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Another thing that the Dehner article points out is that, while Browning has posted mind-boggling numbers when not under pressure, his stats have been very poor when he is pressured. Obviously all QBs are better when not being pressured, it's just that Browning's splits (small sample size, I know) have been far wider than the average NFL QB. Like night-and-day different. This becomes important since the defenses Browning faces going forward do tremendous jobs of forcing pressure. Can the OL and TEs continue to keep a clean pocket against stronger defenses? That factor will be huge on Saturday and going forward.

Great new Paul Dehner article analyzing the Jake Browning led offense. One excerpt: 1. Taylor is not running the ball more. All those carries filling the box score have come in putting away wins and goal-line situations. When extracting to true neutral downs, you can see the propensity to pass dipped only marginally. 2. The difference is rooted in how they are executing the offense. The shift from shotgun to under center has been seismic. With a fully healthy Burrow from Week 5 to Week 11, they were in shotgun 88 percent of the time. With Browning, that’s changed to right at the league average. They leaned even further into it against Indianapolis at only 57 percent shot 3. With the increase of under-center has come the increase of play-action. The Bengals used 14 percent more play action against Indianapolis than they did with a healthy Burrow. All these factors have led to a dramatic rise in explosive plays which have been the overriding difference in the offense. The actual run production has stayed at a fairly consistent level on neutral downs.

Both Callahan and Pitcher were interviewed for HC/OC promotions by other organizations during this past offseason. Both guys have been widely respected around the NFL for awhile now. There is nothing new happening here, as best I can tell.

Burrow's August curse has been the biggest reason for the slow starts. It affects everything when Burrow goes down in the preseason, and thus far he has always gone down. The coaches were even more eager to get off to a good start this season because they opened with 2 tough division games. They certainly didn't want to start 2-0, knowing that losing them would make it extremely difficult to remain NFC North champs.

But the offense has been miles better in the second half of the last 3 seasons, no matter who the QB is. Always takes them a while to figure things out. This year? They finally got the screen pass game going. They finally found a good (if unusual) answer with a 3rd down "back" in Drew Sample. They finally were able to get Chase Brown healthy and able to contribute. One of these years Cincinnati will figure things out in September instead of waiting until Nov-Dec to start playing well. These slow starts to the season really can hamstring a season, either with unfavorable seeding or maybe missing the playoffs altogether.

One of Callahan or Pitcher is sure to be gone. If Callahan gets a head coaching job, Pitcher could be come the new OC. If not, then Pitcher figures to become the OC somewhere else.

I really think Drew Sample basically becoming the 3rd down back has created a big improvement in pass pro in the last couple of games. Sample looks great in those situations. Cincinnati certainly doesn't have the most dynamic TEs in the league, but they do have a great TE coach in James Casey.

The oddsmakers give the Bengals much less than a 50 percent chance of making the playoffs. They have a difficult remaining schedule, there are so many teams with similar records. Tiebreakers are going to come into play for sure, and the Bengals are behind everyone else on almost all of them. Bad conference record, horrific division record. If they were in the NFC, they would be able to cruise into the playoffs even without Burrow.

Chargers backup QB is really something called an Easton Stick? I feel like I'm being punked.

Had been only carrying 52 players on the active roster. No one ever replaced Tycen Anderson on the 53 man roster. Clearly they were having that last slot for Jones whenever he was ready.

If all Chase could do was be a decoy, then he wouldn't be healthy enough to play. WRs get hit and knocked down whether the ball gets thrown their way or not.

Chase will be the main focus. He is listed as questionable, but is still expected to play.

Man, I hope Tee's hamstring injury isn't as severe as Stingley's was? Missed 7 games...

Fortunately for Cincinnati, Ja'Marr Chase continues to feel better and is expected to play, league sources tell All Bengals.

Sample took a free agent visit to Arizona but the Cardinals passed on signing him. Ended up back in Cincinnati with a contract offer when the draft didn't go their way when it came to the TE position.

Sample has been the best PASS BLOCKING TE so far this season according to that metric. No one has said he's the best blocking TE overall, although he certainly is the best among the Bengals TE group.

Linebacker Logan Wilson is the only Bengals player who has played in all 517 defensive snaps this season. Dax Hill is next at 514 snaps. Hubbard leads all Bengals d-linemen at 406 snaps.

The Rats may be playing the Clowns Sunday but that game is in Baltimore not Cleveland. So Baltimore doesn't have to travel at all in the short turnaround week. Here's another reason why Baltimore is the favorite to win the brutal AFC North right. Not only are they 7-2 but they have already banked so many division road wins. All they really need to do is hold serve at home to take the North title. Not sure about Hubbard but I seriously doubt Higgins will be able to play as soon as a week from tonight. Hamstrings are so easily aggravated if you come back too soon. Looks like Chase is going to go on Sunday though.