Week 12: Cleveland

[PalmerToCJ]

Also known as "just take care of freaking business" week.

Benson is looking fairly good. I would really just prefer he play when needed and Johnson/Scott share the rest of the carries.

I said it in the Oakland thread and I'll say it again, I'm not concerned. Last week was just one of those games.

[SC Igniter]

Lets get the offense going with a heavy dose of Benson. Need to limit the turnovers and penalties that we saw from last week. Could this be the week we see Andre? I like to see what he can do in the pros, this would be a good team to cut your teeth on.

How much do you guys think not have Henry is hurting us? I haven't seen us throwing it deep as much plus Henry was pretty efficient in the red zone for us. Just wondering if this is hurting us more than we had originally thought.

[Bengals78]

Lets get the offense going with a heavy dose of Benson. Need to limit the turnovers and penalties that we saw from last week. Could this be the week we see Andre? I like to see what he can do in the pros, this would be a good team to cut your teeth on.

How much do you guys think not have Henry is hurting us? I haven't seen us throwing it deep as much plus Henry was pretty efficient in the red zone for us. Just wondering if this is hurting us more than we had originally thought.

I think we should get to see him at least a little bit. After how bad they played last week none of the line should have a safe job and it wouldnt surprise me one bit to see Andre in at some point.

[Bengalsrocket]

Lets get the offense going with a heavy dose of Benson. Need to limit the turnovers and penalties that we saw from last week. Could this be the week we see Andre? I like to see what he can do in the pros, this would be a good team to cut your teeth on.

How much do you guys think not have Henry is hurting us? I haven't seen us throwing it deep as much plus Henry was pretty efficient in the red zone for us. Just wondering if this is hurting us more than we had originally thought.

We converted a couple 3rd and longs last week. I don't think our deep ball is effected by Chris Henry as much as it is by the offensive line.

[Bengals78]

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/328/cribbsvswholedamnteam.jpg

This made me piss my pants laughing. But it is entirely true.

[Pat Sims 90]

Also known as "just take care of freaking business" week.

Benson is looking fairly good. I would really just prefer he play when needed and Johnson/Scott share the rest of the carries.

I said it in the Oakland thread and I'll say it again, I'm not concerned. Last week was just one of those games.

I am worried we this season we always play down to the lvl of comption

If we lose this game or Detriot we dont deserve to be in the playoffs also if we lose either of these Marvin should not be brought back next year

[Bengals78]

I am worried we this season we always play down to the lvl of comption

If we lose this game or Detriot we dont deserve to be in the playoffs also if we lose either of these Marvin should not be brought back next year

I am feeling the same way. This is Marvin's year. If he cant get this team motivated to play hard, and they keep playing down to other teams, he needs to go.

Then as soon as the season is over:

Fire Marvin
Fire Bratkowski
Promote Zimm to HC
Retain Simmons as ST
Either promote Paul Alexander or keep him at OL Coach.
And we could have a good shot at some really good OC guys. Charlie Weiss could be done in ND bring him in. Ken Anderson could be brought in from Pittsburgh.

Then we have
Zimmer - HC
Weiss/Anderson - OC
Jim Washburn - DC
Simmons - ST

[Bengalsrocket]

I'd give Marvin another year with a new OC. It's unfair to him how bad our offense has been with Bratowski over the last 2-3 years.

[hobbes2053]

Bratkowski sucks balls. Plain and simple.

[PalmerToCJ]

I would trust any of you over Bratkowski with the play calling, he is as bad as Breshnahan was only he has more players.

I mean seriously, all the fans wanted Breshnahan gone and bam the defense is better. Half the time my only problem with Marvin is that he won't dump crappy coordinators.

With Big Ben out, this is another week to potentially gain a game and try to put a stranglehold on the AFCN.

Gotta take care of business, to do so convincingly would be nice.

[PalmerToCJ]

This was a very 'blah' kind of game but a win is a win. Nice to see the run game dominate like that and the defense played very solid (granted it was the Browns).

Johnson/Benson will be a sweet 1-2 punch. They will beat defenses down.

GO RAVENS!

[Bengals78]

This game had me worried. Too many penalties. Way too many. Its beginning to become an issue.

[Pat Sims 90]

If we had a passing game i would say we will make a deep run in the playoffs but with not passing attack i dont see us getting past New England or Indy.

Bill Cower said we are a scary team in the playoffs epecially if we get are passing game going

[themaninblack]

Yea, woulda liked to have seen more of a blowout but the game never rly felt like it was in question IMO. We ran the ball very well and I'll admit it was pretty cool to be throwin up the LJ sign in PBS. Also really liked that they were starting to use Andre Smith a little bit. He didn't do anything spectacular but I was very happy to see him get involved. Hopefully they continue to do so because he could really solidify this run game for the stretch.

Only complaint I have is that we didn't seem to use the passing game very effectively once again. I don't believe it isn't there either, we just have not been all that aggressive with it. I like the emphasis on the run because it is sooo important especially in a tough division like this but I would like to see utlize the pass more.

[Bengals78]

Our passing woes are caused by the guy in the booth. My dad was laughing like crazy as I was calling the plays before they were run. Run for 4 run for 4 pass incomplete. Run for 6 run for 8 pass, pass punt.

[SC Igniter]

This game had me worried. Too many penalties. Way too many. Its beginning to become an issue.

First of all its always nice getting a win.

I agree, if this penalty trend continues it will be real tough beating the better teams and going anywhere in the playoffs.

Larry Johnson is better than I thought. For some reason I was led to believe his best days were behind him, thats certainly not the case after watching him yesterday. Real good move picking him up.

On the passing game, something is not clicking and I'm not sure what? Palmer didn't have real good protection and on the ones he did was off on his throws. One nice catch by Ocho was called back because of a penalty. Palmer said their coverages were such that prevented any big passing plays. Hopefully we can get it on track against Detroit.

[Bengalsrocket]

Larry Johnson is better than I thought. For some reason I was led to believe his best days were behind him, thats certainly not the case after watching him yesterday. Real good move picking him up.

Let's not go crazy now. I'm 5'11, 170 lbs and probably run a 8.2 40 yard dash and I still could have ran through some of those holes. It was the O-line that played incredibly well today (albeit against a weak defense), not Larry Johnson.

[PalmerToCJ]

While he definitely had some gaping holes at times, he was good at busting through arm tackles that Scott was having issues with.

Benson/Johnson will be a nasty monster once they're together. Scott is a great change of pace. I really really really like our running game.

[PalmerToCJ]

Some more sweet defensive stats

Scoring Defense: 15.8ppg - 1st
Yards per Game: 297.6 - 7th
Rushing Yards per Game: 81.9 - 3rd
Pass Deflections: 69 - 1st
Sacks: 26.0 - T-10th

Also thought it was interesting that we're dead last in tackles, tells me the defense both keeps themselves off the field and the offense is controlling Time of Possession.

Also 2nd in TOP behind New England. 7th in Rushing Yards/Game.