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Dan_Bengals_FL Hall Of Fame

-Dan_Bengals_FL-

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[quote]The Bengals ended the year silently Wednesday as the team took stock with players dispersing for the offseason and the coaches heading for a break.

[b]The silence is an indication that head coach Marvin Lewis' staff is going to remain pretty much intact for the 2009 season.[/b] When they replaced defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan and linebackers coach Ricky Hunley last year, they made the announcement the Wednesday after the final game.

Another indication is that it's looking more and more like the Bengals are going to coach the Senior Bowl because staff upheavals in Kansas City and Cleveland leave them the next AFC team in the draft order.

It would be Lewis' second trip to Mobile, Ala., as a head coach for the Jan. 24 all-star game that pits North and South. They did it in 2004 and he's always been a big advocate of working the game because it gives the Bengals six days with draft prospects in a week that mirrors NFL preparation.

Lewis likes to use it to gauge how well and quickly a player can learn game plans, a step up from game film, the interviews and drills at the NFL's February scouting combine, and individual campus visits.

In '04 the Bengals coached the North team and ended up signing punter Kyle Larson as a free agent after the draft. And they actually drafted two players in the second round from the South team that played against them in Florida cornerback Keiwan Ratliff and Maryland safety Madieu Williams.

While they didn't out with the Bengals long tern, they are playing in regular roles this weekend in the playoffs for the Colts and Vikings, respectively.

The Bengals believe the road to the playoffs hinges on the healthy right elbow of quarterback Carson Palmer. His injury and how it happened defined what happened in '08.

The lack of timing with the receivers and the failure of the pass protection tore his elbow up and led to the worst season in the Lewis era. It is the only place a review of this season can start:

WORST PLAY OF THE YEAR:

The Corey Webster Blitz, Sept. 21: In the third game of the season, the Giants cornerback came off the edge to blow up the Bengals season, Kimo von Oelhoffen style.

Tight end Reggie Kelly didn't pick him up while Palmer and wide receiver Chad Ocho Cinco weren't on the same page because Palmer had to double clutch. It's a microcosm of what the Bengals need to fix.

How can they afford to again not have their starting wide receivers show up in May and June and get hurt in training camp? And not be able to get the most out of Palmer, a MVP candidate, with a lack of running game and other protection issues? They paid for it dearly in wins and losses and public opinion.

BEST PLAY OF THE YEAR:

The 79-yard screen pass to running back Cedric Benson against Washington, Dec. 14: It sparked the three-game winning streak and fueled the 20-13 win over the Redskins. It got them out of a huge second-and-19 hole when it looked a like a 7-0 lead would be whittled away by field position.

The Bengals' longest play in five years showed why the Bengals need to re-sign Benson and how good the offensive line can be when it executes. It also showed how good center Eric Ghiaciuc is in space and how well he plays against 4-3 defenses. The problem is, the Bengals are in a 3-4 division.

OFFENSIVE MVP:

Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh: He left hurt and had to be unhappy after failing to get 100 catches when he had 89 catches with three games left. But the fact he could still rack up 92 catches with a backup quarterback and a running game that netted 3.6 yards per carry shows his toughness and resourcefulness against a schedule that featured 10 games against defenses that finished in the top 11.

CO-DEFENSIVE MVPs:

MLB Dhani Jones and CB Leon Hall: Jones was far and away the team's leading tackler and made sure everyone got lined up in coordinator Mike Zimmer's first-year scheme that saw the Bengals rise from 27th in the rankings to 12th. The NFL credited Jones with the seventh most tackles of middle linebackers, one fewer than the Ravens' Ray Lewis.

With fellow cornerback Johnathan Joseph limping most of the season, Hall ended up covering most everybody's best receiver and the only times he really faltered are when the Ravens burned him for three long touchdowns back on Nov. 30, and Houston's Andre Johnson rang the bell for 143 yards on Oct. 26.

