Bob Bratkowski

[belmontbengal]

Just curious about the boards thoughts on Bob Bratkowski after this past weekends playcalling. I personally think he should seriously consider another line of work. No creativity in his short yardage/redszone playcalling most of the time. The one time he did mix it up a bit could have put Carson out for the season if the hit was hard enough. (QB keeper for the meaningless 1 minute and change touchdown)

I just get really tired of his playcalling at times. Someone else brought it up on that series where Carson threw the INT. TERRIBLE series of plays.

I also liked the designed dump passes to Chris Perry. Oh wait, that wasn't Perry it was RUDI that got those...why?

Anyhow, let's see some opinion on this matter. Should Brat's days be numbered in Cincy?

[OrangeStripes]

I agree with you just because i dont like how they changed up some stuff that i didn't think was necessary... especailly with the dump passes to rudi j instead of chris. But people make mistakes maybe he should start workin on those

[ShulaSteakhouse]

I think the Bengals' offense was ranked 3rd before the Pitt game?

And the run defense is now 27th in the league.

I can't believe people are complaining about Bratkowski.

[kingwilly]

Believe it ShulaSteak, it is a reality, Brat calls bad games, and when he is under the pressure, he gets even worse, defensive performance not-withstanding.

When i look at the play-by-play, it comes off as if the plays are scripted and they run whatever they had sketched out. The more I think about it this is what they do in college...

[redsbengalsbucks]

Play calling lost that game. The first 2 drives were running drives with RUDI and a few passes, 46 rushing yards in the first quarter. After that they abandoned the run and lost the momentum of the game by not controlling the game clock

The game should have been RUDI's to win, not Palmer's to lose.

[HoosierCat]

I'm neutral on Brat. I question his play calls at times, but every fan of every team questions their OC at points. But no, Brat doesn't strike me as an offensive genius, either. I can take him or leave him.

[Kirkendall]

Yea, that's a good plan. Let's fire Bob. Call Mike Martz (he's available) or some other high sought out coordinator (you know, there's soooo many available), set back our offense by a year or two while everyone understands the system, and head into 2008 as possible playoff contenders.

[The_Next_Big_Thing]

Did you watch the same game I did? Last week you complain that he only ran Rudi up the gut on short yardage, and that he should have tried a sneak. Now he does and you say he never changes.

When we put up a lot of points in a game, Bob's a genius. When he has 1 bad game this season you want to fire him?

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

[ShulaSteakhouse]

I don't buy it. Look at what I highlighted and the long 3rd down situations and the way the running game was shut down, Palmer was doing just fine throwing downfield once the Steelers started keying on the running game until he threw the 2 INT's.

Bengals 2nd posession:

-10-CIN23 (7:33) C.Perry left end pushed ob at CIN 26 for 3 yards (C.Hope). {End around}

PENALTY on PIT-C.Hope, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced at CIN 26.

1-10-CIN41 (7:03) R.Johnson left guard to CIN 42 for 1 yard (C.Hampton).

2-9-CIN42 (6:25) C.Palmer pass to T.Houshmandzadeh ran ob at PIT 33 for 25 yards (C.Hope).

1-10-PIT33 (5:51) C.Palmer pass to T.Houshmandzadeh ran ob at PIT 21 for 12 yards (W.Williams).

1-10-PIT21 (5:22) C.Palmer pass to T.Houshmandzadeh to PIT 12 for 9 yards (T.Polamalu).

2-1-PIT12 (4:41) C.Palmer pass incomplete to T.Houshmandzadeh.

3-1-PIT12 (4:37) R.Johnson right guard to PIT 10 for 2 yards (J.Harrison).

1-10-PIT10 (3:57) C.Palmer pass to R.Kelly to PIT 7 for 3 yards (L.Foote).

2-7-PIT7 (3:25) R.Johnson right guard to PIT 8 for -1 yards (L.Foote; C.Hampton).

3-8-PIT8 (2:47) C.Palmer pass incomplete to C.Henry.

