So I get home from work today, fire up the innertubes, make the rounds, and what do I find? Two items of note.
First, there's The Enquirer's Paul Daugherty taking his nickname of "Doc" just a bit too literally.
I asked around Monday. Did you see the game? What did you think? I checked in with two people close to the situation, whose opinions I trust. Unsolicited, I got an e-mail from a third person, a former pro baseball catcher who, like Palmer, had an elbow injury he declined to have fixed surgically.
That's news to the other three experts. One said he was "shocked" at how poorly Palmer threw Sunday. He suggested that Palmer threw crisply in July and August, because he'd taken time off before camp. Now that Nine has thrown consistently for nearly three months, the elbow is barking or lacks strength. If that's the case, Cincinnati's season just got a whole lot longer.
The old catcher with the same injury said that made sense. "If I didn't get a day off after every two or three starts, that's when it would bother me the most," he wrote. "For (Palmer), I would think the situation is worse."
The catcher said Palmer's elbow is constantly cooling down and warming up. He suggested it might never be fully loose. "Definitely a bad situation," he said.
Really, Paul? You're going to pull a Vicks Formula 44 on us? This is Bengals-fan-forum level stuff. "Hey, I know a guy who's dad's cousin hurt his elbow and his doctor said Carson is screwed!"
But perhaps I'm being too tough on Bengals fan forums. As it turns out, there are fans willing to put in the hard time to actually, y'know, study the game, break plays down and try to suss out what's really going on.
So here’s the breakdown of the 18 incompletions by "blame":
Carson: 6
Oline: 5 (Interception)
Miscommunication: 1 (Interception)
Good D/Pass interference: 4
WR/TE dropped/slipped: 2
Further, Carson was an astounding 18 for 20 when he got the time to step into his throws and make a play.
I encourage everyone, whether you’re a Carson "hater" or Carson "apologist" to not just criticize or defend blindly, and watch the tape and analyze it fully. I had one opinion after watching the game, and I have a much different one now after analyzing the tape. Lots of opinions flying around on both sides that aren’t getting a detailed look at what’s really going on.
What he said. While I happen to be in the "it's the o-line's fault" faction, there are a lot of moving parts involved, and I appreciate anyone who stops to examine the facts versus citing unsolicited emails from anonymous old baseball players. So props to Bengals1181, and boo to Doc. Internet 1, traditional media zip. Again.