Bengals snap count takeaways vs. Steelers: Time to consider QBs beyond Ryan Finley?

As Bengals’ fans, we haven’t been having the greatest time this season.

Our team is 0-11, and the only bright spot is that we have almost completely secured the first overall pick with every other team in the NFL having at least two wins. As far as what we can take away from what is happening on the field, the snaps tell only part of the story to what may be a bigger problem.

Here are the snap count takeaways from the Bengals’ loss to the Steelers:

• Despite both teams struggling offensively for mot of the game, there was still a huge discrepancy in total snaps. The Bengals only ran 58 plays to the Steelers 74. How does that happen? Well the Bengals were 1/12 on third down conversions, which resulted in a ridiculous amount of three-and-outs by the offense. The Steelers also managed to put a few first downs together despite their offensive struggles.
• We have to start with one takeaway that needs to be taken seriously. Rookie quarterback Ryan Finley (58) can’t play the entire game again if he is going to look like that. Outside of throwing up two prayers that Tyler Boyd answered for him, he again looked inaccurate as well as late on plenty of throws. I get you want to evaluate the young guy, but at the cost of being able to evaluate the rest of your offense? Twice now Finley has faced two drives where he could lead his team down the field to tie or take the lead, and in both games he looked lost. We are at the point where we have to wonder if Finley can even make the team next year as a backup. It may be time to give Jake Dolegala a shot to show what he can do. Maybe he is the backup of the future.
• The theme of these final games is evaluation, and this week the Bengals were planning on making a move in the name of that. Billy Price (58) was going to be sat in order to start Alex Redmond at left guard. However, Redmond hurt himself during the pregame workout, so Price played the entire game. The one issue I have with this is the offensive line is obviously a unit that will see some major turnover (hopefully). Why do we need to see Redmond again? We haven’t seen Michael Jordan since early in the season and Fred Johnson hasn’t got to play at all. I’d rather see no stone left unturned than lifting the same stones over and over just to find that the turds still haven’t turned into diamonds.
• Germaine Pratt (46) seems to be getting eased into playing more. He was still replaced at times by the three-headed monster of Hardy Nickerson (9), Jordan Evans (4) and LaRoy Reynolds (4). Hopefully we get to the point where the rookie can receive the kind of snaps that Nick Vigil (70) is getting.
• You know what helps a struggling offense? Only playing Tyler Eifert 22 snaps. This seems like a huge problem of trying to make the players fit a coaches scheme rather than scheming around the players you have. You may not be able to throw the ball to Eifert 30 times a game, but even just having him out there takes attention away from these other receivers who are struggling to gain separation. C.J. Uzomah played 36 and Cethan Carter exited the game early with a concussion. If Cincinnati was only going to play Eifert like this then they should’ve just traded him at the deadline.
• With a healthy Carl Lawson (35) back on the field, we have seen a pretty nice rotation at defensive end. Sam Hubbard (64) still leads the pack with Carlos Dunlap (65) right behind him. You can tell this is helping Dunlap and Hubbard who were playing close to every snap there for a few games without Lawson. Also Lawson has looked like his old healthy self the past two games with a sack in each one.