Patriots Game Recap/Analysis

[Bengals1181]

KEY STAT

The Gostkowski field goal marked the fourth time in five games that an opponent has scored in the last two minutes (touchdown, three field goals).

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20131006&Kategori=SPT09&Lopenr=310060802&Ref=PH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do they call holding on Pats? Seriously? Packers and Pats get that benefit big time.

 

 

the patriots could have been called for Holding on nearly every pass play.  It was ridiculous.

[Bengals1181]

The Patriots carded the Bengals before they could get in and belly up to Sunday's AFC Big Boy game at Paul Brown Stadium. And the Bengals, chaperoned by their offensive and defensive lines, got in with a very real ID that was very much their own.

In the backdrop of a week they fretted about the lack of an identity on offense, the rest of the team helped out its struggling brethren while the Bengals grounded and pounded and kept the ball nearly 10 more minutes than the Patriots and Tom Brady in a 13-6 victory that may be the hump game when all is said and done.

No, it wasn't pretty. But neither were the 20-10 win over Pittsburgh and the 34-30 win over Green Bay. Against Bill Belichick, the man that popularized "it is what it is," the Bengals were what they are. They live off the brilliance of their defense and special teams and they win when the offense plays the clock and field-position game.

It may put you to sleep. It also kept them in first place in the AFC North.

 

"That's us. We just have to face up to the facts," said running backBenJarvus Green-Ellis, the former Patriot who fittingly scored the game's only touchdown in a one-yard mosh pit. "We're a pretty big team up front on both sides of the ball and pretty physical. We have to do that. Once we're physical with guys, it kind of opens up all of our stuff. Our dropback pass game. Our short, quick game. All of those things opened up."

 

Green-Ellis carried 19 times for 67 yards and rookie Giovani Bernard added 62 more on a career-high 13 carries as the Bengals ran it a season-high 39 times for 162 yards and passed it 27 times for 212 more. It gave offensive coordinator Jay Gruden his vaunted balance and harkened back to last year's second-half stretch when the Bengals won games carrying it 38, 34 and 41 times.

They kept the ball 34:16, gave Brady just 56 snaps, and kept their defense fresh enough to make every one of them a struggle.

"That's the kind of style of game you want to win," said left tackle Andrew Whitworth, one of the run game's most influential lobbyists. "We played a real physical game. New England's a different team than they have been in the past. They play a more physical game. It seemed like a good old AFC North game. We wanted to run and be real physical and it paid off."

Of course, the Bengals won't win anything scoring one touchdown per game and Gruden said as much. But he also said, "We all know we have work to do offensively. The way our defense is playing right now, if we can steadily improve, we've got a chance to be a really, really good team."

This defense is insane.

Two weeks after it held Green Bay's NFL-leading offense to three touchdowns despite playing 81 snaps, the Bengals defense took down its third Super Bowl-winning quarterback by rattling Brady enough that he offered just a 52.2 passer rating while having his streak of 52 straight games with a touchdown pass broken.

That left Pro Bowl defensive tackle Geno Atkins just 25 minutes to show why he's worth every penny of his new $55 million deal. The Bengals followed his lead when on the game's second snap he blew past Pro Bowl left guard Logan Mankins and left tackle Nate Solder to get a rare sack on a play-action fake.

"We had a saying before Brady came to town," said cornerback Adam Jones. "Brady is undefeated and Geno is undefeated, too. It was kind of funny. No. 97 is a remarkable player. Words can't even speak about those guys (up front)."

If there was anybody on the field who knows Brady, it was Green-Ellis, who spent four years huddling with him and took 10 handoffs from him in that Super Bowl loss to the Giants that looked a little familiar to him.

"Geno hitting him early; I think that kind of got him a little. Hitting him early on a simple play-action," Green-Ellis said. "You expect those plays like that to be max-protected, eight guys protecting him and he's still able to come in there and get a sack on him. That was big early on.

"The (Giants team that knocked off the Patriots) have a good defensive front. When you come with four guys, that's always a good recipe to be able to have more guys in coverage. And our DBs, they were all over the receivers. I think they only gave up one big play to No. 17 (rookie wide receiver Aaron Dobson ran a crossing route for 53 yards). Other than that our defense kind of blanketed them all night. It was fun to watch."

