Week 18: Bengals @ Steelers

[HoosierCat]

Saturday 8 pm. Broadcast abc/espn.

Miami/Jets, KC/Denver 4:25 pm Sunday.

Browns/Ravens is Saturday at 4:30 pm so the Steelers will know if they still have a shot at the division by game time.

[ArmyBengal]

The Miami/Jets game is also a 4:25pm start time on Sunday.

Will be rooting for the Ravens, not that it should be challenging this time around.
That way the Steelers won't have the division title on the line against the Bengals.
A win would have them back in Baltimore for the wild card game.  A loss would see them travel to Houston.
If I were the Steelers, I'd rather go to Houston, so losing to the Bengals might not be the worst thing for them in the long run.

[ArmyBengal]

Yeah, it's AI, but I found this amusing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEqsCU7PPY

"You get 6 points, you get 6 points"

[HoosierCat]

5 hours ago, ArmyBengal said:

The Miami/Jets game is also a 4:25pm start time on Sunday.

Fixed, thanks!

 

[HoosierCat]

5 hours ago, ArmyBengal said:

Will be rooting for the Ravens, not that it should be challenging this time around.
That way the Steelers won't have the division title on the line against the Bengals.
A win would have them back in Baltimore for the wild card game.  A loss would see them travel to Houston.
If I were the Steelers, I'd rather go to Houston, so losing to the Bengals might not be the worst thing for them in the long run.

Yeah that’s my thinking as well.

[COB]

Struggling Houston or red hot Baltimore.  East choice, go ahead and tank, useless Pittsburgh Steelers.

[COB]

What’s holding the Bengals back?
 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6026641/2024/12/30/joe-burrow-bengals-zac-taylor-defense/?source=user_shared_article

[COB]

“It’s hard to build a team around your stars if you don’t identify ascending players and take some risks to get them signed earlier,” one exec said.

[HoosierCat]

1 hour ago, COB said:

What’s holding the Bengals back?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6026641/2024/12/30/joe-burrow-bengals-zac-taylor-defense/?source=user_shared_article

All that and a bunch more. Missed kicks. Missed tackles. Stalling out in the red and purple zones leading to fourth down tries that fail. Injuries at OT and poor interior oline play. Underperforming draft picks. A front office that treats the trade deadline as just another day. And on and on and on.

[ArmyBengal]

I don’t even need to read that to know what it says. The same thing any article says about why the Bengals seemingly underachieve.

Same shit.
Sadly true.

[Stripes]

Current Vegas spreads in games we care about:

CIN favored over PIT by 1.5
MIA favored over NYJ by 1
DEN favored over KC by 9.5

[ArmyBengal]

I would be inclined to take KC and the 9.5 in that one.
I don’t think it’s a throw away game.
Wish they were playing in KC.

[TJJackson]

Calling it now

We beat Shittsburgh so we can make our draft slot worse

Miami beats the pitiful Jets

Denver beats the Chiefs

[Stripes]

One of these days I want to see a draft lottery system. I don't even want it like the NBA with weighted probabilities.

Every non-playoff team has an equal probability of being the #1 overall. Nobody is rewarded for being horrible. Nobody is punished for playing to win.

[HoosierCat]

The good news, such as it is, on the draft is that they’re at 16 now and the most they can drop is one more spot. I think the best they could do now is 13, and that would involve Miami getting in over Denver. Realistically if they lose and some other likely things happen, maybe they bump up to 14. But overall they are pretty locked in.

 

5 hours ago, TJJackson said:

Calling it now

We beat Shittsburgh so we can make our draft slot worse

Miami beats the pitiful Jets

Denver beats the Chiefs

I think that would actually bump us up one spot in the draft, depending on what Atlanta does.

[HoosierCat]

Rankins to IR/NFI.

https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-place-dt-sheldon-rankins-on-reserve-non-football-illness-list-bengals-roster-update

Apparently he tried to come back to practice last week, but couldn’t go and has reportedly dropped a bunch of weight. Exactly what he’s been fighting still isn’t known but the bookface group says he was hospitalized for a while. The rumor is meningitis. Tough break. I hope he gets well.

[ArmyBengal]

I agree with you Stripes.  Why reward tanking, while punishing playing the year out tough?
I'm kind of surprised they haven't thought about it yet.  That's a whole another night of prime time viewership to be had.

FOR EXAMPLE:
The Super Bowl is February 9th.
The tampering period for Free Agency starts March 10th.
The NFL Draft is April 24th.

So maybe on March 7th, Friday night primetime, they host the NFL Draft Lottery special.
Beyonce or some other talentless hack can perform after half the teams slotted and everyone makes money.
I'm telling you right now, I would tune into that shit.

This way, teams would also know when they are going to be picking before free agency hits and the draft happens.

[ArmyBengal]

3 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Rankins to IR/NFI.

https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-place-dt-sheldon-rankins-on-reserve-non-football-illness-list-bengals-roster-update

Apparently he tried to come back to practice last week, but couldn’t go and has reportedly dropped a bunch of weight. Exactly what he’s been fighting still isn’t known but the bookface group says he was hospitalized for a while. The rumor is meningitis. Tough break. I hope he gets well.

I hope he gets well as well, but I also hope they move on from him.
Jenkins and Jackson have gotten a lot of solid reps and at this point probably bring as much as he would.
Bring back BJ Hill and draft another young DT for the rotation.

Good luck and get better Rankins.
And to the business side of things, buh bye.
The Bengals would save over $10 million with that move.

[HoosierCat]

2 minutes ago, ArmyBengal said:

I hope he gets well as well, but I also hope they move on from him.
Jenkins and Jackson have gotten a lot of solid reps and at this point probably bring as much as he would.
Bring back BJ Hill and draft another young DT for the rotation.

Good luck and get better Rankins.
And to the business side of things, buh bye.
The Bengals would save over $10 million with that move.

Oh, I don’t think there is any question that they will move on.

[ArmyBengal]

Agreed Hoosier, that's the easiest $10 million in savings they can make.
Truly a no brainer.  That being said, waiting to hear he will be sticking around in 2025.

[COB]

Burrow is shit talking the front office like the fucking boss that he is.  
 

“Whenever a great player leaves, you wish you could have found a way to keep them,” Burrow said. “You don’t want to make a living out of letting great players leave the building. I think that’s why you’ve got to do everything you can to get those deals done early.”

[COB]

I feel the following will happen in the off season - Burrow will offer to alter his contract (ie Brady at NE) in order to help sign Tee and Chase.  
 

Whether Mike and company will agree to that, I do not know.  That technique didn’t happen much in 1970 so Mike won’t be familiar with it, and subsequently will hate it.

[ArmyBengal]

I like Burrow putting the pressure on the front office. Good for him.

[ArmyBengal]

Well the Dolphins are starting Huntley again this week against the Jets. The Jets at least have the 5th overall total defense and may disrupt things a bit more than a bottom half Browns defense.

[COB]

Totally pumped for this buckeye game tonight.  
 

off topic - I’m really starting to feel genuinely sorry for Carl the broker who just keeps getting outwitted by Charles Schwab.