But the Colts' Reggie Wayne nicked Hall for only 48 yards on five catches. The Redskins' Santana Moss had nothing longer than 20 yards among his seven catches. He picked off three passes headed to Cleveland's Braylon Edwards, and while the Chiefs' Dwayne Bowe had 103 yards he caught his longest against cornerback David Jones and only averaged 10 yards per catch. He's a major reason the Bengals finished second in the NFL in allowing the fewest plays of 20 yards.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Kicker Shayne Graham: OK, he missed the 47-yarder that would have won the Philly game back in November and saved Donovan McNabb from a mob that made Rush Limbaugh look like Jay Leno.

But in a season where points were harder to find than red states, Graham went 21-for-24 and came up big in the victories. His 45-yarder with 2:20 left made it a 10-point game against Washington and the last of his three field goals against Kansas City made it a two-score game with less than six and a half minutes left. If you don't appreciate him now, you will next year if he's making 90 percent of his kicks for someone else.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

Pat Sims, defensive tackle, fourth round out of Auburn. You've got to like how all-around well wide receiver Andre Caldwell played in the last two games and left tackle Anthony Collins showed it wasn't too big for him with starts in the last six games.

But when Sims started playing in the sixth game against the Jets, the Bengals came into Jersey giving an average of 4.5 yards per rush. In the last 11 games, it was 3.5.

Coincidence?

POSITION COACH OF THE YEAR:

Jeff FitzGerald, linebackers: In his first year with the club, FitzGerald impressed with his intensity and exhaustive attention to detail. He lost No. 1 pick Keith Rivers to a broken jaw for basically 10 games at WILL linebacker and nursed SAM backer Rashad Jeanty through a siege with a hobbling foot problem that didn't keep him out of a game as the Bengals held foes to under 4.0 yards per rush for the first time in the Lewis era.

After playing just one snap in his years in the league in Arizona, Brandon Johnson blossomed in place of Rivers with two picks and a batch of big plays in the running game that held down big-time running backs Clinton Portis, Jamal Lewis, and Larry Johnson to a combined 171 yards on 3.4 yards per carry in the last three games.

Nods also go to running backs coach Jim Anderson and special teams coach Darrin Simmons. Anderson took Benson off the street in virtually October and got him into three 100-yard games before it was over while Simmons took the biggest brunt of the record 23 players on injured reserve and got his guys to play so hard and well that head coaches like John Harbaugh and Tony Dungy tipped their hats to the Bengals' teams.

BEST EARLY '09 STORYLINE: After doing things in the last three games that no Bengals running back has done in years, Benson continues his rags to riches story with a 147-yard effort that puts him over the 1,000-yard mark in Week 12 against the Bears team that drafted him as the Bengals clinch at least a Wild Card playoff berth.

In the last three games Benson ripped off that screen pass (longest play by a back since Corey Dillon's 96-yard run in '01), a 46-yarder against Cleveland (longest run since Rudi Johnson's 52-yarder in '04), and also got the first back-to-back 100-yard game since Rudi in '04.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR:

Chris Crocker, safety: If not Benson, it's this guy. Class. A pro. The hardest hitter in Cincy since Ken Griffey Jr., left.

He didn't get here until Oct. 30, but what safety has played better for them under Lewis? Madieu Williams was a second-round pick, Dexter Jackson was a Super Bowl MVP, and Kevin Kaesviharn had QB brains and corner speed. But no one put it all together like Crocker did and it's amazing he did it in such a short time.

STAT OF YEAR I: Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ended up outrushing for the season Opening Day running back Chris Perry, 304 yards to 269.

STAT OF YEAR II: Houshmandzadeh and Ocho Cinco combined for 1,444 receiving yards. The Ocho set the club's single-season record with 1,440 in '07.

BEST SUM-UP QUOTE:

Houshmandzadeh after the 17-10 Opening Day loss to the Ravens with 154 yards, the worst offensive output in Lewis' six seasons: "We can't move the ball. We can't get a first down. We can't run. We can't throw."[/quote]

Awesome! B)

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sparky151 Hall Of Fame

sparky151

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[quote name='scharm' post='736882' date='Dec 31 2008, 06:11 PM']Happy Same Year[/quote]

Yep. Brat should have been fired after the 2007 season. If finishing last in the league in offense isn't enough to merit an upgrade at OC, what is? The Hayes brother should have been right behind Brat in the unemployment line. Get ready for more underperformance.
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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So it was Reggie Kelly that missed the block?

