A Rock

I like this pick. Being a workhorse at his age while avoiding any type of significant injury (unless someone knows something I don't?) is impressive and a plus. I see it more as a head start with experience than having less tread on the tires. Looks like he could run hard for short yards and has a nose for the end zone.

THIS. A strong run game is one of the best pass blocking protections Joe Burrow can get. It's also one of the best boons for our defense. If we can convert more readily on 3rd and 2 with a run game, we can keep them off the field in the first place. Pretty sure we win the KC game, both Baltimore games, and the first Stealer game with a late short yardage conversion and/or 3rd down stop last year. It's been frustrating when they've struggled to run to the point where they don't even bother to employ run related deception (lining up in no back sets on 3rd and short.) Things definitely improved with Chase Brown during the too little, too late winning streak down the stretch. Sooner or later big games and maybe the season will come down to having a run game. We're in the AFC North.

Great take. The number of formations we could employ with a short running game would greatly benefit the team in every aspect.

Life clocks are a lie! Carousel is a Lie! THERE IS NO RENEWAL!

Agreed. With game management (particularly 4th quarter) being one of them.

Hardly. Would just love to see Zac close out games when they're nearly in hand, rather than turn them into high wire acts.

A step in the right direction. He needs to look at his play calling. Particularly in crunch time. He's been bailed out numerous times by Burrow and Co., but he's definitely cost us a few as well.

Running Chase Brown also unnecessarily risks a fumble. When you have a game locked up, you keep it locked up or else crazy sh!t tends to happen.

I think Zac just goes with his gut. Every play. Regardless of down, distance, score, time, ad infinitum. That or maybe a Magic 8 Ball. Anyone else remember those?

You're a million percent right. Dan Campbell has an intense focus on winning and bettering his team in every possible way. He doesn't make excuses or see losing as a "great opportunity". With 22 players on the field, for about 150 plays a game, the well to draw excuses from is deep. And yes, luck is always an element. But over the course of a season MINDSET is a bigger element. You can always cherry pick stats, point to injuries, lament close plays or bad officiating. But some choose to simply not accept losing, and SOMEHOW get the most out of themselves and the team. I don't see enough Dan Campbell in this franchise. Not at all. It might not be great that Burrow and Mims publicly got into it with coaches, but I beg to differ. They're probably boiling over cause they're not getting that from leadership. They didn't physically assault them or anything. To those who think players in this situation shouldn't act this way, how about Richard Sherman, Bill Romanowski, Ronnie Lott, Michael Irvin, Charles Haley, Warren Sapp, Terrell Owens, Steve Smith, etc., etc., etc. Mindset is real. It's important. From the top down.

Hey Zac, stop trying to "balance" Joe's competitive edge. Joe, stay pissed, it's what we need.

Burrow is the only one I can imagine having any influence on management, but I have serious doubts. Remember when we lost the AFC championship game and everyone was like "better play on the o line and we're easily champions"? So the team signs OBJ (admittedly a big move) and everyone start planning the parades. Now this former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion is regarded as average on his better days. There's no fluidity with this team. Particularly during the actual season. It seems unthinkable that an NFL team wouldn't be scratching for every inch of improvement possible through intense self evaluation. Especially during the season. And how could that self evaluation not include addressing the fact that players tend to perform worse when they sign here? It just seems there's things stubbornly set in stone that are absolutely killing our chances to improve. Never trading draft picks for available players at positions of need is just one example. I hope you're right about there being more awareness behind closed doors than they're projecting, but that means the higher ups, and there's no precedent yet.

The players are trying to say the right things. Zac Taylor says the same Pollyanna bullshit every week, which gets more ridiculous every week. My point is the hierarchy (and I don't care if it's Mike Brown or the family dog) isn't DOING anything to address glaring needs on the roster. And that definitely includes the coaches. How can anybody witness the incredible talent, as well as the incredible ineptitude on the field and conclude anything other than the team is ran very poorly. Not just player shortcomings (though there are plenty). Systemically hamstrung.

