I strongly agree,champions aren`t made by playing that.This one was a team effort-lol

I have bashed Brat’s play calls after wins too. A bunch of things contributed to the loss, one of those things has been consistent all season long; bad play calls offensively. It takes a team to win and as we saw yesterday it also takes a team to lose. Just because a few members here are bringing up Brat’s terrible game planning and obvious play calling doesn’t mean he is THE ONLY reason we lost.. however I do believe if we had hired a new OC last offseason like any other team who was 32nd in offense would, it may be just as effective as Zimmer’s been to our defense.

The team lost together in this one.. But Brat has to go, he sucks.. its that easy.

As in any game, it is always a collection of events that leads to the end result. But before each play, there are decisions to make and it is the COACH’S JOB to make the decisions that give the team the best opportunity to succeed. Does everyone agree?

If so, it is my opinion that the coaching decision to let Andre Caldwell attempt to return a kickoff with 33 seconds left COST THEM THE GAME at that point. Of course, take away turnovers, penalties and missed opportunities and that decision doesn’t have to be made, but the situation was what it was at that point. My feeling is you tell the team ‘Look, we’re going to fair catch/kneel and take our shot with the coin toss. If we lose the toss, DEF make one final stand and let the OFF make one more drive.’ If I had to put money (or pride) on Caldwell’s return ability or the Z-Fence, guess which one I’m taking.

Seriously though- If I had to change one thing (you’re right it is a team effort win or lose) it would be offensive coaching. The offense tends to get complacent/lethargic/vanilla or any other negative adjective you’d care to place there after getting a lead (Chicago was all Benson). I think some of it is no holds barred philosophy of shoving the run down an opponents throat no matter what (which I kind of like). However, it’s ok to mix things up a little without going against the overall game plan. For example, Bernie Scott doesn’t have to run up the middle >75% of the time, they don’t have to run twice after the majority of 1st downs and they can occationaly go no huddle just to keep the other team’s defense on their heels.

Not sure about minority of agreement, but you are a minority of correctness. If such a thing exists. Because you are PART right. The players DO deserve a share of the blame. But they can still only play the calls that are given to them, unless Carson says “to hell with this idiot I’m going to do something else”.

So yeah, the players deserve some blame. But Brat deserves a significant degree more, with Zim also needing a bit of the share as well.

that being said, it’s up to the coaches to try and do things to overcome the situation at hand. They failed! This happens to all teams and the good ones find a way to win. Just that simple! Coaches are there to manipulate and/or overcome what is failing. Did ML or Brat do this? Zim’s D was on that field an awful lot during that game and you can’t expect that D to constantly pull out the win! If Brat gets his head out of his ASS, then maybe we can win the way this team should be winning. Players blunder all of the time and coaches figure out a way to overcome it. Hey Brat, maybe some no huddle please!! and stop relying on the Fu@#!ng D to win the games. Blow your oppositions out and be intimidating. Make a DAMN STATEMENT!!

It isn’t just one game, the offense has been under performing for most of the season. Sure the players should take some of the blame but the majority of the fault must lie at the feet of the offensive coaching staff. If this had been a one-off then yes it could be down to the players but this has been happening most of the season, so I can ony assume that it is the system that is to blame. And head of the system is Brat.

Once again the Bengals start in a flurry & just stop. Maybe Benson would be health right now if the play calling was not so damn predictable & the passing game was providing the cover for the running game. I posted a story earlier this year to this affect & stick by it. The Bengals can win by narrow margins the way they have been playing on offense or open it up & start standing on the necks of opponents. If the Bengals don’t win by at least 14 points this Sunday then Brat is not doing his job. In college this approach might work, Tressel & the Buckeyes do the same thing & are almost always successful. This is the NFL & the Bengals are not playing Akron this weekend. Yes the players turned the ball over this past weekend, but the Bengals should have soundly beat a lesser opponent & Palmer should have had many more yards. The defense deserves all the credit for the Bengals record.

From the opening snap the team wasn’t crisp, I think that there was an emotional let down combined with overlooking Oakland. The Bengals were not Crisp in any aspect of the game, I don’t blame the play calling, I blame the execution. Even early on when we moved the ball, it was despite ourselves and silly penalties.

This is a game that shows us that the Bengals are not part of the upper echelon of the league. The Bengals are notorious for playing down to the level of their opponent conversely they are also the type of team that can compete with the best of the best in the NFL (when motivated). The former was apparent and I was thoroughly disappointed.

I was at the game (took my Nephew to his first football game) and it was COMPLACENCY that got the best of the Bengals on Sunday (both coaching staff and players are equally to blame for this terrible outing). On the sidelines, the players didn’t seem that enthusiastic to go out and WIN this game. Marvin Lewis’ mantras of “Do your job” and “Fight Back” weren’t apparent on Sunday.

There has been a lot of talk about “team unity” and how the Bengals players have relied on one another to pick up the slack. But on Sunday, this faith in one another took the form of an easy-going attitude that lead to the loss. The offense didn’t seem bent upon putting points on the board and when they had turnovers, this complacency lead offense to rely on defense to get them out of a jam. Similarly, the defense did not play with the same fire and tenacity we saw in the previous game in which they became reliant on the offense to generate points to provide a cushion.

If someone would have told me that Bengals had someone rush for 119 yards and forced three turnovers (I know the Bengals themselves had 4 turnovers); it would be impossible to think they would have lost the game.

This should be a wake-up call for the Bengals to find a happy medium between relying on one another still maintaining the team unity/chemistry and also respectively (coaches, offense, defense, special teams, etc) taking it upon themselves to go out and win the game.