Slow Starts on Offense

[San Antonio Bengal]

Here's an interesting little stat I dug up. These are the times when we've scored our first TD in the last three games. The times I'm using are the elapsed time, which is the opposite of the time on the game clock which shows the amount of time remaining. In all three games, our first TD didn't come until late in the second quarter.

Game 4 (Hou): 13:51 Second Quarter

Game 5 (Jax): 9:24 Second Quarter

Game 6 (Ten): 14:27 Second Quarter

In the first three games of the season, we had some big plays and turnovers early that led to TDs. In the last three games, it seems that the offense took a while to put points up. Sure, we had FGs and some good movement at times, but it just doesn't seem like the offense really begins to take off and assert itself until the end of the second quarter. And in the Houston and Tennesee games, that first TD came during the two-minute drill. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this and if any has ideas for why it takes a good quarter and a half before getting that first TD.

[skyline]

Here's an interesting little stat I dug up. These are the times when we've scored our first TD in the last three games. The times I'm using are the elapsed time, which is the opposite of the time on the game clock which shows the amount of time remaining. In all three games, our first TD didn't come until late in the second quarter.

Game 4 (Hou): 13:51 Second Quarter

Game 5 (Jax): 9:24 Second Quarter

Game 6 (Ten): 14:27 Second Quarter

In the first three games of the season, we had some big plays and turnovers early that led to TDs. In the last three games, it seems that the offense took a while to put points up. Sure, we had FGs and some good movement at times, but it just doesn't seem like the offense really begins to take off and assert itself until the end of the second quarter. And in the Houston and Tennesee games, that first TD came during the two-minute drill. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this and if any has ideas for why it takes a good quarter and a half before getting that first TD.

I noticed it as well, and I feel as if it has to do with 2 things:

1) Like you pointed out, turnovers helped us score quicky in the first 3 games.

2) Conservative play-calling. Some of that has been dictated by the opposing defense, but some of it, I feel, could be corrected by being a little more aggressive on offense. Yesterday, for example, the Titans didn't change their coverage any when we went into 2-minute mode. We just started attacking their coverage (finally!). I know you can't run a 2-minute offense for the entire game, but I do think we could do more attacking early than we have been in the past few games.

[Section 310]

2) Conservative play-calling. Some of that has been dictated by the opposing defense, but some of it, I feel, could be corrected by being a little more aggressive on offense. Yesterday, for example, the Titans didn't change their coverage any when we went into 2-minute mode. We just started attacking their coverage (finally!). I know you can't run a 2-minute offense for the entire game, but I do think we could do more attacking early than we have been in the past few games.

[The_Next_Big_Thing]

Carson Palmer needs to just keep taking what the defense gives him. Becoming overly aggressive will lead to mistakes and turnovers. Stick with the conservative gameplan that has won 5 freaking games and ALMOST won a 6th. 5-1 and you morons want to change things?

Instead, how about we keep doing what we are doing, and finish the season 13-3.

[skyline]

Carson Palmer needs to just keep taking what the defense gives him. Becoming overly aggressive will lead to mistakes and turnovers. Stick with the conservative gameplan that has won 5 freaking games and ALMOST won a 6th. 5-1 and you morons want to change things?

Instead, how about we keep doing what we are doing, and finish the season 13-3.

Morons, eh? Nice...

Do you think that if we start off this slowly against the Steelers or any other top-caliber team in the NFL that we'll be able to pull off what we did against TN yesterday? And even if we're 5-1, do you not think there are still areas we can improve upon? Morons, you say...

I wasn't saying that we should just become a pass-happy, St. Louisesque team. It's important that we establish the run, and do a good job of it. Still, I don't think there's any reason to do what we did yesterday and wait until the end of the second quarter to start attempting passes longer than 5-10 yards. This is an explosive offense. That's where the strength of this team lies. Let's take advantage of that.

Yes, I understand that the Titans were playing against the pass yesterday. We needed to run it to bring their safeties in. Still, their safeties didn't come in during the first half, but when we started attacking them, we were able to move the ball anyway. I'd just like to see our offense come in and be able to stretch their legs a little more early on. Our defense is certainly more opportunistic when playing with an early lead.

I'm not complaining...I just think it's an area of our game that could be tweaked a little bit.

[Stripes]

The first halves of the last few games have reminded me a lot of what I saw in the preseason. They are calling passing plays on a regular basis, but it seems that Palmer is having trouble finding open receivers downfield. I don't know if Chad and Henry were struggling to find room early, and adjusted during the second half, or if Palmer was being told to take care of the football. In the first half we saw him throwing it to his check-down receivers frequently, primarily Rudi and Perry. At halftime I assume they reviewed these potential issues and resolved them. As for the two minute offense, Palmer has always seemed to have success there.

[CBin2k7]

It has been a problem of late, but in the first game at Cleveland we scored a TD on the first possession and we scored on the opening possession against Minnesota.

Starting fast against Pitt will be key, because it will take their running game out of the equation.

[Columbusbengal]

Carson Palmer needs to just keep taking what the defense gives him.

I do think opposing teams are preparing more thoroughly for our offense (now that we are one of the most respected teams in the NFL). I think Marvin likes to take it slow to see what they're doing and then make adjustments.

[kingwilly]

I think some of it is that teams are charged on adrenaline at the beginning of the game. The d's are fired up to stop CJ and everyone is on their game....for about 17 minutes. Then they run out of juice and settle down...and start getting beat.

I am still perplexed by the Brat playcalling system. Passs on 1st, run on 2nd and then pass on third? Uh, hello?

I think part of our ability to play into the game is that we are very well conditioned as a team. Our tanks are not empty towards the end of a game like they used to be.

