Game Review

[kingwilly]

JEFF BURNT”US”

Why Jeff Burris is still playing really confronts me. Both the 58 yard touchdown reception and 41 with the same result, Burris was burnt. Whether he’s still influenced by influenza or remnants of a mild concussion should be concerning. Two such plays could change the momentum of the game, and if the Bengals had to travel to San Francisco, then results would be different.

STOP THE CLOCK, GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO SPIKE

If you watched the game, there were 25 seconds left in the first half when Quarterback Jeff Garcia tossed a three yard check down to Kevin Barlow; stuffed by Kevin Hardy. With six seconds remaining, the head referee, Bill Carollo blew the whistle to stop the clock. No explanation was given while Garcia setup for the eventual spike to stop the clock with four ticks remaining. Result? Todd Peterson Field Goal to close the gap to four.

1. Jeff Burris may be a great voice of leadership, but his play is a serious detriment. His very poor coverage on those deep routes only galvanizes the need for a serious “shut-down” corner. Hat’s off to Terrell Roberts who, as Josh noted, had a break-out game. He had a great open field tackle on Streets (I think) in the flat. His play will gain him more time with the first team defense. Burris is at best a nickel/dime zone guy at this point. Think back to the Moulds grab that gave BUF a chance to tie (then win), and the interference call that gave OAK the field position for the go-ahead FG. Damn. TO even dropped some passes, just to give us some help.

2. The Refs stopped the clock because Kevin Hardy was lying on Barlow, holind him down and would not let him up. We were lucky not to get penalized. It was a heads up play by Hardy in my book. It basically took away the 49ers shot at the end zone as there was no time.

With the Rams on the horizon, the D has to ratchet down. They have to. It is not an option. We willl get flattened if the D performs like this in STL.

[BengalszoneBilly]

KingWilly,

The offense can help the defense by playing ball control, and keeping their offense off the field! If the "D" does ratchet down, and the offense controls the ball and clock, we have a legit chance of getting that final monkey off our backs. That's beating a team with a winning record on the road.

**What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!!**