Rudi Johnson whines about lack of carries

[DontPushMe]

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=4757

“I feel like a thief. And I don’t steal. Put two and two together,” said Johnson, who hasn’t carried more than 18 times in a game the last four weeks. “It ain’t because of me. Ain’t because of me. I had 50 in the first. You tell me. You do the math. Last time I checked. That's all I'm saying. They do what they do. They're trying to turn me into a thief, but I ain't a thief."

What a team guy. Passing the blame. I wonder what the fan reaction would be if these comments were attached to Corey Dillon's name?

[bengalindian]

I agree. It is frustrating, though, that he was unstoppable, and yet Brat went away from the gameplan, when all they needed to do was hand the ball off to Rudi and Perry.

[B24]

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=4757

"I feel like a thief. And I don't steal. Put two and two together," said Johnson, who hasn't carried more than 18 times in a game the last four weeks. "It ain't because of me. Ain't because of me. I had 50 in the first. You tell me. You do the math. Last time I checked. That's all I'm saying. They do what they do. They're trying to turn me into a thief, but I ain't a thief."

What a team guy. Passing the blame. I wonder what the fan reaction would be if these comments were attached to Corey Dillon's name?

Comments like these were attached to Dillon's name almost the entire time he was with the Bengals. Where were you? Being the president of his fan club you should know this.

While I agree with Johnson's comments he should be expressing them to the coaches not the media.

[DontPushMe]

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=4757

"I feel like a thief. And I don't steal. Put two and two together," said Johnson, who hasn't carried more than 18 times in a game the last four weeks. "It ain't because of me. Ain't because of me. I had 50 in the first. You tell me. You do the math. Last time I checked. That's all I'm saying. They do what they do. They're trying to turn me into a thief, but I ain't a thief."

What a team guy. Passing the blame. I wonder what the fan reaction would be if these comments were attached to Corey Dillon's name?

Comments like these were attached to Dillon's name almost the entire time he was with the Bengals. Where were you? Being the president of his fan club you should know this.

While I agree with Johnson's comments he should be expressing them to the coaches not the media.

Thats not what I was saying. I was saying, if Dillon said this, you guys would be all over him, but since its Rudi, no one even mentions it, and when they do, it gets a positive spin.

[B24]

Thats not what I was saying. I was saying, if Dillon said this, you guys would be all over him, but since its Rudi, no one even mentions it, and when they do, it gets a positive spin.

First you should get off of the "If Dillon said this" crap. Dillon DID say stuff like this...almost every week it seemed like.

Like I said I agree with what he said, so I'm not going to trash him for what he said. But...He should not have went to the media with it. That said it's not like he has done this almost every week like a former Bengal running back did. If Rudi comes back next week and complains to the media about his lack of carries after a win over Green Bay, then this may start to become a problem.

[derekshank]

First of all, I don't know how many guys were all over Corey before he decided he was going to burn every bridge possible, and talk his way out of Cincy. When he was still playing with the Bengals, I think a lot of people agreed with him when he had a big game, but the team lost. Most of us said... "This one wasn't Corey's fault."

You hear Chad say things like this too... most players do. I agree, he shouldn't be complaining to the media... and the gameplan changes when you are down by multiple scores, so it is disappointing to hear...

but please, don't rub salt in the wound. We lost the game. We're already disappointed. You don't need to go around comparing Rudi to a cancer.

[Humanzee 5000]

This is very similar in my opinion to LT in San Diego. When he's not getting as many carries as possible, they lose. Fact is, we abandoned what looked like a great running game. Brat pussed out. Rudi has always been the type of back that needs a good 15 carries to REALLY get going. I am with Rudi and must say I am almost as pissed as he is. In Jacksonville, Rudi got 5 carries in the second half, that's a joke!

Also, maybe we shouldn't have someone like Carson throwin this much, ya think?

Brat sucked today and Rudi should be pissed. Big run, big run big run, sit the bench. then we'll throw a screen pass to ya when we know damn good and well that that's not your type of play.

Ridonk!

[Humanzee 5000]

"said Johnson, who hasn’t carried more than 18 times in a game the last four weeks"

That is what I'm talking about right there!

[cincy9275]

i don't think rudi should have made his comments to the media . he is right . he was gashing the steelers and brat went away from the run. to me brat is way to inconsitant with his play calling . but what do you do hope they can correct the problem and move on. but the last thing this team needs is to start pointing finger .because the whole team sucked today. ofense defense s/t coaching they all were horrible .

[Stripes]

Rudi shouldn't have made these comments to the media, but this is not an incident to be compared with Corey Dillon. Rudi never talked down on his own franchise. Rudi never tossed his uniform into the stands. Rudi never complained that Perry was getting more touches. Rudi knew that he had 50 yards in the first quarter, and finished with 65 yards. He is correct to be frustrated. Bratkowski is way to quick to abandon the run, especially when it was working so well.