It took an offensive player to sum up what defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer unleashed on the Pats. Consistent four-man pressure and tight press coverage, as well as mixing it up with the occasional blitz and zone.

"We were able to get after Brady from the second play from scrimmage and we were able to put him on his back," said defensive tackle Domata Peko. "We showed them right from the start what kind of day it was going to be. That we were going to be physical and attack them and shut down the run and force them to be one-dimensional and pass the ball."

Whitworth wasn't the only guy that conjured up the AFC North. So did his fellow de facto captain.

"It was a big AFC North type of day where we attacked the line of scrimmage, showing them from the second play we ain't going to mess around," Peko said. "We stopped the run for the most part. They didn’t have over 100 (the Pats finished with 82 yards rushing). That was one of our goals. We got that done. They didn't score a touchdown on our defense. That's a big day for us. We played our hearts out, everyone fought to the end on all phases of the game.

"How about that punt at the end of the game? That was huge. Everyone had a hand in it."

Kevin Huber and long snapper Clark Harris wiped down well enough so Huber could launch a 57-yarder and set Brady back up at his own 35 with 1:48 left when the fourth phase kicked in.

"It came perfectly, right when they got the ball," Green-Ellis said of the late monsoon. "Well, it was raining when we had the ball, but when they got the ball it was just coming down in angles. I knew that ball was soaking wet. It was hard to throw. Things worked out in our favor today. We couldn’t say that last week, so it's always a good thing."

And there are good things to say about quarterback Andy Dalton. He matches this team. Get used to this one, too. He's not a pretty, 6-4, 230-pound Pro Bowl thrower, but he wins games. He does it by distributing the ball and not by heaving it. He raised his career record to 22-15 by again not making the big screw-up and he has wins over Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers this season to prove it.  

In fact, true to Dalton form, he made his biggest plays when it looked bleakest.

The snap after he nearly got sacked for a safety, he took a third-and-15 and gave the Bengals life when they caught the Patriots with a quick snap and he lofted a 28-yarder to wide receiver Marvin Jones that got the 93-yard touchdown drive started.

Then on the next to last play of the drive, after an illegal procedure pushed the ball back to the Pats 5, Gruden spread the field and Dalton scooted far enough on a draw that head coach Marvin Lewis went for it on fourth and a yard.

"If it had been at the three or four, we probably would have taken the field goal," Gruden said.

Dalton also has that innate ability to bounce back. The last time the Bengals beat an undefeated team at PBS (nearly two years to the day on Oct. 2, 2011), he had a miserable first half against Buffalo, but then came on to engineer his first fourth-quarter comeback.

On Sunday he threw the first red-zone interception of his career on the final play of the first quarter, much to Gruden's dismay. Dalton came into the game with an NFL-best 37 red-zone TDs without an interception on 155 throws inside the 20.

"It was a terrible one," Gruden said. "Never throw the ball across your body. Every high school coach in America teaches that. I guess we forgot this week."

Dalton then had his first throw of the second half dropped by tight end Tyler Eifert and he started the half with five straight incompletions. But he ended the game hitting nine of his last 10 passes.

"I thought we did some good things. We were keeping drives going with a mix of run and pass, completing balls," Dalton said. "It’s big. Especially when we have the ball, their offense isn’t on the field, I think that was kind of a big key in the game as well.”

To a man the offense says it has to get better. But there was a sense on Sunday, too, that they may have found something.

"We ran the ball a lot, we were physical with them. We were built to be that way," Whitworth said. "You can look at the skill positions and we have some good skill players, but the truth is, up front, our O-line is still a skill as well. We've got a lot of guys that can be physical and like to be that way. It doesn't matter if its run or a pass, just to be able to call plays where we have a physical nature and we were able to do that."

 

 

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Bengals-show-Pats-their-AFC-North-side/dc42ab2b-8f9f-4d8e-80f2-c987930401e7

[Bengals1181]

A few quick notes on the team's snap distribution on defense.

• Bengals second-round rookie Margus Hunt played 40 snaps, even generating one pass rush that disrupted Tom Brady into an incomplete pass.
• Giovani Bernard and BenJarvus Green-Ellis had an equal share of distribution at 34 snaps each.
• Carlos Dunlap fell two snaps short of being on the field for the entire time on defense.
• Chris Crocker played 52 snaps on defense, but Vontaze Burfict and George Iloka played every snap.

OFFENSE

QUARTERBACK

 

  Snaps Pct.

