Wow! Where to start? Let’s start by addressing the “Off the
Deep End” fans blaming Dalton and clamoring for the firing of Lewis. Dalton did
not lose that game. Nor did Lewis. That game was lost by players and play
callers. This game was lost mostly by players who make their living on special
teams and most notably, the Bengals Pro Bowl caliber Punter, Kevin Huber. The
special teams gave up 14 points. The Defense gave up 16 points. The offense
scored 20. Dalton and Lewis did not: drop any punts, did not tackle (or fail to
tackle), did not receive a penalty, did not fumble and did not (presumably)
call the terrible plays that were being called on Sunday night.
With that out of the way, here’s the Week 15 Good, Bad and Mostly
Ugly…
The Good
Nugent Emergency
Punting – Punting is not easy and an injury to a punter, especially in the
first quarter can have a huge effect on a game. Give Mike Nugent credit for
filling in for Huber admirably. They weren’t pretty punts, but he had 2 punts
for 80 yards and netted 40.0. He actually had a better night punting than Huber
(2 for 86 and a net of 4.0).
Brandon Tate –
Tate is one of my favorite punching bags, but on Sunday night he was one of the
few bright spots. Tate had 4 returns for 131 with a long of 52. Tate’s 52
yarder came with the Bengals down 24-0 and set up the Bengals first touchdown
and gave the Bengals life and an opportunity to make a comeback run.
Andy Dalton – The
Dalton haters are going to be up in arms, but Dalton played pretty well. 230
yards, 2 TDs, 0 turnovers 1 sack, a 86.4 rating. Sure, his completion
percentage was not where you would like it to be (25/44 - 56%), but given the
cold and windy conditions, combined with the fact his receivers weren’t helping
him out (5
drops), it was a pretty good night for Dalton. Let’s put it this way,
Dalton played well enough to win and had very little to do with the Sunday
night loss.
The Bad
It was hard to decipher what constituted “Ugly” and what
constituted just “Bad” but suffice to say, there were plenty of both.
The Offensive Line – After
2 games of improved play, the line fell on its’ collective face in Pittsburgh
against a poor run defense missing 2/3 of their starting d-line. 3 poor
performances stood out to me.
a)
Andrew
Whitworth – After pumping him up all last week and referring to him as the
best and most athletic guard in the NFL, Whitworth looked like a rookie guard
against the Steelers. He had 2 penalties for 15 yards (false start and holding)
and constantly was getting beat in the run game and ending passing plays in
Dalton’s lap. I am not concerned about Whitworth going forward, but to have a
leader like him play so poorly in a big game like that was very disappointing.
b)
Kyle Cook
– In the spirit of the Christmas season, atop the Bengals wish list needs to be
a center not named Kyle Cook or Eric Ghiaciuc. Though he escaped this week
without a penalty (a rare occurrence for Cook), he managed to continue sucking
at keeping opponents out of the Bengals backfield.
c)
Andre
Smith – Certain players concern you with how they will play once they get a
contract. Andre Smith would fall into that category. After a very good year in
2012, Smith has had a less than impressive 2013. Smith had another penalty
(false start) and continues to lack the effectiveness he showed in 2012 in both
the run game and passing game.
The Defense – Overall,
the defense had a decent game. They didn’t surrender a drive of more than 60
yards and of the 30 points, the defense was only responsible for 16 (1 TD and 3
FGs). Without the special teams blunders, the Bengals win this game.
a)
1 Sack
– The Bengals now have just 1 sack in the last 2 weeks against 2 offensive
lines that have allowed 70 sacks on the year. That is discouraging and
concerning for a team that greatly needs a pass rush to hide the injuries in
the secondary.
b)
1
Turnover – Along with the discouraging sack totals is the 1 turnover in
last 2 games – and that one turnover was an interception that pinned the
Bengals at their own 2 yard line and resulted in a 5 play series, a short punt
by Nugent and a short field for the Steelers which resulted in a FG. Given the
issues the Bengals have had scoring at times, the offense could use some help
by the defense giving them some short fields. One short field on Sunday night
could have given the Bengals a chance at a comeback.
c)
Guys
Named Dre Kirkpatrick – It is becoming more and more apparent (and more and
more disappointing) why Kirkpatrick has had problems cracking the starting
lineup. His night started with a 15 yard face mask penalty on the first play of
the game which allowed the Steelers to flip the field position on the Bengals
which resulted in the dropped punt. Also, according to Pro
Football Focus, he was credited with 4 missed tackles – including an
embarrassing attempt where he was hurdled by Le’Veon Bell.
d)
Tackling –
For the first 12 weeks, the Bengals had been a very sound tackling team. For
the last 2, they have not. While, I am not going to over react and start
panicking over what seems like a 2 week blip, but I am starting to become
worried.
