The Bad and the Ugly...no Good

And that, my friends, is why they play the game on the field and not on paper. On paper, the Bengals are heads and heels better than the Browns. On paper, the Bengals destroy the Browns. On paper, this game had no business of even being close. On the field, the Bengals apparently thought their paper advantage was all they needed to win. On the field, the game wasn’t close…it’s just it was the Browns doing the beating and the Bengals taking the beating.

 

The Good

I try to always find a silver lining after every Bengals game. Regardless of how bad a game was, there is always something you hang your hat on and say that the Bengals did well. Something that showed promise.  Not Sunday. I can honestly say there was nothing this team did well in Cleveland. Even though the defense only gave up 17 points, they had 0 turnovers, had little pressure on Hoyer, and they still gave up 336 yards (including two 90+ yard scoring drives) to an offense led by Brian Hoyer at QB and fresh off the couch Willis McGahee at RB. 

 

The Bad

The Defense – Hard to put a lot of blame on a defense that was missing their two best secondary players and only gave up 17 points, but: 1) they still should have been able to manhandle the Browns offense (specifically the OL) and they did not; 2) they forced 0 turnovers from a team that was averaging more than 2 turnovers per game; and 3) they folded when they were needed most – down just 4 with the Browns pinned on their own 9 yard line, the defense allowed Hoyer to lead the Browns on a 91 yard, 6:37 4^th quarter drive to put the game out of reach (his 2^nd 90+ yard TD drive of the game.

 

The DL – Many have called this Bengals DL the best in the NFL (myself included). 3 sacks generally would be considered good, but not for this DL facing this Browns OL. The Browns were surrendering nearly 5 sacks per game, so to get just 3 is disappointing. More disappointing was the amount of time Hoyer had in the pocket for most of the day. The depleted secondary needed help from the DL and they did not provide enough of it.

 

Ball Skills of the Secondary – Does no one on this coaching staff teach these guys to find the ball? It seems as though every week, every year, I watch Bengals DBs have good coverage yet give up a reception (and miss an INT) simply because they didn’t turn to find the ball. This week it was Jones who allowed Gordon to literally catch a ball off of Jones’ head. If Jones just turns his head, he at a minimum knocks the pass down and he likely has an INT. It could have been a big play/non-play if Billy Cundiff wasn’t such a useless kicker.

 

Alex Smith Playing Time – With Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert on this team, I do not understand how Alex Smith played 10 snaps (or 15% of the snaps). In what is looking like a terrible roster mistake, the Bengals kept 3 TEs plus a converted TE as a FB (Charles), yet Charles is so bad at blocking, he is inactive on game days and they filled an actual TE (Smith) in as a FB on the train wreck 4^th and 1.  

 

 

The Ugly

Andy Dalton – I have been a pretty staunch supporter of Dalton over his 2+ years in Cincinnati and preached patience amongst Bengals fans. Many fans forget just how good his numbers have been in his first 2 years (1 of only 3 QBs with 20+ TDs in his first 2 seasons – Marino and Manning), just how far he has taken this team (first back-to-back playoff appearances since Ken Anderson - 1981-82; something Boomer never did; including a playoff appearance in 2011 with a team some picked to go 0-16), and just how young he is (3^rd year and 25 years old). With that being said, it is getting more and more difficult to defend him when the progression just doesn’t seem to be there. While Dalton was not the sole reason for the Bengals 2 losses, he was a big contributor (with poor decisions and turnovers), and in each loss, he had the opportunity to win the game and failed miserably. Worse yet, the reason the Pittsburgh and GB games were as close as they were is because of Dalton’s poor play at the start of the games. If not for the Steelers fumble and the defense returning a fumble for a TD last week, we might be sitting here talking about an 0-4 team. The sad part is, Dalton has more than enough weapons in Green, Gresham, Eifert and Bernard. Other QBs would kill for those weapons. Green is a top 5 WR that catches everything in his zip code and Dalton managed to complete just 7 of his 15 passes to Green on Sunday. Given the weapons he has, Dalton should not have to be just a “game manager,” but if he could simply “manage the game” and not turn the ball over, this defense is good enough to win games for Dalton. Unfortunately, Dalton has not been able to do that. In 2013, Dalton now has more turnovers (6 – 4 INTs, 2 fumbles) than TDs (5). He is on pace for 20 TDs, 15 INTs and 8 fumbles. That is not good and I don’t by the “it’s early” argument. It may only be 4 games, but 4 games in the NFL is ¼ of the season. That is the equivalent of 40 games in baseball. And after ¼ of the season, the Bengals sit at 2-2, tied for the division lead (but down a tie-breaker to Cleveland) and 2 losses behind the leading WC candidate (KC). I am not ready to pull the plug just yet on Dalton, but I am also not willing to resign him for big money either. The defense is playing lights out and the offense has the weapons to be dynamic, but without Dalton playing at a respectable level, this is what you get – close games and losses to teams you have no business losing to.