Andy Dalton 70 100%

 

RUNNING BACK

 

  Snaps Pct.

Giovani Bernard 34 49%

BenJarvus Green-Ellis 34 49%

Domata Peko 1 1%

Cedric Peerman 0 0%

 

TIGHT END

 

  Snaps Pct.

Jermaine Gresham 67 96%

Tyler Eifert 39 56%

Alex Smith 12 17%

Orson Charles 0 0%

 

WIDE RECEIVER

 

  Snaps Pct.

A.J. Green 66 94%

Mohamed Sanu 54 77%

Marvin Jones 37 53%

Brandon Tate 3 4%

Dane Sanzenbacher 3 4%

Ryan Whalen DNP  

 

OFFENSIVE LINE

 

  Snaps Pct.

Kyle Cook 70 100%

Andre Smith 70 100%

Clint Boling 70 100%

Andrew Whitworth 70 100%

Kevin Zeitler 70 100%

Anthony Collins 0 0%

 

DEFENSE

 

DEFENSIVE END

 

  Snaps Pct.

Michael Johnson DNP  

Carlos Dunlap 61 97%

Wallace Gilberry 52 83%

Margus Hunt 40 63%

 

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

 

  Snaps Pct.

Geno Atkins 57 90%

Domata Peko 28 44%

Devon Still 7 11%

Brandon Thompson 7 11%

 

LINEBACKER

 

  Snaps Pct.

Vontaze Burfict 63 100%

Rey Maualuga 33 52%

James Harrison 13 21%

Vinnie Rey 2 3%

Jayson DiManche 0 0%

 

CORNERBACK

 

  Snaps Pct.

Leon Hall DNP  

Terence Newman 58 92%

Adam Jones 61 97%

Dre Kirkpatrick 3 5%

Brandon Ghee DNP  

 

SAFETY

  Snaps Pct.

Reggie Nelson 61 97%

George Iloka 63 100%

Taylor Mays* 32 51%

Chris Crocker 52 83%

Shawn Williams 0 0%

 

 

http://www.cincyjungle.com/patriots-bengals/2013/10/7/4811704/bengals-vs-patriots-bengals-snap-distribution

[Hooky]

Speaking of RB snaps, and this may have already been discussed here, what do you think of them sitting Gio after his fumble? They obviously wanted to secure the ball inside the 10 on that final drive, but I think they had a better chance of getting a first down with Gio in and the game would be over.  I think Gio's got a better chance of getting more yards than Law Firm when the D is 100% playing the run.

[Bengals1181]

Speaking of RB snaps, and this may have already been discussed here, what do you think of them sitting Gio after his fumble? They obviously wanted to secure the ball inside the 10 on that final drive, but I think they had a better chance of getting a first down with Gio in and the game would be over.  I think Gio's got a better chance of getting more yards than Law Firm when the D is 100% playing the run.

 

 

I don't know that it was a benching as much as just part of the rotation.  

[Orange 'n Black]

What's the deal with DiManche? Everyone seemed to love him in training camp, preseason, and Hard Knocks, but I don't know if he's gotten on the field at all so far.

[Hooky]

 

 

I don't know that it was a benching as much as just part of the rotation.  

 

That's what I was wondering.  I don't think I like it their snaps are pre-scheduled like a pre-season game. 

[Bengals1181]

What's the deal with DiManche? Everyone seemed to love him in training camp, preseason, and Hard Knocks, but I don't know if he's gotten on the field at all so far.

 

 

zimmer just rarely uses his back end backers.

 

 

The Bengals typically are in the nickel, so only 2 LB's on the field.  Right now DiManche is 6th on the depth chart and maybe even 7th now that Boley is on the team.

[turningpoint]

No 1 talking about Huber's 58yd punt, that was huge for us. He deserves some credit.

[Bengals1181]

SiriusXM NFL Radio ‏@SiriusXMNFL28m

Joined now by #Bengals T Andrew Whitworth @BigWhit77_fndn Talking about the Bengals and knocking the Pats from the ranks of the unbeatens

Paul Dehner Jr. ‏@pauldehnerjr1h

How many regular season 300-yard passing games have there been since #Bengals, Mike Zimmer last allowed one? Answer: 154.

[JBandJoeyV]

What's the deal with DiManche? Everyone seemed to love him in training camp, preseason, and Hard Knocks, but I don't know if he's gotten on the field at all so far.