Penalties – 6
penalties for 50 yards – though I will count it as 5 for 40 since I can’t
fathom how Nelson got a taunting penalty based off the replay. Either way, 5 penalties for 40 yards is still
too many and they were critical penalties. Kirkpatrick got his token penalty
out of the way with a 15 yard face mask on the first play of the game
(ironically it was probably the only tackle he didn’t miss all night) which
allowed Pittsburgh to flip field position and started the Bengals demise. Andre
Smith got a false start on 1st down inside the Bengals own 20 to put
a drive in an immediate hole. Ghee received likely the first false start I have
ever seen on a gunner and Whitworth had 2 huge penalties (false start and
holding), each coming on a 2nd and 10 and pushing the Bengals back
to a much less convertible 2nd and 15 and 2nd and 20.
They failed to convert both.
Drops – According
to Pro
Football Focus, the Bengals receivers had 5 drops! Hawkins had another drop
which killed a drive and lead to 14-0 deficit, and Green, for all the great
things he does, continues to drop too many catchable balls. Sure, the amazing
catches he makes may cancel it out, but that is no excuse. He is now tied for 4th
in the NFL with 7 drops.
Harrison Injury –
The injury to Harrison, especially as early as it happened, was huge for the
pass rush. Without Harrison, the Bengals struggled getting pressure on Ben and
paid dearly for it.
Burfict – I went
the entire game without noticing him. Sure, he lead the team in tackles (12)
like he always does, but I don’t recall seeing him make any plays. The only
play I remember seeing him on was allowing Bell to beat him on the 4th
down conversion.
Officiating – Is
it just me, or has the officiating the last few weeks just been brutal? And it
isn’t just the Bengals games (Minnesota and Cleveland lost games last week on
terrible PI calls and Detroit likely lost a game Monday night on a terrible PI
no call). It is embarrassing for the league. While there were plenty of bad
calls going both ways, it seemed like all of the big and critical bad calls (or
no calls) went against the Bengals. Most glaring was the cheap shot on Huber on
the punt return. The guy put the top of his helmet into Huber’s chin (a penalty
under about 3 rules), and yet not one official saw it. I can assure you if
Burfict made that hit, on any player, let alone a punter, he gets flagged.
While a flag would not have brought Huber back, it would have negated the
touchdown that put the game out of reach. If the penalty is called, Pittsburgh
gets the ball on their own 35 yard line, up 14. Instead, they took a 21-0 lead,
energized the crowd beyond belief and likely ended the game. Anyone else find it
ironic how Reggie Nelson got flagged for taunting when replay shows no taunting
body language (words alone shouldn’t get a taunting flag), yet Huber gets a
helmet to the chin, a broken jaw, a cracked vertebrae, busted teeth and an end
to his Pro Bowl season and not one official saw it? In a league “concerned”
about concussions, where brush to the helmet is a penalty, the officials
decided that was a clean and legal hit? I sure hope Ed Hochuli and his crew are
downgraded big time for that debacle.
The Ugly
Special Teams – There
are 3 units that make up a football team: 1) Offense, 2) Defense and 3) Special
Teams. The offense and defense were not great on Sunday night, but they were
good enough to win. The special teams lost the game in Pittsburgh.
a)
Kevin
Huber – His night was short, but prior to being put on the “nearly dead”
list, Huber had a night to forget. For most of the year, Kevin Huber has been
one of the best punters in the NFL and should be in the 2013 Pro Bowl, but on
Sunday night, he was terrible. It started with the dropped punt that put the
Steelers on the 1 yard line, leading to the first Pittsburgh TD. The conditions
were rough, the wind played with it, but it was catchable. My biggest problem
is this: given the cold, the wind and the fact that his job is to catch a snap
(on punts and FGs) why the hell did Huber not have gloves on? Then, on his
second and final punt, Huber let fly a terrible punt (38 yards), in the middle
of the field and directly to one of the most dangerous punt returners in the
game. The punt was returned for a TD, Huber was left sprawled on the ground searching
for his chiclets and the game was essentially over before it really ever began.
b)
Punt
Coverage – Lane integrity is the most important part of kick and punt
coverage. Suffice to say, on the fateful punt mentioned above, the Bengals had no
lane integrity. About 4 unblocked Bengals were in front of Brown when he caught
the punt and all over ran Brown, resulting in Brown’s TD. The worst offender on
the punt coverage looked to be rookie Jayson DiManche who failed to break down
and force Brown into the coverage.
c)
Peerman
– While I believe this was another blown call, the signal made by Peerman was
close enough to a fair catch signal that I can excuse the referees. Either way,
it was a huge play that resulted in the Bengals, already down 7-0, being pinned
inside their own 10 again, rather than being out on the 44 where Peerman was
actually tackled.
