It's the O-Line, Stupid

I told you all so in the off season!

it was the right idea drafting an OT high but you just don’t draft RT in the top 10. especially one who is a fat piece of shit with no respect for the game.

This team struggles with 3 and 1 . They did better last week, But as some said earlier 80% of smith is better than all of Roland. Wish we got Alan Faneca for Guard.

Never have I seen a coach less able to use what is available rather than “what he thinks it should be”.

And this goes back way before this year. Last year they “redesigned” the playbook to feature the run. Then what happens in training camp? Two TE’s go down, and we hear "A lot of what we put in was 2 TE set plays. Seriously, how dumb is that? It’s a goddamn football game, and people get hurt, and nothing is ever going to go according to plan all the time on the field. So he compensates by going to unbalanced lines, which of course will work for a short time, until people adjust to them. We were still running unbalanced sets when people were exploding it from weeks 10-16.

This is not a new thing:

2008 – Palmer goes down. Did they adjust to what Fitzpatrick did well at all? Did they feature bootlegs, scrambles, QB options? No.
2007 – Rudi is running for minimal gains, even after people start Cover-2’ing Chad and TJ to death. Where were the slants, the screens, the play action passes?
2006 – How long into 2006 were they trying to be the 2005 Bengals, minus several key pieces (Braham at center, Perry as 3rd down option)?

This could go on, but the truth is, Brat is horrible about going offbook, particularly in game. If his plan, such as it is, gets shut down, there is no option B, C, or D. There’s just hammer option A and then blame the failure on their “failure to execute”. And teams have literally 8 years of tape to watch on Brat, to know how formulaic this offense’s tendencies are.

I think a new offensive coordinator would, at the very least, accomplish 2 important goals:
1) It would force the offense – particularly Palmer, who has not had another offensive plan in his entire career – to see and learn a new system, and maybe teach them some new things and/or focus his determination, which is considerable, on his mechanics and calls again, and
2) It would introduce uncertainty in the minds of all of the Bengals’ opponents. In a game of inches and seconds, that is so so important and useful.

John Thorton’s response to Big Willie’s tweet “Guess where I am” showing a pic of him and Marvin

JohnThornton Tell Marv 2 bring us both back. U at RT, me as GM. I’ll give u both new deals RT @WillAnderson79: Guess where I am http://twitpic.com/2sxolk

After he tore up his elbow in 2008, which cost him most of the year, his accuracy and his arm strength fell off. His passes averaged about 7 yards per attempt from 2004-2007 were 6.7, 7.5, 7.2, and 7.8. From 2008 on they’ve been 5.7, 6.6, and 5.8. His 2004-2007 completion percentages were 60.9, 67.8, 62.3, and 64.9. Since the elbow injury they’ve been 58.1, 60.5, and 56.6. The bright line between good Carson Palmer and terrible Carson Palmer was that 2008 season when he reported needed Tommy John surgery but opted not to have it. Since then, he’s been terrible…scattershot accuracy, weaker arm, and an inability to run the passing offense effectively, and those are things clearly visible in the game tape.

The Bengals have assembled an offensive line capable of running a very solid rushing attack and they’ve upgraded the receiving corps, and yet Palmer is worse now than he was last season. Simple fact is, it’s not the line or the receiving corps that’s the problem…it’s Carson Palmer’s arm that he refused to get fixed in 2008. And it’s killing the Bengals offense.

In this day and age with the spread offense the lineman have changed. The quarterback has got to be able to move in the pocket and scramble when things break down. Palmer is a statue just like Drew Bledsoe, he does not have the athletic ability to move in the pocket. I saw Brady against the Jets bend over, and put his hand on the ground to shake off a defender, come up, and fire a strike. Palmer couldn’t shake a tackle to save his life. If he gets touched, he goes down. He has no toughness. He looks like he is terrified to take a hit. Show some muscle and shake some defenders then that will make them gun shy about tackling you. He looks like a kid that is a catcher or shortstop that is afraid to get hit by the baseball.

they could all take that would make them stronger and better. Oh wait. That’s been banned.

The offensive line isn’t the one almost getting picked off on a quick 5 yard out (like Carson last week with a guy CLEARLY right in front of Chad.) My point is – I have no doubt that Carson has all the physical tools to get the job done, but mentally the guy isn’t where he used to be. He is making some TERRIBLE decisions with the ball….THAT isn’t the O-Line fault.

Carson is getting ok protection, but he’s not able to take advantage of it.

The guy knows how to run routes.