Bengals' pre/post game perspective

[Rey]

I think I'm going to start posting threads like this...

I always find it interesting to look at other teams perspectives...We tend to look at it from a Texan's centric point of view and mostly look at what we did right or wrong. I thin klooking at what the 'other guys' say keeps you somewhat grounded...


PRE GAME Stuff:

"The Bengals are on pace to set a franchise low in interceptions. That doesn't sit well with defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.

The Bengals have just six interceptions this season and prying turnovers from the Houston Texans this Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium won't be an easy task.

The Texans come to Paul Brown Stadium ranked third in the NFL with a plus-12 turnover margin. They have lost just 11 turnovers this season while their defense ranks tied for second in the league with 17 interceptions among 23 total takeaways.

Zimmer wants to see more aggressive play by his secondary to change some of those numbers around.

"I am going to start changing guys out if they don't start doing it better," said Zimmer Thursday after practice. "I am going to tell them that today. I am tired of it. I am tired of guys getting balls caught on us. No interceptions. Not seeing stuff. I will change out guys. I am tired of it."

Twenty-one of the 31 other teams in the NFL have more turnovers than the 15 the Bengals have caused this season.

The Bengals haven't forced more than one turnover in a game since Oct. 30 at Seattle when safety Gibril Wilson recovered a fumble forced by linebacker Thomas Howard and safety Reggie Nelson returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown."

They are minus-1 overall this season in turnover margin after being a season-best plus-four following a 24-17 win at Tennessee on Nov. 6.

Houston has turned the ball over more than once in just three games this season.

“They can run the ball and they can hold the ball from you for a long time so it’s very important for us to maintain some drives and keep our defense fresh so that they’re not on the field all day,” said offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. “If we’re turning the ball over, giving them extra opportunities it’s going to be a long day for us. We have to maintain some drives, protect the football and keep our defense fresh.”

http://www.prosportsdaily.com/articl...ns-600703.html

Marvin Lewis has been a part of two Super Bowls and he has led the Bengals to two playoff appearances. When it comes to the 332nd game of his NFL career, there are none bigger than today's.

With the 7-5 Bengals fighting to keep the last playoff spot in the AFC and hosting Houston today, Lewis raised the stakes when he said Friday, "This is the biggest game I've been in in the NFL."

Lewis had no doubts about how his Baltimore defense was going to do in Super Bowl XXXV when the Ravens beat the Giants. When asked why this game was bigger than the two playoff games in 2005 and '09, Lewis knows those were big but in certain respects there was a finality to them.

When it comes to today, though, a win could do a lot more than serve as a springboard to a postseason spot. It could have the same effect that the 2003 win over Kansas City had in that it was tangible proof that the Bengals were headed in the right direction.

"This is the most important game we have played in December I would say," Lewis said. "This is important for our team because it can springboard us where we need to go. We can build upon this game, it allows us to continue to build and that's what is important. These guys have worked extremely hard and this is an opportunity to reap a benefit from how hard they worked."

In order to do that, the Bengals will have to reverse past trends. In four seasons they have gone into the stretch run with a winning record under Lewis, they haven't played the final four games above .500, and have been 1-3 three times.

They are also still searching for that resume-defining win. The Bengals are 1-5 against opponents with winning records this season. Even more importantly, after a 6-2 start they have dropped three of their last four.

The good thing is there are still plenty of players from the 2006 and '09 teams, who lost three of four down the stretch both seasons, who remember those experiences.

In 2006, it meant they lost a chance to make back-to-back playoff appearances. Two years ago, the Bengals built a three-game lead in the AFC North and held off the Ravens with a win over Kansas City in Week 16.

"In '09 we survived by the run and I think we weren't getting better each week. This year I feel like we've gotten better each week and we were showing that until last week," offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "In 2006, we were in a situation where we didn't finish out some games. We let teams hang around and allowed them to catch us."

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...s|text|Bengals

[Rey]

Post Game Stuff from fans:

ON YATES FAMILY:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shu...rn=nfl-wp13639

Anyone know what this was all about? Were they allowed to sit in that section for free? Did they buy tickets for that spot themselves? Or is that where ownership assigned them to sit?

well despite the marv albert's comments, that is not the Bengals fault for them beeing up there

They started off in the lower level but people were throwing garbage at them.

I was doing the same at my tv.

I had the opposite happen to me. I was watching the Bengals game and the TV was throwing garbage at me in the fourth quarter

How is this related to us? Screw Yates' family

ON THE LATE PI CALL:--------------------------------------------------------

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Has anyone created a thread about this pass interference call? I am on my cell phone posting so can't navigate the forums too well.

Not sure about you but it made me sick seeing it. to me it looked like Jones and receiver both were looking at the ball during their contact. both made contact which I thought was allowed as long as they were focused on ball?

I thought for sure this would be the hot topic of the forum, maybe just me.

The fumbled fumble, McGlynn's false start and Yates scramble on 3rd and 15 are bigger causes than this, nobody is really questioning the penalty

hether all the previous BS happened or not, we were robbed here plain and simple; should've been a ******* non-call.

