Comments on: Dhani tackles Bengals training camp

By: bengalpirate

bengalpirate — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:38:17 +0000

Yeah Windy, got my wish, but now want the win over the Fins and then hopefully steal another road win in Cleveland. At this point I’ll take a 4 game winning streak, but you’re definitely right about winning streaks for Super Bowl teams. I guess my biggest wish is for the Bengals to have a winning streak going into December and hopefully carry it right into and through the playoffs. WHO DEY!!!

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:25:40 +0000

@bengalpirate: Well you got your wish…you’ll be cheering for the 4th straight win. Hopefully we will get this one and take one from Pit at home, and come off the bye going into the Denver game looking for #6. I seen an article once that listed some things that most Super Bowl winners had in common. One that was almost across the board was a 5 game winning streak during the regular season.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:35:26 +0000

You know Jeff Faine came right in here and fit in to his spot so quickly and seamlessly that I took for granted he could get injured. C and WILL LB were the only spots we didn’t have any depth at this year, and of course we have injuries there. Hopefully Faine can get out there Sunday. If he’s able to practice limited with a hamstring then it suggests it’s not a bad one. But hopefully he doesn’t worsent he hamstring to the point he ends up missing games. The good thing is I’m noticing Dalton is more and more with each game making the line calls himself. That’s something he’s improved big time on from last year. I think that’s the biggest change in him this season is his recognition of coverages and blitzes. That something Carson was top notch at. And I think Dalton will be as good or better in the aspect. But he also has special skills in anticipation and ball placement that really remind me of Joe Montana. I’m not saying he’s that good, it’s up to him to prove that.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:51:05 +0000

Thank you Bengals for re-signing Chris Crocker! It never even occurred to me. I had a feeling we would cut him, and at the time it was the right move. But we need him bad! I believe part of the issue in the secondary is we are failing in the mental part of the game….execution and discipline. He’s also a guy who can play CB in the Nickel. We lose speed for sure when he’s out there. You look at the D up to this point this year. No Crocker. No Dunlap until last game. Nelson can’t be blitzed because that means leaving the young guys in single high coverage. Atkins, when Dunlap was out, and with the Sims injury, is getting too much attention and too many snaps. All this has a great deal in my opinion with what has taken us down a notch on D. It’s the fact we didn’t replace Crocker’s coverage and blitzing skills, which put Nelson out of his shell, away from what he does best. Then the Dunlap injury, which of course no Dunlap! But also mix it with the Sims injury and now you’ve made things really hard on Atkins, and the rest of the line, with all the focus going to Atkins, and everyone playing too many snaps. Pretty complicated storm of things. But Dunlap is back, and now Crocker is back, the only part of the equation left is Sims being out, which was a secondary causation to the problem.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:16:08 +0000

@Hobson: One stat I would love to know from the Skins game is total QB pressures, hits and sacks on RGIII. And then what % of the time that occurred. At one point during the game, somewhere in the second half it was at 20 and I’m not sure he had attempted 30 passes. I bet we were well above 50% and probably had 25+ total combined pressures.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:12:27 +0000

@pirate…I believe you are right that we have never beaten Manning…Hobson would no for sure. But I’m almost positive. But I’ll tell you one thing, this Manning team is not the COlts we played in those losses. We should have a good shot at a win. But keep in mind we don’t have a good history against Denver. ANd that’s after bye week, and Lewis doesn’t have a good record after byes. But I believe we can win that game. Right now we are a better team than Denver. And that comes off a home game against PIT, and a bye. SO it’ll be our third week in CIncy. My daughter is great, last year here first paycheck she had ever received in her life, she bought me and her boyfriend (he’s a browns fan) first level tickets to the Bengals Browns game. MOst 19 year old girls don’t want to be seen with their father, let alone spend the whole day with him. But I’m lucky I have that. Actually blessed would be the correct word. I’m hoping when you walk out of your game we are 5-1, and when I walk out of mine we are 7-1. It’s doable! The road games are Jacksonville and Cleveland, and then Miami, Pittsburgh & Denver at home. Tough games, every one of them. But ones right now you have say we should win.

By: bengalpirate

bengalpirate — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:51:09 +0000

Windy, I’ll give it my best shot with Miami and I hope we are going for 2 straight wins over Florida teams when I do. I hope we also beat Denver for your daughter’s sake, so she gets to experience a winning Bengals’ game. I really want to beat Denver and Peyton, as correct me if I’m wrong, but we’ve never beat Peyton. I think the defense has the potential to keep improving and knock on wood, if they stay healthy could become a dominant D. For now though, I’ll take good enough D just to win. Who Dey!!!