I thought it was Chris Perry. Oh well, cut them both.


Oh and Dan, your "pimping" of Bratkowski is completely uncalled for.
The dude did less with more than Zimmer did. Brat had a shitty year
of coaching. So he had a few top 10 Offenses with some great talent.
Look what he did when he actually had to coach some players up.
DEAD LAST. He sucked this year. Seriously.
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote]While they didn't out with the Bengals long tern[/quote]


Hobson left out the word work and spelled term wrong.


[quote]Pat Sims, defensive tackle, fourth round out of Auburn.[/quote]

Sims was a 3rd round pick.

Did Hobson start hitting the bottle early or what?
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Bengal Migration Hall Of Fame

|Bengal Migration|

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[quote]OFFENSIVE MVP:

Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh: He left hurt and had to be unhappy after failing to get 100 catches when he had 89 catches with three games left. But the fact he could still rack up 92 catches with a backup quarterback and a running game that netted 3.6 yards per carry shows his toughness and resourcefulness against a schedule that featured 10 games against defenses that finished in the top 11.[/quote]

QFMFT.


And I'm still holding out hope that Brat will be hired as a HC somewhere. He's very well respected around the league, you know?
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Bengal Migration Hall Of Fame

|Bengal Migration|

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[quote name='Dan_Bengals_FL' post='736887' date='Jan 1 2009, 10:00 AM']Not like .... love :wub:

Plus this pic was updated with the 2009 campaign info.[/quote]
Here's a great caption for your updated pic!

[quote]Like the Lions, the Bengals (4-11-1) lost their first eight games, but were spared further ignominy by a posting a three-game winning streak to end the season. [b]But the Bengals’ offense was in a league of its own. Cincinnati, with Carson Palmer injured, scored the fewest points (204, 64 fewer than the Lions) and gained the fewest yards. The Bengals tied with the Browns and the Rams for the fewest touchdowns (20). Cincinnati also had the most punts (100), and more than a third of its drives (34.4 percent) were three-and-outs[/b].[/quote]

What a pimp! :pimp:

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bubba Hall Of Fame

bubba

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For sure things from a Brat offense :


First and goal from the one he's throwing the ball.

Any time a QB turns and talks to backs + line it's a run ( QB is just changing which side the run is to )

2nd and 10 from anywhere on the field, slow developing run up the middle ( Draw ).

Shovel pass will work no matter down and distance
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BengalsOwn Hall Of Fame

BengalsOwn

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[quote name='KangarWhoDey' post='736917' date='Jan 1 2009, 12:21 AM']Yeah, I sure hope we can get another Kiewan or Madieu out of this draft. :mellow:[/quote]

:rofl:

Top 5 d ftw!

[quote name='oldschooler' post='736897' date='Dec 31 2008, 09:55 PM']So it was Reggie Kelly that missed the block?

I thought it was Chris Perry. Oh well, cut them both.


Oh and Dan, your "pimping" of Bratkowski is completely uncalled for.
The dude did less with more than Zimmer did. Brat had a shitty year
of coaching. So he had a few top 10 Offenses with some great talent.
Look what he did when he actually had to coach some players up.
DEAD LAST. He sucked this year. Seriously.[/quote]

Is this post for real?

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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]No heads roll: Business as usual in Cincy[/b][/size]
By Chick Ludwig


[b]SOMEBODY NEEDS TO BE

HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR

BENGALS’ 4-11-1 SEASON

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRATKOWSKI,

O-LINE LINE COACH PAUL ALEXANDER

SHOULD BE UNDER HEAVY SCRUTINY[/b]

On a day when three NFL head coaches lost their jobs — Cleveland’s Romeo Crennel (4-12), Detroit’s Rod Marinelli (0-16) and the New York Jets’ Eric Mangini (9-7) — it was business as usual in Cincinnati.

No way was Bengals owner/president Mike Brown going to fire head coach Marvin Lewis. Mike can’t be happy about what transpired in 2008, but he wasn’t going to dump Marvin and eat his salary.

