stealers favored by 2.5 points Saturday night

[Arkansas Bengal]

Sorting the Sunday Pile: 2016 NFL playoff odds, picks and schedule

By Will Brinson | NFL Writer

 

January 4, 2016 1:27 am ET

Stealers (-2.5) at Bengals --  The Stealers opened as a 1-point favorite on the road against the Bengals but climbed to a 2-point favorite by Sunday night. The logic here is the Stealers have Ben Roethlisberger, a fairly hot offense and the Bengals are probably going to be without Andy Dalton and still running out AJ McCarron. McCarron's a pretty good backup and the Stealers' pass defense isn't good but Pittsburgh went into Cincy and beat the Bengals 33-20 less than a month ago.

Pick: Road chalk, baby! Andy Dalton in primetime and the playoffs plus the Stealers playing well offensively? I'll take the Stealers here.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25436979/sorting-the-sunday-pile-2016-nfl-playoff-odds-picks-and-schedule

 

[t5 Hill Runs Wild]

not a surprise . until we win , that's what most people feel .

[Hooky]

Too bad they're not favored by more points. Bengals need to take offense and get pissed.

I like his logic for his pick. The stealers won the last game. (No mention that it was against a backup QB in his first game). And it's Dalton in prime time and playoffs, even though he is not expected to play. And the stealers playing well offensively. They actually haven't the last two weeks. Does this guy even watch football or does he just read the media narrative for each team?

[BeatPurdue]

I'm glad we see under dogs. Takes a little pressure off. 

We will be ready. 

[scharm]

Bengals vs. the World. 

[|Montana Bengal|]

There are a ton of monkeys we could get off our backs

primetime
Steelers
Texans
Patriots
Broncos
Carson

[SouthPaw]

I love the whole, "the Bengals need to get mad."  So funny, like they are kids at circle time getting their blocks stolen.  give me a break.  Make more plays on the field on both offense and defense.  getting mad does nothing, not even in a professional fight.  stay composed and outplay them.  if they dont, they will lose whether they are "mad" or not.  they can win with McCarron.  They have to eliminate the big play on defense and sustain drives.  Win the battle up front(which has been less than desirable lately).  

[Hooky]

I love the whole, "the Bengals need to get mad."  So funny, like they are kids at circle time getting their blocks stolen.  give me a break.  Make more plays on the field on both offense and defense.  getting mad does nothing, not even in a professional fight.  stay composed and outplay them.  if they dont, they will lose whether they are "mad" or not.  they can win with McCarron.  They have to eliminate the big play on defense and sustain drives.  Win the battle up front(which has been less than desirable lately).  

You don't want them fired up. You don't want them pissed off. How about like lifeless fucking zombies like the last 4 playoff games? And they didn't make any plays. Or do you just like to argue with expressions that other people decide to use?

[Bleeds Orange]

Washington is now favored by one point over Green Bay, but as of last night, none of the four home teams were favored this weekend.  So much for home field advantage in the playoffs.

[scharm]

You don't want them fired up. You don't want them pissed off. How about like lifeless fucking zombies like the last 4 playoff games? And they didn't make any plays. Or do you just like to argue with expressions that other people decide to use?

Sure fired up is good, but the Stealers play a lot of soft zone and give up yards.   There will be plays to be made and negative ones to be avoided.

On defense they'll mush rush Ben.  Ben has great timing underneath to his guys.   Ben also does dumb stuff.   You can't give the extra 6/7 yards on a dump or drop the int that's coming your way.

That's probably more important than the rah-rah crap in a game like this.   

 

[SouthPaw]

You don't want them fired up. You don't want them pissed off. How about like lifeless fucking zombies like the last 4 playoff games? And they didn't make any plays. Or do you just like to argue with expressions that other people decide to use?

of course they will be fired up to play in the playoffs against the Stealers.  Why wouldnt they be?  that doesnt make or break whether they win or not.  and, im sure they didnt sleep walk to the game the last four years.  To assume they werent "fired up" in years past is ridiculous to say the least or just an excuse because they lost.  They didnt play well.  Just like it wont matter this year if they dont play well this year.  The plays on the field matter, not the emotions of it.  That just something you say afterwards when you win, you know, "we came into this game fired up and ready to play blah blah blah" as if the other team didnt. 

[|SF2|]

Rothleisberger, Brown, Bryant, Wheaton and Miller  are a better group than McCarron, Green, Sanu, Jones and Eifert.

If Williams can't play that helps but I wouldn't put that much weight on the running game.

A healthy Andy Dalton would certainly help but McCarron vs a guy with 15 playoff games under his belt and a probable ticket to Canton is just a bad matchup in a huge game like this.

[scharm]

Rothleisberger, Brown, Bryant, Wheaton and Miller  are a better group than McCarron, Green, Sanu, Jones and Eifert.

If Williams can't play that helps but I wouldn't put that much weight on the running game.

A healthy Andy Dalton would certainly help but McCarron vs a guy with 15 playoff games under his belt and a probable ticket to Canton is just a bad matchup in a huge game like this.