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:18:30 +0000

@Bengalpirate: Who Dey! Hope you cheer us on the victory against Miami. My daughter bought tickets for me and her to see the Broncos game in few weeks! She just gave them to me yesterday. She’s never been to a game. Actually I hadn’t either until 2 years ago. This will be my 3rd game. It’ll be nice to see Peyton Manning too…just as long as he doesn’t beat us again. On the subject of the D, I was pleased as well. It wasn’t perfect, but that was a very tough offense to get things together against. They played pretty good. The DLine got a lot of pressure.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:48:17 +0000

@Hobson: I’ve read a lot about the controversy at the end of our game. They marked off 20 yards on the 15 yard personal foul on Kyle Shanahan. I’m I wrong or should there have been a 10 second runoff earlier in the drive when the Redskins player went down and play was stopped? The Skins had no timeouts. Lewis was trying everything he could to get the refs over to discuss it. Solomon Wilconts, who was announcing the game, stated it should’ve been a runoff. So if it should’ve been a runoff, then when the personal foul occurred at 7 seconds remaining, the game should’ve been over shouldn’t it? This is why I love Lewis…if we would’ve lost because of that, he would’ve blamed on the team not stopping them on the last drive. Also we couldn’t buy a holding penalty on their Oline. We were being held badly all day. Guys were breaking away from their man and handfuls of jersey were being grabbed…but only remember one holding call all day.

By: bengalpirate

bengalpirate — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:24:34 +0000

I won’t call it a monster game for Rey Maualuga, or the defense overall, but 7 unassisted and 6 assisted tackles for Rey and a defense that seemed to overwhelm the Redskins at times, certainly big steps in the right direction for all. Rey hitting hard, Mike Johnson’s monster game, Dunlap back and everybody else contributing to help steal a win on the road. Keep it up defense, keep improving each week, steal another win in Jacksonville and get back to the Top Ten defense I know you are. I can’t wait for the next home game to throw my big mouth behind the defense, as we hopefully go for our 4th straight win!!! OK, maybe I’m still feeling the adrenaline from yesterday’s win, but once again, hope springs eternal!!! WHO DEY!!!

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 08:39:17 +0000

As I’ve been tossing this game around all week, I really think the Skins back 7 can be exploited. With the injuries on D if they don’t get as much pass rush, coverage will be that much tougher. But the big question is when will Zim get the D together. And containing RGIII also. 3 things have been hurting us bad. Guys are out of their gaps and out of their coverage lanes too much. The push from the Dline, is not the same as last year. The edge is not consistently getting set and we are losing containment. To add to that the tackling has been shoddy and everyone is playing tentatively like they just learned the D. And there definitely is an issue with stamina, especially with the Dline. I doubt that against this mobile of a QB, and potent an offense I don’t know if we bring it back to Zim standards this week. But you never know. Because I do believe that when they decide to play with discipline, we’ll look more like last year’s D. But we also need to get more of a rotation going on the Dline or we might keep leaking points in the 2nd half. Dunlap being back at full go will help a lot. And either Sims coming back or getting more from the rookie DTs. And hopefully Gilberry can provide quality relief for Michael Johnson

By: bengalpirate

bengalpirate — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 14:27:09 +0000

WOW!!! 30th in defense??? C’mon DEFENSE!!! I’m still pulling for you, as always. I’m still pulling for you too, Rey Maualuga!!! Don’t make me retire your number 58 jersey I so proudly wear, or sell your autographed pre-season pass I was so happy to get this summer!!! Only kidding Rey, but I know your situation and missing so much time after your knee injury in the first pre-season game. You just need a good game to get the blood up and get back in your groove. Baby steps man, baby steps. Now your knee is ready to take the next, big steps back. The same goes for the overall defense, with all the injuries, and adjustments required. Time to step up!!! I doubt the the defense and/or Rey will have a big game against Washington, with RGIII the offensive monster he is, but just try and keep it close and maybe allow the offense and teams to steal a win for us and start this defense on the road back to a Top Ten defense. The year is still young, but you’ve got to get going. WHO DEY!!!

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:59:36 +0000

RIP Steve Sabol…I don’t think they make men like Ed and Steve Sabol anymore. Not too many of the men who made the NFL what is are left anymore either. One of them still sits in the owner chair at PBS offices. If I could describe our society and culture in one word it would be corporatized. And it is squeezing every ounce of profit out of everything it can. And squeezing anything that has to do with human creativity and passion out at the same time. NFL Films represents one of the last vestiges of an age long gone. One that doesn’t have room for the Steve Sabols of the world. Some of the stuff they did in the early 60′s with the old WWII military surplus equipment are like works of art.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:13:21 +0000

30th in the league in D…i would’ve never thought that would be case after games. And frankly it’s not the yardage given up, it’s the points allowed that bothers me. If we were giving up a lot of passing yards, and then tightening up in the red zone and forcing field goals it would be one thing. I know the Dline is down people..but a lot of teams only rotate 5-6 guys. In fact I don’t know of any team last season that regularly used 8 guys. I can also remember that before last season, we didn’t either. And we had a weak pass rush in seasons past under ZImmer but didn’t have this problem. A last thought though…part of the problem may be that the D is not playing together as a whole. Even thought we returned 10 of 11 starters (9 now with Howard out), we brought a lot of new role players in, and the scheme has changed some. I’m hoping that with Dunlap’s return and another week that hopefully Zim can get this giong the right direction.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 07:18:37 +0000