[San Antonio Bengal]

Carson Palmer needs to just keep taking what the defense gives him. Becoming overly aggressive will lead to mistakes and turnovers. Stick with the conservative gameplan that has won 5 freaking games and ALMOST won a 6th. 5-1 and you morons want to change things?

Instead, how about we keep doing what we are doing, and finish the season 13-3.

I definitely don't want to see any radical changes to the offense. Did I say that? I don't think so.

However, I believe there are little tweaks that could be made to the system so that we aren't playing from behind even when we don't have the early turnovers. If we keep doing what we've been doing, we won't finish at 13 - 3. We've let our last two opponents get double digit leads on us in the first half and it wasn't until near the end of the half that we began to claw our way out. Those are holes that we won't always be able to climb out of. We weren't able to climb out of it at Jacksonville. And the only reason we climbed out of the hole at Tennessee was because our defense had some big turnovers late that led to two touchdowns.

As others have mentioned, I believe there are a lot of factors like others being pumped up to stop us, Marvin wanting to see what the other team is doing and making half-time adjustements, etc. I can accept that, and I certainly don't want us to make mistakes early in the game, but getting behind early has the potential to be an achilles heel.

It has been a problem of late, but in the first game at Cleveland we scored a TD on the first possession and we scored on the opening possession against Minnesota.

At Cleveland, our first possession was a three and out. Our second possession finished in a TD at the beginnings of the 2nd quarter. That's the kind of thing I'd like to see. And it's true that we scored on our first possessions against Minnesota and Chicago. I was only looking at the last three games because it was in those games where I noticed the current trend.

I really think it's going to be important to score early, punch Pittsburgh in the mouth, and have them back on their heels a little. If Pittsburgh gets a good lead on us early, I wonder if we can get back into things. I know the offense can do amazing things and will do amazing things against Pittsburgh, but will it be enough if the trend of the past three games continues?

[bengalboomer7]

I say we jsut run the no huddle the whole game. Right now Carson can't miss calling the plays at the line and we've moved the ball on every no huddle drive I can think of. What's Carson got, like four towuchdowns at end of the half drives?

[HairOnFire]

I think the conservative play calling has been the result of "playing uphill"...due to poor field position. The 1st half of the Titan game felt way too familiar coming directly after the Jacksonville loss...with special teams play being spotty at best. Compounding problems tremendously is the impact of TJ's injury and the the already mentioned habit of featuring the running game while constantly checking down to short passes to the backs. I haven't bothered looking at the game log yet, but I'll be surprised if in the 1st half against the Titans the Bengals threw more than 3 or 4 passes to wideouts prior to the 2-minute drive. Frankly, that smacks of abandoning a team strength more than taking what the defense is giving.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Carson Palmer needs to just keep taking what the defense gives him.

I do think opposing teams are preparing more thoroughly for our offense (now that we are one of the most respected teams in the NFL). I think Marvin likes to take it slow to see what they're doing and then make adjustments.

I agree but think it's coming from Palmer more so than the coaches. If Palmer's going to turn it over and make crucial mistakes, he's going to do it later in the game. Just look at his insane QB rating.

He's not going to force things downfield unless he has to (2 minute drill, late in a close game) or if it's blatant and safe to (Chicago TD bombs to CJ and Henry).

The other reason IMO is that the Bengals' are committed every week to establishing the running game, no matter how tough it is early on, and that keeps points off the board at times, ecspecially early, but sets things up as the game goes on.

[Stripes]

Another thing to add is that in recent weeks aside from Tennessee, any good drives we have gotten going in the first or second quarter have been stalled with penalties.

[derekshank]

I would love to see Carson chuck the ball down field for 70 yards to Chad the 2nd play of every game like we did against Minnesota... but that worked because of what Minnesota was giving us.

Have you noticed that Manning isn't throwing many TD's, or even long completions. Defenses don't want to get burned on the big play, so Edgerrin James is killing them. One of the most important stats to our 5-1 record is our time of Possession. Some of that has been turnovers... but you can't win TOP without running the ball often and effectively.

Our 2nd possession of the game, we missed the FG, but took almost 6 minutes off the clock. That is 6 minutes that the opposing offense isn't on the field, and 6 minutes that our defense is resting. The first drive of the 2nd half was frustrating because would could have gotten a TD, and had to settle for a FG, but it was successful in the sense that we used half of the 3rd quarter to do it.

Our offense definetly has some work to do. We need to do better at capitalizing when we are in the redzone, and we did much better on the penalty stat this week, but we keep the other team's defense on the field a long long time, and at the end of the game, that works to our advantage. I'm very okay with running the ball, and keeping the clock running, keeping the other team honest, and keeping Carson Palmer the front-runner for the MVP.

[Columbusbengal]

What's Carson got, like four towuchdowns at end of the half drives?

And does anyone remember how upset we were during preseason and some of last year because it seemed like the OTHER team always scored in the last minute or so?

[skyline]

What's Carson got, like four towuchdowns at end of the half drives?

And does anyone remember how upset we were during preseason and some of last year because it seemed like the OTHER team always scored in the last minute or so?

Yeah, it's a nice change, isn't it.

I was at the TN game last weekend and it was funny, because I completely expected to drive down the field and score at the end of the first half. The entire second quarter I kind of had my eye on it, and when it actually happened it struck me how nice it was to have confidence in our team again.

[Columbusbengal]

[quote name='derekshank' date='Oct 18 2005, 10:37 AM' post='102292'

One of the most important stats to our 5-1 record is our time of Possession. Some of that has been turnovers... but you can't win TOP without running the ball often and effectively.