Bengals Player Pick 'Em Wk 8 @ Seattle

Last game we did exactly what I said we had to do to win the game.  We had to step on defense, we had to keep Dalton clean (no sacks all game long), and we especially had to limit the big play in the fourth quarter.  Well when the opponent's longest play of the entire day was a 22-yard pass and no individual player cracked 60 yards rushing or receiving, I'd say our defense did its job quite well.

About the only things to dislike from this game were the way Gresham disappeared gain and 'Rome didn't make the end-zone.  Otherwise, even our offense did a pretty good job too, at least on the passing game.  The rushing game... not so much.  Benson better use his week off to figure out how to run again.  Sure he got in the end-zone but he didn't earn a whole lot of love (much less a contract extension) by rushing for 57 total yards (57!) with a YPC of 3.56 and a long carry of NINE yards.  Yuk.  Just plain YUK.  Either we really need more talent at the RB spot or we need a LOT more talent at the OL.  Or maybe both.  Yeah yeah I know the Colts have fast flow LBs that makes it hard to get big runs... yeah well the Saints just abused them for 236.  Something needs to improve in our run game.  Maybe it's the blocking.  Maybe it's the runners.  Maybe it's the play-calling.  But something needs to improve.

And frankly, this week should scream "trap game" to anybody with ears to hear.  Oh the Seachickens are NOT a good team.  Anybody who thinks they are is brain-dead... or worse.  Or at least they didn't watch that utter snooze-fest last weekend against the Browns.  Their offense is utterly putrid and inept.  They rank #28 or worse (usually 30s) just about any way you slice it, and even 3rd down percentage they are #26.  Their special teams aren't exactly special IF we can contain their kickoff returns.  Just boot those kickoffs out of the end-zone please, folks, OK?  Don't give me heart trouble on this stuff here.  If we let him, Leon Washington is more than capable of winning the game single-handedly on a couple of kickoff returns.  Don't let him.  If you have to, deliberately kick it out of bounds and let them have the ball at the 40 and trust our defense  Just do NOT let Leon get his hands on the ball on a kickoff return.  Period.

Their defense, on the other hand, is decent.  They are at #11 in points per game, #15 at yards per game, and #11 in rush defense.  It's only in pass defense (at #20), sacks, and their weak turnover numbers where their defense shows its not all that good.  On the other hand, it's not like we have the #1 passing offense, and our run game has been missing-in-action pretty much all year long.  Our boys really need to step up this week, especially what with the 3 time-zone flight involved and already making it harder for us.

Worse yet, the Seachickens have a legitimate gripe with the officials for "stealing" the game from them last week on a phantom block-in-the-back call.  We need to go lay down a beat-down on them or they may use that emotional lift to propel themselves to an upset and we do NOT want to see that happen.

Oh and please remember to un-rec the previous week's post if you rec'd it previously...

Scoring recap post from last week is repeated below the jump as well as the summary version of the rules.  (Review the original full write-up of the rules here if you like.)  Pick your player in the comments and have fun!

Well I’m sorry it took me so long to get around to posting this update. But the bye week was at the perfect time for me, I needed the time off to take care of other stuff when I didn’t have to worry about running the game here.

And it came at a good time for us as well. The Stoolers still aren’t great, they beat a horrid Arizona team but didn’t exactly look dominant in doing so, the Brownpants made Ohio TV execs cry (and should have made them change to another game — ANY other game), and the Mavens lost to the Jags… a team we’ve beaten. So we gained at least a half game on them even by not playing. Good weekend all around. And while our win over the Dolts may not have been as impressive as a 62-7 beat-down, we still beat a team we hadn’t beaten in a solid decade and we upped our team record to two games over .500. That’s a win any way you slice it, and style points don’t count until you get to something like the 12th tiebreaker. Hopefully we’ll just win enough games in the next 10 weeks that it won’t matter.

And man what a weekend it was for scoring. We had 54 legitimate entries… and we were very close to half of our participants scoring points. Now that’s a diverse scoring situation. It makes me a bit sick that the week I finally give up on Leon he shows up again. Boo, hiss. Oh well, maybe I’ll get luckier next week. But one week after our defense was a huge reason we won yet did nothing for us statistically, this week practically everybody did something for us in the stats sheet. Even Nate showed up with a forced fumble (he was the only one who wasn’t picked by somebody) plus Carlos, Reggie, Leon, and MJ all racked up points in this game. Way to go defense.

Offense… not so much. But I’ll discuss that more in the post for next week’s game.