4-8-PIT8 (2:42) S.Graham 26 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-B.St. Louis, Holder-K.Larson.

PIT 0 CIN 3, Plays: 11 Yards: 69 Possession: 4:56.

-10-CIN21 (12:11) C.Palmer sacked at CIN 14 for -7 yards (K.Von Oelhoffen).

2-17-CIN14 (11:40) C.Perry right guard to CIN 15 for 1 yard (J.Farrior).

3-16-CIN15 (10:57) (Shotgun) C.Palmer pass to C.Perry to CIN 26 for 11 yards (L.Foote).

4-5-CIN26 (10:21) K.Larson punts 39 yards to PIT 35, Center-B.St. Louis, downed by CIN-C.Perry.

3:58 left in half - no time to snail up the field with Rudi

1-10-CIN7 (3:58) C.Palmer pass to T.Houshmandzadeh to CIN 15 for 8 yards (B.McFadden).

2-2-CIN15 (3:18) C.Palmer pass to C.Johnson to CIN 35 for 20 yards (C.Hope).

1-10-CIN35 (2:38) C.Palmer pass to C.Johnson to CIN 47 for 12 yards (I.Taylor).

PENALTY on PIT-I.Taylor, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced at CIN 47.

1-10-PIT38 (2:12) C.Palmer pass to R.Kelly to PIT 33 for 5 yards (J.Harrison; J.Farrior).

2-5-PIT33 (2:00) C.Palmer pass to C.Perry to PIT 22 for 11 yards (C.Hope).

1-10-PIT22 (1:13) C.Palmer pass to R.Johnson to PIT 22 for no gain (M.Logan).

2-10-PIT22 (:48) (No Huddle) C.Palmer pass to R.Johnson to PIT 21 for 1 yard (J.Farrior).

3-9-PIT21 (:41) C.Palmer pass incomplete to C.Johnson.

3rd quarter:

1-10-PIT49 (14:08) C.Perry left end to CIN 48 for -3 yards (J.Harrison; J.Farrior).

2-13-CIN48 (13:12) R.Johnson up the middle to PIT 47 for 5 yards (L.Foote).

3-8-PIT47 (12:30) (Shotgun) C.Palmer pass intended for T.Houshmandzadeh INTERCEPTED by C.Hope at PIT 30. C.Hope to CIN 15 for 55 yards (W.Anderson).

1-10-CIN24 (7:40) R.Johnson left guard to CIN 27 for 3 yards (J.Farrior).

2-7-CIN27 (7:04) C.Palmer pass incomplete to R.Johnson.

3-7-CIN27 (7:00) C.Palmer to CIN 29 for 2 yards (J.Harrison).

4-5-CIN29 (6:25) K.Larson punts 39 yards to PIT 32, Center-B.St. Louis. A.Randle El ran ob at PIT 40 for 8 yards (H.Navies).

At this point it was 24-6 after this drive and going into the 4th quarter - no time to run the ball anymore.

Don't just gloss over things and say "they should've run Rudi more" - look at the situations they were in and this entire season the Bengals' have stuck with the running game regardless of how sucessful it was.

This game was lost because of special teams, run defense, and offensive mistakes including two TO's.

NOT play-calling! That is way too subjective and you have to look at the situations they were in, and the fact the defense could not stop their offense to save their lives.

[derekshank]

I with Joisey and Kirk... he may not be the best in the NFL... but surely he is good enough... especially now as things seem to be going well.

His game-plan was working very well in the first half. It's the players who let him down. (i.e. Henry dropping a pass, penalties, etc...) There have been several times that Brat has surprised me with excellent play calling that no one draws attention to (mostly with very timely Chris Perry calls).

Most of the holes we get into are not due to bad play-calling, but penalties and stupid mistakes by the players. I find it interesting how we find ways to bash Brat no matter what he does. On one post someone calls him an idiot for going away from Rudi when that was working so effectively... then on another post you find someone complaining about him going to Rudi after we intercepted Ben, instead of going for the throat. You can't have it both ways!

