The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Week 2

Rarely are wins against an AFC North opponent (especially the Steelers) a thing of beauty. While I thought Monday night had the chance for a Bengals blowout, I should have known better. Nonetheless, any win versus the Steelers is pretty in and of itself. Watching the end of the game on Monday night, I felt like I was watching the changing of the guard – witnessing the end of one era and the beginning of another.

  

The Good

 A Win – It’s cliché, but it’s the truth: “ A win is a win,” and they don’t have a column in the standings for ugly wins or pretty losses. The Bengals won. Period. They beat a team that has always had a mental edge on them. They beat a Steelers team at home for only the 2^nd time in the last 12 tries. They finally won in prime time (9-20 on MNF prior to the game). Yes, the Steelers were an inferior team, but they are as dangerous a team as any. The Steelers needed that win and the Bengals took it from them. Think about this, Mike Tomlin has never lost a game when having a losing record…until Monday night.

 

Giovani Bernard – Bengals fans were screaming all of week 1 and all of the first half Monday night to give this guy the ball more. Monday night, Gio showed us (and hopefully the coaches) why. With 2 TDs, Gio now has 60 yards on 12 carries and 35 yards on 2 catches. In other words, Gio is averaging nearly 7 yards per touch. I like the one-two punch of BJGE and Gio, but Gio has to touch the ball 15+ times per game. When he is in the game, the defense has to account for him in the run game and the pass game, something BJGE does not command.

 

The 2 TE Sets – For all the talk of who the Bengals #2 WR would be, I think it is evident…it is Gresham/Eifert. The Bengals are running 2 TE sets more than 50% of the time (so much that they inactivated the FB) and it is working. In 2 weeks, Eifert and Gresham have combined for 19 catches and 214 yards. When Green, Eifert and Gresham are on the field at the same time, it creates big matchup problems for the defense (see Eifert’s 61 yard catch Monday night for proof). Now I would like to start seeing more 2 TE sets with Gio in the backfield.

 

Whitworth – He didn’t do anything great, but for the most part, he didn’t mess up either. He seemed fairly healthy and I love the attitude and leadership he provides this team. Though he always seems to lose the fights he is involved in, he is bringing attitude, and the penalty he drew at the end of the game was a result of Steeler frustration, a penalty that the Bengals normally get, not the Steelers.

 

BJGE – His 3.4 ypc was not good and I wish I hadn’t seen him in the game as much as he was, but he got the hard yards and how big was his 3^rd and 6 conversion in the 4^th quarter? That was a Big Boy run in a big time situation. Up just 10 with 3+ minutes to go, on their own 25 and the Steelers still holding 2 TOs, the Bengals could not afford to give the ball back to the Steelers. BJGE made sure they didn’t. That conversion sealed the game because it forced the Steelers to use their remaining 2 TOs, swallowed the 2 minute warning and allowed the Bengals to take the clock all the way down to 1:43 before giving the ball back to the Steelers. I love this one-two punch of BJGE and Gio, I would just like to see the touches at closer to 50-50 rather than 70-30.

 

Dalton’s Poise – He looked like crap at the beginning of the game, but give him credit – he kept his composure, played better as the game went on, and led this team on some big drives in the 2^nd half. Your QB is going to have off days, but good teams still find ways to win on those days. Dalton was off Monday night, but the Bengals hung around and managed to win. Dalton put together two 5+ minute drives in the second half that ate up 11:59 of the clock and resulted in the 10 winning points. Those drives were huge! Just as important as the points, was the time the drives ate up.

 

Adam Jones’s Forced Fumble – For most of the night Adam Jones was being abused by the Steelers and his name was becoming synonymous with my four letter outbursts. But, he made one hell of a play forcing the fumble in the 1^st quarter. With the Steelers already up 3 and driving deep into Bengal territory, a TD (or even a FG) could have started a spiral in the wrong direction. That play was at least a 10 point swing and really set the tone for the rest of the night. It is a shame that the refs blew the play dead, because it was possible that could have been a TD for Jones or at least a big return. 

 

The Bad

Dalton’s Accuracy – Maybe it was nerves, but Dalton was terrible to start the game. Green, Gresham and Eifert are 6’4”, 6’5” and 6’6” respectively and in the first few possessions Dalton overthrew each by at least 2-3 feet. The first series Daltons’ inaccuracies caused a 3 and out and led directly to the Steelers first 3 points. While he got better, Dalton cannot afford to come out this poor against GB or the Bengals will be down 21 before he rights himself.

 

Adam Jones in General – The Steelers saw something with Jones and they were picking on him. It seemed as if every completion (at least every significant completion) was coming to a guy being followed (3 yards back) by Adam Jones. Usually I like Jones’ coverage skills. Not Monday night.

 

The Referees – I don’t like to complain about the refs, but they were terrible. Most of the bad calls (and most of the calls in general) went against the Bengals (except for the terrible phantom trip), but the refs were bad. They missed an obvious hold that sprung Brown’s big punt return (just like last year), they missed numerous other blatant holds by the Steelers OL on plays when Ben was running around, and most egregious was the blowing the play dead on the fumble. Refs are encouraged on close calls to let the play go and then review if necessary, meaning that ref must have believed it was crystal clear the player was down. Though it ended up being a moot point because the Bengals scored on the drive, Jones had a chance at returning that for a TD.

  

The Ugly

Penalties – At least they are consistent – 8 penalties for 84 yards in week 1 and 9 penalties for 84 yards in week 2. While they are not the only team with big expectations and penalty problems (SF, Sea and Den all have more), giving away nearly a football field a week in free offense is not a good recipe for success.

 

Preparedness – I have never seen a team seem more ill-prepared for big games than Marvin Lewis coached teams. Monday night was a perfect example. While the defense came out of the gate ok, the offense and special teams were very lucky to be wearing the black pants! Dalton looked like Ricky Vaughn, special teams looked like the special teams of Al Roberts, and the Bengals couldn’t keep from being drawn offsides from their own hard counts…twice!

 

End of Half Execution – Is there a coach that mismanages the end of the half worse than Marvin Lewis?  Or gives up more points at the end of the half than a Lewis coached team? With 5:13 left in the half, the ball on their own 20 and the Bengals holding a 7 point lead, the Bengals managed to take just 1:00 off the clock before punting the ball back to the Steelers for a short field. Of course, the Bengals pull back into a soft defense and allow the Steelers to march down the field 67 yards in just 2:19 seconds for the tying TD. Because of the speedy TD, the Bengals got the ball back on their own 20 with 1:54 left and 3 TO, plenty of time to get into FG position right? Wrong, the Bengals appeared to not know if they wanted to go for point or kill the clock. By the time they decided to make a run at points, they ran out of time outs and time at the Steeler 43 yard line – just out of FG range, leaving the only option to be a hail mary. The end of the half mismanagement of the game seems like a weekly staple for a Lewis team and  is now 2 times in 2 weeks in 2013.