The
Steelers never looked so beatable. They entered Sunday night’s game at 2-3, 0
wins on the road, missing two starting offensive lineman, starting their 3rd
string RB, and missing their all-pro safety. The Bengals had a 14-6 lead at
home with 1:30 left in the first half, with the ball around midfield, 3
timeouts remaining and getting the ball coming out of half….and they lost. They
lost because Sunday night was a must win game for both teams. The Steelers and
Mike Tomlin find ways to win must win games. The Bengals and Marvin Lewis find
ways to lose must win games. As if written by Seth McFarlane, Dalton was picked
at midfield, the Steelers score a TD right at the end of the half, go for two
and enter halftime (after being completely outplayed in the first half), tied
14-14. The way the Bengals played in the second half, 14-14 might as well have
been a 21 point lead for the Steelers. 12-2. That is the Steelers record
against the Bengals in Cincinnati over the last 14 games. Embarrassing.
What I Did Like – Very Little
Mike Wallace
Mike
Wallace, trying to “one up” Jermaine Gresham with drops, was likely the Bengals
MVP Sunday night. He single handedly kept the Bengals in the game.
Vontaze Burfict
Is
it bad when your best player is an undrafted rookie free agent? 15 tackles, 13
solo, and 2 tackles for a loss. Burfict looked like a beast Sunday night. He is
the only LB on this team worthy of being a starting NFL LB and quite frankly,
should be playing MLB. Lewis claims personnel changes are coming after the bye
week. He has already said Maualuga won’t be one of them…lets’ hope switching
Burfict and Maualuga is still being considered.
Geno Atkins
Most
underrated DT in the league and quietly, top 5 DT in the league. Another sack
for Atkins gives him 7 for the season now. Atkins and Burfict were the only
difference makers on this defense Sunday night.
0 Sacks by OL
While
I did not think the line played particularly well, give them credit for giving
up 0 sacks to the Steelers.
What I Didn’t Like – Pretty Much Everything
In
no particular order:
Andy Dalton
Good
first drive. Nice TD pass to Green. Other than that, brutal. 14/28, 105 yards,
and 1 more crucial INT. He has now thrown a pick in every game this year, which
ties Palmer’s franchise record (7). That is now 13 picks in his last 8 games.
This team is not going to win if Dalton doesn’t start making better decisions
and protecting the ball. The Bengals were about 30 yards from FG range when
Dalton threw his pick. With 3 timeouts, a1:30 on the clock, and the ball around
midfield, the Bengals had a great chance of going into the half up 17-6 or even
21-6 and getting the ball coming out of half. Instead, Dalton threw an all too
common critical pick which allowed the Steelers to tie the game right before
half. This team cannot win with Dalton being so careless with the football.
Jermaine Gresham
If
I wanted a big TE that drops passes and misses blocks, I would have kept Daniel
Coates. It is becoming comical watching Gresham catch passes. It’s like he is
trying to catch the ball between two tennis racquets. At some point, Dalton
will stop trusting him and defenses will not bother covering him. At this
point, it may be worthwhile to see what Orson Charles can give them.
AJ Green
Right
from the open, Green did not seem like himself (dropping pass right in his
hands on first drive). AJ Green is the best player on this team. 1 catch for 8
yards from your best player is not acceptable. Teams will focus on shutting
down Green, and Green (and Gruden) have to find a ways to not allow that to
happen.
WRs Not Named AJ Green
It
will continue to get more and more difficult to get Green the ball until the
Bengals develop another offensive threat. Early in the season, that was
Hawkins. For whatever reason, Hawkins has disappeared recently, including 2
catches for 17 yards Sunday night. Gresham’s drops, combined with Hawkins and
Binns simultaneous disappearance is killing this offense. Until the defense has
to respect anyone but AJ Green, this offense will struggle.
BJGE
While
he played better Sunday night, it is sad when 18 carries for 69 yards is one of
your RBs best performances of the year. Sure, he isn’t working behind the best
of lines, but with the team bringing in Deji Karim today, that tells me they
are a little frustrated as well.
Jay Gruden
Where
has the offense gone? 185 yards? 105 yards after the first drive? Really? After
energizing Bengals fans, the team, and the NFL as a whole in weeks 2 and 3,
this offense seems to have disappeared. Remember when Gruden’s name was hot
among names for future head coaches? Did Gruden only have enough good plays for
2 weeks? Did he burn them all already? Here is my theory: Gruden’s offense
seemed to turn vanilla and predictable starting in the week 4 game in
Jacksonville. Who is Jacksonville’s OC? Bob Bratkowski. It is my theory that
Gruden and Brat met for Mojitos at a local watering hole and Bob either: 1) got
Jay to buy in to his offensively genius ways, or 2) Bob tied up Jay somewhere
in Jacksonville, stole his Bengals gear and is back in the booth disguised as
Jay. Either way, this offense has sucked the past few weeks, and it needs to
stop.
Leon Hall
The
fact he is back from the torn achilles so soon is impressive. He should not be
starting at CB though. He looks more like Rod Jones or Corey Sawyer than Leon
Hall. Sunday night he was repeatedly beaten, and not even by top WRs. Most
disturbing was being beaten on the 2 point conversion by a blocking TE and then
later, on a crucial third down, he was beaten by the 3rd WR,
Emmanuel Sanders. After the Bye, Kirkpatrick needs to start.