It’s a big loss losing Howard for the season. He was by far the best defender against the Ravens. The only one you could say had a good game. He is our best LB. It’s not as bad on run downs. And on pass downs, I think Zim can scheme around it, using 3 safeties in a lot of situations. But where it really hurts is in 2 areas. Downs where you have to set up for the run but be able to cover the pass too, and in blitzing. The first one can’t be replaced, the blitzing can be schemed around some, but much like the pass downs, it’s going to limit Zim some on what he can call. I think Taylor Mays would be a good Nickel LB. And he used in a similar roll against the Texans last year. So maybe we reprise that some too. But with Mays struggling to grasp his coverage responsibilities at S, they may not want to put too much on him. Hard to say. But I know this, and Hobson alluded to it in the preseason right after the final cut down…WILL LB, Nickel LB & TE were the only areas on the roster that weren’t very deep. Especially Will LB. Week 2 and again we have some big questions that will be answered. I know this we desperately need Dunlap healthy and playing. WHen he’s in the rotation it raises the level of the whole D. And it takes pressure off Atkins, as well as the coverage. He shortens the coverage time, it’s that simple. We really need to be able to come out and run the ball. That’s the weak point of the Cleveland D, the strongest point of our 1st game, and can shorten the game for the D. Also we have to hit some a couple/few big pass plays. That would give the D a chance to settle in and find a groove.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:21:40 +0000

Found an interesting piece that shows that Marvin Lewis is in the Paul Brown coaching tree, or forest as it is sometimes called. THe first branch down from Brown includes coaches Don Shula & Lou Saban. Branching from Saban you have Marty Schottenheimer who played under for Saban and cited him as his cheif influence. Branching from Shula you have Bill Arnsparger and then from his Marty Schottenheimer, whose first NFL job came as LBs coach under Arnsparger the HC of NYGs at the time. Coming down from Schottenheimer are several coaches, one of which is Bill Cowher. And coming down from him is Marvin Lewis, a 4th gen member of the Paul Brown coaching tree. But then I noticed another branch. One that went in this order form top down to another Bengal asst. From Brown down to Bill Walsh to Mike Holmgren to Jon Gruden to Jay Gruden who somehow finds himself in the Brown tree too.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:46:41 +0000

@Hobson: In your article where ZIm alludes to the 2010 opener. One big difference though, is after that game, he took all the blame. Saying he had put too much on the players mentally. “I thought we were the 46 Bears or something…but, I guess we aren’t…I’ll fix this.” That was what he was saying then. This time there is no talk of simplfying the D or anything of the kind. He’s just talking about faith in his guys. Which is good to me. Hopefully we can look back in a few weeks and that game will appear like an apparition.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:15:54 +0000

One thing I want to point out too..is how little last week means once it’s past. The Steelers who were fighting injury and had a lot of people out through camp, played the Ravens in Baltimore on opening day last year. The Ravens forced 7 turnovers and won 35-7. With the theme of the offseason being that the Steelers D was aging and losing a step, the media pounced. The Steelers returned home the following week with a 24-0 pouncing of the Seahawks. Then went on to finish the season 12-4. It’s all about what we do from this point on.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:02:57 +0000

Finally a sell out! I was covered on this game because I’m in the Col and Day viewing areas. So if it was blacked out in Dayton, I get lucky enough to get the broadcast on the Columbus station, who broadcast the Browns road games. But the Columbus stations aren’t in HD on my cable system. So now I get to watch in HD! But overall that we achieved a sell out for the opener. As a team what you really want after last week, is to come back home, and flip it. Make us forget about last week…please! Really though there were some bright spots in the game, as hard as they were to see though the bludgeoning. And there were definitely teachable moments to follow up on this week to say the least.

By: mwindle1973

mwindle1973 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:10:30 +0000

RIP Art Modell. His death has seemed to stir memories of the move in some, and it has in me as well. After reading and discussing many points about the move with people, I was pretty swayed on some points for Modell, that laid blame on the city. The move certainly changed the fate of the Browns, but also changed the fate of the Pats as well. I know my father, back when he was 13 never quite forgot him firing Paul Brown, he stayed a fan because of Jim Brown. But when Brown started the Bengals in 1968 the old wounds were still there, and he became a Bengals fan. You’ll also get to see former Bengals DT Mike Reid in action. In my opinion he is the single greatest DLineman that has played for the Bengals. The Bengals tracked sacks back then and form his rookie season in 1970 until he retired after the 1974 season due to injury he recorded 5, 12, 12, 13, 7 sacks in consecutive seasons. In all he played 64 games and recorded 49 sacks, and he played injured most of his last season. From 71-73 he posted 37 sacks in 41 games. It’s too bad he had to retire in 1974. It’s too bad he wasn’t there for the 75 season, which may have been the best Bengals team ever. Well I’ve went from Art Modell, to pounding the virtues of Mike Reid. But honestly too many Bengals fans have no idea who the guy is. I mean how many DTs in NFL history have recorded double digit sacks in 3 straight seasons? And how many Bengals period have done it. My guess is Mike Reid is on a short list with that accomplishment.