Lewis got to keep his job despite a 4-11-1 record and he had no coaching changes to announce during his rather dull and informative season-ending news conference on Monday afternoon.

As far as his assistant coaches are concerned …

“We’ll see what happens when it happens,” said Lewis, who acknowledged that “some guys have aspirations.”

One of those guys is quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese, who longs to be an offensive coordinator in the NFL.

Lewis said right offensive tackle Stacy Andrews will undergo surgery on his torn right ACL, linebacker Keith Rivers will have an ankle cleaned out and cornerback David Jones will have a knee scope.

Lewis also said it “remains to be seen” whether or not wide receiver Chad Johnson needs surgery to repair the torn labrum he suffered in the preseason.

Clearly, the offensive line was the most disappointing unit on the squad. The O-line got its act together for the final three games of the season, but by then it was too late.

“We have to get better,” Lewis said. “That’s one of the areas we have to get better in.”

It all started with a Week One 17-10 loss at Baltimore when “we didn’t knock people off the ball,” Lewis said.

What did Lewis discover about his team?

“When you have guys who want to play, you have a chance to be more productive,” he said.

Lewis also praised the defense, and rightfully so. The unit finished 12th overall in yards allowed (325.5) — the highest ranking in Lewis’ six years as head coach.

The credit, of course, goes to first-year defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. The job he did was nothing short of miraculous.

“Each and every week, Mike put an outstanding plan together,” Lewis said.

The unit gave up a ton of explosive plays the first half of the season. In the second half, those mistakes disappeared.

A tip of the cap to Dhani Jones, John Thornton, Domata Peko and Chris Crocker for their production … and leadership.

And what about the three rookie wide receivers … Andre Caldwell (11 catches, 78 yards), Jerome Simpson (1 catch, 2 yards) and Mario Urrutia (practice squad)?

“I was very happy with what I saw out of both of those guys (Caldwell & Simpson), including Mario,” Lewis said.


Mike BrownLet it be known that Simpson’s redshirt season is over. He was picked in the second round over the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson (62 catches, 912 yards and 2 TDs).

You tell me … which team got the better deal?

The Bengals need to quit drafting “workout warriors” and pick proven players.

[b]DEFENSE[/b]

(Category—Per-game average—NFL rank)

Points—22.8—19th

Total Yards—325.5—12th

Passing Yards—205.4—15th

Rushing Yards—120.1—21st

[b]OFFENSE[/b]

(Category—Per-game average—NFL rank)

Points—12.8—32nd

Total Yards—245.4—32nd

Passing Yards—150.4—30th

Rushing Yards—95.0—29th

[b]IN OTHER NEWS:[/b]

The Bengals on Monday signed seven players to the team’s offseason roster. All seven were on the Bengals practice squad as the 2008 season concluded. The seven are:

G James Blair (Western Michigan)

CB Marcus Brown (McNeese State)

C/G Digger Bujnoch (Cincinnati)

DE Victor DeGrate (Oklahoma State)

WR Maurice Purify (Nebraska)

FB J.D. Runnels (Oklahoma)

WR Mario Urrutia (Louisville)

Note — Runnels was a third-year NFL player in 2008. DeGrate was classified a first-year player. The other five players signed were rookies in ’08.[/quote]




[url="http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/chickludwig/entries/2008/12/29/no_heads_roll_business_as_usua.html"]http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/s...ss_as_usua.html[/url]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]It's time for Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski to move on[/b][/size]
by Kirkendall on Dec 29, 2008 9:50 AM EST

Mark Curnutte analyzed the implications of the Bengals three-game winning streak, peaked after a 16-6 beating of the Kansas City Chiefs.

[quote]That finish, coupled with a franchise-record 23 players on the injured reserve list - not counting starting quarterback Carson Palmer or right tackle Stacy Andrews - should be enough ammunition to give Bengals management confidence to stay the course into next season.[/quote]

We're still not exactly sure what would change. Would there be a change in the front office? Not likely while Mike Brown sits in the Admiral's chair. A new head coach? In fact, we honestly believe that the Bengals wouldn't have changed a thing, if they would have only won a single game or eight games. What could change?

