fredtoast

So many things have caused the Bengals to lose over the last few seasons. People who think Dalton is the only problem and McCarron is the answer really don't have much of a clue. I think it is mainly the people who have hated Dalton even before he started a single game for us. They just refuse to admit they were wrong.

I have been watching football for years, and all of this talk about a RB having ot "get in a rhythm" is bullshit. I have seen tons of RBs start the game running the ball well. Teams that are good at running the ball can run it well from the first carry of the game.

Eifert reportedly having more "tests" on his injured back. I love Eifert. When he is healthy I consider him one of only 4 "elite" players on our roster (Atkins, Green, Burfict). But I am afraid he may be finished as a Bengal. Back injuries are a nightmare.

If salaries are not published then how do you know Mike Brown pays so much less than other teams? I believe Zimmer wanted Guenther to be his DC with the Vikings, but we were able to keep him here. But he might have just wanted Guenther as a position coach instead of a co-ordinator.

To celebrate the Bengals 50 year history I am going to do a highlight of the greatest Bengal games for each week of the season. The greatest week 3 game was in 1969 when the Bengals, in just their second year in existence, defeated that year's Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs 24-19. The Bengals had only won 3 games the previous season while the Chiefs had the best record in the AFL (12-2). Kansas City was missing Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson, but they went 6-0 in the other games he missed that year. The Bengals were also missing their starting QB, Greg Cook, in the second half of the game due to an injury. The Chiefs took a 13-7 lead in the second quarter on an 11 yard pass from Jacky Lee to Gloster Richardson. The Bengals were still trailing in the fourth quarter when back up QB Sam Wyche hit TE Bob Trumpy with an 80 yard TD strike to take a 17-13 lead. Jess Phillips added a 10 yard td run and the Bengal defense held the Chiefs to a FG to secure the win. The victory boosted the Bengals record to 3-0. Unfortunately they only won one more game the rest of the year to finish 4-9-1, but their future looked bright behind rookie sensation Greg Cook. Cook finished as the highest rated QB in the league and posted and incredible 9.4 yards per pass attempt which still ranks as the 9th best in NFL/AFL history. Other notable week 3 wins in Bengal history. 1986..Bengals blow out Division Champion Cleveland Browns 30-13 (the year they lost to Denver in the AFC Championship game on "The Drive") behind career high 3 rushing TDS by Larry Kinnebrew. Bengals won 10 games that year but missed the playoffs. Interesting to note that this was a Thursday night game. I do not remember there being Thursday night games in 1986. 1989..Boomer Esiason throws 3 tds in another prime time victory (21-14 Monday Night) against a Browns team that would again win the division and lose to the Broncos in the Conference Championship Game. 2005..Bengals force 6 turnovers and blow out NFC North Champion Chicago Bears 24-7 despite gaining only 244 yards on offense. 2013..Bengals trail NFC North Champion Green Bay Packers by 16 points (30-14) with only 5 minutes left in the third quarter. Andy Dalton goes insane (9-10, 132 yds, 2 tds) while Aaron Rodgers chokes (2 ints), and Terrance Newman completes the comeback with a 58 yard fumble return with less than 4 minutes leftin the game. Bengals win 34-30.

If that was all there was to it then he would have gotten the OC job earlier. I think they passed over Zampese when Gruden was hired because they needed an experienced QB coach to develop their rookie QB. And Jackson got the job over Zampese just because he was better. This time there might not have been an OC they considered as good as Jackson available.

Bo Jackson WAS one of the greatest running backs to ever play in the NFL. Curtis Martin is #4 in career rushing yards, but I don't consider him to be in the same class as Jackson. We are just arguing semantics here. I am talking about great talent while you are talking about great careers.

He will never match the career totals, but I still argue that Gronk is much better. .........................................Gonzales.......Gronk......% better than Gonzales yards per catch....................11.4............15.1...........32% yards per game....................56.0............69.4...........24% tds per game........................0.41...........0.77...........87% Gronks yards per catch is just ridiculous for a TE. Since he came into the leagu in 2010 there are 57 players with at least 300 receptions. Gronk ranks 7th in yards per catch ahead of WRs like Jordy Nelson, Victor Cruz, AJ Green, Mike Wallace, Dez Bryant, Demaryius Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, Jeremy Maclin, Antonio Brown, and Larry Fitzgerald. Only two players have more catches and a higher average per catch than Gronk since he came into the league and they are a couple of good ones....Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones. And no player has more receiving tds than Gronk despite the fact that he has missed 24 games (a full season and a half) in the last 5 years.

Eifert is not as good as Gronk. Gronk is arguably the greatest receiving TE in the history of the game. However Gronks his total yardage numbers are somewhat inflated by the fact that the Patriots never had a good WR on the field with Gronk while Eifert has always been playing with Green.

Dalton is no worse at this than the average NFL QB. Dalton always ranks pretty much the same in YAC as he does in total yards. If he was always throwing to stationary targets he would rank much lower in YAC. In 2016 Eifert was 6th in the league in YAC among TEs. This reminds me of the old argument that "Bengal receivers are always tightly covered, but opponents receivers get wide open". I would crush this argument by showing that the Bengal pass defense was one of the best in the league and that our passing numbers were always better than our opponents, but some people would refuse to admit that they were wrong. Just a classic case of Bengal fans being the harshest critics of the Bengals. Dalton is not below average in hitting receivers in stride.

They were our 7th and 8th picks in the draft. If your 7th and 8th draft picks are making the roster that usually means you had a weak roster. We had 11 picks this year. Did you really expect all of them to make the roster?

"Wah! Wah! Wah! The biggest problem with the Bengals is they don't have open competition for every position." Bengals have open competition for PK position "Wah! Wah! Wah! Why would the Bengals have an open competition for the PK position."

Fisher (21.5 avg) Dalton caught an 18 yard pass in 2014, but he also had one batted back that he caught for zero yards in 2011. So his career average is only 9.0.

The only accurate way to judge QBs is against other QBs who played at the same time. Over the first 6 seasons of Dalton's career he ranked... 2nd in rushing tds 4th in wins 5th in Pro Bowl selections 6th in lowest fumbles per pass attempt (min 1500 att) 7th in winning percentage 8th in "fourth quarter comebacks" (fourth quarter scoring drive when the team is trailing by one score in a game that ends in a win or tie) 8th in "game winning drives" (a scoring drive in the fourth quarter or overtime that puts the winning team ahead to stay) 9th in passing tds 10th in passing yards 14th in passer rating (min 1500 att) Superstar? No. Not claiming he is. Deserving of being benched. Not even close.

Well Tebow did complete one TD pass late in a playoff game. For some people around here that is all it takes to be a good NFL starter. Just ignore the hundreds of other pass attempts. One in the playoffs is all it takes.