Bengals in the Playoffs: The Jets shouldn't expect the same Cincinnati Bengals
by Josh Kirkendall on Jan 5, 2010 10:17 AM EST
in Playoffs
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PrintNot only was Sunday's loss especially disheartening, but how could the players come off that game (or whatever you called it) saying to themselves that they were proud of being shutout and losing by 37 points to a team that you will play next week? There were several points to be made as for the reasoning and why people shouldn't be concerned heading into the first round of the playoffs.
The Bengals weren't playing at full strength. When Cedric Benson starts, the Bengals are 9-4. When Benson starts, the Bengals have a formidable rushing offense. Instead, Sunday's offense against the Jets was geared for the pass with Benson being inactive. Without Benson, the Bengals offense simply doesn't have the same rhythm that we have seen all season -- at least the ability to sustain drives and pick up first downs. Along with Benson, the Bengals were without Domata Peko, Chris Crocker, Rey Maualuga and Robert Geathers -- all whom are starters. Believe what you want, but that much talent sitting out against a team that's going for broke with the final playoff spot on the line, you're asking for a massacre. At this point, what did you really expect to happen?
...so that means the Bengals depth isn't that strong. I'd challenge anyone to name a team, any team, that could sit at least five starters, including four on defense, and not struggle. It's one thing to replace a person here, or there. It's quite another thing to replace players in bulk with backups.
The Bengals didn't want to show our hand. This makes sense. However, it doesn't matter what game plan you put into place if you're missing blocks, dropping passes and failing to shed blocks -- medial tasks in football. Other than that, I believe that the Bengals wanted to keep the game plan as different as possible. Of the 15 first half plays the Bengals ran, four were called running plays. In nine games this year, the Bengals ran at least 30 times and in half of their games this year, the Bengals ran more than passing. So it makes sense that the offense would rather go against the ideology they've used all season. But that still doesn't excuse Palmer's 1.7 passer rating, which translates to one completed pass on 11 attempts for no yards passing; much of it the result of dropped passes.
The Bengals would have rather played the Jets than the Texans in the playoffs. I believe even Cris Collinsworth made this point during Sunday Night's broadcast because Cincinnati lost to the Houston Texans 28-17 earlier in the season. In that game, the Texans only had a 20-yard advantage in the first half where Cincinnati was actually leading 17-14. In fact, the Texans really didn't extend any advantage until Daniel Coats fumbled on the Bengals possession following Houston's third touchdown. J.P. Foschi fumbled a few possessions later and the Bengals offense completely shut down, recording their first second-half first down (not by a penalty) with 2:53 left in the game.
I'm not taking away what Houston did to the Bengals earlier this year. However, I do find it hard to believe that Cincinnati is looking to avoid a rematch with Houston simply because Cincinnati made several second half mistakes against the Texans. Furthermore, who would support a team that would sacrifice a game just to meet a lesser opponent? That's why I don't believe the Bengals would orchestrate something like that.
Well, I didn’t want to lose the football game and (with) how we lost it, I don’t think that really matters. We didn’t want to lose the football game. We had something to play for tonight and we didn’t get it done. Now, we are where we are. Our goals are ahead of us and let’s go.
Either way, I honestly don't believe that Cincinnati gave the Jets much to game plan in their week 17 meeting. And that's fine by me. A win is always nice -- especially considering that momentum benefits teams much more than resting starters, so it seems. However, I wouldn't expect that the Bengals would do the same thing this Saturday.
Moving on.
Geoff Hobson makes the argument why Marvin Lewis should win head coach of the year.
Carson Palmer broke a record against the Jets: Most attempted passes (11) without gaining a yard.
Next year, the Bengals will play the NFC South, the AFC East, the Colts and the Chargers.
The list of Bengals defenders that's gone down to IR include Pat Sims, Antwan Odom, Roy Williams and Rey Maualuga.
Chick Ludwig says that the Bengals need a deep threat... Brandon Marshall?
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chick ludwig is an asshat sometimes...
