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They were picked by more than a few of the noted national types to be the Super Bowl team from the AFC. 
Dangerous game, dangerous team when backed into a corner. Hope Marvin has the team properly prepped for the emotion and fury from the Ravens this weekend. Better than he had them prepped for, say, New England last year (who was similarly wounded and embarrassed). 

they are professionals.  They know whats at stake.  If they cant get up for these games by themselves, then shame on em.  only thing that should be blamed on marvin is personnel moves and clock management/conservatism at the end of halves.  thats it.  they are grown men, who get paid alot of money to play a game they love, against an oppenent they face twice per year and know extremely well.  no coach in the world should have to "fire them up" for that.   Is it nice, is it sometimes chilling to listen to a good pre-game or halftime speech, yes, does it mean anything in the grand scheme of things.....no.  

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It's not "firing them up". It's having them properly ready for the moment (both mentally and emotionally). And Marvin Lewis has failed, miserably, at that over the years. From his "every game is the same" mantra which really fails in, say, prime time games to not acknowledging that sometimes individual games have to be prepped for in different ways due to circumstances (such as what they will face in Baltimore this week - team backed into a corner) - I refuse to believe that Lewis is not at fault or ultimately responsible for the way his team plays in such situations. It's why I have long wanted him fired. But, since he is still here, I will root like hell that this is the year he figures out that he has to have his team prepared differently to match the emotion of certain games. 

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i understand, but getting them "fired up" is driven on emotion.   no one is capable of getting you mentally and emotionally prepared for something, if you arent willing to be that way yourself.  no one.  "every game is the same mantra" is just the way he talks to the media.  nobody has any idea what happens in their locker room or on the practice field on a daily basis.  coaches getting grown men prepared emotionally and mentally is overstated.  coaches win, mostly, in all sports from high school to professional levels, because they have good players period.  those good players either go out and perform or they dont.  John Harbaugh didnt all of a sudden become a bad coach because his team is 0-2.  they are going through turnover in their organization.  their personnel is different and they dont have the stability they once had before.  it will take time to get that back.  good organizations do that sooner than others.  but, my point is this, it doesnt all of a sudden make harbaugh a bad coach if it takes a little longer than expected.  it comes down to players.  to marvin lewis' credit, even though they have lost 4 straight years, his teams have consistently won in the regular season and have consistently gotten to the playoffs the last half decade.  that's because they have a strong nucleus of PLAYERS and continue to make good decisions bringing other good PLAYERS in the draft to help them win.  is he responsible for some boneheaded shit during a game.  yes.  is he responsible for showing too much loyalty to a veteran(i.e. rey vs. lawson) at times, yes, he is not fully responsible for getting grown men to go out and win a game against other grown men.  its on the players.  so i see your point, but i respectfully disagree with it.  either way, i hope they fuck them up Sunday as this is most likely the best group of PLAYERS they have had at any one time maybe ever and have a chance to do some major damage this season.        

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Yeah, sorry, I don't give Marvin that pass. Coaches impact things in big games. And Marvin has been very, very bad at that. As has his players. But, ultimately, that, for me, goes back to the coach. 

I am hoping it is different this year. But, for me, I don't have to wait until January to find out. Because Marvin's teams have consistently come up short in regular season "big" games too. And this is the first "big" spot of the year - a spot where the opponent is going to be playing at an emotional level and with a physical desperation that the bengals cannot pretend won't be there. Marvin's job is to have them ready for that. Winning in January starts with being ready for games like Sunday. I cannot help remember how poorly he had them ready for the emotionally wounded and embarrassed Pats a year ago. That was a team that didn't treat it as "just another game". Time for Marvin to have them ready for these situations.

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For the record, I really like what I am hearing from Lewis and the players as they prep for this one. Feels like they are all on the same page in terms of properly identifying the challenge.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I take it back. I don't like this from Marvin:

"They are not desperate," Lewis said Wednesday. "It's a long football season. They'll be ready to play whether we were both 2-0, we're both 0-2 or both 1-1. It's going to be the same football game it was going to be."

Yeah, they will be desperate Marvin. Please, please don't pretend they won't be. This kind of shit is why this team gets its ass handed to it in "big" games and playoff games. Some games are different. Just fuckin' acknowledge that. 

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I take it back. I don't like this from Marvin:

Yeah, they will be desperate Marvin. Please, please don't pretend they won't be. This kind of shit is why this team gets its ass handed to it in "big" games and playoff games. Some games are different. Just fuckin' acknowledge that. 

 

I don't know, I mean yes it is a different game, but I don't know if I want Marvin acknowledging that. I mean if this team has issues in "big games" I think I'd want the coach talking the game down so that it doesn't mean as much.

