Bengals Banter: Wildcard Week

However, the starting O-line flat out got abused by the Jets. That makes me worry.

As long as Peko is healthy, the abuse of the d-line that happened last night shouldn’t repeat itself.

but the tell-tale sign for me was the benching of Cedric Benson. If he’s not playing when he could be playing, they’re mailing it in.

JSL, I agree. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Benson wasn’t on the Friday Injury report. Regardless, he was healthy enough to play. I read the Inactive list around 7:30, and saw our Top TE/DE/DT/RB deactivated. Honestly, i hate to admit it, but I didn’t bother watching the game. I knew it was gonna be painful to watch.

Btwn Marvin sharing his lust for the 3 seed, and an uncharacteristic Palmer stating their “opportunity to knock a team out of the playoffs”, the Bengals essentially put the Jets on notice that they weren’t laying down. Truth be told, I believed them initially. But sitting a healthy Benson, whom most of the offense runs (literally) through doesn’t equate to trying to win. They baited the Jets with Carson Palmer starting off the game in a fashion that we’ve simply not seen all season. I have seen fan after fan comment on CJ with bitter frustration of the excessive usage of Run Plays. Look at the Bengal drive charts. The1st Half Run-to-Pass ratio is far different than any game we’ve seen all season. Even against the stoutest of Rush Defenses, everyone’s favorite Bengal Offensive Coordinator has called for #32 up the gut ad nauseam. (see – vs MIN, vs PIT, vs BAL).

Call me naive, but I’m pretty sure they ran Palmer out there (like a worm on a hook) in various Pass formations to get a feel for the Jets blitz packages.

Conversely, maybe Rex knew Marvin would go about this game in a ho-hum manner, expecting such a trap. Maybe Rex called several unconventional blitzes and WildCat plays…..cuz he wasn’t fallin’ for Marvin’s Jedi-trickery.

I’m not sure what’s gonna happen Saturday. I didn’t watch that game last night cuz 2005 Week 17 deja vu was in the air. All I know is that the Bengals we see this Saturday will be far different than the Preseason-like effort displayed last night.

(Please feel free to rebut, as even I’m not sure I believe what I just posted here.)

this was a preseason game for us and the jets had the playoffs to play for. they gave it their best and we phoned in ours. imagine the tables were turned—the jets had their spot locked up with no possibility of getting a higher seed, we were playing for the playoffs at home.

a. benson would have played
b. peko would have played
c. chad would have played his hardest
d. andre smith wouldn’t have played as much
e. brat would have given a shit

i think we were playing a chess game with them and it’s our move on our home turf. guys will be rested and healthy, we’ll have the crowd on our side, mark sanchez is going to be scared out of his mind.

be positive… it’s not as bad as it looked last night.

That the offense can look so bad for 55 minutes of every game this year, and then suddenly look competent when the game is on the line. Where are those plays for the rest of the game?

Seems like we never put the RB’s into recieveing sets until the game is on the line, yet it is so successful. How come we never break out any of the plays that Leonard gets first downs with until it is 3rd and 12?

I just hope to God that Brat doesnt try and run into the teeth of the Jets D for two straight downs and then tries to throw a fade rout to Coles on 3rd and 7 next weekend. OPEN IT UP!

they seem to think last night’s game was a Bengals rollover. However, what the Jets gained in confidence and what the Bengals lost has me very upset.

I hope that wasn’t the real bengals yesterday, I hope the line grows a pair and pushes back once in a while, I hope Palmer comes out bombing the ball down the field as we should have been doing all year, however, I actually EXPECT us to win on Saturday, this team has bounced back all year from problems, ALSO, remember how bad the Cardinals looked last year right before they ran the playoffs and got jobbed by shitsburg in the superbowl

just joined this blog a few days ago to make a crack on the steelers. i am a life long bengals fan, cincinnati resident and season ticket holder – but enough about that. i just wanted to chime in after hearing all the same crap you guys did from the out of town media types – and having pretty much the same opinion on it.

a couple of things i havent seen on this thread yet:

surely the bengals will be stacking the box with 8-9 guys and daring sanchez to beat us with jerricho cotchery and braylon edwards. we stayed in the base package all night and let them run run run. wont happen again.

anyone else tanke a little umbridge at the jets challenging a 4th down spot already up 30-0 AND their continually running first team all out blitzes at JT O’Sullivan and the Bengals second team, particuraly in the 4th quarter? I did. All’s fair in football, but I am hoping the Bengals take special notice of this come film time. revenge is a dish best served cold.

how about Rex Ryan talking up how good his team is at running and stopping the run. the quote is saw was that the jets “do it better than anyone in the league.” that’s pretty strong coming from a guy who counted his own team out two weeks ago AND had to have the Colts and Bengals lay down for him to even get in to playoffs in the first place.

Maybe Minnesota but we scored on them. At one pour it was 2 and 1 and we passed the ball 2 straight times which never ever happens. If you are trying to win and play to your teams strengths we run the ball and get a 1st down. Instead they decided to pass maybe hope to pick up the first down but would be fine punting it and getting on with the game. There was never a sense of urgency at any point in this game ever! They passed more then usual and never even attempted to run the ball. And as far as Chad getting blanketed that’s a load of shit. He was open like 8 times he just happened to get overthrown once and dropped 3 passes. His knee was bothering him more then he would say. Watch some replays of his routes, he was not 100%. that’s fine if the jets get confident they will prolly come in over confident, I don’t think the bengals can’t lose to them again but it’s going to be a completely different game. At no point in time did I believe the bengals were going all out and trying to win this game and got crushed ever. I believe they we testing the jets pass defense to see what they could do then playing vanilla defense to see what kinda formations would be called for the jets offense. This was a set up and I feel it in my heart! Never in the entire year have they layed down like that even when all was lost and gone to the Vikings. I mean saying the chargers are unstoppable and we are a joke after 2 weeks ago it took them a last second fg to win is ridiculous. If I’m wrong and we lose well that would suck but I do not see them losing Saturday not with the emotions this team has gone through all year there is no way!

I think the Bengals came out wanting to win, trying to win (with less than 100% attendance, admittedly) but got punched in the nose, hard, and said ‘screw it, let’s just play not to get hurt’ and let the Jets have their fun.

My problem with this, as Tony Dungy pointed out to the idiots around him in the pregame, is that the Bengals should have tried for the 3 spot. First of all, when the same team leads the league in rushing offense and overall defense (yards or points, either way), that’s a team you don’t want to face in the playoffs. I feel that the loss to the Texans earlier in the year was due almost entirely to the Texans smart gameplan of using screens and dumpoff passes in the place of a running game. I don’t think that same strategy would catch the Bengals napping for a second time in the same season. Furthermore, the Jets defense is absolutely loaded. Shutdown corners, top-notch linebackers, and a solid d-line. Their o-line may be the best in the NFL. Their FB is the oldest RB/FB in the league and yet he still plows LBs out of the way like they’re children on his lawn. I’m not worried about their passing game, but they have shown time and again that they can pass 15-20 times per game or less and still dominate the opposition. The Texans, meanwhile, are a one-trick pony. If you stop Andre Johnson, you stop the Texans. Their defense is decent, but not playoff caliber. Finally, having the #3 means you won’t face the Colts unless/until the AFC Championship game. Even the Peyton-haters should know better than to think the Bengals match up well with the Colts. The Bengals don’t have enough pass rush to rattle Peyton Manning, and that’s the first requirement for slowing them down. The Chargers are tough, but much easier a matchup for Cincy.

All in all this has been a pretty pathetic end to the regular season. I hope the Bengals turn it around and get some wins in the playoffs, but they’ve got a hard road to go.