Too bad those guys don't play against each other.    

 

[Le Tigre]

If Las Vegas and some ESPN hack writer say so...we should just wire the league office and say we have decided not to come into town that night.   

[TheBeaverHunter]

Are people not as high on McCarron as I am?  Dude was lighting it up first half of Monday night on the biggest stage of his career with two weeks of practicing with the starters under his belt.   He has a 102.4 QB average on games he has started.  He has already shown he is at least (more so in my opinion) of going deep than Dalton.  He doesn't make a lot of stupid throws..zero INTS in the three games he started.  Back to back national championship QB...he is used to the big stage.  He will not be overwhelmed. If we lose this game it will be because of our O line not blocking well...stupid thuggish penalties...and their WRs eating up our secondary.   Given AD's track record...I actually love seeing McCarron starting this game.  Gives us a chance to see what we have and possibly a chance to fix issues.

[-GoBengals-]

Sorting the Sunday Pile: 2016 NFL playoff odds, picks and schedule

By Will Brinson | NFL Writer

 

January 4, 2016 1:27 am ET

Stealers (-2.5) at Bengals --  The Stealers opened as a 1-point favorite on the road against the Bengals but climbed to a 2-point favorite by Sunday night. The logic here is the Stealers have Ben Roethlisberger, a fairly hot offense and the Bengals are probably going to be without Andy Dalton and still running out AJ McCarron. McCarron's a pretty good backup and the Stealers' pass defense isn't good but Pittsburgh went into Cincy and beat the Bengals 33-20 less than a month ago.

Pick: Road chalk, baby! Andy Dalton in primetime and the playoffs plus the Stealers playing well offensively? I'll take the Stealers here.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25436979/sorting-the-sunday-pile-2016-nfl-playoff-odds-picks-and-schedule

 

wuuuuuttt... andy Dalton wont be palying, he JUST even said that himself.. then picks the steelers based on andy Dalton in primetime/post season...

 

[scharm]

Are people not as high on McCarron as I am?  Dude was lighting it up first half of Monday night on the biggest stage of his career with two weeks of practicing with the starters under his belt.   He has a 102.4 QB average on games he has started.  He has already shown he is at least (more so in my opinion) of going deep than Dalton.  He doesn't make a lot of stupid throws..zero INTS in the three games he started.  Back to back national championship QB...he is used to the big stage.  He will not be overwhelmed. If we lose this game it will be because of our O line not blocking well...stupid thuggish penalties...and their WRs eating up our secondary.   Given AD's track record...I actually love seeing McCarron starting this game.  Gives us a chance to see what we have and possibly a chance to fix issues.

McCannon has been less effective when teams mix in zone coverage.   He will need to have more pocket awareness because I doubt the Stealers will revert from the previous two match ups and play man to man and give him the easy reads/throws.

ton of upside with McCannon though but he's got hurdles to jump and no one will know until he gets a bunch of starts under his belt.

[Arkansas Bengal]

Rothleisberger, Brown, Bryant, Wheaton and Miller  are a better group than McCarron, Green, Sanu, Jones and Eifert.

If Williams can't play that helps but I wouldn't put that much weight on the running game.

A healthy Andy Dalton would certainly help but McCarron vs a guy with 15 playoff games under his belt and a probable ticket to Canton is just a bad matchup in a huge game like this.

Ok, now why don't you try comparing the players on DEFENSE? 

[|SF2|]

Are people not as high on McCarron as I am?  Dude was lighting it up first half of Monday night on the biggest stage of his career with two weeks of practicing with the starters under his belt.   He has a 102.4 QB average on games he has started.  He has already shown he is at least (more so in my opinion) of going deep than Dalton.  He doesn't make a lot of stupid throws..zero INTS in the three games he started.  Back to back national championship QB...he is used to the big stage.  He will not be overwhelmed. If we lose this game it will be because of our O line not blocking well...stupid thuggish penalties...and their WRs eating up our secondary.   Given AD's track record...I actually love seeing McCarron starting this game.  Gives us a chance to see what we have and possibly a chance to fix issues.

I like what McCarron has done, I just don't like that he has only gotten starter reps for a few weeks and basically has almost no real game experience compared to the Rapist.

You need to have your entire playbook available during the playoffs or a sick as fuck defense a la Seattle 2 years ago.  That isn't the case for us. It's not a knock on AJ Mac, it takes a lot of game experience to become a very good NFL QB.

You saw what a few weeks worth of game film for opposing d coordinators did to Peyton Manning's replacement last night, it got him benched for an over the hill Peyton Manning.

[Jamie_B]

I like what McCarron has done, I just don't like that he has only gotten starter reps for a few weeks and basically has almost no real game experience compared to the Rapist.

You need to have your entire playbook available during the playoffs or a sick as fuck defense a la Seattle 2 years ago.  That isn't the case for us. It's not a knock on AJ Mac, it takes a lot of game experience to become a very good NFL QB.

