Thoughts on Bengals Game.

[Caesar]

13 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Yep.  Last week when the Bengals started off hot against the Pats, they continued it all game long and I think beat them by 30?  Is that right?

That game shows you right there that once the Bengals start off well, they don't slow down.  

 

11 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Uh no. The Patriots were a fumble at the Cincy 10 away from winning the game late 

Not really how it happened vs the Pats.  Bengals continued to drive on the Patriots the 2nd half - only 2 punts.  Interception in the redzone, fumble, TD called back, Missed FG - everything that could go wrong did, but it wasn't really anything the Pats did.  They had a hail mary tipped TD, in fact they had only one scoring drive all game. Of course the same could have happened with the Bengals in this game as the Bills are much better than the Pats.

[Bob in STL]

No way to tell how this game would end.  Cinci started hot and the home crowd was a big advantage for them but the Bills defense has adjusted all year long and shut down teams.  
 

I thought the PI on Tre was holding.  
 

I liked the Bills drive and the mix of run/pass.  I think we can score a lot of points on them.  

[machine gun kelly]

The Bills usually under McD and Frazier have been masters at adjustments, so I’m not extrapolating anything from last night with the small sample size.

 

This is a back burner topic we can chat later after we know Damar is ok, and that is all that matters.  I’m praying for him, the family and the team as they will need some counseling as well coping with this trauma.

 

This is not a criticism of the topic, just too early in Timing.

[Big Blitz]

Reminded me of the start to the Tampa game last year.  
 

All of it meaningless rn

[Caesar]

11 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

Bills stupidly went man on the first play (maybe tried a corner blitz) and we all heard the same thing in the lead up to this game - the second you go man against Chase or Higgins, Burrow goes deep.

 

First play I knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the Bills went into formation, no safety shaded over the top.
 

We had another play where the defense looked disheveled, Milano ended up having to cover a WR in the slot, motioning there late.

 

Clearly the Bengals plan was to find #27 and go there.

 

We had the Hamlin play where he moved towards the line and Hurst ran right past him. 

Bottom Line: Defensively the Bills don’t have to live like this with Tre White. Leslie Frazier said it in his press conferences, Tre won’t be the same this year. But the Bills making Rhodes inactive left them thin at CB and I don’t understand their decisions with him. Benford is coming back as well.

 

I question whether this Coaching staff will actually take Tre off the field in spots, because he’s there on reputation now. The Bills don’t pivot, they’ll just keep putting him out there, and Burrow will get lauded for the Boyd TD, another where Tre gets smoked the entire route.

 

 

 

Offensively, Josh was playing without a sleeve, so I don’t want to hear anything else about his elbow. Buck mentioned it again. 

 

All we heard about was DJ Reader wrecking things and that didn’t happen. Cook was ripping into the second level, Allen on a couple of occasions was tripped up just before getting big yards as well. 
 

Bengals fans talked trash about Logan Wilson and he got torched across the middle by Diggs. 

 

The second down play call at the goal line, just watching it once, I didn’t understand what the Bills were trying to do and immediately I said why not run Josh there? They roll Allen out to the short side of the field and nobody is there?

 

Beasley should have caught the 3rd down ball, he did all the hard work and broke his corner off cleanly.

 

Bottom line offensively - Bengals got ZERO pressure on Allen. They didn’t stop the run either. Bills moved the ball at ease. 
 

 

 

Lol, imagine  Diggs beating a 250 pound middle linebacker..... simply incredible for a WR with his lack of ability to do such a thing. I wish Chase could beat a LB....

I understand the optimism, but it certainly seemed the Bills were having a tougher time gaining yards than Cincy.   Hope Hamlin is ok, this game could have been epic.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

The Bills have two more capable corners on this roster with Rhodes and Benford. 
 

I wonder if this coaching staff will make the hard decision that Tre White is not deserving of 100% snap count?

 

Making Rhodes inactive was stupid, it leaves you extremely thin at corner. 
 

Irwin hadn’t even seen a ball, but who

was going to cover him if the Bengals went 4-wide? Or 4-wide empty set with Hurst? 
 

The Bills need 5/6 of T.Johnson, Elam, White, Jackson, Rhodes and Benford active on game day, and they need to spell Tre White. 

 

You can’t have Neal out there covering slot WRs, he’s not good. 

[SCBills]

I knew from the moment they announced Bengals won the toss and elected to receive that Josh would step on the field down 7-0.

 

Bengals surely know the reputation of our defense's slow starts and wanted to get out early.  It worked. 