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I don't know, I mean yes it is a different game, but I don't know if I want Marvin acknowledging that. I mean if this team has issues in "big games" I think I'd want the coach talking the game down so that it doesn't mean as much.

Given that this team has big game issues - which no soul can seriously disagree with - I don't think the right approach is pretend that big games are not really big games. Marvin has tried that over the years. Ad naseum. It hasn't worked. Try something else.

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So are we agreed that this is a "Big Game"?  I think we should start identifying those before they're played to avoid the revisionist stuff that tends to go on afterwards depending on the outcome.

It's a division game in which we have a chance to put one of the division opponents in a really tough spot to have any shot at winning the division so it a game that matters yes. 

Its not a prime time game however.

So it ranks somewhere between "big game" and normal game imo

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Bengals should win this one going away or the coaching staff deserves some major heat.    Beaten them 3 times in a row.    This team Baltimore team has been a steady decline since winning the Superbowl.   

Last meeting they put up 350 yards throwing to Gresh, Tate, Sanu and Little.   It was only a close game at the end because of 2 bad turnovers back to back.    The game before (in Baltimore) we went up 15-0 and let them stay in the game due to bad red zone play and then taking the foot off the gas.

The Ravens looked horrible in the secondary against a Raiders team that couldn't take a snap on the Bengals side of the field until the 4th quarter.   They gave 400+ yards of offense to that team. 

Only way Baltimore has a chance is if the Bengals give it to them.  

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Its a huge game for Baltimore.  If they drop to 0-3 and then have a Thursday Night Game  AT Pittspuke, I think you can put a fork in them.  

For us its one of those games that can determine a home playoff wildcard game or a bye.  Baltimore is not as good as we are, we need to win these types of games to take the next step.

 

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I think Marvin is making the same mistaken approach, trying to be the psychological ballast for his historically up and down (wicky wacky, topsy turvy, wavy gravy) football team.  Problem is, that personality, IMHO, has been as much an extension of Marvin Lewis' own personality as anything.

But this year something seems different (ah yes, the mantra that is Lucy's Football to the Charlie (Mike?) Brown Bengals. This year, it feels like the team has actually taken a step. The players. As long as Marvin doesn't get in the way (with stupid time management, or bullshit tail tucking like last week's 2 minutes before the half), I think they can transcend him.

Yup. Lucy has the football all tee'd up.  

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They were picked by more than a few of the noted national types to be the Super Bowl team from the AFC. 
Dangerous game, dangerous team when backed into a corner. Hope Marvin has the team properly prepped for the emotion and fury from the Ravens this weekend. Better than he had them prepped for, say, New England last year (who was similarly wounded and embarrassed). 

pick any random preseason game and they were better prepped than that NE game...

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Baltimore I think is going to come out mad and swinging.  If we withstand that and score 1 or 2 early I think we win.

They cannot come out flat though.

 

Think you're right & that'll get Harbawww throwing a tantrum, then discipline goes out the window and they start taking penalties like mad.  I've seen them meltdown with a lot more (in theory) veteran leadership etc.  Amazing how that happens when your HC is a petulant manchild, eh?

IDK, if I were to put on the foil hat for a minute I'd say that the ESPNFL is not about to let a lucrative east coast market go in the shitter this early, but that would be crazy talk because a monopoly run by billionaires would never secretly abuse their power.  Those darn idiot refs must be blind!! &tc

 

:insert Roger Goodell talking about integrity here:

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Think you're right & that'll get Harbawww throwing a tantrum, then discipline goes out the window and they start taking penalties like mad.  I've seen them meltdown with a lot more (in theory) veteran leadership etc.  Amazing how that happens when your HC is a petulant manchild, eh?

IDK, if I were to put on the foil hat for a minute I'd say that the ESPNFL is not about to let a lucrative east coast market go in the shitter this early, but that would be crazy talk because a monopoly run by billionaires would never secretly abuse their power.  Those darn idiot refs must be blind!! &tc

 

:insert Roger Goodell talking about integrity here:

Hah. Can't wait until the NFL's version of the VW software comes out. 

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Think you're right & that'll get Harbawww throwing a tantrum, then discipline goes out the window and they start taking penalties like mad.  I've seen them meltdown with a lot more (in theory) veteran leadership etc.  Amazing how that happens when your HC is a petulant manchild, eh?

IDK, if I were to put on the foil hat for a minute I'd say that the ESPNFL is not about to let a lucrative east coast market go in the shitter this early, but that would be crazy talk because a monopoly run by billionaires would never secretly abuse their power.  Those darn idiot refs must be blind!! &tc

 

:insert Roger Goodell talking about integrity here:

Hahaha

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