Bengals Week 8 recap

by Mojokong

Steelers 24, Bengals 13

Lets relive the moment. Fourth and one at the two.  You just got stuffed on third down.  It’s the near the end of the first half.  You get the ball back at halftime.  You’re down 14-3 to a team that has beaten you in all categories thus far.

It’s an impulse decision. A coach shows their true nature in those situations. There are the gamblers of coaches and there are the prudes.  Marvin is no gambler.

But it was still the right call.  Being down by eight at the half when you get the ball back is a pretty doable scenario to still get a win.  Of course, it ended up as a 15 point deficit after the defense folded like a lawn chair.  An old broke down, rusty lawn chair with rips in the seats.  Like something that needed to be thrown away a while ago.

Does Marvin acknowledge the ineptitude of his defense and go for as many points as he possibly can? Or does he assume that his defense can make enough key plays to settle for the sure-thing points?  This is where it gets tough to swallow for a Bengals fan.

If we have to play desperate in the first half because our defense is unable to get two stops in the second, then we will only win five games this year.  If we play like a team that expects to win games in the NFL you get the sure points and raise your expectations for the defensive play.  The reality is that the defense can only show marginal improvement at best for the remainder of this season.  They have a good chance of getting even worse if the health of this team doesn’t start to turn around.  We have the worst medical trainers in the league.  Players are carted off to the infirmary for hamstring pulls. Rudi Johnson out this long for a hammie?  Tab Perry was turned to glue again this year after his old man hip popped out for the second time.  Bo knows hip replacement surgery.  Tab may wanna give him a call.

Something else stood out about the loss that wasn’t at all mentioned and that was the two key drops by one Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals.  This man drops a lot of passes, it’s a legitimate knock on him. He is spectacular around the sideline but he losses concentration in the middle of the field.  Whether it be the long bomb Carson hit him in the chest with that would have put them on the ten yard, or the slant pattern on third and four he dropped to force our first punt.  I don’t scoff at the idea of trading Chad. If he can give us a first rounder or a decent defensive player in return there’s no reason not to.  This team needs to balance the talent level on their lopsided depth chart.  Guns for butter, for all you economic nerds out there.

Pass protection was excellent Sunday against a blitz-crazy maniac like Labeau. No sacks. Stacy Andrews deserves some recognition.  This guy didn’t even play football until his senior year of college.  He was a shot-put/ hammer thrower and apparently a damn good one too.  This year he played left guard when Levi was out and Andrew Whitworth moved over. And now he’s at right tackle filling in for the damaged school bus, Willie Anderson.

I don’t share with Marv the hope that the playoffs are still attainable.  We needed to win the KC game and we didn’t.  Now we can watch the games just for the fun of it and feel progressively less crushed after every touchdown given up.  We can put on our Bengal pajamas and try to annoy a few teams before we call it a season.   It feels like a week-day season where the Bengals decided to pack it in early so that they can be awake on time for next year.

Mojokong- See you in the morning.