 

As perennially frustrated as I am with Frazier and our Defense, they settle in and start playing good football after the first couple drives.  The flip side is that it's a bad reflection on game-planning & preparation that the defense constantly gets out-schemed/out-coached/out-played early in so many games.  

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

2 minutes ago, Caesar said:

Lol, imagine  Diggs beating a 250 pound middle linebacker..... simply incredible for a WR with his lack of ability to do such a thing. I wish Chase could beat a LB....

I understand the optimism, but it certainly seemed the Bills were having a tougher time gaining yards than Cincy.   Hope Hamlin is ok, this game could have been epic.

I find it hard to believe the cincy oline would continue to be allowed to hold as badly as they were for 4 quarters so I think the bills were moving the ball easier in reality.  There was an absolutely egregious hold on just about every offensive snap for cincy.  At some point the bills dline was going to take over or the bills would have stopped blitzing if they were just letting holds go in this one.  It’s hard to say what would’ve happened defensively 

[Airseven]

15 minutes ago, NewEra said:

We can tell NOTHING from EIGHT PLAYS.  
 

You can think whatever you want.  
 

 

And you can pretend whatever you want. What I listed were facts. That's not to say the Bills couldn't win the game.

[teef]

13 minutes ago, Airseven said:

 

And you can pretend whatever you want. What I listed were facts. That's not to say the Bills couldn't win the game.

and your facts prove nothing.  is it fun for you to always be that guy?

Edited January 3, 2023 by teef

[Straight Hucklebuck]

4 minutes ago, Caesar said:

Lol, imagine  Diggs beating a 250 pound middle linebacker..... simply incredible for a WR with his lack of ability to do such a thing. I wish Chase could beat a LB....

I understand the optimism, but it certainly seemed the Bills were having a tougher time gaining yards than Cincy.   Hope Hamlin is ok, this game could have been epic.

Yes, you’re right Bengals fan, when the final yards are 68 to 66 it does indicate that the Bills were having a harder time moving the ball.

 

After all, the Bills were only averaging 7 yards per carry, not 12.

 

And before you point out, yes I am aware that doesn’t include the 29-yard penalty. 

[Scott7975]

41 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Prayers go out to Hamlin. That's obviously the most important priority! Waiting in agony for positive results. 

 

However, maybe we can just talk a little football just to escape reality and cope with the sad occurrence of events. With no disrespect, I'd like to address the 5 min and change of the game. Please no disrespect is intended.

 

Bengals elected to get the ball and moved through the Bills D like Swiss cheese. They made an early statement that their offense had no fear. They immediately went after Tre. Tre is not the Tre of old. No way can he play Chase one on one. Very surprised that the Bills immediately blitzed Burrow. Burrow has killed the blitz all year. Not sure what Fraizer was thinking. After that, it was Burrow playing catch with his receivers. Early on it appeared that the Bills secondary and zone scheme was over matched by their receivers.

 

Their second drive which ended in the tragic event started out similarly to the first. At this point, it looked as though the Bills couldn't stop their potent offense.  Would the Bills be able to make adjustments and tighten up? They have done this in the past.

 

The Bills offensively on their first and only drive looked good. The were well balanced mixing in the run and pass. It was quite different than the explosive fast striking offense of the Bengals. The Bills methodically moved the ball down the field. It was clear the Bengals were going to pressure Allen. It looked like the Bills O was working very hard for every yard and first down. Tough way to score and win. I felt like the Bills had to be precise on every play with little room for error. Turned out to be true with the Beasley missed pass and catch. 

 

My early thoughts of the game were that this was going to be a very difficult game for the Bills to win. Bengals offense was simply too good and too explosive for the Bills. Meanwhile, the Bills offense was had little room for error. Allen was going to be pressured throughout the game. I still felt like the Bills offense would score plenty. 

 

We will never know how they game would have ended. Just pure speculation on my part. Early on the Bengals were the much better team. Get well #3. 

 

 

 

Of course this was going to be a tough matchup.  Thats what happens when you play a super bowl contender.  There is no way to tell how the game would have went if they played it in full. Both teams would have made adjustments through the course.  I highly doubt Cinci would have scored every drive.  I dont think we would have either.  The game would have come down to who made the least mistakes.  Maybe even who gets the ball last.

[Steptide]

The throw to Bease on 3rd down was huge. Cost us 7 points. I was upset they didn't go for it. Felt like the score was about to be 14 - 3.  Not sure why the bills defense wasnt covering the middle of the field. 