It's a vicious cycle. Denial of the reality of the team's shortcomings (much less the reality of the need to fix them), is the largest ingredient (in my opinion) of the team's futility.

jesus fucking christ, I've never seen an apologist quite like you. I was at that game. Taylor's assessment is quite in line with his performance as a coach and with the franchise as a whole right now. Gaping holes abound and they do nothing. I'd have far more confidence with "no comment", than the pollyanna bullshit being pushed endlessly week after week. Do I think Zach looks at that shitshow is L.A. and says "just a play away"? Yeah, I do. That or he gladly sells it, knowing full well no changes are coming. Either way, unacceptable.

I like "wheel of madness" better than "fiscally responsible" as a description of their dealings with elite talent. LOL

"Just coming down to one play in every single game!?" That's our head coaches assessment of this teams situation!? Was he using thorazine recreationally for the entire first half. They weren't bad. They were dreadful. I'm not even gonna pretend to have any guess as to how a team that could play so solid in the second half was absolutely clueless in the first. One play? The secondary had no idea where to be, or who to cover on just about every passing down in the first half. That's MANY plays that could've prevented being down three scores at the half. You put Superman and Chase down 21 points with 25 minutes left in the game, then act like we're just "one play away". Holy Smokes. We are in trouble with this mindset.

I get it. My point was our franchise just accepts being robbed. They could demand that the players in question are suspended from a game or two, rather than fined. The league is essentially admitting that their actions on the field were so egregious that they warrant a fine. This simply bypasses the real issue for us. These actions may have cost us an NFL game. Would demanding suspensions rather than fines work? Very doubtful. Especially at first. But FFS, we have to start somewhere. We need to stop making it so easy for them to rob us, at least. Put a spotlight on the issue on the sports talk shows for a minute by raising a stink. Competitively, there's absolutely nothing to lose. Business wise, behind closed doors, maybe there is.

Beyond ridiculous that asking the perpetrators of dangerous, illegal, GAME CHANGING infractions to dig change from under the cushions of their couches, is supposed to masquerade as anything resembling compensation to the league and more specifically the Bengal franchise. If ownership and the front office really are the penny pinching, non-concerned bystanders to the actual sport many (including me) have surmised they are, they may gain some satisfaction from this somehow.

After a brutal, injury riddled nightmare game (where the announcers ponder wether it should be discontinued), the game ends in a tie.

Wearing a red hat.

and THAT is why Zac is a liability in big games and crunch time. FFS

Just to torture myself, I locked my eyes on AJ Brown on what could have been a critical stop on 3rd and 15. I really don't remember too many specifics about the play such as, who was in coverage, how much time was left, or even what quarter it was. My brain was pretty well scrambled after that loss. What I do remember was a light tap on Brown's jersey by whoever was lined up against him as he was being given a complete free release off the line. Right then I said that's a first down, no chance there's any realistic help behind him. Brown ran and sat in a very open area past the line to gain, and caught a first down. Uncontested. No one on the defense even acted like it was a blown coverage. WTF is going on?

Yep. I'm too tired to type it all out, but you can youtube the ending of the Texans game from November 12th, 2023. Zac threw this one away by not employing very simple basics at the end.

Spot on. We will never fire a coach under contract. Whoever heard of such nonsense. In the NFL! Of all the things they never do, besides win rings, the most infuriating to me is stubbornly never making trades for or going after star players mid season. I mean it's too late for us now, too many needs, but ask the Rams if trading picks for Von Miller was the right move. It resulted in a Lombardi. At our expense! Wish we'd done the same for an O lineman or two, but spilt milk now. We just can't continue with one arm tied behind our back with all this, "we always do this, we never do that" generational garbage. Someone, whether a Brown or Blackburn or whoever truly has the reins, needs to look in the mirror and say, "our etched in stone policies are not working". Could be awhile til things got better even after something like this, but it's starting to feel like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, arguing over the minutiae. We have serious firepower on offense, but we are systemically hamstrung.