fredtoast Posted August 18, 2017 Report Share Posted August 18, 2017 Here is everyone's chance to pretend to have a nationwide audience for your opinions on the Bengals. The name of the article is "Five Things You Need to Know About the Cincinnati Bengals". 1. THE BENGALS WILL HAVE A GOOD DEFENSE. The Bengals have had a top 10 scoring defense 5 of the last six years. They dropped to 12th in Paul Guenther's first season as DC in '14, but have finished 2nd and 8th the last two years. The Bengals let three defensive starters leave this offseason but look to have young talent ready to step in. Last year's third round pick Nick Vigil will replace Karlos Dansby at SOLB, fourth round picks from last year (Andrew Billings) and this year (Ryan Glasglow) will help fill the void left by NT Domata Peko signing with Denver, and free agent Kevin Minter, who started every game for Arizona the last two years, will replace Rey Mauauluga at MLB. The Bengals defense will also be fortified by the return of last years first round pick CB William Jackson who missed all of 2016 with a torn pectoral muscle, and the addition of two rookies drafted to help the pass rush, 3rd round DE Jordan Willis and 4th round LB Carl Lawson. 2. ANDY DALTON IS AN UNDERRATED QB. Andy Dalton has been a starter from opening day his rookie season in 2011, and since then only 3 QBs in the league have won more regular season games. Dalton is in the top ten in passing yards and passing tds since 2011 and is 12th in passer rating among the 35 active QBs with at least 1000 attempts since 2011. According to ProFootballReference.com he is 8th in both "4th quarter comebacks" (14) and "game winning drives" (17). Cam Newton is the only QB in the league with more rushing tds than Dalton since 2011 and among the 18 QBs who have at least 2500 pass attempts since 2011 only Drew Brees has fewer fumbles. On the other hand Dalton has only had one truly "elite" season (106.2 rating in '15) and his postseason performances have been terrible, so he can not be placed in the top tier yet. But considering that Dalton has been saddled with a running game that has averaged less than 4 yards per carry since 2011 (27th in the league) there are very few QBs who can claim to be much better. 3. DON'T BET ON THE BENGALS IN PLAYOFFS, PRIME TIME, OR AGAINST THE Stealers. Everyone knows about the Bengals 0-7 playoff record under Marvin Lewis. While Lewis deserves some credit for getting the Bengals to the playoffs more often than most other teams, that 0-7 record is the worst of any coach in NFL history. It can be argued that in many of those games the Bengals were not picked to win, but except for the epic meltdown against the Stealers in 2015 when the Bengals lost despite having the ball 1st and 10 at the Pittsburgh 26 with a 2 point lead and only 1:30 left in the game, the Bengals have not even been competitive. In those other 6 playoff losses they were outscored 84-17 in the second half. In addition to the playoff problems the Bengals have also gone 9-21 in regular season prime time games and 8-20 against the Stealers. 4. THE OFFENSE IS LOADED WITH SKILL PLAYERS IF THEY CAN JUST STAY HEALTHY. Last year RB Giovani Bernard, TE Tyler Eifert, and WR A.J. Green all missed at least 6 games with injuries. Since coming into the league in 2013 Bernard is 8th in yards from scrimmage by a RB and one of only 5 players to average at least 40 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving per games.....Since coming into the league in 2011 A.J. Green in 5th among WRs in receiving yards and 8th in tds. Among the 20 WRs with at least 5000 receiving yards since 2011 Green's 14.8 average per catch ranks 8th.... Eifert has only played in 22 games in the last 3 seasons, but over that stretch he ranks first among all TEs with 0.82 tds per game and 10th in yards per game. Among the 37 TEs that have at least 75 receptions over the last 3 years Eifert ranks 5th in both yards per catch (12.45) and yards per target (8.44). 5. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE O-LINE. After years of having one of the top ranked O-lines in the league the Bengals struggled last year. 2015 First Round pick Cedric Ogbuehi started at right tackle and was a complete failure eventually getting benched late on the season. 2014 fourth round pick Russell Bodine has started every game at center for the Bengals since his rookie season but is still considered among the bottom half at his position in the league. Arguably the two best players on last year's line LT Andrew Whitworth and G Kevin Zeitler both left in the off season for big free agent deals. Offensive line Coach Paul Alexander is considered one of the best in the business, but he will have to fix these O-line problems without any significant new players. The Bengals did not draft an O-lineman until the last pick of the fifth round and their only free agent signing was former Bengal Andre Smith who struggled with the Vikings last year before suffering a season ending triceps injury. Instead the Bengals are hanging their hopes on improving Ogbuehi, who never had a healthy training camp with the Bengals before this year, moving from RT to replace Whitworth at LT, 2015 second round pick Jake Fisher, who has supposedly added 30 lbs of muscle, starting at RT, and Smith moving inside to play RG after being a RT his entire career. It just does not look like the Bengals have enough talent to replace the losses from a line that was already showing weakness last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Tigre Posted August 18, 2017 Report Share Posted August 18, 2017 Not enough fake news, Fred. And certainly not enough moral-standard hand wringing over the DB, RB, and LB who cannot be named unless you are an actual I-say-I-am-a-sports-journalist-but-I-actually-just-blog-on-ESPN type. It is an enjoyable read though--so no, you would not qualify as a national sports writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|westside bengal| Posted August 19, 2017 Report Share Posted August 19, 2017 I am sure High School Harry is working on the award winning article now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted August 19, 2017 Report Share Posted August 19, 2017 I'm a national sports writer? The Bengals suck and are a bunch of thugs. Vontaze Burfict is a dirty player, Adam Jones and Joe Mixon are Criminals and without Whitworth to hold the locker room together the team will implode. Marvin Lewis is on the hot seat and Andy Dalton is an average at best QB. They are clearly inferior to Pittsburg and Baltimore and Cleveland might even pass them up this year. There. National sports writer. ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluhartz Posted August 19, 2017 Report Share Posted August 19, 2017 13 minutes ago, Jason said: I'm a national sports writer? The Bengals suck and are a bunch of thugs. Vontaze Burfict is a dirty player, Adam Jones and Joe Mixon are Criminals and without Whitworth to hold the locker room together the team will implode. Marvin Lewis is on the hot seat and Andy Dalton is an average at best QB. They are clearly inferior to Pittsburg and Baltimore and Cleveland might even pass them up this year. There. National sports writer. ??? no need for the ninja... that's what they think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted August 19, 2017 Report Share Posted August 19, 2017 lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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