[SCBills]

7 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

The Bills have two more capable corners on this roster with Rhodes and Benford. 
 

I wonder if this coaching staff will make the hard decision that Tre White is not deserving of 100% snap count?

 

Making Rhodes inactive was stupid, it leaves you extremely thin at corner. 
 

Irwin hadn’t even seen a ball, but who

was going to cover him if the Bengals went 4-wide? Or 4-wide empty set with Hurst? 
 

The Bills need 5/6 of T.Johnson, Elam, White, Jackson, Rhodes and Benford active on game day, and they need to spell Tre White. 

 

You can’t have Neal out there covering slot WRs, he’s not good. 

 

I think the Bills are going to have to do as you say, and make Rhodes/Benford both gameday active and have the tough conversation with Tre that he's going to be part of the rotation with everyone else.  

 

That's got to hurt to hear, but nobody is expecting Tre to be a star this year.  Next year is the target year for him to start looking more like the pre-injury Tre White. 

[Caesar]

1 minute ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I find it hard to believe the cincy oline would continue to be allowed to hold as badly as they were for 4 quarters so I think the bills were moving the ball easier in reality.  There was an absolutely egregious hold on just about every offensive snap for cincy.  At some point the bills dline was going to take over or the bills would have stopped blitzing if they were just letting holds go in this one.  It’s hard to say what would’ve happened defensively 

Seriously?  Are you sure you are not a KC fan with this blaming the refs whining?  Are you one of those that shouted the refs are cheating on the Chase/White hold 1st play?   Let's be better than blaming the refs with only 8 plays.

[TheBrownBear]

Tip your hat to Cincy.  They started fast and loose, but we've seen that not infrequently against this Bills defense and then we tend to tighten things up.  I think we were in store for a classic game before the injury to Damar.  

[NewEra]

4 minutes ago, Airseven said:

 

And you can pretend whatever you want. What I listed were facts. That's not to say the Bills couldn't win the game.

You listed the facts about what we saw in 8 plays.  8 plays.  

 

I’m not pretending anything.  I speak reality.  Based on your past posting experience- you live in space.  

[Caesar]

8 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

Yes, you’re right Bengals fan, when the final yards are 68 to 66 it does indicate that the Bills were having a harder time moving the ball.

 

After all, the Bills were only averaging 7 yards per carry, not 12.

 

And before you point out, yes I am aware that doesn’t include the 29-yard penalty. 

I am in no way suggesting the Bengals were shutting down the Bills offense, but it certainly did not seem that the Bills D didnt have any answer for the Bengals offense.  We can disagree, it's just how I saw it.  I was expecting the exact opposite to happen before the game.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Caesar

[Straight Hucklebuck]

1 minute ago, SCBills said:

 

I think the Bills are going to have to do as you say, and make Rhodes/Benford both gameday active and have the tough conversation with Tre that he's going to be part of the rotation with everyone else.  

 

That's got to hurt to hear, but nobody is expecting Tre to be a star this year.  Next year is the target year for him to start looking more like the pre-injury Tre White. 

Yup, and I’m not convinced McDermott and Frazier will sit Tre down and put him in a rotation, but he can’t be out there right now on speed WRs.

 

Another poster said it, he looks like he is running a 4.7 right now. 
 

PFF has graded all our corners about the same, with Johnson as the highest. So keep him in the slot. 
 

But now with Hamlin out, maybe they start playing more Dime with only Poyer high and an extra corner to bracket #1’s.

 

Jefferson destroyed us, and Chase left in 1-1 was obviously not working, because Boyd was wide open as well. 

[PatsFanNH]

21 minutes ago, Caesar said:

 

Not really how it happened vs the Pats.  Bengals continued to drive on the Patriots the 2nd half - only 2 punts.  Interception in the redzone, fumble, TD called back, Missed FG - everything that could go wrong did, but it wasn't really anything the Pats did.  They had a hail mary tipped TD, in fact they had only one scoring drive all game. Of course the same could have happened with the Bengals in this game as the Bills are much better than the Pats.

The interception was a long long pass and they were not in the red zone at the time of the pick. TD Called back because the only reason Burrows was able to get rid of the ball was the huge hold on Judon.. also was a long pass as well.  The FG was a 55 yarder hardly a chip shot.  So unlike the first half they didn’t move the ball with lightning efficiency.
 

lol watch the play again the ball was right in Washington chest he should have caught it, they were lucky he tipped it to Meyers but it wasn’t a Hail Mary pass like you said.