You saw what a few weeks worth of game film for opposing d coordinators did to Peyton Manning's replacement last night, it got him benched.

This exactly. Had McCarron been the starter all year I might feel better about it because he would have more experience. It's his lack of experience that scares me.

[scharm]

The Bengals have won 52 games in 5 straight seasons in which they qualified for the playoffs.    They shit the bed in the playoffs.  Period.

The traditional Eifert is better than Heath and yada, yada, yada comparison is irrelevant.    The answer that nobody will know until Saturday's game is over will be can the Bengals play up to their regular season standard and lock down the victory? 

You can go through all the relevant head to head games and there is tons of reasons why the Bengals should win but they are 2-4 the last 6. and 3-5 last 8. 

[CincIndy]

I feel good about this game. The team needs to prove they want to get the monkey off their back. Pittsburgh is the 6th seed, we are the 3rd team. They barely squeeked into the playoffs, we have had our ticket for weeks. Yet they are favored. AJ MC has played well over the past 3 weeks. He was a monster in Denver for the first half against the best defense in the league. I think he will be fine. Yes he is less experienced than the rapist, but the rapist is getting old and isnt the same as he was even a few years ago.

If AJ MC had more reps of course we would be sitting great, but leaders have to be able to lead at a moments notice. I think he has that and we'll see come Saturday night.

[BENGALS666]

Fucking bring on these shithead Stoolers. It will be a delight to put them out of the playoffs.
Hope Kimo von Oelhoffen is in the stands all high on PCP and rushes out on the field and tears Ben's ligaments.

[-GoBengals-]

I like what McCarron has done, I just don't like that he has only gotten starter reps for a few weeks and basically has almost no real game experience compared to the Rapist.

You need to have your entire playbook available during the playoffs or a sick as fuck defense a la Seattle 2 years ago.  That isn't the case for us. It's not a knock on AJ Mac, it takes a lot of game experience to become a very good NFL QB.

You saw what a few weeks worth of game film for opposing d coordinators did to Peyton Manning's replacement last night, it got him benched for an over the hill Peyton Manning.

a few weeks of game film? he has played half the season.

all of his picks were touched be receivers hands. his play was not the issue.

i think you are looking at this backwords.

manning came in and handed the ball off a bunch of times, through a few sketchy ass short passes, and walked off with the W..

 

wanna know why? leadership, osweiler is andy dalton, quiet, lacks respect, says faggy ass shit like *in bitch voice* "cmon guys lets go out there and just play together and have some fun and win together" and "cmon guys we all just need to calm down, i need to calm down too" and never ever takes blame for shit.

now what have the PLAYERS said about mccarron?

Marvin Jones: "...He's a playmaker. He's a natural leader. You can't win national championships not being a leader..."

Marvin Jones: ""We trust that AJ is going to come in and do what he has to do,"

AJ Green: "...He's a winner. He went to Alabama, so he's used to the big stage, and I think he'll be ready.""

Pacman: "The guy's a winner," ..."The only thing you can say about him is that he's a winner..."

Whit: ""He's played at the University of Alabama and won as many games he's won, I don't think there's a moment ever too big for him,"

Pacman: "McCarron looks really good," ... "The other guys have their spurts, but he's got the 'it' factor. The kid's a winner. You can tell he's been working on his ball strength from last year and this year. You can never underestimate the 'it' factor, regardless of what anybody says. It's the difference between winning some games and being champion. That's my opinion."

Eddie Lacy: “Coach (Nick Saban) put a lot on him,” ..... “He came out and never let the pressure get to him. He led the team when things weren’t going too good, he’d come up and say what he had to say to get everybody motivated and he made the plays that were there. He pretty much took charge.”

cant find who said it, was either a scout or media guy said something along the lines of "he walked out there and took charge of the offense and became a leader and had everyone following his lead, something andy dalton is yet to accomplish in 4+ years as the starter"

Pacman: “You can tell a winner when you’re around one,”

Whitworth: “We weren’t really worried about him being prepared,” veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “We knew he would come in and know exactly what we needed to do and understand the plays and formations." ...... “I think AJ, like I’ve said all along, has a very unique presence to him."

 

Dalton upside: experience and reps with offense

McCannon upside: can not only make the throws, but also has the balls to make the throws, doesnt tinkle in his pants.

 

im ready to beat the fucking steelers this weekend

[-GoBengals-]

“We see this every week, man,” wide receiver A.J. Green said. “We see how this guy prepares; see him in practice, so we knew if Andy ever got hurt we wouldn’t lose a step with him. He’s been in big moments his whole life. The moment’s never too big for him. He’s a smart guy and he has confidence.”

 

“No question in our mind whether we can win a playoff game with AJ McCarron,” Whitworth said. “He has enough leadership and character. The most important thing for a quarterback is how the guys feel in the huddle with him and confidence they have around him. There’s not a guy that doubts that he’s going to come in and give us the best he’s got and make good decisions.”