Mark Curnutte believes that Bob Bratkowski is safe.

[quote]Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski is not likely to take a fall, even though the Bengals scored a league-worst 204 points, because his offense didn't have Palmer for 12 games.[/quote]

Our feeling is that if a system is based on one player, then it's a badly flawed system. A good system would take someone like, oh, I don't know, Matt Cassel and still be a top-five offense; the Patriots' backup quarterback's success came from a good system that allowed the team to succeed. You see the difference between greatly organized franchises and not-so greatly organized franchises with that small comparison.

It would have been far more impressive if Bratkowski wouldn't have orchestrated the league's worst offense, in his eighth season, with a bunch of players that didn't even start the season. By now, the system should be so integrated and ingrained with each incoming player, that it should succeed no matter who we plug in. Not used as an excuse.

The Bengals are on their third defensive coordinator, and the two preceding coordinators recorded defenses amongst the worst in the league -- though non were the worst in the league. What leverage Bratkowski has saving his job is unknown. But we feel that an offensive coordinator calling the players for the worst offense in the league in his eighth season is a failure with the system he's incorporated. In most instances of long-term offensive coordinators with a single team, it's just time to move on. [/quote]





[url="http://www.cincyjungle.com/2008/12/29/703920/it-s-time-for-bengals-offe"]http://www.cincyjungle.com/2008/12/29/7039...or-bengals-offe[/url]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]Oh how times change; once Bratkowski was a head coaching candidate[/b][/size]
by Kirkendall on Dec 31, 2008 1:27 PM EST

Back in 2005, John Clayton wrote that Bob Bratkowski was a head coaching candidate, largely credited with the work put into developing Carson Palmer (*cough Ken Zampese *cough). Charles Robinson agreed. Before Sean Payton, the Saints were interested. As one could assume on their own, even though Bratkowski was looked at, he didn't get any promotional jobs, sticking with the Bengals. In 2006, the Bengals had the eighth-ranked offense (yards and scoring), falling to 10th total and 11th scoring in 2007.

Some of us, me included, often hypothesize that with the talent on this offense we should be scorching teams with 30-point averages. Maybe that's unfair to place on Bratkowski, but we believed it nonetheless. Furthermore, when the Bengals offense finished the season as the league's worst, another glaring omission grew: The system can't be that good, if we can't plug players in, and put them in a position to succeed. Yes, Palmer was gone. Yes, the Bengals lacked a rushing offense. Yes, the offensive line stunk up the place earlier in the season. With that suddenly in mind, is it fair that we think the system itself is broken? In all honesty, sometimes we do. While we also acknowledge that the Bengals have good skill players, we're continuously mortared to death with our (lack of) depth. We quickly learned this season that we have no depth on offense, and that the play-calling had to be simplified just to move the ball -- in which we often failed to do until late.

It was trying to run up the gut on third-and-short, the predictability of rushing on double tight end formations, the shovel passes (god, I hate shovel passes), poorly executed screen passes. It took until late in the season to find the offense's strengths, and using Fitzpatrick in a less Palmer-like role, challenging the offensive line to be men, and handing the ball off to Cedric Benson. In truth, while we often complain about his play-calling, general system, or running Chris Perry at any point in the game, the more urgent matter is that this team isn't built to deal with injuries. Depth is limited and poor; though one could argue when 23 players go down, which doesn't include Stacy Andrews and Carson Palmer, that you're going to have depth problems no matter what.

Now Bratkowski isn't sought out much. He's under fire from fans. Lewis was noncommittal regarding anyone in his staff. "...we have the blanket statement that we'll see what happens when it happens," Lewis said during Monday's press conference. "I don't know any of that right now (changes). We just finished playing yesterday. I'm sure guys have aspirations to do different things, and we'll see what those hold."

We firmly believe at CJ that Bratkowski should go. Not because of being a total ineffective offense during his tenure; we had some good moments, didn't we? But we believe it's time to move on and try something new.[/quote]




[url="http://www.cincyjungle.com/2008/12/31/706110/oh-how-times-change-once-b"]http://www.cincyjungle.com/2008/12/31/7061...s-change-once-b[/url]
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