He's not gonna take snaps from Harrison and we are barely getting Harrison on the field as is.

[Bengals1181]

CINCINNATI (AP) — In all sorts of weather, under all kinds of pressure, Tom Brady threw at least one touchdown pass week after week. His streak went on for 52 games, the second-longest in NFL history.

He couldn't keep it going in Cincinnati, not even with the Patriots a yard away.

The Bengals ended his streak with a 13-6 victory on Sunday that ended in a downpour with New England passing away and missing. New England (4-1) failed to get into the end zone for the first time since a 16-9 loss to the Jets on Sept. 20, 2009.

"I'm bummed that we lost," Brady said of his broken streak. "I think that's all that really matters."

The Bengals (3-2) are making a habit of taking down the top passers. Two weeks earlier, they stymied Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers at Paul Brown Stadium. Now, Brady knows what it's like to feel Cincinnati's pressure.

"It's definitely fun to watch those guys go out and play," Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton said. "They're doing so many good things, and to see what they do to a guy like Tom Brady and what they've done to a lot of these quarterbacks — they're some of the best in the league.

"They're playing unbelievable."

Five things learned from the low-scoring win:

BENGALS DEFENSE GETS TO QBs: The first time that Brady tried to pass, Geno Atkins dropped him on his back. It was the start of a rough day for yet another top quarterback. The Bengals gave Aaron Rodgers a hard time in a win over the Packers two weeks ago, and held Brady to 18 of 38 passing for 197 yards, one interception and four sacks.

"All week long, all you guys were talking about was Tom Brady," safety Chris Crocker said. "We wanted them to be talking about us."

They are now.

PATRIOTS PASSING STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS: Danny Amendola returned after missing three games with a groin injury. He was targeted nine times but had only four catches for 55 yards. After his break-out game against Atlanta, rookie Kenbrell Thompkins was held to three catches for 16 yards.

New England seemed to be making progress during the first four weeks with a new cast of receivers. In Cincinnati, they took a big step backward.

"We had too many stilly execution errors and mental mistakes today," Brady said. "It is hard to drive the ball down the field if you keep making those mistakes."

BENGALS FIND AN IDENTITY: After failing to score a touchdown during a 17-6 loss at Cleveland, the Bengals did some re-evaluation to try to figure out what kind of identity they'd like to have. The answer: Run the ball.

They ran it 39 times for 162 yards against the Patriots, a healthy 4.2-yard average. BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 67 yards and rookie Giovani Bernard had 62. Green-Ellis scored the game's only touchdown on a 1-yard run that completed a 14-play, 93-yard drive that took 7 minutes, 48 seconds.

 

"We ran the ball a lot and played physical and we're built to be that way," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said.

ABOUT THAT STREAK: Brady came within a few feet of extending his TD streak. Amendola fell down while making a 16-yard catch at the 1 and rolled into the end zone. Crocker touched him as he hit the ground and started to roll, making him down at the 1-yard line. The Patriots ran one time for no gain, and Brady threw a pair of incompletions, forcing New England to settle for a field goal.

So close. Instead, Brady's streak ended at 52 games with a touchdown pass, two shy of Drew Brees' mark.

ABOUT THOSE OTHER STREAKS: The Patriots' streak of four straight wins over the Bengals was snapped. They also failed to open 5-0 for the fourth time in franchise history and the first since 2007. Their streak of four straight wins over Cincinnati — the last three by lopsided margins — also ended. Brady remains one touchdown pass away from moving into a tie with Fran Tarkenton for fourth place all-time at 342.

 

http://www.hubarkush.com/2013/10/07/five-things-from-bengals-13-6-win-over-patriots/arygq2n/

[Bengals1181]

Joe Reedy ‏@joereedy12h

Interesting quote from Dan Patrick tonight -- “When he does something good, he's Adam Jones. When he does something bad, he's Pacman Jones.”

[Bengals1181]

[CincyInDC]

haha.  "We're done here."

 

 

[Bengals1181]

17 different QB's have thrown for 400 yards since the Bengals defense last allowed a QB to throw for 300 yds.

[Jason]

17 different QB's have thrown for 400 yards since the Bengals defense last allowed a QB to throw for 300 yds.