[CBin2k7]

He shouldn't have said it to the media, but how do you expect him to feel? He ended with 12 carries for 65 yds. Brat did abandon the run way too quick. I just don't know, players get frustrated when they lose and they feel like they are not being used to the best of their abilities. Brian Westbrook did it, Tiki Barber did it.

[schweinhart]

The total inept playcalling by Drunkowski vs. the Steelers reminded me of the Rams loss 2 years ago and also the Clowns loss 2 years ago in the last game of the season.

When The Drunken One pops his Mike Martz boner, he's gone and gone but good.

The gameplan should've been pretty straightforward vs. the Steelers and for the 1st 2 drives it was.

If the Steelers got 7 in the box, pound Rudi. The Bengals did just that in the 1st drive -- 6 times for 44 yards and ate up alomst 6 minutes of clock before Henry dropped an easy TD pass and Graham yanked the FG.

If the Steelers move in 8 to stop the run, call the pass. In the 2nd drive, Palmer hit Housh 3 straight times for about 45 yards. And about another 5 minutes got chewed up before Henry got sandwiched between double coverage in the end zone for a pass that had zero chance.

So what does Brat do since everything is working so well? Puts in the Chris "Superstar" Perry package. And what wonders it worked! A sack on 1st down (genius), a Perry run smothered for a whole yard gain up the middle (brilliant), and a Perry outlet pass on 3rd and Way Too Long that comes up Way Too Short -- 3 and out.

The 4th drive looked like maybe the Drunken One had returned to his senses. Housh with a grab over the middle and 2 passes to this receiver the Bengals got on their team by the name of Chad Johnson (ever hear of him). Then an outlet dump to Reggie (Try to remember I'm lucky to stand up after I catch a ball, much less run with it after I catch it ) Kelly. Then a swing pass to Perry in near hurry-up mode that worked nicely to set up a 1st and 10 at the Steelers 22 with the 1st half drawing to a close.

Indeed it was the 2 minute offense in progress, but there was still time to run at least once and maybe twice to shorten the down distance and work the clock down. Rudi was in -- and no doubt the Steelers noticed this -- but to everyone's surprise (and no doubt Cohwer and Lebeau spent most of Sunday night toasting the Drunken One for being such an idiot) Rudi's gets a swing pass then a dumpoff over the middle. After an INC to Chad, 4th down FG time to make the halftime score 7-6 Steelers.

So the Steelers get the ball back to start the 2nd half and low and behold Tory James jumps a route beautifully for a pick.

Nice midfield position to start a drive, but what does the Drunken One do? Let's go back to the Chris "Superstar" Perry package that works so well vs. 3-4 defenses and try to spring him outside where the CB can kick out farther to the sideline w/ a LB spaced wider on the D-line.

The result? Was it really a surprise?

Collared for a loss of 3 yards and a fumble that wasn't called. A Rudi run follows that gets back those yards plus a couple more before Palmer makes his 1st really bad throw in a long time into double coverage when Schobel is standing wide open over the middle for close to 1st down yardage.

After a Steeler FG w/ field position starting at the Bengals 15 yard line, the Bengals get the ball back. At first it looks like sense may have returned to The Stupendous Drunken One Who Calls Plays For Plays' Sake Rather Than Seeing What Works And Continuing To Do It Until The Other Team Makes You Stop. A sideline stop to Chad (remember this guy?) for 15 yards then Rudi (He's one of the other Johnson's on the team) bounces out for 10 yards.

Nice, right? 1st and 10 from midfield, and it's only a 10-6 deficit. Let's throw it! Never mind that JJ had been detonating on lead blocks and the O-line was pushing hard or that the run game w/ Rudi yielded 44 yards on 6 carries on the first drive or that that same Rudi had carried the ball just once in a quarter and a half before the aforementioned carry of this drive.

No such luck. Kimo pushes Steinbach back like he is a rag doll and gets his paw on the pass resulting in a pick.

Shortly thereafter, it's 17-6. A 28 yard penalty by Marcus Wilkins on a nice Tab Perry return puts the ball at the Bengals own 24 yard line. And what do you know? Rudi gets a 1st down carry for 3 yards but God forbid you run him twice in a row. An INC and a strange looking scramble by Palmer later and the Steelers get the ball back on route to a 24-6 lead late in the 3rd Q. Pretty much had to be play-from-behind calls after that.

So should Rudi have voiced his frustration after getting just 3 carries after carrying 9 times in the 1st 2 drives. You betchya. Just like Dillon shoulda chucked his gear into the stands after somebody decided not to run enough vs. Clowns in last game of 2003 and run the wrong back when the run was called. Dillon woulda had 200 yards in that game IMO if they had played to win instead of playing for The Drunken One to demonstrate his unparalleled tactical wizardy. This latter part was even more true for the Rams game that year when Drunkowski never gave the Bengals a chance to even compete to win because he didn't run the ball down the throats of a bad Run D that was missing its MLB and had a speed rusher who blows vs. the run.