“a season that is likely to end at about 8 p.m. Saturday.”
wow… no faith.
i don’t get what everyone is so worried about. this is a jets team who lost 6 of 7 at one point and present no real threat in the passing game. cotchery is good, that’s about it…
i honestly think we can put 8 in the box and play man to man to beat the jets.
I have faith in Zimmer to have his guys ready to play
Brat on the other hand….not so sure, Benson…..we need ya buddy
CB85......Collaros for Heisman
by TennBengalfan on Jan 5, 2010 12:14 PM EST up reply actions
Indeed...
Run angry, Ced the Pred…
Run. ANGRY.
by TheWalrus1971 on Jan 5, 2010 1:47 PM EST up reply actions
I agree with Ludwig
I hope I’m wrong.
The Jets are coming in on a high, playing well lately. The Bengals haven’t had a good win since they beat Baltimore and Pitt way back when. Their best game since was the loss in SD.
The Bengals have scored the fewest points of any playoff team, and they’re facing the number one defense in the NFL. They have to break out some offense, and I don’t think they have it in them. The offense has been mostly terrible since Chris Henry’s injury.
by occams_tiger_teeth on Jan 5, 2010 12:26 PM EST up reply actions
If the Benagls aren't angry enough to play better
Then I am embarrassed to have followed them this year. I think that Ced is going to come in angry, and try to make up for the shallacking we took.
i wouldn't go that far...
given injuries to henry, odom, crocker, and roy williams, i am pretty happy with the how we did this season. we needed a winning season with a playoff berth and we got it. i’d love a playoff win and i’d give my pinky for a super bowl win, but we definitely shouldn’t be embarrassed to have devoted an entire season to a successful team.
what will embarrass me is if we get worse next year and go 8-8 or even have a losing season.
Bengals
The Bengals didn’t seem to adapt to the severe cold weather as good as the Jets did. Will this affect their play this week? The weather will be even worse. Palmer’s receiver seemed uncomfortable with the cold weather and dropped otherwise easy catches.
Yeah...
I didn’t want to attribute the first or second drop to the cold, but by the third drop…and then the fourth…I was beginning to wonder.
At that point, I wanted to see Ken Anderson himself run out on the field, smack the WRs around and say, “You don’t know what cold IS, jack-lick! Catch the flippin’ BALL!!!”
by TheWalrus1971 on Jan 5, 2010 1:53 PM EST up reply actions
Next years schedule is brutal
Hopefully we get the colts in week 16 or 17. Other than that we get the saints, Miami, Atlanta, new England… Ugh.
RIP Slim.
by brandone on Jan 5, 2010 11:19 AM EST via mobile reply actions
Don't just be a "fan"atic
8 in the box against the Jets is asking for trouble. That’s what teams did initially in the first 3 games of the season, and Sanchez, for all his troubles, as a strong arm. His errors are rookie errors, but going to single coverages against him is very dangerous. Ask Houston and New England who both tried that at the beginning of the season and got beat by the Jets.
Adding Benson back into the mix will of course improve the game for the Bengals. But it doesn’t add 37 points to the score. Adding back a starting tackle? Also good. Expect a close game. These are 2 teams that are mirror images of each other…smash mouth defenses, and strong running games.
I see your point about stacking the box..
But our CBs are way better than New England and Houston’s. I trust them to cover just about any receiver in the league one on one.
Hey dude!
Way to put the most positive spin on every aspect of that severely disturbing loss! It’s like things happened exactly the way the Bengals planned.
Pregame Agenda:
1. Look like you don’t want to be there
2. Pass for zero yards
3. Give the Jets anything they want on 3rd down
4. Drop passes
5. Lose big
6. Squander 3rd seed
7. Embarrass yourselves on national TV!!!
Marvin and Brat…always the masters of deception. The Jets took the bait and now it’s time to roll.
could you imagine having Brandon Marshall, Team Obliterator, and Ocho Cinco?
be a hell of a team, but it would explode!!!