My opinion... he's not Charlie Weis... but he's not an idiot. Quit acting like it's all his fault. I don't always like the play-calling... but much of that is him sticking with the game-plan, rather than reacting to the situation every single series.

Mike Martz gets blasted for giving up on the run too quickly... but Brat didn't do that. in the 3rd quarter we only ran 10 plays... and 5 of them were runs. 2 of the 5 passes were INT's... that makes for a difficult situation to navigate. By the time the 4th quarter roled around, we were down 24-6. You can't exactly stick with the run at that point, can you?

The point is... I think he has done a damn decent job this season. He's not my hero, but firing him screws us sideways. Quit complaining.

[Spain]

the takes what they give him!

[HoosierCat]

This game was lost because of special teams, run defense, and offensive mistakes including two TO's.

NOT play-calling!

Yup.

[BengalByTheBay]

Play calling lost that game. The first 2 drives were running drives with RUDI and a few passes, 46 rushing yards in the first quarter. After that they abandoned the run and lost the momentum of the game by not controlling the game clock

The game should have been RUDI's to win, not Palmer's to lose.

Not exactly. There was plenty of blame to go around. The loss was truly a team effort. Some of the second half play callling didn't work and I hated (and will continue to hate) any pass play designed to go to Rudi with his back to the defense. Those plays don't work. I also don't have a problem with the Palmer TD dive -- I tend to think that was meant to be a message to the team which I liked. Yes, the touchdown didn't change the outcome, but if we don't score there it looks an awful lot like we just quit.

Brat didn't overrule his own TD and didn't ask Henry to drop one in the zone on the first drive. I don't think anybody was complaining too much about play calling at that point. Brat is sometimes brilliant (I like his use of draw plays for instance -- they work more often than not), sometimes inane (see above), but generally pretty decent. You gotta take the good with the bad and Brad definintely has his moments -- just like almost every other oc.

[belmontbengal]

Did you watch the same game I did? Last week you complain that he only ran Rudi up the gut on short yardage, and that he should have tried a sneak. Now he does and you say he never changes.

When we put up a lot of points in a game, Bob's a genius. When he has 1 bad game this season you want to fire him?

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

How bout we keep the personal attacks out of this? I just wanted to see some viewpoints is all. Keep the crap out of this.

I agree that every OC has their bad games, I just find Bratkowski to be very predictable at times. I am by no means saying that he is the worst OC out there.

For the most part some good points in this thread, keep em coming!

[Stripes]

I don't like the options... There should be a "NO, but he still sucks." choice.

[jamesbrooks21]

I think the Bengals' offense was ranked 3rd before the Pitt game?

And the run defense is now 27th in the league.

I can't believe people are complaining about Bratkowski.

Agreed. Some of you need to go watch some of those shortened games on YouTube. I think Brat has been calling some very fine games. We are what now fourth in total offense in the NFL? They throw to Rudi at times to give a different look. If he calls it for Perry, and it is stopped you call him predictable, and when it is Rudi we are throwing to, he is using the wrong personnel. Which is it?

Our 374 points last year were the most since 1989. We were facing top ten defenses week in and week out and was straight up shredding them. Does he deserve all the credit? Absolutely not but he was calling those plays too. There are going to be plays in every game where he's either going to look like a genius if it works or a dumbass if it doesn't. Thats the way it goes.

I would like to see more sneaks on third or fourth and less than a yard. Our QB is 6-5 DAMNIT!

He adjusted and did that this week and it worked. Bitch about the run D or fuss about only having one sack in the past three games. But this is a real reach complaining about the offensive playcalling.

[Stripes]

I think with the talent on offense, if our offensive coordinator cannot get us into the top 5 in the leauge, then he is without a doubt part of the problem. We're barely chugging along up there, but the recent struggles have certainly been there.