[Jason]

Tom Brady's Miserable Day in 7 Stats

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/10/tom-brady-touchdown-stats/

 

1. Sunday was Brady’s first time being held without a touchdown pass since a meaningless Week 17 game in 2009.

2. During the 52-game streak — the second longest in NFL history — Brady only had 12 games in which he was held to a single touchdown pass. (Drew Brees had 13 during his record-setting 54-game streak.)

3. Brady’s QB rating of 52.2 was his lowest since Week 16 of the 2007 season. It’s the seventh-lowest game rating of his career.

4. New England was held to single digits for just the seventh time in the Brady era.

5. Brady had five fantasy points for the day. Twenty-four quarterbacks scored higher. That list includes two Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks.

6. He was also outscored in fantasy by 16 kickers, 13 tight ends and a Rams rookie running back who was owned in 0.7% of NFL.com fantasy leagues entering Sunday.

7. From 2007 to 2012, Brady only had two games in which he completed less than 50 percent of his passes (none in the previous seasons). In 2013, he’s done that twice in the first five games.

[Bengals1181]

Lindsay Patterson talked about how loud the game was, called it her favorite Bengals game ever and posted this Instagram video.

 

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2013/10/07/the-walkthrough-absurd-stats-edition/

[Bengals1181]

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Giovani Bernard's backfield mate, likes to joke that he and A.J. Green have to put his shoulder pads on the top shelf of his locker because the 5-9 Bernard can't reach.

But both Bennie and The Jet stood tall in Sunday's 13-6 victory over the Patriots at sold-out Paul Brown Stadium. Green-Ellis hammered in the game's only touchdown on fourth-and-one and the rookie Bernard had a career day with 62 yards on 13 carries.

 Even if there was almost disaster with 3:26 left in the game, when Bernard fumbled the ball back to Tom Brady at the Bengals 44.

Until that point, he had been everything the Bengals needed in what they hoped was the last drive of the game, gliding past a defense that was on the field for 35 minutes. Bernard had carried four straight times to start the drive for a first down and to set them up on a third-and-two, gliding past a defense that was on the field for 35 minutes

He got that, too, when quarterback Andy Dalton made a resourceful play scrambling out of the pocket and finding Bernard in the flat on the sidelines for a six-yard pickup.

Then Bernard got the ball a sixth straight time, a one-yard gain that ended when cornerback Devin McCourty forced the fumble when he put his helmet on the ball.

"It wasn't the glove, it wasn't the rain or anything like that," Bernard said. "Little mistakes I have to work on. I have to keep two hands on the ball."

Fumble or no fumble, Bernard is everything the Bengals had hoped. The running game is nowhere near where the Bengals want it, but after five games Bernard has emerged as the NFL's top rookie back and one of his team's biggest threats.

He and Green-Ellis are tied for 27th in the NFL in rushing with 209 yards.  Bernard has them on 45 carries, Green-Ellis on 71. That projects to each finishing with 669. The last time the Bengals had two backs with at least that many yards came from the fabled Super Bowl duo of Ickey Woods (1,066) and James Brooks (931) in 1988.

Bernard also has a 59-yard lead on Green Bay's Eddie Lacy among rookie running backs. And his 14 catches lead all rookie backs.

"It stinks. It's not fun," Bernard said of watching Brady get the ball he fumbled. "It's one of the best team sports in the world and (the defense) helped us, especially me. I'll have to give them a reward at the end of the season."

His 4.6 yards per carry are doing that right now.

But the turnovers have to stop. The Bengals have 11 in the first five games and are on pace for 35, one more than the high under Marvin Lewis, which is 34 in 2010.

But somehow they've already strung together seven touchdown drives of at least 80 yards and four of 90. They had 19 TDs of at least 80 the past two years combined.

 

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Bernard-stands-tall-despite-fumble/1595e215-ec54-4074-bb22-c3ae0e019b1e

[Bengals1181]

 

 

But somehow they've already strung together seven touchdown drives of at least 80 yards and four of 90. They had 19 TDs of at least 80 the past two years combined.

 

 

nice.

[SnickyCat]

Priceless!

[Bengals1181]

Geoff Hobson ‏@GeoffHobsonCin13m

From Elias: @Bengals'4 90-yd drives most than last 3 years combined

[Cat]

 

But both Bennie and The Jet stood tall

:glare:

[BlackBengal]

Thoughts on Margus Hunt's first extended playing time?