Disastrous, incompetent, Bengals offense are Prom King, Queen, and Joker

by Josh Kirkendall on Dec 1, 2008 3:05 PM EST in Analysis

Bengals were disastrous against the Ravens all season.

Disastrous, is the word that comes to mind. The Ravens for a time were a team that the Bengals offense could successfully expose, easily hitting intermediate routes, finding single-coverages or holes in the cover-two zones when applied. Coming into this season, before the season sweep, the Bengals won six of their past seven against the Ravens, including three with a margin over 12 points.

Chart of how the Bengals offense did throughout the series against the Ravens, during Marvin Lewis era.
	Yards	Points	Record
2003	571	47	1-1
2004	851	36	1-1
2005	766	63	2-0
2006	569	33	1-1
2007	562	48	2-0

The last time the Bengals were swept by the Ravens in one season, was 2002. Segue to 2008, where the offense suddenly plays sour, the defense plays well enough not to lose games single-handedly, and the Ravens ditched the Bengals like that annoying house fly easily captured because it's too damned slow. In the season sweep, the Bengals amounted 309 yards total offense, in both games combined! First downs? Forget it about it; only 14 were generated. The lone touchdown scored was a fumble recovery and return by Johnathan Joseph in the first meeting. Both games displayed the worst time of possessions for the offense this season(23:45, 21:02), going a combined 4-26 on third down conversions (13%). Offensively, we scored nine field goals in both games.

Both Palmer brothers and Ryan Fitzpatrick were terrible in the series, converting 37% of their passes for a 34.1 passer rating.

	Comp.	Att.	Yards	TD	INT
Carson Palmer	9	24	94	0	1
Ryan Fitzpatrick	12	31	124	0	0
Jordan Palmer	0	2	0	0	1
	21	57	218	0	2

Offensively, we were worst than terrible, going three-and-out 15 times out of 26 total drives, scoring three times with Shayne Graham field goals. Aside from the eight-play, 89-yard drive to close out the first half against the Ravens last Sunday, the longest drive in the series went 35 yards.

Drives	3-out	Picked	Fumble	Downs	Punts
26	15	2	1	3	18

Since, when. Since Kimo Von Oelhoffen "accidentally" destroyed the Cincinnati Bengals chances during that cold wild card weekend almost three years ago, the Bengals have lost 27 of 44 games.

Please, confuse us. Read this piece and see if it makes a lick of sense.

But seeing the game was still worth $20 to one fan. That $20 got ticket-taker David Ziegler into trouble. Ziegler is accused of taking $20 to let the fan into the game at Paul Brown Stadium. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft.

How did he let a fan in? Hold the "door" open, allowing the person in for $20? If that's accurate, then big deal. The bigger questions is where's the security, just weeks after some guy was arrested for threatening to blow up both stadiums? Classic Cincinnati. Arrest this guy, while we axe 87 correction officer jobs, or "deal" with a $640 million state deficit. Twenty bucks. Get out of here. Seriously, leave.

They said it, not me.

"It was a bad feeling out there," Thornton said. "We were fighting, scratching, but it didn't seem to matter. We were out there too long. The numbers weren't good. They had explosive passing plays. They kind of had us in a good spot. They knew we were undermanned. They threw the playbook at us. We wore out big time at the end of the game. Everybody's hurt. We've got half the team in the training room."

Soloman Wilcox on the Bengals (h/t Chickster... read the post above).

“The one thing is I thought they were going to be able to run the ball this year. Clearly, they can’t. Clearly can’t run the ball. You can’t run. You can’t protect. You can’t throw it. Even their top receivers, when you throw the ball over the middle, they can’t catch it. Too many drops. They’re under-performing in every area. Former first round pick at cornerback (Leon Hall) gets beat repeatedly. Defensively, I thought there was great effort out there, but nothing consistent. Obviously, this is a Ravens offense with a rookie quarterback that looked better against this defense than they had in Week 1. Other than that, they were all right.”

More, more, so much more.

Paul Alexander is being mentioned for the Syracuse University head coaching spot.
The 46-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to T.J. Houshmandzadeh is the longest pass play of the season; actually it's the longest play from scrimmage this season.
Is Mark "My Name Ain't Michael" Clayton that good, or was Leon Hall that bad.
Bengals tied a career low, six first downs in a game Sunday.
Jordan Palmer received a standing ovation, entering late in the game.
Ravens bulldoze, knockout, the Bengals | Pulling out all the stops, Clayton burns Bengals,
Should Bob Bratkowski call plays from the field?

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Hall wasn’t that bad. On the Clayton throw, he got suckered into coming up to defend the run. On the Flacco to Clayton touchdown, Clayton interfered and made an insanely lucky grab. And just exactly where were White and/or Crocker to provide deep help? Hall should have looked back for the ball on that one and, on the former, you can hardly blame him for not suspecting the vanilla Raven offense of trickery. I’m not worried about Hall so much. I’m wondering how, with Geathers, Rucker, and Odom on the bench, suddenly we’re getting pressure on the QB?

I’m wondering if Fitzy is Doug Flutie- with all the physical shortcomings and none of the moxie?

I’m wondering why Chad won’t go out and shoot himself like Plaxico, seeing as he’s opted not to compete?

I’m wondering whether ridding ourselves of both Levi and Stacy can be more than made up for by taking Michael Oher(LT) in the first, Antoine Caldwell©- from Alabama, in the second, and lining up Oher, Whit, Caldwell, Bobby Williams, and Collins(L-R) as our O-Line for ’09?

I’m wondering whether the delicate and clumsy Ben “the Songbird” Utecht can be convinced to pursue other career options and perhaps take Dan Coats with him?

I’m wondering who’s noticed just how productive Lorenzo Neal is now how many years since we let him go- and whether the name, Jorvorskie Lane, is one familiar to our Ma & Pa scouting department?

I’m wondering whether paying the big bucks for an aging number two receiver is just about as insane as franchising a backup last year, whether franchising TJ for the one year post-Chad would be enough to get the new guys some veteran leadership?

I’m wondering what we could get, trade-wise, for Chad, Stacy, Utecht, Odom, Perry, and Chatman and pretty sure that nothing higher than a fourth round pick would still be worth getting them out of here?

I’m wondering whether there’s any point whatsoever to keeping Marvin around any longer and daydreaming dangerously about Brian Kelly roaming the sidelines at PBS- or do I like BK too much to wish that on him?

by IgnatiusJReilly on Dec 1, 2008 3:57 PM EST reply actions

Clayton touchdown reception

I’m just going to chalk that up as a great catch. Still, two big touchdowns against him. Excuses or not, those things are killing us because our offense can’t even come back from a 6-point deficit.

Blogger at CincyJungle.com -- SB Nation Cincinnati Bengals blog.

by Josh Kirkendall on Dec 1, 2008 4:05 PM EST up reply actions

For the record, Mark Clayton was the name of the WR who torched Leon Hall, Michael Clayton plays for the Buccaneers or alternatively is the name of a 2007 film directed by Tony Gilroy

by math_geek on Dec 1, 2008 3:57 PM EST reply actions