CB85......Collaros for Heisman
I think Ludwig
has a point though, which is that CP doesn’t have enough real weapons. But I think I disagree that they need the deep threat WR. If you put a quality tight end on the field instead of JP StoneHands and Daniel StoneHands, that might be enough to make this offense pretty prolific. I had some hopes for Chase Coffman but this season does nothing for those hopes. They need Rodney Holman or Dan Ross, again. Carson’s whole time in Cincy they really have never had a deep down the middle type of tight end.
Right now you can tell what play the Bengals will run, a lot of the time, by looking at the formation and the motion. Having Roland report as an eligible receiver is joke. Part of the is Bratworst and his crappy play-calling. But a lot of it is the lack of talent at TE and the fact that the OL doesn’t have a single dominant player. (This OL is nowhere near as good as previous Bengals playoff teams)
by occams_tiger_teeth on Jan 5, 2010 12:32 PM EST up reply actions
Question: Which one would be Shaq, and which one would be Kobe?
Answer: They would BOTH be Kobe, which is the entire problem!
by TheWalrus1971 on Jan 5, 2010 2:29 PM EST up reply actions
You're right, Cincy is going to clean up in 5 days, HA
So the Bengals that lost 0-37 won’t show up Saturday, hopefully.
What about the Bengals that showed up the week before and couldn’t score against Chiefs?
Or maybe they’ll show up because they’re so experience in the playoffs. I think everyone is returning from the playoffs last year. Oh wait, this isn’t 1991. Thats right, they haven’t been in the playoffs in almost 20 years.
At least the Jets are going in with wins.
I hope you’re healthy so when they win again there’s no excuses.
lol yeah a lot of us have forgotten about the 2005 season too because of Palmer's horrible knee injury.
thanks for the kind words about us getting healthy. we hope we’re healthy too!
The Jets
One thing I noticed is that despite the score, the Jets had a remarkably hard time scoring.
Let’s look at the 2nd Jets scoring drive. On the surface, it is a solid 21 play drive ending in a field goal. Take away the offside and the fieldgoal, and The Jets marched 65 yards n 19 plays, just over 3 yards a play, against a team resting 3 defensive starters. Do you think that will happen on the road once the Bengals add some blitzing and movement instead of a vanilla defense. I do not. And I think this was the most, not the least indicative drive of the game.
You might ask why I feel this is the most indicative. The Jets averaged 4.1 yards a play against us. Against our vanilla back-up defense. The Browns, the worst offense in the league this year, averaged 4.2 yards per play for the season. Yes the Jets put up 37 points, but there offense was on a yardage pace to be the worst in the league.
So take what you will from the game, but I think this loss was pretty shallow in the end.
good points
I don’t know if it will be enough, since the Bengals have only looked mediocre on offense in 2 or 3 games this season, otherwise they’ve looked atrocious, but we can hope.
On my Brat soapbox again!
Keep the booze out of the coaches box please. If the Bengals lose Bratkowski should be fired on Monday. If the Bengals are as predictable as they have been all season then the lights will go out in PB Stadium for good Sat. night. The defense will do it’s job, the fans have to do theirs to try & further rattle a young QB with crowd noise, & Brat must coordinate a game that allows the Bengals to get a lead & try & put the Jets on their heels. If it comes down to a battle of 2 minute drills Palmer will own that fight. Who cares about last week, the Bengals have much to prove to their peers in the NFL..That they belong where they are at. I hope the players are as hungry as the fans!!!
Question of emotion?
Thought for discussion: With all the emotion of this season coupled with injuries are the Bengals just flat out exhausted? Do they have what they need in their gas tanks? Or do the players remember they are professionals & handle their business?
Bengals 24 Jets 21 !!!WHO DEY!!!
I accept your challenge
Week 1 jets are missing Calvin pace Shaun Ellis Lito Shepperd dwight lowery on defense and David clowney…. We proceeded to dominate the texans 24-7 with no offensive scores by them.
We’ve been missing at least 1 cornerback a week every week plus losing Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington. We’ve dealt with suspensions also. Look where we are now. That’s depth. The bengals have no depth and it showed
JETS
External optimist
Internal pessimist
by michael28102 on Jan 6, 2010 12:55 AM EST via mobile reply actions
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