to block. Other teams get the lead then start blitzing and these guys look so lost out there.

So now they have no DE, Murphy has been pretty much a no show, sure he showed signs, but for a first rounder I would hope for me then just signs! They do nothing again on trade deadline, for somebody to come in and help. 
 

Hopefully they can overcome things and get on a winning streak here, but just does not feel like other years.

At the end of the day I have to give props to Houston. They came in focused and hungry and outplayed the Bengals on both sides of the ball. If I were the Bengals I would have been pretty somber afterwards too because they flat out got beat. And that goes for the coaches as well.

Houston put the dagger in position. Ravens can sink it in Thursday.

[volcom69]

Oh no doubt Houston wanted it more and you could tell, because they took it. 

[volcom69]

Man watching some of these videos showing just how bad the relief DL are on this team is just bad. They draft guys who right now are just show glimpses every now and then, and they need a lot more from them. What a mess on that line right now. Oh and letting Bates go and I know they didn’t have much of a choice but to choose this Nick Scott and still think he is good enough to start is mind blowing to me.

[HoosierCat]

Eh, it's one of those catch-22 things. Practice and preseason only go so far. The only way to get guys like Ossai or Murphy up to NFL speed (and see if they really have what it takes) is live reps.

But giving them live reps means taking Hendrickson and Hubbard off the field. And the Bengals aren't going to do that unless forced. 

This week, they're been forced.

Frankly I'm not expecting much. If they have any chance to win imo it will be by the offense scoring lots of points. But on that front Higgins is still out and Iosivas has a knee injury (not sure how severe), so they keep going in the wrong direction in terms of available weapons.

Maybe Zac could run the ba...(busts out in uncontrollable laughter)

[ArmyBengal]

The lack of a pass rush against Stroud was very evident.  I blame their inability to pressure Stroud as much as anything else resulting in the "L".
They aren't going to be able to sit back and let Lamar have that much time.  
He will either pick them apart or take off running if things break down.

Speaking of running...  How they hell do they allow Singletary to break off 150 rushing yards?
He was their only RB who had more than 1 carry.  No pass rush and allow the backup RB to kill them.  UGH !!

The Ravens are expected to be without both OT's from what I heard, but we are expected to be without our starting DE's, so no luck there.
I just don't have much faith they walk away from this game with a win.  They aren't the better team, on the road, injuries, coming off bad beat.
Sadly I think we are looking at 5-5 and a rough path to get into the playoff mix.

Please surprise me Bengals...

[Stripes]

I think I have a different impression to the consensus here (though I get it). The Texans loss was a gut punch, but it was also standalone in a few dimensions. That's their worst defensive game of the season and probably one of their worst ever under Anarumo. Houston was coming in very hot offensively, and the Bengals simply didn't have an answer. The Ravens have scored points, but they haven't been quite as daunting as Houston in that regard. They're more one-dimensional (at least than the Houston team that came to our stadium), and Anarumo clearly knows them better. I even think front four pass rush is less important against Baltimore than maybe any other team in the NFL. When the Bengals have been successful against Lamar, it has been with containment and mush-rushing. They'll miss Hubbard in that role, but it might be more manageable for a Murphy type if he isn't getting pressure on his own.

The game may well be decided by the offensive line. They were also horrendous against the Texans. That doesn't necessarily define them, but if it happens again it will hamper Burrow and mitigate our best advantage. In the very recent past this team obliterated the 49ers on the road and made the Bills look like children. Those are just as real as the Houston failure was. The "real" Bengals team may lie somewhere in between, at least as of right this moment, and that is enough to beat Baltimore. We just need Joe Burrow to be an elite quarterback to have a shot.

[ArmyBengal]

I will agree that the 49er's and Bills wins were big wins and indicative of what this team is capable of.
They should have handled the Texans regardless of how hot they have been and I don't give injuries as a good enough reason.
This year's Ravens team simply appears better than the Bengals to me.

If I'm being honest, had Lamar not went down with injuries last year, we may not have been the best team then either.

[AMPHAR]

Boring fundamental football gives the best chance to slow Lamar.   Contain, don't rush past the Qb, tackle.    As soon as 1 element falls out of place, good chance he will burn them.     Very difficult to do because they have an array plays that they option the DE in the run game as well.   But tackling is the biggest issue because they are going to get theirs with that O-line just try to limit the damage.   The one down side to Logan and Pratt is they tackle the football and that can lead to a few extra yards.   The Ravens are league leaders in fumbles so hopefully the Bengals can pop one loose and not give up too many extra yards in the process of trying to create fumbles.