Offensive Play-Calling
– The game plan got thrown out the window pretty quickly, but I have one
issue before the game plan was blown up and one issue after. On the first drive
of the game, with the game still 0-0, the Bengals start with BJGE in the back
field and on 3rd and 1, Gruden again went with BJGE and for what
feels like the 800th time this year, BJGE came up short. When he
came to Cincinnati, he was known for 2 things, not fumbling and picking up
short yardage. I have not been impressed with either so far. Bernard can’t do
worse than BJGE has been doing in these situations. My second issue with Gruden
came once the Bengals were down big. In the second half, down 30-7 there was no
urgency in the offense. The Bengals needed 4 scores and yet rarely utilized the
no-huddle and continued to move as if they had been informed that the game
would have 5 or 6 quarters.
Defensive Play-Calling
– The issues in the secondary may have resulted in some of the inabilities of
the Bengals to get to Ben, but on the only TD given up by the defense, the
Bengals rushed 2 guys and had Peko in coverage? Miscommunication or not, that
can’t happen. Worse yet, despite having 9 guys in coverage, Antonio Brown was
able to get wide open in the end zone.
Team Preparedness
– A coach’s job is mostly accomplished before the game ever starts. The head
coach is responsible for preparing the team, but much of what goes on during
the game has little to do with the head coach and much more to do with the
coordinators. So, while I don’t blame Lewis for much of what occurred on the
field, the team seemed overwhelmed on Sunday night…as they have for almost
every big game. And that, I put on Lewis.
End of Half
Management…Again – If a book is ever written about how not to manage
timeouts and end-of-half situations, this Bengals coaching staff will most
certainly be the authors. Down 27-7, the Bengals got the ball back on their own
20 yard line with 2 timeouts and 1:14 to play. Plenty of time to get into FG
range and the Bengals were in desperate need of points…any points. They come
out throwing, which makes sense, but on 2nd down, after a Dalton
scramble, the Bengals don’t call a timeout and let the clock run down. Then,
after they convert on 3rd down, they call a timeout with just 21
seconds left. After another completion to the Bengals 41, the Bengals then
decide to let the clock run out with one timeout in their pocket. I have never
been more confused as to what a team was doing at the end of a half, and to be
honest, I am not sure the Bengals knew what they were doing either.
BJGE – He has
never offered anything in the passing game. In 2013, he is offering very little
in the running game (3.4 ypc). But, he has always been able to pick up the
short yardage situations, right? Not so much. I don’t have the stats on his 3rd
and 1 and 4th and 1 conversion percentage this year, but my eyes
tell me it isn’t good and therefore my brain tells me BJGE is serving very
little purpose on this team right now.
Jermaine Gresham –
In my 32 years, I have never been more nervous when a guy has the ball than
when Gresham has the ball. I simply root for him to go to the ground with the
ball in his hands. Too many times he does not. I am amazed how a guy is 6’5”
260 lbs and has such issues holding onto a football. While his fumble did not
lead to Pittsburgh points, it may have cost the Bengals precious points. How
Gresham has made 2 Pro Bowls is beyond comprehension to me. I see no way the
Bengals bring him back next year and I would be more than happy to drive him to
his next team.
Lack of FB – Remind
me why the Bengals cut Conner and Pressley? They struggle in short yardage
situations and when they do bring a FB in, the only guy they don’t bring in is
the only guy on their roster listed a FB (Charles). While I love seeing Peko
back there, should he ever get hurt playing FB, this coaching staff will be to
blame.
The Steelers Image
– We hear all the time about the “Steeler Way.” Well, in the last 3 weeks, a
team that is constantly praised for their integrity and how they do things and
the “Steeler Way,” has given us: 1) a head coach interfering
with a punt return (replay is pretty clear that it was intentional or gross
negligence at best), 2) a player blatantly grabbing
and twisting another man’s “bits and pieces,” and 3) a player putting the
crown of his helmet to a punter’s
jaw, breaking his jaw, busting his teeth, fracturing his vertebrae…oh, and
giving him a concussion. And then there is the 1970’s Steel Curtain – a unit fueled
by steroids, yet never mentioned in the steroid talks. As much as I don’t like
the Yankees and the Red Sox, the “Yankee Way” and “Red Sox” way seem to have
some credibility to me and lack dirtiness. The “Steeler Way,” just like the
“Cardinal Way” in baseball, is nothing more than playing dirty, whining when
things don’t go your way, and then hiding behind your franchise’s history and
championships when you are called out.
