Carson Palmer Answers Critics And Terrell Owens Steps Up: No One Else Did

Josh, you briefly touched on what i thought was the worst problem offensively for the bengals. The complete and utter lack of consistent play from the two gaping holes in the line, Nate Livings and more intensely – Dennis “the matador” Roland. I made it a point today to watch the right tackle position, and i believe on nearly 90% of the pass plays attempted there was serious pressure from the right side of the line. Carson was doing a masterful job of stepping up, moving out of the pocket etc…But how can the coaches allow such blatant ineptitude. They even at times, out of sheer terror no doubt, ask andre smith to help. Smith seriously doesn’t appear to have any athletic ability whatsoever. He is always out of position, whiffing, and battling his own belly for balance. He completely missed a block that led to the FG block. How does that happen? Its unheard of in the nfl. Someone going unblocked in the middle of the line. And who was standing next to smith? ROLAND. But i digress, Dennis Roland needs to be benched, bring in Reggie Kelly, plug him into the right tackle positon. Oprah winfrey would be an improvement over this guy.

Here’s the truth about the browns. They have no QB, and that’s really the only thing holding them back. They have had lots of high draft picks for years and they do have some good players on that team. When they get decent QB play they can win games. Simple as that. Obviously they are still worst in the division, but I would expect them to get at least one upset win this year.

You also can’t forget that he fumbled twice and lost both fumbles on Cincy’s part of the field pretty much handing the game to the Browns. Sure he didn’t throw a pick and 2 TD’s…but those two fumbles killed us.

Palmer is a very good QB overall…but I don’t believe he is a Franchise or…“Elite” QB if you will. Franchise “Elite” QBs find ways to win games with what they have..Peyton Manning..Drew Brees..Tom Brady…etc… Palmer doesn’t have anything to fall back on. He has an All-Star caliber WR corps, but he isn’t living up to expectations through 3 games of the season.

Agree with most of what’s written, but I’m starting to believe that coaching is playing a large part in our inability to show any consistency. It’s very frustrating that there seems to be such inconsistency week-in, week-out, and somehow this has been going on for the past several years. I like Marvin, but I think he would make a better GM than head coach. I am a bit shocked that our defense gave up so many yards to Hillis. After being prepared for last week, they seem to have thought Hillis would trip over his own shoestrings. Both sides of the line got beat! They sure do make it hard to be a Bengals fan sometimes!!! Let’s hope for a better next week! WHO DEY!

Why is Bratkowski still a f’’n OC? Why are the Bengals running I-formations when we don’t have an experienced FB. Using an LB, DT, or TE as a FB is stOOpid! Do you see any other teams doing that? Hire a f’n FB to do a FB’s job! Uh-Oh… here is a Bengal I-formation, 2WR set, TE right… Guess what Bob… everyone knows Cedric is getting the ball off the right tackle you big dummy… Wait, gresham is motioning left… Oh, u almost fooled em Bob, but they know your goinf left now, jeesh. The only “up the gut” run plays are when Cedric HAS to bounce one inside, that was intended to go off the right or left tackle. I am so sick of Brat’s playcalling and obvious lack of any sort of a gameplan. You don’t want to use a Fb, fine… play singleback formations and save the “Fridge” style FB for goal line plays. For goodness sake, when the defensive ends are blowing past the Palmer every play, throw in a draw here and there to keep them honest. I havn’t seen a draw play from the Bengals in 2 years!

We bitch and moan about Bratkowski on a regular basis and generally for good reason. Last night was once again, a prime example of poor coaching. Why is it that every 3rd and short, we throw the ball? Why is it that we start out in the huddle when we move the ball at will out of the no huddle? Why don’t we decide it’s better to start fast and score points than control the time of possession? Why is it that on 3rd down on a crucial play, we do a massive rolling shift play that I’ve never seen work before instead of the 3 WR that was consistently working? Why is it that every time we get into the red zone, we huddle back up only to fail consistently? And the biggest why of all…Why does Bernard Scott get 3 opportunities a game to make a play?

Seriously, you would have thought that 2005 would have been a lesson. Right now, we have the personnel to repeat 2005. And it was on display during this game. Yes, costly fumbles hurt us, but the poor play calling when in the huddle hurt us even more, especially in the red zone. When you move the ball 60 yards in no huddle then huddle up and can’t get 15 yards, then maybe, just maybe, you try what got you there?

Benson was unable to get any yards early on and we struggled. We went down and went to the no huddle then look what happened? Benson gets 10 yard runs. Does that remind you of Rudi at all? In 2005, we passed to set up the run and it worked. Run the no huddle, get a few yards then run a stretch play. Let the offensive line wear down the defensive line and then shove Benson down their throats. Right now, we’re getting completely manhandled and instead of compensating for that, instead of trying to tire out the defense and use something that consistently works, we’re reverting to our shitty predictable play calling.

And for fuck’s sake, please tell Carson Palmer that if he audibles after a huddle, TO NOT AUDIBLE TO A RUN PLAY! Everyone knows what is coming.

Palmer’s decision making drastically improves when he has the ability to go to the line of scrimmage, look at the defense, give them a hard count and get them to show their hand, back up, call the play then make an accurate read. He’s less successful out of the huddle. I know this, we all know this, so why doesn’t the coaching staff know this? How often do you see Peyton Manning huddle up? He’s still successful. So if it’s working, keep doing it.

I also would like to bitch, just for two seconds, about the offensive line. When Alexander is sitting in the film room watching tape and grading Roland, what the fuck does he see? Because what I see is Roland getting consistently beat by speed LBs because he’s not even close to athletic enough. He’s a full time back up and always will be. I’m sick and tired of hearing how technically sound he is or how hard he works when all I see is him giving up sacks and pressures, especially in crucial situations like when Roth sacked Palmer at the end of the game.

I’m so frustrated by this team. I hope Marvin is gone at the end of the season and I hope Bratkowski goes with him. I don’t know if I want Zimmer as a head coach but I sure as hell hate the entire offensive coaching staff starting from the head coach on down. The defense wasn’t amazing yesterday but they played well enough to win. They were put in terrible situations by the offense and weren’t helped at all by the referees. 400 yards of offense is pointless if you can’t score touchdowns.

Doing his best Jeff Blake impersonation. Airing it out because the offense sucked to start the game and put the team in a hole. Also Blake-ian:

-3rd down struggles
-Red zone struggles
-Tons of yards but only 20 points
-A loss

“Claims against Palmer are now dead”

Great point, Josh. A loss to the fu**ing Browns is really going to keep everyone quiet. Take that, haters!

This candy coated blog is getting a little too sweet to swallow.

Josh your comparison between Palmer’s wins and losses along with his stats is misleading and misguided.

Yes, as Bengals fans and critics we know Palmer isn’t Brady, Manning, Brees, or even Aaron Rodgers or Philip Rivers for that matter. But I think you’re painting a picture that Palmer has to be a game manager instead of a game changer in order for the Bengals to win.

Palmer is the face of the franchise and is a 100 million dollar QB. He was a 1st overall draft pick and a Heisman Trophy winner. There is no reason why Bengals fans and critics shouldn’t expect Palmer to put up great stats AND also win.

Plain and simple I think your wrong that Palmer has answered his critics. I don’t think it should be a choice of whether Palmer should win and have a statistically poor game or lose and have a statistically great game. Wins and numbers should go hand in hand.

Which leads me to my next point that Palmer’s play and Bengals are models of inconsistency. What separates the Bengals from the upper echelon teams in the NFL is consistency. Palmer’s play up until now exemplifies this point.

Who needs Ocho Cinco. TO is way better than Ocho Cinco will ever be.