But you can see in every game vs. Ravens the DEs are not hell bent in beating the tackle around the edge in pass rush.   They try not to rush too deep because you can't let Lamar up in the pocket.   Similar in the run game there's a lot of option action with Lamar and a RB.  A lot of times the DE has to be disciplined in holding ground.  

[HoosierCat]

Week 18 note: Watson out for the season in Cleveland.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/afc-north-shakeup-browns-qb-deshaun-watson-out-for-season

So…for their $230 million fully guaranteed deal, the Browns in 2 years have gotten 12 starts, 8 wins and a QB rating of 81.7.

Ouch.

[COB]

2 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Week 18 note: Watson out for the season in Cleveland.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/afc-north-shakeup-browns-qb-deshaun-watson-out-for-season

So…for their $230 million fully guaranteed deal, the Browns in 2 years have gotten 12 starts, 8 wins and a QB rating of 81.7.

Ouch.

Whoa.  What a colossal mistake.  They had this incredible window, and one decision wrecked it.  
 

And there is really no way out for the Browns.  At the earliest, they cut him after the 2025 season, and they still, in that scenario, incur double the largest dead cap hit ever.  
 

“In time, your compromise will be karmically punished.”

[AMPHAR]

3 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Week 18 note: Watson out for the season in Cleveland.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/afc-north-shakeup-browns-qb-deshaun-watson-out-for-season

So…for their $230 million fully guaranteed deal, the Browns in 2 years have gotten 12 starts, 8 wins and a QB rating of 81.7.

Ouch.

Ouch.     They made some cap decisions, which I assume was to capitalize on a window.  Well last year eroded because of suspension,  this year just tragic bad luck and Watson was not an elite QB ever this year.    They have some cap headaches that are not impossible to overcome but they'll have to draft extremely well or hope they did these past couple years.

Cleveland looks to already be over next year's projected cap by $7m and have 22 guys hitting some form of FA.  Not good.

 

[ArmyBengal]

That leaves either the rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson or PJ Walker for the rest of the season.

Ouch from more than one perspective, although I liked DTR coming out of UCLA.
Guess we will get to watch and see what happens !!

[HoosierCat]

1 hour ago, AMPHAR said:

Ouch.     They made some cap decisions, which I assume was to capitalize on a window.  Well last year eroded because of suspension,  this year just tragic bad luck and Watson was not an elite QB ever this year.    They have some cap headaches that are not impossible to overcome but they'll have to draft extremely well or hope they did these past couple years.

Cleveland looks to already be over next year's projected cap by $7m and have 22 guys hitting some form of FA.  Not good.

 

I think they have like $33 million in space this year they can roll over so that will help but yeah, your point stands. Things will be tight for a bit up there.

[HoosierCat]

Baby:

Bengals WR Tee Higgins (hamstring), WR Andrei Iosivas (knee) and DE Sam Hubbard (ankle) are all out for Thursday's game against Baltimore.

https://www.threads.net/@bbaby41/post/CzrYDBcu4ym/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Looks like Hendrickson will play tho.

[ArmyBengal]

Kind of expected that news.  Having Trey is a bonus.

[COB]

It’s pretty much the season.  Win this game and there is hope.  Lose and playoffs are out, just spoiler role is left.  

[Stripes]

I think the AFC North will be won by tomorrow's winner.

[ArmyBengal]

Yeah they can’t go 0-2 to the Ravens and think they are going to win the North. I wouldn’t completely rule out the playoffs yet, but they wouldn’t be far.

[AMPHAR]

19 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

I think they have like $33 million in space this year they can roll over so that will help but yeah, your point stands. Things will be tight for a bit up there.

I think the $7m over includes the roll over of $34m if I'm reading Spotrac correctly.

[AMPHAR]

The NFL is designed for this type of drama week to week.   Each week is a new set of hot takes on how the season progresses.    When there was only 6 seeds, 5-5 was a decent spot to be in.    Adding a game, Adding a playoff spot, and back loading the schedules with division/conference games probably makes 5-5 a better position than before.

Nothing is earned or lost regardless of the results tonight.    The results simply kick off a new set of hot takes.   

Any team hovering around .500 this late that can reasonably expect high level QB play as Burrow and Jackson have shown; should not be counted out of anything with 7 games to play, IMO.

I would not count Houston out because CJ is playing very high level football.   But if you look at it reasonably.  It took an awesome QB game from CJ along with 2 4th quarter Ints, and a dropped TD pass to stop the Bengals from winning 5 in a row.  

The Bengals probably roll tonight in a tight one, but they aren't in the clear for playoffs or division.