Oh and big props to Jordan G for his/her daring prediction of Carlos Dunlap. With this one pick he jumped from 24th place to 10th place. Impressive… but you are not a Jedi yet… :)

Here are our weekly points scored:

Jordan G – 106 pts (Carlos Dunlap)
Luke – 53 pts (Michael Johnson)
Pardon_My_French – 52 pts (Leon Hall)
Paul Cannon – 52 pts (Leon Hall)
cincyplayoffwin2012 – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
Striped_To_Impress – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
Cry – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
BoomerEsiason’sLoveChild – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
70sav – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
Throw the ball – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
these3words – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
Mr. X – 46 pts (A.J. Green)
MCSubtext – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
Rockhound-11 – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
Alexneyer – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
JerseyBengal – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
jim0ijk – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
diehard bengals fan 20 – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
ephram – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
rudebengal18 – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
Cedric Benson Boat Party – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
Boomer Lion – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
DiabeticBengal – 43 pts (Cedric Benson)
WHYUS!! – 26 pts (Reggie Nelson)
ItsAlwaysSunnyInDayton – 26 pts (Reggie Nelson)

Added to previous standings, this gives us a week 6 leaderboard of:

1. duffmane – 169 pts
2. bill schwab – 166 pts
3. Cry – 162 pts
4. Paul Cannon – 161 pts
5. ephram – 159 pts
6t. Boomer Lion – 152 pts
6t. JerseyBengal – 152 pts
7. Cedric Benson Boat Party – 148 pts
8. The Dealio – 147 pts
9. MCSubtext – 144 pts
10. Jordan G – 131 pts
11. TruWhoDey – 125 pts
12. Pardon_My_French – 122 pts
13. BoomerEsiason’sLoveChild – 120 pts
14. Rockhound-11 – 117 pts
15t. Mr. X – 116 pts
15t. Throw the ball – 116 pts
16. diehard bengals fan 20 – 115 pts
17. jim0ijk – 113 pts
18t. BonnieBengal – 109 pts
18t. James Schmid the great – 109 pts
19. Grizzlyfox – 107 pts
20. biggie22 – 106 pts
21. featherman – 98 pts
22. these3words – 90 pts
23. jimbasa – 88 pts
24t. rudebengal18 – 82 pts
24t. Alexneyer – 82 pts
25. Striped_To_Impress – 81 pts
26. ItsAlwaysSunnyInDayton – 79 pts
27. WHYUS!! – 75 pts
28. KyleStyle11 – 74 pts
29t. bengalsfanforlife – 72 pts
29t. LookingDeep – 72 pts
30. 70sav – 73 pts
31t. i am will – 70 pts
31t. Aether – 70 pts
31t. JADefense – 70 pts
31t. K312 – 70 pts
31t. Joe Goodberry – 70 pts
31t. BradDwayne – 70 pts
31t. CincyMike56 – 70 pts
31t. emeybee – 70 pts
32. Luke – 53 pts
33t. Richard L – 52 pts
33t. FriarBob – 52 pts
34. cincyplayoffwin2012 – 46 pts
35. casapennec – 44 pts
36. DiabeticBengal – 43 pts
37. ThreeofSpades – 28 pts

Here is a quick recap of the rules.

1. Pick one player (Make it easy on me, make him the title of your post.  Both first and last name please, and please try to avoid nicknames or blatant misspellings.) who is NOT officially listed as a QB, P, or PK on the roster.
2. An offensive score is worth one point per participant who did not pick your player.
3. A defensive player is worth 2/1/0.5 point(s) per participant who did not pick your player based on if he 2) actually scored, 1) gained possession of the ball for the team but didn't actually score, or 0.5) allowed the Bengals to gain possession by causing a fumble (or blocking a kick) that another Bengals player recovered.  Sacks or tackles behind the line of and by themselves are not worth anything unless they are a strip-sack (0.5 points if we recover) or they are also a safety (2 points).  All half-points will be rounded down.  A blocked FG is always 0.5 for the blocker, a blocked punt is the same unless the blocker is the only person (on either team) to touch the ball before it becomes a safety (in which case it becomes 2 points).
   
4. You score the maximum possible points for your player but only one time.  So a defensive player who forces an opponent's fumble that Cincinnati recovers and recovers another opponent's fumble at a different point in the game is worth 1x points (not 1.5x cumulative).
5. Keep commentary to the bare minimum please.
6. Predictions on how they will score are not required, and if you provide one they don't net you any bonus if you are right nor do they detract if you are wrong (so long as they do actually score by game rules).
7. Try to be original yet still pick somebody you think has a realistic chance to score or cause a turnover.
8. Only ONE (1) player entry per contestant, per week is allowed.  Unless your first player was on the roster at the start of the week and is put on IR/cut/traded before the next week, your first comment is your player, so pick carefully.
9. Deadline for player entries each week is THIRTY (30) minutes prior to kickoff.