Again, mistakes by us, coaches, whatever aside, the refs robbed us, period.

Completely legit call IMO. Jones did hold the receiver's arm and the WR might have caught the ball for a TD if he hadn't. Throw was a little high, but not so high as to say there's no way he could have caught it. If roles were reversed, i.e. Bengals player was the WR and opponent was the DB, we'd all have wanted a flag on that play.

Their arms were grabbing each other; both Jones were of equal blame.

And to top it off, keep on forgetting it, Winston BLATANTLY False Started on that play; watch it again.

It happend right in front of me. Incedental contact while looking for the ball. Screwed again by Roger Goodell's officials...

It's all a conspiracy to get Tebow in the playoffs

I thought the same thing...

I'd almost go as far as saying the NFL is punishing Bengal fans for their poor attendance. With revenue sharing a large part of what makes the NFL tick it must really upset a lot of people that there is no where near the money flowing from this organization as there is in these big markets.

Look at the teams that constantly get call their way. They probably haven't had a blackout in years. The way our coaches do everything half-*** I wouldn't be surprised if there was a plan in place to get them out of town eventually.

The NFL must also be upset with the Raiders for making that trade with us...could be why they are smashing penalty records left and right.

All this is a joke of course, but it makes you wonder.

Also how the Hell do the refs miss a face mask that was so blatant it completely jerked Scott's head around and his feet from beneath him. Three refs threw a face mask penalty last week against the Steelers and there wasn't even a face mask.

SOMEONE STARTING A THREAD ABOUT BENGALS BEING LUCKY TO BE IN A CLOSE GAME:----------------------------------------------------------------------

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HOU -CIN

1st Downs 25-16
Passing 1st downs 17-8
Rushing 1st downs 7-6
1st downs from Penalties 1-2
3rd down efficiency 9-16 5-13
4th down efficiency 0-1 1-1
Total Plays 77-58
Total Yards 412-285
Passing 268-184
Comp-Att 26-4416-28
Yards per pass 6.1 6.6
Rushing144 101
Rushing Attempts 28-29
Yards per rush 5.1 3.5
Red Zone (Made-Att) 2-4 1-3
Penalties 5-50 3-27
Turnovers 4-2
Fumbles lost 3-2
Interceptions thrown 1-0
Defensive / Special Teams TDs 0-0
Possession 31:44 28:16

Houston had 9 more 1st downs than us. They were 9-16 on third down. They ran almost 20 more plays than us. They had 120 yards more than us. A huge stat is the Yards Per Rush which they have 5.1 to our 3.5. This is just terrible. It shows that both of our lines were dominated. 5 yards per carry is Madden type numbers. Their red zone numbers were 2-4 (50%) to our 1-3 (33%). If it wasn't for our +2 turnover ratio this game wouldn't have been close. This just goes to show that our injuries have completely cost this team. The entire defense is hurting and now with Williams lost for the season we are limping into the final 3 must win games. I just don't think that we can compete with the elite teams the rest of the way with our injuries. We are going to need to get some timely turnovers and play perfect penalty free ball to win the last 3 games.

Yes, the Texans were lucky that the game was close. Had a couple of those trips to the redzone resulted in TDs, rather than FGs, this game could very well have been a route...in the Bengals favor.

But, as is pretty much the norm lately, the Bengals OL finds ways to self-destruct scoring drives when they get close to the goal line. I blame Paul Alexander.

I tend to look at it a little different. Houston was the lucky one.....WE gave THEM an early Christmas gift! WE like to do that for other teams. I wonder if we will ever learn (in football) it is better to RECEIVE than to give?!

Agreed. We had all the turnover fortune going our way, with the easy early INT and the goalline fumble. They missed a makeable FG too. But we should've made more of our redzone opportunites, but other than that we didnt leave pts on the field (minus the double fumble).

It was gutting that we lost by 1 point with 2 seconds left. But tbh, they could've already been leading at that point. But we could've been ahead by plenty also.

http://boards.bengals.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Rey

I think I'm going to start posting threads like this...

I always find it interesting to look at other teams perspectives...We tend to look at it from a Texan's centric point of view and mostly look at what we did right or wrong. I thin klooking at what the 'other guys' say keeps you somewhat grounded...


PRE GAME Stuff:



http://www.prosportsdaily.com/articl...ns-600703.html

I feel sorry for the Bengals, because I like them. I'd like to see that young defense & that Dalton/Green tandem in the play-offs. I think that would be good for the NFL.

They have their faith in their hands, they'll have to win out. They have the Rams on the road, then the Cardinals & Baltimore at home. Neither of those last two at home are going to be easy, but getting to the play-offs isn't supposed to be easy.

As far as this quote goes:

Originally Posted by Rey

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...s|text|Bengals

That's the kind of stuff he needs to keep in the locker room, I think. You never know how the players are going to react to hearing something like this in the press. IMO though, if they aren't responding well to you saying it in the locker room, then they aren't going to respond well hearing it in the press.

On top of that, he's saying, "I'm going to tell them that today."

Sorry, but you should have told them before you told some reporter... that's bad coaching, if you ask me.