[Jet23]

All OC's take abuse. It is one of the most difficult jobs to do and one of the easiest to second guess. I'm not in love with Brat., but no way should we take a giant leap backwards by firing the guy. Besides, it won't be long before Carson is calling his own plays, ala Peyton Manning. I love how the Colt's sideline sends in play suggestions, instead of actual plays.

[buck3y3d]

Our offense would be ranked that high with Zampese as coordinator. The Bengals have talent, but they never score. The redzone problems are Brats fault (the ratio was horrible before Henry dropped a TD). He runs on 2nd and goal from the 10, throws on first and goal from the 1, and we never score inside of the 10. Except for that ridiculous pass to Jeremy Johnson (psuedo-screen - must be removed now) and the occasional play action.

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers and good field position. The Bengals look like superbowl contenders in the middle of the field, and then here come the Bungles inside the 20. People are on to Brats gameplan. As a fan, i am able to predict many of the plays he calls, and this is by simple package information. Mix it up.

I'm tired of yelling at my TV because Brat can't call the right play. The best plays seem to be the ones Carson changes at the line anyway.

Finnaly, look at the defenses we've played. Third in the league could just be talent and not Brat.

I DON'T THINK BRAT SHOULD BE FIRED, but lets look at some options in the offseason. This loss may not have been his fault, but i still have some feelings about the Jacksonville game.

[Jonboat]

I don't have a problem with Brat.

What is our Offense ranked??

Last couple of weeks people were blaming Brat about handing the ball to Rudi on 3 & 4 / short because they didn't convert. I seen them do the same damn thing on a 3 & 1 which low & behold they blocked , Rudi didn't stutter step & he hit the line with his pads square & low & we converted ! Ultimately the players have to execute the plays called. When they work Bratkowski looks good but when they don't people want to call him an idiot.

There is plenty of blame to go around. This was a team loss & one I hope we remember going into Pittsburg

[derekshank]

The Bengals have talent, but they never score. The redzone problems are Brats fault

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers and good field position.

I'm trying to make sense of these two comments... but the fact that they came from the same post is inexplicable.

We never score... but we're 3rd in the league in points. We suck in the redzone... but the only reason we score points is because we get good field position... (which translates to being in the redzone). Hmm...

[Stripes]

The Bengals have talent, but they never score. The redzone problems are Brats fault

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers and good field position.

I'm trying to make sense of these two comments... but the fact that they came from the same post is inexplicable.

We never score... but we're 3rd in the league in points. We suck in the redzone... but the only reason we score points is because we get good field position... (which translates to being in the redzone). Hmm...

Being 3rd in the league in points is great, but it is a misleading statistic. Scoring 27 on the Browns and 37 on the Vikings will get you somewhere in this category. Still, we have also had some pretty poor offensive games, specifically against Houston and Pittsburgh. We DO get good field position from turnovers, and we DO suck in the redzone. We have an abysmal conversion percentage of getting the ball into the endzone from inside the twenty. There is no denying that. Penalties and lack of poise seem to be the problems there.

*edit* I forgot to mention our terrible third down conversion percentage.

[jamesbrooks21]

The Bengals have talent, but they never score. The redzone problems are Brats fault

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers and good field position.

I'm trying to make sense of these two comments... but the fact that they came from the same post is inexplicable.

We never score... but we're 3rd in the league in points. We suck in the redzone... but the only reason we score points is because we get good field position... (which translates to being in the redzone). Hmm...

Being 3rd in the league in points is great, but it is a misleading statistic. Scoring 27 on the Browns and 37 on the Vikings will get you somewhere in this category. Still, we have also had some pretty poor offensive games, specifically against Houston and Pittsburgh. We DO get good field position from turnovers, and we DO suck in the redzone. We have an abysmal conversion percentage of getting the ball into the endzone from inside the twenty. There is no denying that. Penalties and lack of poise seem to be the problems there.

*edit* I forgot to mention our terrible third down conversion percentage.

If you're going to play the "misleading statistic" game, some of the lower redzone percentage is in part because of us kneeling at the end of games.