There will be absolutely no good reason why Rudi shouldn't carry 30 times next week. If they want to use Perry (and they should as a 3rd down back or a 4th or slot receiver on other downs) then use him. But to sit and watch Bratkowski f*ck up another year is pretty disgusting.

[Stripes]

When The Drunken One pops his Mike Martz boner, he's gone and gone but good.

[The_Next_Big_Thing]

When you fall behind, you can't afford to spend half a quarter on one drive, thus going away from the run.

[Columbusbengal]

Absolutely - in fact, if it weren't for the special teams, the team might have been in the game in the second half enough to stick with the running game. I really do think the team choked a little bit (along with getting some early bad luck when Chad' s TD turned out not to be one). I totally agree with Marvin though when he said the team has to continue to learn from all its games, the good and the bad ones. This is still a young, developing team and its biggest remaining problem is run defense and Pittsburgh is a great running team. Also, Pollack and Madieu Williams were intended to assist with a major upgrade of the run defense - and neither was able to help in this game.

It is definitely depressing to see players whining to the media trying to assign blame for losses though.

[ArmyBengal]

Well, most like myself don't want to see this going to the media, but I don't disagree with Rudi either. Personally, I like seeing people getting upset about losing. I can remember when we got our a**es handed to us and everyone would be like, "just another game down the shi**er" and then collect their paycheck on the way out the door. Oh yeah, I'm still waiting on Perry and Corey Dillon is still a FAG !!! Whatever...

WHODEY !!!

[BengalByTheBay]

"Ain't because of me." WTF?? Okay, I'm going to go waaayyy out on an unstable limb here and say DPM's right. I know, and Sadaam Hussein is a saint, right? Hear me out though...this is the fan favorite. This is the humble, blue collar guy. Yeah, he's frustrated, but so was Cor-me. I see this as a bad decision by Rudi. This is exactly what we do not need. I sure hope like hell that he regrets it today and Marvin reads him the riot act. I hate DPM's CD obsession as much as anybody -- but he's right on this one. If Rudi says similar things about 100 more times he might even approach the burger flipper in terms of distraction.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Stupid comments by Rudi, and I expected "somebody" would say something out of frustration yesterday.

Kinda hard to stick with the running game when you're not given the ball back until there's 2+ minutes left in the 2nd quarter, or even 3.

DPM's a troll, but I don't see how, this being the first time Rudi's ever opened his mouth here, this compares to Dillon in any way, shape or form.

As eluded to above by Bay, if Rudi starts disobeying coaches, holding his own media conferences, and spouting off to the media every week, then we can start calling him a problem.

[Kirkendall]

I don't like the comments (too much 'me'). However, he's right. We abandoned the run way too much and Rudi was running great before Bobby B. took him out of the offense..

[USMC203]

I agree with Kirkenall I don't like it and it should not have left the our house. I am sure Coach Marvin will let him know it.

[DontPushMe]

For the record I thought he was running hard on the first couple drives and did deserve more carries as the game went on (no, i dont hate him, I just think Perry is better). It wasnt out of hand when we abandoned the run. But, his reaction wasnt what you would expect based on what the fans think he is.

For a "team first" guy hes been pretty "me" oriented over the past year. Remember his threats to sit out if he didnt get a long term contract.

[BengalByTheBay]

DPM -- since when did you become such a Ohalete fan???

In a related matter -- did you ever purchase one of those #26 CP jerseys for your memorabilia collection?

[bengalboomer7]

I think it's justified. There is no excuse for not giving him the ball more. If anything, the way he was running we could have at least kept our D off the field.

By the way, if this thread gets out of hand I better not get a PM, and you know who thats for

[BengalByTheBay]

I think it's justified. There is no excuse for not giving him the ball more. If anything, the way he was running we could have at least kept our D off the field.

By the way, if this thread gets out of hand I better not get a PM, and you know who thats for

Sure it's justified in fact -- but it would also be justified for Carson Palmer to say "I hit Chris Henry square in the chest for 6 and he dropped it." You don't hear Palmer saying that though do you? Palmer handled it right and Rudi didn't. A lof of the things CD said were true too -- you just don't shoot your mouth off during the heat of a season because THAT becomes the story rather than the team and the next game. The fact that he said it out of frustration is 100% understandable. But you don't handle it that way. Besides, there were several games past where Rudi wasn't as productive as he should've been. I didn't hear him saying "that WAS me" then -- did you? I would be pleased if he was able to smooth it out somehow this week -- say he was just frustrated because he wanted so badly to win or something "chadlike" like that. That would be the class way to go.

[redsbengalsbucks]

The loss to the Steelers lays squarely on the shoulders of the offensive coordinator and the head coach that did not tell him to run the ball more often after the 1st quarter.

This game was going to be an old fashion pounding by the Bengals and it turned into a pounding by the Steelers because of the play calling.

STUPID STUPID STUPID