 

Jay Gruden –  For all the praise Gruden gets and all the discussion amongst media types that he is a potential HC candidate, his lack of production seems to be conveniently forgotten. I could listen to the guy talk all day (he and his brother are phenomenal in interviews, etc), but right now I can’t stand watching his offense for 3 hours every Sunday. In his three seasons in Cincinnati, his offenses have ranked 20^th, 22^nd, and 21^st respectively. I would give him a pass in 2011 with no mini camps and a rookie QB and rookie WR, but that was his best year! Gruden has weapons that would make any OC in the NFL jealous yet the offense looks completely dysfunctional. The offense I saw against Chicago was dynamic and exciting. Since then, I haven’t seen anything other than a Bratkowskiesque offense.

 

3^rd Down Conversions – The Bengals failed on both sides on 3^rd downs. The offense was a brutal 4-14 (28.6%) and the defense was an equally brutal 9-18 (50%). It is tough for an offense to establish any flow when they can’t stay on the field on 3^rd downs and a defense giving up a 50% conversion to an offense featuring Brian Hoyer and Willis McGahee is embarrassing.

 

4^th and 1 Failure – I actually liked the balls it took to go for the 4^th and 1. I despise the play call. Everyone in the world knew BJGE up the middle was coming. Hell, the Browns wanted that to be the case. That plays right into their strength. If the running game was working, I’m ok with it. If defending the run was not the Browns strength, I would be ok with it. But the run game wasn’t working (at least not with BJGE) and the defending the run is Browns strength. I would have liked to see something more creative. If the huge failure of a play wasn’t bad enough, according to Whitworth, a bunch of the players did not know what play they were running – which means Dalton is at fault for not calling a timeout.

 

Messed up Snap – The inability of the Bengals to complete one of the most fundamental aspects of a football game (the snap) may have cost the Bengals the game. At the end of the 3^rd quarter, the Bengals had pulled within 4 (10-6), the defense gets a huge 3 and out (yielding -9 yards), the Bengals get good field position and convert a huge 3^rd and 13 with a nice catch from Gresham taking them down to the Cleveland 41, just a first down out of FG range. Then Cook and Dalton screw up a snap like I have never seen before, leaving the Bengals an insurmountable 2^nd and 24. The Bengals would stall, punt, and the Browns would take it 91 yards to take a 17-6 lead with less than 5:00 to play. Game over.

 

Marvin Jones – Rule #1 as a receiver: catch the ball with your hands, not your body. Apparently Jones is unaware of this rule. It may not have mattered, but it just goes to show the lack of discipline by this team and shows why Jones doesn’t play more. One of Dalton’s better passes of the day would have left the Bengals with a little hope if Jones catches it with his hands. Instead, he used his body and had it knocked loose. Sanzenbacher may not have the pure skills as some of the other WRs, but I trust him to make smart plays and would like to see him play more.

 

Preparation – It is a topic every week, so I am not going to harp on it, but the 3^rd down conversion rates, poor execution, poor play calling, etc are all just parts of the poor preparation we seem to see week in and week out with this 2013 Bengals team.

 

Lost Opportunity – True, they are still tied at the top of the division at 2-2, but with Baltimore and Pittsburgh losing, they had the opportunity to take a 1 game lead on the Ravens, a 3 game lead on the Steelers, a 2 game lead on the Browns and get a second division win. Separation is great. Early separation is really great.

 

Marvin Lewis’s Record Against Backup and Rookie QBs – Over his 10 year tenure, Lewis has lost 22 times to a rookie or backup QB…or 2+ per year. Add Brian Hoyer to the list that includes: Jeff Blake, Anthony Wright, Ben Roethlisberger (2), Billy Volek, Kelly Holcomb, Bruce Gradkowski (2 - 1 as a rookie, 1 as a backup), Jay Cutler, Derek Anderson, J.P. Losman, Shaun Hill, Joe Flacco (2), Mark Sanchez (2), Seneca Wallace, T.J. Yates (2), Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden, and now the elite passer Brian Hoyer. That is embarrassing.