And scoring 27 on the Browns?? That was in Cleveland, while Indianapolis could only score 13 points against them at home and I would say their offense in descent. The Browns are 8th in the NFL at scoring defense(17.2).

Penalties are a huge reason of our redzone ineffectiveness not playcalling. I hate the "our coach sucks excuse."

[schweinhart]

I don't buy it. Look at what I highlighted and the long 3rd down situations and the way the running game was shut down, Palmer was doing just fine throwing downfield once the Steelers started keying on the running game until he threw the 2 INT's.

I don't buy THAT.

1st Drive: There was 1 3rd and long and that was after Henry dropped the TD pass. Rudi was 6-44 on that drive -- the running game was wide open.

2nd Drive: Chris Perry was split wide and runs a reverse on the 1st play, which was a play I did like. The box gets stacked and Rudi runs 3 times, including a 3rd down plunge for a 1st down. Palmer does indeed do fine connecting with Housh but forces a bad throw into double coverage in the end zone to Chris Henry.

3rd Drive: 1st down pass from own 21 yard line results in sack and 2nd and 17. Chris Perry gets the run up the middle for 1 yard, which is a call I can't stand mainly because he's the wrong runner vs. a 3-4. No doubt The Drunken One had evoked the element of surprise in this clever playcall, but if they were going to run to hell w/ the disguises. Run the guy who ran for 44 yards on 6 carries in the first drive. Shove it up their's. Make them stop it. Don't stop it for them by not even trying. The only Bengals running game I saw shut down was that of Chris Perry.

4th Drive: Nice drive w/ time dwindling. Right personnel to pass w/ Rudi in backfield? You betchya. Somebody's gotta pick up the blitz. But the right guy to throw to? Once again, the ever clever Drunken One has unleashed his concotion of surprise for the 1st throw -- a swing pass, which, yes, is the only pass worth throwing to Rudi since he actually can catch and then run when his body's turned at least halway upfield. And if the safety doesn't make the tackle Rudi has got at least a 1st down. But why? If you want the ball in his hands and surprise the defense -- just hand it off! What difference does the time make if he's tackled after a pass or tackled after a run?

5th Drive: Perry lost yardage and fumble on 1st play. Who was that running back who had 6 carries for 44 yards on the 1st drive of the game? End result of drive, Hope pick and long return.

6th Drive: Down 10-6. Perhaps the buzz of the Drunken One has worn off some and his senses slowly ooze back into place. This WR they got Chad Johnson catches a sideline stop for 15yds then Rudi bounces out right on run for 10. Nice. Ball at midfield. 1st pass on 1st down worked so let's do it again. Okay. And it woulda worked if Steinbach blocks Kimo because JJ was open on his way out to the flats -- but do we really need to run that at that time -- be that clever all at once.

Man, I just don't think so. Yes, a lot of things went wrong in all phases. But take care of business where it counts the most with what they've got the best control over even if that cuts into the clever play variety by about 50-percent.

I will say this though, I'd been waiting for that 3rd option off the fake RB dive/WR reverse and what a beauty it was! Chad almost pulled it out.

[buck3y3d]

The Bengals have talent, but they never score. The redzone problems are Brats fault

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers and good field position.

I'm trying to make sense of these two comments... but the fact that they came from the same post is inexplicable.

We never score... but we're 3rd in the league in points. We suck in the redzone... but the only reason we score points is because we get good field position... (which translates to being in the redzone). Hmm...

The redszone is inside the 20. The Bengals often get the ball past the 50 but before the 20. They often march to the redzone and kick a field goal. The Bengals do not convert inside the 20, but often score on long passes or fieldgoals. Think next time and you'll figure it .

We never score - means we don't drive the field and score, rather we rely on the other teams to make a mistake and give us a short field. (We have a 45 percent TD conversion in the redzone - that is awful)

3rd in the league in points is due to turnovers. Do you not see the correlation. We can't score in the redzone and have had like 40 to 50 percent of our points from turnovers. Hmm... (I hope you don't find this post as a personal attack, but i kind of found yours as a personal attack).