The Secondary in General
Through
7 weeks, the secondary has accounted for 2 INTs…and both of those have come by
a guy who was out of football for 9 months and didn’t join the team until the 4th
game (Crocker). Sunday night the secondary was made to look silly trying to
cover the Steelers (especially Brown). If not for the Steelers doing their best
Jermaine Gresham impression, the numbers would have been much worse.
The DL
The
DL is the strength of this defense. They can generate pressure with the best in
the league, and they need to in order to keep their secondary from getting
exposed. Sunday night, they got 3 sacks, but, considering the banged up line
they were facing, and the chances they had, that was not a very good effort. On
multiple occasions the DL had a shot at Roethliberger and a chance to get the
defense off the field, and on most occasions, they failed.
Rey Maualuga
My
fingers subconsciously type his name here every week. Marvin said today that
the upcoming personnel changes do not include Rey, and in fact, Rey has been
“playing better” of late. Excuse me? Is he watching the same game I am? Every
pass attempted in Rey’s area is completed. Every eligible receiver covered by
Rey is waiving for the ball before the ball is snapped. Every run up the middle
sees Rey getting cleared out of the way by the FB or OL. Bengals season ticket
holders have a better chance of being appreciated than Rey has of getting off a
block. Even Lewis admitted the 33 yard run up the middle on 3rd and
7 by Jerome Bettis, I mean Jonathan Dwyer, to seal the game was Rey’s fault.
The only time I notice Rey is when I see his orange horse mane chasing a
receiver (his guy) down field. Yet, he is “playing better.” Ok Marvin, I
believe you. Just like I believe your first challenge was a good use of a
timeout. If he isn’t taken out of the lineup, hopefully Burfict will at least
take his spot at MLB
Zimmer
431
yards? 10-16 on 3rd down conversions? If the Steelers could catch,
it would have been 600. Seriously. It seems like Zimmer is somehow escaping
heat when it comes to this team. This defense was supposed to be better than
last years’ top 5 group. The line has been good. Everything else? Terrible. 122
yards on 17 carries (7.2 ypc) to Jonathan Dwyer. The slow fat third string RB
with 343 career yards to his name. Even Jonathan Dwyer’s mom doesn’t think he
is a NFL RB. In the previous three weeks, MJD, Reggie Bush, and Trent ran for
123 yards on 46 carries (2.7 ypc) and then Dwyer goes for 122 on 17? Oh, and by
the way how many times are the Bengals going to fall for the bubble screen play
where the WR throws deep? The Steelers run that play every time against the
Bengals, and every time it works! If not for butterfingers Batch, it would have
gone for a 50+ yard TD Sunday night.
Marvin Lewis
Later
in the week, we will dive deeper into the disappointments over the past 10
years under Lewis, but let’s focus on Sunday night. While I am still perplexed
as to what the game plan was going into Sunday night and what goes on in the
Bengals halftime locker room, I want to focus on the first challenge. WTF? 2nd
and 8 and he challenges a runner being down by contact…on a 2 yard gain! If you
win the challenge, it is 3rd and 8 rather than 3rd and 6.
What the hell is the difference? Worse yet, Ray Charles could see it wasn’t
going to be over turned. Did this cost them the game? No. But if he hates
timeouts so bad, just give them away, don’t waste our time making stupid
challenges. That challenge ipitomizes the brilliance of a Marvin Lewis
challenge. If there is such thing as a No Win scenario, that was it. Is
challenging that call the “killer instinct” Marvin was talking about? Also, how
does your team lose that game? Coming off two losses to bad teams, playing at
home, on SNF, against a hated rival, in a game you have to win, and your team
comes out and produces 185 yards on offense and 431 on defense? And while we’re
banging on Marvin, why does Marvin always look so confused on the sideline?
Teams feed off their coach’s demeanor. Watch the demeanor of good coaches….then
watch Lewis
I said going into this game, this was a must win for
both. At 3-4 the Bengals are only .5 game out of the Wild Card, but, they have
buried themselves in a hole that will likely prove too deep to get out of. The
reason the Bengals made the playoffs last year, is because they beat the teams
they should beat. The goal this year was to beat those teams, as well as some
better teams. So far, that hasn’t happened. At the start of the year, I picked
the Bengals to go 10-6, but said I would not be surprised if they went 6-10. In
those 10 wins, I counted on the Miami, Cleveland and Pittsburgh at home. We
talked about how the Bengals, because of the difficulty of their 2nd
half schedule, had to hit the bye week at 6-1, 5-2 minimum. Had they done that,
they would be in excellent shape. Now they sit at 3-4 with games remaining
against the Broncos, Giants, Chargers, Cowboys, Eagles, Ravens, and Steelers.
At this point, it is difficult to see how the Bengals even get to 6 wins. After
4 weeks, this team looked to be in great shape, 3-1, 1 of 3 teams in the AFC
with a winning record and looking at games against Miami and Cleveland. 3 weeks
later, at 3-4, it looks like this team’s season is over. As much as it pains me
to say it, Sunday night’s game leaves way more questions than it does answers.
The most important of which is: “When’s the draft?”
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